Bear Spray seems to be the only alternative if your traveling to Alaska from the lower 48 due to the incredibly difficult gun laws regarding transportation of said weapons. What do travelers do? Anyone bring a gun to alaska on a plane? How about getting it through canada?
The article is in the current edition, May 2008, of Alaska Magazine. It is an interesting read and worth the time spent. Both guns and spray have to be kept accessible for use. Neither are worth a bucket of warm spit if you can't reach them. He also cautions to carry more than one canister of bear spray as they are attracted to the residue from it and will return to a sprayed area/item later many times.
As PA12DVR said, you have to be prepared with your rifle and it has to be a proper caliber/gauge if a shotgun and the person has to be skilled in the use of the firearm.
The researcher, to me anyway, is saying that for the majority of people, bear spray is more effective than a firearm in the hands of an untrained/inexperience person. Makes sense to me.
Way too many new residents to the urban areas, buy themselves a new 44 mag. pistol, some camo and a boonie hat and think they are ready for bear, or anything else for that matter. It is actually comical to see, IMHO, from the view of someone that has hunted/shot/butchered bears before.
My personal experience in living in rural Alaska for over 25 years, fishing many remote rivers, lakes and streams by boat or airplane is that I trust a brown bear far more than I do a black bear. Had an old fellow (Yupik Eskimo by heritage) in the village of Marshall, tell me that when God was making rabbit brains, he made too many. So he decided to use the extra ones when he made black bears. LOL Brown bear behavior is somewhat predictable, up close he/she is going to try and hurt you most of the time. With a black bear, you never know whether he/she will run or decide to open a can of whoop a** on you. I never shot a brown bear as they are no good to eat in my opinion. But I have altered my route numerous times upon finding fresh bear tracks. Current score between joe b. and the bears, is joe b. 5 - bears 0. I hope to keep it that way. I too carried a 375 H&H rifle most of my years in Alaska. (kills on one end and cripples on the other)
The researcher concludes that the real answer is to use common sense in bear country. The article should be read by anyone venturing into bear country. www.alaskamagazine.com
Great post Joe...Makes complete sense. The comparison I was told is that a bear charging travels at about 35mph. So if a car is coming from behind you and you can turn, aim and fire one clean shot, then you might be alright carrying a weapon. I agree the spray is effective but like you and I said, get out of the area and hope you don't have a bear approaching from up wind side.
As for getting fire arms in the state, one can buy a shotgun or long rifle while in state and sell it back to a pawn shop taking the lose as insurance expense.
Lastly, as you point out, knowledge of the bear is real valuable...but be wise where you get it. UAF use to offer a great bear seminar at the museum given by a Prof that was not slanted either way. I found most park rangers lean towards the idea od a kinder gentler brown bear and never discuss the black bear.
Would strongly agree that WAY too many people show up in the state with a hand cannon and some ripsnortin ammo and think they are prepared to take on brother griz.
Personally, I'd rather take a walk in the woods unarmed (even w/o spray) than rely on a neophyte (either new to bears or new to shooting or both!) for bear protection.
On a sheep hunt (back when I had hair), returning (w/o sheep sorry to say) through the alders, I was evidently pushing a blackie so hard that he was evacuating himself so near that the poop was still steaming and runny. Nearly stepping in 3 piles of that made me more nervous than any brown bear.
Thoughts (I'm not so arrogant as to say "keys", but that might be appropriate) on avoiding bear encounters:
1) Fish the remote lakes and streams where there is not sufficient human fish kill to make bears accustomed to free din-din;
2) Be alert and noisy;
3) Keep smelly food at home, not in your backpack;
4) If you gut a moose, haul the meat at least a few hundred yards away from the gut pile AsAP;
5) Whenever you're out in the woods, look for the bear. Look hard, but don't try to chase them. IMO, at least for browns/griz, just like a watched pot won't boil, the bear you look for won't be found.
6) Go to the shooting range, have your buddy play a tape of Megadeth or Ted Nugent at full volume about 2 feet from your ears. While that is happening, see if you can ready, aim, fire, and put 2 shots (w/rifle) or 5 shots (w/pistol) in a 3" circle at 20 yards in about 2 seconds... if you can do that in the noisy situation, then you might be alright relying on your firearm to deter a bear.
7) Go to an abandoned dirt road. Have your buddy stick a piece of styrofoam about 4' out the window of his truck. Have your buddy drive at you at about 30 mph. If you can hold your nerve, aim bear repellant, and hit the styrofoam (so that the repellant leaves a stain) and move fast enough to avoid getting hit by the styrofoam, then you might be able to rely on bear repellant.
Back in the day, I could do # 6 and made a fair stab @ #7. I still followed #1 - 5.
CRL
Temporarily (5 years & counting)displaced Alaskan
My Other RV is a 1946 PA-12
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