Bear Protection

When I grew up my dad always had his Ruger Blackhawk single action pistol with him when we ventured into the blueberry patch. Precaution, I guess. Of course we were never attacked by bears, in fact we only saw a bear once, and it didn't even know we were there.

I grew up with a tremendous fear of bears, not from my dad, but from movies such as The Wilderness Family (a family that moves to AK and gets attacked by every animal with teeth and claws) and Grizzly ( a horror story of a humongous grizzly bear eating humans). I can remember when I was younger, even out deer hunting, I was very jumpy being out alone (with a high powered rifle in my hands). I guess that is how fear makes us irrational at times.

I was finally able to overcome some of this irrational fear of bears a few years ago when I told a friend I had trouble sleeping at night in the woods. He and I camped out a few times under the stars in the BWCA and that helped a lot. I used to take my 9mm Beretta into the blueberry patch with me and on solo trips in the BW, I've since sold that as it was heavy, clumsy, and pretty much pointless. Well, it would have helped if terrorists where to visit the BW again.

Black Bear attacks are extremely rare. The last one here in MN was over three years ago and was pretty mild. I think it's just the thought that IF it were to happen a gun would give you the upper hand and not leave the outcome to the bruin.

Now all I carry is a small pepper spray bottle and I'm curious to know what others use for bear protection, if any.

Thanks, Shane.