Quote:
Originally Posted by hulkrogan
Maybe I'm too nonchalant about bears, because that sounds like extreme overkill to me.
I'm curious what the odds of being mugged or raped are compared to the odds of a bear attack. For example, what should an outdoor woman's first purchase be? Pepper spray or bear spray?
I might be totally out to lunch and naïve for not worrying about bears, but every one I've encountered has had zero interest in hanging around to investigate the human further.
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Only the knife seems overkill to me but to each their own. There are 2 or 3 fatalities it seems each year in North America. I dont think any people have died if they had bear spray in an accessible location. Falling off stuff and getting lost are a greater reason for deaths in the outdoors. Drowning too.
Then you get the wierd ones like the guy who was gored by a mountain goat and died a few years ago in the Olympics.
I see bear spray as something that only weighs about 12 ozs, and is more likely to be used on a bear than explode in my car so its adds to safety. I have friends who had to use it on a bear they spooked and it worked. Also going solo which I do a few times a year in fairly remote areas increases your risk of encounter so I think it is a wise choice.
If you go to some US hiking forums you can debate how big of gun you need to take to go on a day hike.