[pct-l] Black Bear

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good morning, Diane,



I certainly agree.  From a strictly practical standpoint, .44 Mag. revolvers
weigh about 50 oz.  An average holster weighs about 8 oz. w/o a belt.  The
cartridges weigh about .75 oz. each.  If a person carried the gun, the
holster, and 12 cartridges the total would be 67.0 oz. – almost 4.2 lbs. –
while my bear ‘can only weighs 44.4 oz.



Bear ‘can protection is “automatic”:  Just set it out, forget it, and get a
good night’s sleep.  To protect one’s self with a gun it’s necessary to stay
alert all night – even while asleep.  Very few people could hit a circus
tent with a .44 Magnum, and probably not even that in the dark and when
excited.


Besides, the only places were black bears are a problem are in the Sierras’
National Parks where guns are illegal anyway.

Steel-Eye
Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT -- 1965
http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09


On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 7:48 AM, Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com <
diane at santabarbarahikes.com> wrote:

> I'm sure all the scary bear stories are true and that certainly,
> bears can potentially hurt people. But I saw lots of bears on the PCT
> and not a single one of them tried to hurt me. All the bears I saw
> ran away from me in terror. Only one bear took my food and that bear
> was IN TOWN in the campground in Mammoth. All he got for his efforts
> was to put a few trophy scratches in my bear canister.
>
> The trouble I have with scary bear stories is that the idiots out
> there hear them and say stupid stuff like "I'm going to bring a 44
> magnum with me if I go into the woods." I have a guy who says that to
> me every weekend when I go hiking with the Sierra Club. The stupid
> thing about this is that the thing you need to protect yourself from
> bears isn't a sexy gun, it's a boring bear canister. But after
> hearing so many scary bear stories, the only thing this guy is
> wanting to do is carry a gun.
>
> So if there are any newbies on this list reading these stories, THE
> MOST YOU NEED to protect yourself from bears is A BEAR CANISTER.
>
> Keep on walking...
>
> Diane
>
> On Oct 29, 2009, at 10:19 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> > As far as black Bears being 'Safe'  I personaly  know of two
> > victims of
> > Black Bear attack.
> > The first is my friend's uncle who was killed by a BB while hunting
> > deer, he
> > managed to get a shot off from his 30-30 but apparently missed as
> > the bear
> > was never located.
> > The second victim was a local school girl who was killed after she
> > exited a
> > school bus with in sight of my house and only yards from her home.
>
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