Hunters Should Demand How-To-Use Bear Spray Demos

By counterbart, New West Unfiltered 10-09-09

How is a big game hunter supposed to use bear spray quickly and safely while holding a rifle? Anti-hunters and environmentalists believe with religious fervor that when a hunter gets charged after startling a nearby grizzly, bear spray is an alternative to a firearm. Is it? The Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho game and fish departments are silent on the issue, save for one comment: Hunters should “Carry bear spray and know how to use it.”

Game and fish departments don’t bother to teach hunters how to use their rifles effectively during a dangerous encounter with a grizzly. Instead they say, “Carry bear spray and know how to use it.” How is a big game hunter supposed to use bear spray quickly and safely while holding a rifle?

For a decade, the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee’s bear spray campaign slogan has been, “Carry bear spray and know how to use it.” Grand Teton National Park requires hunters to carry bear spray. Anti-hunters and environmentalists are making increasingly loud demands that hunters in grizzly country should be required to carry bear spray. A 2009 Yellowstone grizzly bear mortality and conflict reduction report even suggested that since commercial hunting outfitters need a permit to operate on U.S. Forest Service lands, the Forest Service could require outfitters and their clients to carry bear spray in a quickly accessible fashion. Carrying bear spray is one issue; using it is another matter entirely. How is a big game hunter supposed to use bear spray quickly and safely while holding a rifle?

Former Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks commissoner Vic Workman can testify that hunters who don’t use bear spray for self-defense get vilified in the press. In 2007, a grizzly in full charge burst out of the brush just 30 feet away from Workman. He shot, then told the Montana press it all happened way too fast to use bear spray. He got mauled in the local press. A year later, Sports Afield published a lengthy article about that incident that concluded if Workman “knew how to use” bear spray, “maybe he could have touched it off in time to save himself without putting a high-powered round into the bear’s chest.”

How is a big game hunter supposed to use bear spray quickly and safely while holding a rifle? The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks recently teamed up with Center for Wildlife Information Director Chuck Bartlebaugh to produce a video on how to use bear spray. Bartlebaugh shows how to remove the can of spray from a hip holster, point it toward a bear, and blast a bruin with red hot spray. There’s one problem with the video. Bartlebaugh is not carrying a rifle.

How is a big game hunter supposed to use bear spray quickly and safely while holding a rifle? Hunters and sportsman’s groups must demand that before Montana’s general elk and deer hunting season opens on October 25, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks employees give bear spray demonstrations—while carrying a rifle. Hunters use six field carries for rifles. Montana FWP employees should give demos on how to use bear spray while carrying a bolt-action .30/06 using the two-hand ready carry, shoulder carry, cradle carry, sling carry, trail carry, and elbow/side carry. For each of the six field carries for rifles, show hunters how to use bear spray carried in a hip holster worn on a belt. For each of the six field carries for rifles, show hunters how to use bear spray carried in a chest harness.

Montana FWP should give bear spray demos in Kalispell, Missoula, Billings, and other locations around the state. Hunters should invite the media to attend Montana’s 2009 Bear Spray Extravaganza. The Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Coordinating Committee meets in Jackson, Wyoming on October 28th, which provides a great opportunity for Wyoming’s 2009 Bear Spray Extravaganza.

Hunters should also invite representatives from environmental organizations to demonstrate how to use bear spray while holding a rifle. Craig Kenworthy with the Greater Yellowstone Coalition recently told the Associated Press it should be “mandatory” for hunters in grizzly country to carry bear spray. The Bear Spray Extravaganza gives Mr. Kenworthy a chance to show skeptical hunters how to use bear spray. Montana’s Sierra Club promotes bear spray and even donated inert cans of bear spray to Montana FWP for training purposes. Well, here’s a chance for the Sierra Club to show hunters how to use bear spray.

During these Bear Spray Extravaganzas, hunters should ask bear spray experts a number of questions. In a discussion about bear spray, the 2009 Yellowstone grizzly bear mortality and conflict reduction report said there was a need to “develop a better carrying system for hunters. Chest or firearm mount is better than on the hip.”

What’s the problem? If this is a safety issue, hunters deserve to be informed. Do standard length hunting parkas and jackets cover bear spray carried in a hip holster worn on your belt?

Many big game hunters carry binoculars on a neck strap that puts the binoculars in the center of a person’s chest. Would the binoculars be in the way when a hunter facing a charging grizzly reached for bear spray carried in a chest harness?

When temperatures drop below freezing, do hunters need to zip up bear spray inside their jacket? During the bear spray demos, compare how long it takes to use a rifle vs. how long it takes to unzip your jacket, get out bear spray, and blast a target.

A 2008 study titled Efficacy of Bear Deterrent Spray in Alaska reviewed 72 incidents where people sprayed bears; how many of those people were hunters? How many of those people were holding a rifle when they used bear spray?

The 2009 Bear Spray Extravaganzas will be the first time hunters have seen a practical demonstration of how to use bear spray. Video of the bear spray demos promises to be an Internet hit with law enforcement agencies, the NRA, and hunters everywhere. It will make fine comedy. [End of article]