LET'S GET OVER THE BIG PISTOL SYNDROME

Hunters, Use Bear Spray, Help Save Your Sport

By Bill Schneider, 10-08-09

	Photo courtesy of the Interagency Grizzy Bear Committee.

General big game hunting seasons are opening soon, and legions of stealthy hunters will be silently stalking around grizzly country in pre-dawn darkness, but only after they’ve sprayed themselves with human scent blocker, “buck scent” or stale elk pee. As sure as the seasons will open, some of them will have a close encounter with a grizzly, often resulting in a dead bear.

Much has been written about this subject. Every wildlife expert out there has encouraged hunters to carry bear pepper spray instead of a big handgun for self-defense, but clearly, a lot of hunters ignore this advice, even though it’s all for their own safety and the future of hunting.

Witness the recent incident on the edge of Glacier National Park in the Great Bear Wilderness. Two bowhunters were quietly hiking up a trail before dawn when they encountered three or four grizzlies, likely a mother bear and her half-grown cubs. So, what did they do? Reach for their bear spray and start talking in monotones to alert the bears that they posed no threat. Hardly, they immediately pulled out their pistols and started blasting away at the bears, even though it was too dark to see what they were shooting at, and ended up wounding at least one bear.

Witness a Wyoming court recently deciding to charge a hunter for illegally killing a grizzly bear. The hunter came across a grizzly feeding on a moose carcass, and even though, according to authorities, the bear posed no threat, the hunter shot it instead of carefully walking by with bear spray drawn and leaving the grizzly to its much-needed meal.

Both incidents--and others like them every year--do little but hasten along the demise of bear hunting if not all big game hunting in grizzly country.

Wildlife agencies and conservation groups will never convince hunters to act like hikers, walking through the woods making noise on the way to their stand or during the hunt, but for at least three reasons, they really need to get over this Big Pistol Syndrome.

For starters, a big gun doesn’t work as well as a little spray. Hard to swallow, right? Bear spray offers more protection than .44 magnums. A recent study, in fact, found that hunters using firearms to defend themselves were injured or killed 40 percent of the time, while those using bear spray walked away unharmed 98 percent of the time. Another study of 76 encounters in Alaska found that bear spray was 92 percent effective in deterring bears; firearms only 67 percent.

Here’s the bottom line: Every time a hunter uses his rifle or handgun to take down a grizzly instead of using bear spray to deter an attack, it hurts the entire sport of hunting.

The grizzly bear is still a threatened species under the provisos of the Endangered Species Act, and anti-hunting groups have already proposed banning black bear hunting in areas occupied by grizzlies (most of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming) to prevent accidental shootings (mistaking a grizzly for a black bear) and to prevent inevitable encounters resulting in dead bears. Each hunter-related incident gives those who want to stop all bear hunting more ammo to support their cause.

And they might not stop with black bear hunting. Most hunter-caused grizzly mortality doesn’t occur while black bear hunting; most occurs while big game hunting, especially elk hunting.

Put yourself in the chair of somebody who’d like to ban all hunting. If elk hunters keep needlessly causing the deaths of a charismatic threatened species, we’ll hear calls--and most likely, see lawsuits--to ban all hunting in grizzly country until the big bear has been removed from the threatened species list.

And lastly, each hunter-caused mortality delays the day when the grizzly can, finally, be delisted. I’m sure most hunters, all wildlife agencies, and even most radical green groups would like to see delisting happen, but if hunters keep acting irresponsibly, that day could be decades ahead of us.

So, hunters, you have at least three excellent reasons to take bear spray (and know how to use it) instead of toting large handguns for personal protection. Let’s get with the program.

Footnote: For more information from professionals, click here. For detailed instructions on how to use bear spray, click here.

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