Russian Mother's Daughter Calls About Bears Eating Her:(

[His Divine Shadow]

The one excludes the other mostly unless we get into stupid gimmick guns like the Desert Eagle, revolvers are an option though, a 12ga shotgun with slugs or high caliber hunting rifle is better. But the law prevents people in a lot of countries from carrying such a thing around self defence, let alone owning them. So get bear spray.

In Europe maybe, but in the U.S. and Canada you can own shotguns and hunting rifles.

In europe you can get a permit for most of them, handguns too, except for a few places. Thing there is, carrying them around with you in the forest, no can do in most places unless you are a hunter with the rights to hunt in the land in particular and even then that only applies to longarms since the EU bans handgun hunting.

[His Divine Shadow]

What sort of firearms could one legally own in Russia, that would be a good defence against bears?

Non-auto rifles and shotguns. Yeah, non-auto... that's a problem. But still that is better than nothing. You can get near military-grade carbines if you own smoothbarrel guns for long enough (5 years or so). If you are stalking places like Kamchatka, that'd be the first thing on my list. At least a chance of killing the beast before it kills you.

It's not really a problem. Its far more important you hit your target rather than spraying bullets. Ask any experienced hunter/hiker in Alaska that carries a bear gun and they won't be recommending any autos. 12ga pump with slugs or a levergun in .45-70 > most auto rifles, especially military assault rifles with their small calibers fly right out the window. The only auto-caliber that would start to be suitable for a bear is the .308 and even then. A Saiga-12 with a magazine full of slugs is better, thats auto as well, though they are finnicky from factory.


The by far cheapest and easiest method for your average person who doesn't want to spend $$$$$ on guns and ammo and training (unless you do this its all a big waste) is just to buy bear spray however, it's as likely as what they can get their hands on without a lot of effort and money and it is pretty effective from what I've been told.

[K. A. Pital]

Saigas are good - we have one. You have to ask for a good one when buying them from the factory, there are dealers who check the barrels and stuff... for a modest price of course. Though the Saigas don't have a full auto, I was thinking of Kalashnikov rifles when I first thought about weapons. Also, you get the right to buy Saiga MK-223s if you carry a smoothbarrel long enough, and that's a very nice rifle too.

[His Divine Shadow]

Full auto has no use anyway.

[NecronLord]

Any news if the animals involved have been exterminated yet?

[K. A. Pital]

Yes all exterminated. Including all three 1yo bear cubs, because they're already a danger on their own and they're dangerous.

They had to kill 15 man-eater bears since the onset of this year. A few dozen are killed regularly each year, and attacks on humans are regular as well. One similar attack happened just before this one, but there were 5 men alltogether and the bear tried to maul a girl, but the other 4 men fended her off - not sure how they did it, but the group leader killed the bear, probably had some firearms.

Which means you need to have more manpower, perferrably 4-5 men per group, and of course weapons as said before. Or bearspray. One should note that the 700-kg Kamchatka bear is one of the heaviest and strongest bears in the world, and it is a fucking kill machine if it goes on a rampage.

[Shroom Man 777]

What's happening to the environment that's making these clashes more common?

[K. A. Pital]

Uh... people going to places where bears are fucking around? That's... pretty simple. Tourist routes are crappily controlled and nobody really gives two shits about tourist safety there.

[Shroom Man 777]

In America, don't bear attacks happen in places where either cities and population centers start encroaching on wild lands, or when the environment gets fucked up and the bears can't eat properly anymore and they're forced to search for food in places they normally don't?

[His Divine Shadow]

I think thats more of a people coming into bears habitats for camping, hiking & hunting, or people living out in bear country. I don't think bears are having space & food issues like that in the US, even if they can be attracted to your garbage. Black bears in particular.

[Edi]

I think thats more of a people coming into bears habitats for camping, hiking & hunting, or people living out in bear country. I don't think bears are having space & food issues like that in the US, even if they can be attracted to your garbage. Black bears in particular.

There's also the fact that black bears are only about half the size of big brown bears, which makes the prospect of driving them off a lot less daunting and more likely to succeed, even if it's not going to be the proverbial cakewalk.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Full auto has no use anyway.

Fun isn't a use?

[Jaepheth]

I've heard that if you can get a tree between you and the bear and then circle around to keep the tree between you and the bear it will eventually give up and leave.

Is that true? Or am I thinking of a dog/wolf?

[His Divine Shadow]

I think thats more of a people coming into bears habitats for camping, hiking & hunting, or people living out in bear country. I don't think bears are having space & food issues like that in the US, even if they can be attracted to your garbage. Black bears in particular.

There's also the fact that black bears are only about half the size of big brown bears, which makes the prospect of driving them off a lot less daunting and more likely to succeed, even if it's not going to be the proverbial cakewalk.

That is true yes, but I'm not seeing how that ties into the hows and whys of bears and humans encounter each other?

[Themightytom]

I've heard that if you can get a tree between you and the bear and then circle around to keep the tree between you and the bear it will eventually give up and leave.

Is that true? Or am I thinking of a dog/wolf?

It's true sometimes, I did that once. I don't think the bear was particularly hostile or interested, but that was my exact strategy when he casually strolled across my path. And it was an outhouse by the way not a tree. I felt that to run, would invite pursuit, to move closer, would invite aggression.

Then again I scared a bear off once by opening my tent zipper loudly as well. And my experience is limited to tiny black bears, not man eating Russian bears.

[NecronLord]

Bilge about protecting women by pressuring them to only go around with a male dumped to the hall of shame.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Black Bears are also simply a lot less aggressive, Edi. I've been hiking in the North Cascades before and popped up on a very winding switchback mountain trail with extremely little visbility, about only twenty feet from one, so close and abrupt you didn't have time for anything at all in the usual avoidance advice. So we just kept very quietly walking without making any noise. The bear stared at us for a moment, and ambled away down the trail after we had passed. Some moron who decided to stop and take pictures might have gotten mauled, but generally the black bear population is not very dangerous or threatening unless you do stupid things like that.

If you're carrying a weapon to defend against grizzlies in close, unexpected encounters, I'd prefer a semiautomatic shotgun loaded with slug, in 10 gauge magnum. The old Ithaca Roadblocker was perfect for this, the semi-automatic helps reduce the recoil and with one round pre-chambered you've got four shots to put into a bear at close range out of a weapon expressly designed for police to use to disable the engine block of a box truck. As a backup, facing bear is about the only time one of those huge .44 magnum semiautomatic pistols like the desert eagle is actually useful (note--in .44 magnum. It's a useless penis compensator in .50). In a place like Kamchatka venturing into known bear country I'd want to be carrying both, and still be in a group of at least three people with the other two similarly armed.

[Imperial Overlord]

In Canada one of the easiest ways to get a handgun license is to have a prospector's license because that means you're likely to be wandering around bear country. The most likely cause of bear trouble, for someone taking reasonable precautions, is encountering one at close quarters by surprise. Large caliber semiautomatic pistols and revolvers were preferred by most of the people I talked with, with shotguns loaded with slug or .306 or larger caliber hunting rifles for long arms. Even most grizzly bears don't want to tangle with humans (as opposed to raiding our food stores) so making plenty of noise while hiking through the bush is recommended.

[Edi]

Black Bears are also simply a lot less aggressive, Edi.

That may very well have something to do with just how much smaller than brown grizzlies and other brown bears are. When you're that much smaller, your risk of getting seriously injured in a tangle with anything large go up a lot. If the bears have also learned that humans in groups are dangerous, they will prefer avoidance.

Brown bears and sparsely populated regions where there are few humans is a different story entirely. I'd prefer to go armed in that kind of situation too.