Not all jurisdictions are really thrilled about this. When I was stationed in Montana, it was a felony offense to shoot a bear, regardless of circumstance and regardless of long-or-sidearm. Even in the backcountry. The hiker or camper would be held liable.
Tripler
Which reminds me, that my bear spray is prolly expired by now.
Yeah, and dangerous bear encounters are almost by definition short range affairs. Normally both human and bear wind up accidentally sneaking up on each other. A rifle is definitely not the best tool for the job. A shotgun or some sort of large caliber hand cannon of a pistol would be better, but they’re still going to require a combination of luck and superhumanly cool-headed marksmanship to stop a bear at close range.
And of course the reason why wildlife managers don’t like guns for self-defense in the woods is that not only is there no real way to verify whether someone was really being threatened by a bear, but there wind up also being quite a lot of accidental shootings of other non-threatening species. Moose get mistaken for bears and shot with surprising frequency. Of course worse case, you mistake another human for a bear, which becomes quite a bit more of an issue with a gun than with bear spray.
From what I gather, police & army gas chamber training around the world does typically involve a whole lot of “Quit your bawling, pussy ! I bet **I **can take this shit without a cough !” and, later, a shared sense of humility :). Chemistry is a harsh mistress.
Damn, I had assumed Bear Spray was something that made one smell like a bear.
There goes my Christmas shopping list.
That’s why much of Canada we cannot wander about with wee personal size light concentration spritzers, but we can quite happily carry large aerosol cans of the stronger concentrations. :eek: (Well that’s an over-simplification.)
The difference is the purpose. Pepper spray for use against people is a restricted weapon in The Great White North, but pepper spray for use against bears in not a restricted weapon. If you have one of those small breath-freshener sized spritzers designed to slip in your purse, you are in violation of a serious criminal law because it is designed to fend off people rather than bears, but if you are where the bears are – much of Canada – it is legal to carry a large can of pepper spray so as to defend yourself from a bear.
Where it gets interesting is what you do with the large can if you live in an urban area that does not have bears but have a can for working in the bush or camping, for concealed carry is illegal. The simple answer is keep it stored, and do not walk about with it in your hand, on your belt, or tucked away on your person unless you are in the bush.
I keep a large can by my bed, for around here bears occasionally break into people’s homes (and one of them occasionally shits on my doorstep), but when I travel in town I keep it packed with my kit rather than keep it handy.
Cite? I can shoot a human being if I believe he/she is putting my life in imminent danger, but if I believe the same thing about a bear and I can articulate why my right to self defense vanishes?
I call bullshit. :dubious:
The same thing can be said about another human.
Maybe bears are endangered species in need of protection? Sadly, lowlife humans are far from an endangered species; as a sub-species they seem to be thriving.
Just a guess; I’m 100% clueless on Montana game law.
:aside:
My wife and I life pretty remotely in the Colorado mountains. We get Black bears in the yard once in a while. Mostly, I just leave them be. Unless they won’t go away. Banging pots and pans doesn’t seem to work. A large caliber gun fired in there direction does the trick.
We keep our trash in a shed and take it to the dump about twice a month. Bears have ripped the door off the shed 3 times. What I have found helps is to crush some mothballs around the door/steps to the shed. It seems that a snootfull of that and they forget about the trash.
The difference is that bears are dangerous animals and so there are very few situations in which the “he was coming right for us!” defense won’t work. If you kill a person in self-defense with no corroborating evidence or witnesses, well, that’s going to be a bit more problematic.
And, yeah, killing a bear in Montana I’m almost 100% sure is a felony. (The difference between misdemeanor and felony poaching is the trophy value of the animal(s), which I’m not quite sure how they arrive at, but I’m fairly sure most anything more exotic than a deer is enough to put it into felony territory.) But killing one in self defense is fine, assuming they believe you.
I heard it from two outfitters, and a Deputy Sherrif (not all the same dude). I took their word for it, 'cause I didn’t really go into the backcountry all that much. This was back when Montana was concerned that bears were being poached, and/or, there was some reckless ‘self defense’ going on (2003 - 2006).
Muffin, I now stand corrected.
Tripler
Been awhile. I should go back to Montana for a spell.
The firearm wont be for the bear, it will be for the hiker, to take himself out when the bear is latched onto his nuts, or is performing an unscheduled amputation. 
A dog is the best deterrent.
If you don’t have a dog, hike with a slower person.
If the slower person isn’t that much slower than you, season him with the pepper spray.
People at the local level (particularly hunters and ranchers) tend not to be very happy about large predator reintroduction or recovery schemes in their areas, so a certain amount of hyperbole when it comes to their interpretation of government policies about them is not uncommon.
If a bear is close enough to spray you, you’ve got bigger problems to worry about.