# The bear spray thread **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 4, 2025, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bear-spray-thread/1019193 "2025-06-04T12:40:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 12
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2025, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bear-spray-thread/1019193/12 "2025-06-04T13:56:33Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > Does bear spray actually work, or does it just totally piss them off? Yes. From my [linked thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carrying-firearms-for-defense-against-an-aggressive-bear/1000420): > [@Carrying firearms for defense against an aggressive bear?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/carrying-firearms-for-defense-against-an-aggressive-bear/1000420/1): > > There was a [study from BYU](https://lifesciences.byu.edu/byu-study-using-a-gun-in-bear-encounters-doesnt-make-you-safer) that compared three options in fending off an aggressive bear: doing nothing, using a firearm, and utilizing bear spray, and they concluded that bear spray was by far the most effective. More specifically, the people who used a firearm against an aggressive bear suffered the same injury/fatality rate as those who did not. (Note that most of the bears involved in the study were brown bears, aka grizzly bears, which are typically much more aggressive than the smaller black bears.) > > A related study by the same researcher found that bear spray effectively halted aggressive bear encounters in **92 percent** of cases. > > The National Park Service [agrees](https://www.nps.gov/articles/bearsprayfirearms.htm) with this advice. What is likely to piss off a bear is hitting them with a round from a firearm that doesn’t immediately kill them (which is more than likely). --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bear-spray-thread/1019193)._