If I take a gun it would most likely > be > a 12 ga or 16 ga pump shotgun with buckshot and slugs. Will that take down a polar bear? I don't have any idea, myself. I'd be cautious about buckshot. Seems to me the bear would have to be right up on you for buckshot to penetrate the skin and fat. Maybe someone else can comment on that. > I see your point but I still think an encounter is a lot less likely than > having an auto accident since there are not many bears up there. And i > will > have some knowledge of how to avoid them... therefore I don't need a gun. True.... but are you willing to stake your life on it? It only takes one encounter.... Tough question. I'm looking forward to reading comments from the more experienced folks. It will be interesting to see how this discussion plays out. Good luck. Wish I had an answer for you. Rick *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
At 01:22 PM 10/30/2003 -0800, Warner Family wrote: .....The Inuit travelled all over the Arctic without guns prior to Europeans showing up. I guess they didn't know what they where doing. Well, they traveled in numbers. No documented bear attacks on parties greater then 5... seems I read that somewhere. And they traveled with dogs which would usually chase done a bear if it crossed paths or bark a lot if one showed up at night. My concern is that this is dry land where polar bears are said to be in "walking hibernation" so they might be quite hungry and curious especially with a party of one or maybe two. >....Take a bear banger and have a good time. > >Gordin Do bear bangers work with polar bears? I have read and heard that polar bears are very used to loud noises because the ice pack makes very loud noises at times. What about bear spray on polar bears? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Dziobak Mich Tech Univ. Civil & Environmental Engineering 1400 Townsend Dr. Houghton, MI 49931 906-487-3471 Fax: 906-487-2943 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
[Moderator's Note: Content unaltered. Excessive quoting (including headers/footers/sig lines/extraneous text from previous posts, etc.) have been removed. Please edit quoted material in addition to removing header/trailers when replying to posts.] Suppose that you assume I(I have no idea of what the real number is) that only 1 of every 100 bears is aggressive and will attack. Your 100th bear could be the first one you encounter or the 1000th. Also, you will never know until the attack starts. Remember the recent idiot who said that all the brown bears in Alaska were friendly, if you treated them nicely. What happened to him? DON *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:35 PDT