Flares as bear deterrence (and other uses)

[Guest]

I was talking with a friend about his recent middle-of-the-night awakening to a black bear chuffing and huffing uncomfortably close to his tent. His principal complaint was that he had gathered zero firewood before going to bed, and going immediately back into the tent wasn’t in the cards (or body parts) he was holding.

His minor complaint was that his best bear deterrence was a can of pepper spray and a small forest axe, and with the former he (not quickly enough) learned not to rub his eyes, or his pecker, after contaminating his fingers with capsasin.

What first came to mind (outside of firearms please) was a flare. Both as blazing/smoking I-AM-THE-GOD-OF-HELL-THUNDER bear deterrence, and as instant fire starter.

Another friend habitually carries a road flare as an emergency fire starter, and has resorted to it on really sodden trips. Road flares are a couple bucks apiece and burn for 20 minutes.

I’m not sure how I feel about resorting to even an un-plastic-clad road flare in the fire pit, for whatever petro chemical ash (and retrievable spike) are left behind. I carry fire starter material for wet times, and usually gather a little wood even if I’m not having a fire that evening. Up early I can at least briefly blaze some twigs over breakfast without wood gathering. But for an instant blaze, a flare may have merit.

In any case I am reminded that I need to replace the ancient road flares in the tripping truck. Hopefully road flares are now easier to light than the last time I used one, probably 15 years ago. Or store better in a vehicle, every flare I have ever lit had some years of decayed truck storage on it, which probably didn’t help.

Marine flares are designed to be easier lighted and easier hand held, brighter and throw more (colored) smoke, all of which could be useful as bear deterrence, or intended use for distress/rescue signal. But marine flares are pricey even for small ones, $25 for a four pack of minis, and the mini’s only burn for a few minutes. No idea about the comparative “shelf life”.


Anyone have experience or recommendations with road flares or marine flares? And, a specific question, are there now easy-to-light road flares?

 

[alsg]

I will be following the thread with interest. And for the record, it was my nose/lips (not my eyes) that I got capsaicin on. And yes, that other "thing," too. Full trip report now posted.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Ooooh, goodie, another bear thread.

Bear bangers have been around a long time. Assuming the bear can be deterred from one's pecker at all, I suspect that noise rather than flashing light is what will scare it more. There's now a pen launched banger and/or flare called the Tru Flare. Three video demonstrations:

Personally, I wouldn't want the bang to go off behind the bear because that might drive it towards me. So, it seems more rational to fire it at the ground in front of the bear or overhead in front of the bear, assuming you can calculate the time-to-bang and time-to-flare. Practicing is probably a good idea. Maybe on the fuller brush man.

 

[alsg]

Notice these were demonstrated in clearings/fields. Launching bangers and flares would be pretty useless in the types of lakeside campsites I've been in and seen in Maine and the Adirondacks. Lots of tree cover overhead and dense forest in front. Lots of flammable ground cover, too.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Kathleen and I have used a bear banger only two times in our lives. The first was in 2001, on our Snowdrift River trip in the Northwest Territories. The following text is from my diary.

Yet again, another hot, sunny morning. Also, yet again, we relaxed over a slow fire and a bannock cooked slowly to the proverbial golden brown. We then started to pack, for the final time, and to load the canoe for the 15-minute paddle down Austin Lake to our pickup spot. I folded the tent and fly, rolled them up, and crammed them into the stuff-sack. We carried the canoe and all the smaller parcels and hand-held items down to the beach. I leaned my .308 rifle up against the canoe. We then returned for the three large canoe packs.

"Michael. There's a bear!"

I turned. Sure enough. A large (aren't approaching bears always large?) black bear was ambling toward the packs, striding right through the patch of Kinnikinnick where our tent had stood only moments ago. Together, Kathleen and I backed off slowly toward the beach and my .308 rifle leaning up against the canoe. The bear kept advancing, but not toward us. Kathleen and I stopped, stood together to appear larger and more formidable, and yelled out things that bears probably wouldn’t like to hear, such as “Hey bear.”

The bear didn’t seem to mind these harsh words too much, though, as he kept advancing and was now only 5 m from the canoe packs.

Kathleen and I have seen a lot of bears during our wilderness experiences. Well, it seems like a lot to us, anyway. I estimate about 200 black bears, 40 grizzly bears, and 5 polar bears. Other than the polar bears, this is the first bear that appeared unafraid and undeterred by our presence.

What to do? I preferred not to turn my back on the bear to walk about 30 m to get my .308 rifle leaning, somewhat inconveniently, up against the canoe on the beach. So we yelled some more. Probably said, “Hey bear,” again, with no visible effect whatsoever.

"Why don't you try your bear banger, Kathleen. Do you have it?"

"Yes. I almost packed it away, but I thought no, we're still in the wilderness. I better keep it with me."

My foresightful adventuring partner reached into her shirt pocket and pulled out the pen-sized launcher on which the explosive was screwed. She fumbled only slightly with the release mechanism and held the banger overhead.

The first small bang when the explosive launched produced no impact on the bear at all, who was now within sniffing distance of our three large packs of gear, clothing, food, (and toilet paper). Seconds later, the loud “bang” overhead caught the bear's attention. He looked over at us, and seemingly for the first time, noticed that we stood in the clearing. He appeared confused, uncertain about his course of action. He looked at us again and then turned to walk away. After a few steps, he broke into a run and disappeared into the willows and spruce, heading along the shore, west, down the lake. It was good to know that the bear banger does actually work. At least sometimes.

We resumed packing, checking the periphery of our forest clearing with furtive inspections every few seconds. Minutes later, we paddled away onto a lake of glass beneath a warm, blue sky.
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The second time was in 2017, on our Great Slave Lake trip, also in the Northwest Territories. Again, from my diary.

We slept late, until 7:00 a.m. Feeling refreshed and relaxed, we collected wood for our usual bannock breakfast. A completely calm morning. We lingered and dawdled.

Halfway through cooking the bannock, Kathleen heard rustling behind her, and turned to see a black bear five to six metres (five to six yards) away, sniffing at our blue barrel, which contained all of our food. The bear obviously knew we were there, but had sauntered into camp anyway. [Note: I’m just assuming that he had sauntered in, as I didn’t actually see him enter camp. But his sassy body posture while sniffing at our blue barrel suggested that he was, indeed, a bear that would saunter into camp.]

Anyway, Kathleen and I both stood up, and the bear backed off two or three steps. But he did not turn to leave. I grabbed my rifle that was leaning against a nearby tree. Kathleen and I then stood together, to appear fearsome and formidable. We told the bear that we were unhappy with his behaviour. He turned, and sauntered away slowly. Yes he was sauntering—a very disdainful saunter. If he had been a teenage boy hanging out on a street corner, he would have been wearing his ball cap backwards.

Kathleen scurried to the tent to retrieve the bear banger. “Here, Michael. I don’t remember how this works. You do it.”

I launched the banger, and at the loud explosion overhead, the bear quickly ran up the rocky slope without looking back. Ha. Take that bear. Not so tough are you?
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About five summers ago, a friend of ours wanted to see how the bear banger worked. We went outside. It was hot and a little dry. I fired it off into the air. Our fried was impressed with how loud the sound was. Said she was going to get one. We went back inside for some tea. About 30 minutes later we went back outside to walk the dogs. Good thing, too. Our grassy field was on fire. The instructions do say to be careful not to start a fire. Or something like that. The grass was still a little bit green. We beat the fire to death with shovels. A good lesson.

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

Air horn?
I see they make some dinky ones small enough to fit in a pfd pocket.
I know a lot of the fisheries guys use these when doing salmon counts. A big plus is the noise comes directly from you not from some random(ish) direction.

 

[dougd]

OK, I'm the other friend who uses common road flares to light fires in soggy conditions. The plastic tip goes in the trash to be carried out and the rest burns off as the fire gets going. I've been a fan of using all sorts of fire starters, Christ, that could become a whole nother thread, probably has!

As I've aged I have become less of a "purist" and a road flare to get the fire going quickly at something like 2000 degrees is bound to get some wood going. I can still light a fire in most conditions without one and have no problem doing that but when it's late, wet, cold and just nasty arse out why not take advantage of it. At $2.49 at the local hardware store I figure it's worth it to have 1 or 3 along.

I've never carried a bear banger or gun or anything that pops loud in the areas I paddle in. Not saying there aren't critters there, I've seen tracks, heard some noises at night that have woken me up and scared the hell outta me but I guess I snore loud enough to scare just about anything off including the better half! I must say the thing that scared me the most for a lot of those nights in the woods was a movie called Count Yorga I watched at the local theater back in the late 70's as a teenager:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066952/

I'd take on a bear with a butter knife event to never have to live through the nightmares I had after watching that movie!

dougd

 

[memaquay]

Bear bangers work, I have used them effectively. I prefer them over spray. Some people will tell you not to aim them at the bear, but in close quarters that is exactly what I do. When I was at the Bearskin Canoe Symposium, one of the guys told me bear bangers are illegal in the United States. I found that odd, since many guns are readily available.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Mem,

We also take spray with us, but have never used it. In the two examples I gave, we went for the banger, rather than the spray. I have tested the spray, and it doesn’t produce a very large or far spray. Disperses quickly. And, perhaps most importantly, the wind has to be blowing away from you, preferably directly at the bear. What are the chances of that? The banger always makes a very loud sound, no matter what the wind direction. Notice also that I refrained from trying to shoot that second bear with my rifle, already in hand. Have heard too many stories of wounded, angry bears. The rifle is a very last, (one of us is certainly going to die) resort. Even behind the spray. At least that’s how I rank our deterrents.

 

[Gerald]

In places like La Vérendrye where firearms are not allowed I carry bear bangers and spray. The banger worked well to scatter a pack of wolves who had decided they wanted to get at my dog who was sleeping next to me inside the tent. Full story at link below.

 

[Odyssey]

If somebody found the bear spray too hot to handle (ahem, so to speak) I can only imagine how much trouble a flare would be. Best be careful.

The potential for igniting fires seems too great a risk to take IMO. We pack bangers.

 

[Big Al]

In PA, we have to carry a whistle when paddling. I've never tried, but I'd be my paycheck that a shrill whistle would send a black bear scrambling. I have never seen one not run at the first aggressive step toward it. Maybe PA bears lack self esteem.

 

[Boreal Birch]

I used to carry a Acme dog whistle on the zipper pull of my anorak, blew it occasionally to keep unseen bears away. One day drifting down on the upper Niukluk River, East of Nome Alaska, looking for tagged salmon. I saw a mother grizzly bear and her baby eating blueberries on the tundra hillside 2-3 hundred meters away. I had always wanted to know how well the whistle worked, so I blew a long loud, long blast. The bears reacted to it better than any dog I have ever owned. They perked up, headed directly toward us at a fast pace. I blew a few more blasts, which only caused them to speed up. Rick Milligan, my co-worker told me to "quit calling them" while he fumbled in his pack for his glasses, so he could see better in case we had shoot them. As the bears got closer they ran into our scent stream, it was as if they had hit a electric fence. They turned and ran as fast as they could back up and over the hillside. I removed that whistle from the zipper of my anorak and threw it in the river. I have never even puckered my lips in bear country again. I am certain the whistle sounded like a Arctic Hare being murdered, by a fox or other critter and they could easly steal it for their own meal.
Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game outfitted us with Remington 870 12 gauge pump shotguns with slugs for bear protection back in those days. We also carried rubber buck shot, rubber slugs & bean bag rounds as deterrent. We also scared grizzly bears away from our camps with bottle rockets, maybe the forerunner to bangers.
I have two different friends that use bear spray to deter aggressive grizzly bears with good results, so that is what I carry these days.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Interesting story about your whistle, BB. I have seen some recommendations that hikers should wear bells to warn bears of their approach. I have also heard stories that the bears ambled over to see what was making that cute sound.

 

[Boreal Birch]

A lot of jokes about bear bells being found in grizzly bear scat that smelled strongly of capsaicin. Also one about Cheechako's thinking that a .44 magnum handgun is all they need for bear protection. The old Sourdough tells them that they need to file the front sight off the .44. The newcomer wonders why would they do that? The old timer says "so it will not hurt so much when the bear shoves it up your butt hole after you tried to kill it".

 

[lowangle al]

I don't think the flare is a good option. I believe in a four pronged approach to bear deterrence. First would be a loud noise that you can use when the bear is far away with little negative consequences, between the bangers and air horn I think I would go for the air horn. Banging some pots and pans together is also an option, but does anyone think to bring them in the tent at night? My next level of defense is bear spray followed by a gun. After carrying a shotgun for years I've switched to a .357 handgun for convenience. Because of the issue that Boreal Birch mentions above mine has less than a two inch barrel.

The most important thing I carry for bear protection is a rabbit foot for good luck, because that's what it basically boils down to.

 

[lowangle al]

In PA, we have to carry a whistle when paddling. I've never tried, but I'd be my paycheck that a shrill whistle would send a black bear scrambling. I have never seen one not run at the first aggressive step toward it. Maybe PA bears lack self esteem.

Hi Big Al, I had a Pa. black bear in my yard this past June that was undeterred by my presence, my voice, a flashlight in his eyes and then flood lights. It seems it was habituated to finding food in my burn pit where I burn garbage and have throw food scraps in the past. At first I thought it smelled a half eaten sausage that I threw out there earlier in the day and was impressed by that, but when I looked in the morning the sausage was still there. This surprised me because his nose couldn't have been more than a foot away from it.

I had another bear in my yard that week that had to be at least 400 pounds. I was happy when he walked right past the fire pit without giving it a glance. I decided to no longer throw food out there, I don't need any more bears habituated to finding food in my yard.

 

[lowangle al]

I just remembered this. A good friend of mine who almost lost his life and his arm to a grizzly while asleep in his tent would play a radio at night on subsequent trips.