# 'Bear' Essentials



## stubby (Dec 9, 2010)

I just wanted to open up a thread for shared advice and tips about our friends, the bears. Yes, they are everywhere. Sure, they want your food. However, there are ways to keep relations with 'em at a safe level which can be damn important if you plan on living in the same area for a bit. This posting is inspired by recent advice, quite novel, from a Montanan Hunter. One way to discourage bears from pulling up a chair to the elk kill dinner table he uses is pissing on a piece of fabric and laying it over the pieces you can't immediately move. It works for him 9 times out of 10. I adapted this by marking the area all around a tree I was sleeping in for a bit in a heavy 'bearea'. Worked like a charm.

Also, it helps to know what 'chucking' sounds like. A good way of knowing you're on the path to a mauling.


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## Joni (Nov 12, 2013)

i wondered how you protected yourself at night. thats a pretty good idea. as bear spray don't work in a tent.

i certainly do not want to end up as another timothy tredwell case for sure. sad sad animal rights story.


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## VisionQue (Jun 30, 2016)

Never cook or eat in the same place where you sleep in bear country. Store food in a bear bag 15 feet above ground preferably on a line midway between two trees. They might still get it but they will have to work for it.


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## WanderLost Radical (Jun 30, 2016)

VisionQue said:


> Never cook or eat in the same place where you sleep in bear country. Store food in a bear bag 15 feet above ground preferably on a line midway between two trees. They might still get it but they will have to work for it.



I've read about bear sending their cubs to climb and fall the food for them. I still think bear canisters are the way to go if you're in bear country. The problem is not the bear getting your food. The problem is bears getting a taste for human food. Easy or not. They try it once, and then they'll chase it whenever they smell it. With bear canisters, you might lose your food because the ber played with it for ages, but at least in the end it'll associate the human food smell to something impossible to get.

That being said, I think it's everyone's responsability to calculate the risk. If you're sleeping just out of town, you'll probably be just fine.


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## AlwaysLost (Oct 27, 2016)




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