5 Best Bear Sprays In 2020

A bear spray is a bear deterrent formula contained in a spray can or bottle that can be intended to help you escape a bear that charges or comes too close to you when you are out in the wild. It contains highly concentrated amounts of capsaicin - the substance that makes hot peppers spicy, which acts as a powerful irritant and mild paralytic agent for large animals like bears. The contents of the can, when sprayed in the direction of the bear, will leave it incapacitated and buy you some time to save yourself.

Bear sprays formulas are generally easy enough to use once you get the hang of it. For most bear spray brands, the mechanism is activated by tugging, flipping, or removing a safety clip. After that, point the spray directly towards the animal’s face and eyes if it is already too close (less than 15 feet), or aim the spray can downward and ahead of the bear (the middle of the path between you), keep spraying short puffs. Make it so the bear has to pass directly through the pepper fog if they want to get closer to you. Keep the spraying button pressed to discharge the bear repellent substance. You can choose to do it in shorter bursts if you prefer, or if you’re worried you will exhaust the entire contents of the can too fast by spraying continuously.

You should only use bear sprays when a bear is closer than 40 feet from you and shows signs of aggression. If the bear is 40 feet away, resist the urge of using the spray at such a high distance. It won’t work. Remember that bear sprays are not meant to scare away bears in your vicinity, but to deter bears that are coming to attack you. Spraying it in their general direction from a distance will not affect them and may even attract them closer. You can only start using the spray when the bear is 30 feet away from you.

The best bear repellents are officially recognized (by government guidelines and regulations) to be the most effective way of protecting yourself against a bear. They are even more effective than firearms: according to a study, firearms can protect you from getting attacked during a bear encounter only in 50% of cases, while a bear mace spray is effective in over 90-92% of cases. As a bonus, unlike firearms or other weapons, bear sprays cause no actual permanent damage to the animal.

A bear spray formula is similar to a pepper spray used in self-defense but much stronger, fit to deter an animal of a much larger size and ferocity than a human attacker. A regular pepper spray delivers a strong punch meant to temporarily stun and cripple a human attacker until their target can get away or call in the authorities. On the other hand, a bear deterrent spray is intended for a large and aggressive animal that needs to be deterred immediately. A pepper spray would be ineffective if used against a bear, while a bear deterrent would be too much if used against a human (and could cause permanent, serious damage). Therefore, you could say that the only difference between pepper spray and bear spray is the scale and intensity of the formula.

No, bear sprays are NOT illegal. They are FDA approved, so you can make sure that they’re both effective and safe to use. Still, you should keep in mind that some natural parks and reservations are allowed to restrict and forbid the use of bear mace spray. Some areas have protected or endangered species living within their perimeter and if visitors use sprays in their proximity it could be harmful to the animals. Also, note that you are not allowed to carry bear mace spray by plane.

While hiking and camping, the bear pepper spray container needs to be carried at hand, in a specialized holster on your belt. In this way, should the need arise, you can react fast and use it before the animal can hurt you or anyone else in your party. A fast react time is essential, so keeping it in your hiking backpack or the car trunk while away from it will not do. Until you get to the hiking or camping area, it can be kept in the luggage or the car trunk. As long as the safety lid or clip is not pulled, there is no risk for the liquid to get discharged. Still, as a precaution measure, it’s best if you wrap up the container in a paper box or bubble wrap, just to make sure traveling and bumpy roads don’t cause any damage to it.

No, bear spray only hurts the animal in terms of irritation and mild paralysis, but the effects are temporary. Sure, it’s uncomfortable and it does cause the animal a certain amount of suffering, but there’s no permanent damage involved. Once you have got enough time to escape, the bear should be able to get back up and feel comfortable again in a relatively short time, it can take a few hours for the irritation caused by the pepper spray to completely wear off.

To treat the affected area, you can first soak a tissue in milk and lay it gently on the skin that got exposed to the pepper spray. Leave it on for 10-15 minutes and the milk should take some of the stings away. Next, wash the area with a grease-removing product like dishwasher liquid and water and the pepper oil will be removed from the skin. You can expect to experience increased skin sensitivity and tingling on that spot for a few days.