A grizzly has begun raiding the moose camp we set up a couple weeks back. My friend has been setting up camp there every fall for years, without a problem. Consequently, he got careless about leaving food in camp.

The bear chewed up stuff, and raided the food, at his camp. Then he meandered a 100 yards and hit my wall tent. SOB bit holes in all four corners, despite the fact I had left no food there. He also bit holes in all three of my plastic gas cans. (You'd think he'd have learned after getting a mouthful of gas on the first!)

Any ideas what we might do to discourage him? Aside from leaving out a bucket of antifreeze? lol

Jim

Lead poisoning or electric fence. Once they get a taste for food in a camp, they will be back.

And, they love plastic gas cans and gas. I don't know why it is, but they do. I think they chew on the plastic like gum.

That sucks. But the upside is that you can get a rug pretty quick.

-TJ

This is in dense, timbered country. Can't see fifty yards right now, so getting him in my sights is a pretty unlikely proposition.

Jim

Just slather yourself with some bacon grease and lay still. It will come.......

-TJ

LOL!

Not that desperate yet, but who knows? The bear seems to wait until we leave, and shows up some time during the work week.

Jim

He is obviously retired if he's not working also.

I have read that moth balls will discourage them but the portable electric fence is the best idea. Leave it up while you're there too.

I've had bears knock over and drain 55 g drums of gas. They bang them around until they leak. Then they dig a wallow and make mud with the gas and roll in it.

I've also heard but never tried, a can of starting fluid wrapped in bacon. Hang it so only a bear can reach it. One bite and he gets a load of ether.

I like Top Jimmys suggestion

Bears are just buttheads, that's all.

Jim

Yes they are.

If you aren't ready for the bacon grease trick, go with the portable electric fence. A buddy of mine used one a ton in Kodiak and didn't have any problems with them, even with coolers of food and fish in camp. They take a bit to set up, and you need to have a car battery to have the charge, but they do work. They had one that had a solar panel to help keep the battery charged up. Not sure how that solar panel will work for you, but the fence will probably be your best bet.

If you are lucky, he will light himself up like that one in Anchorage that found the high power line last year. You could have bear, pre-cooked, for dinner when you come in....

-TJ

Go electric fence. A guy told me he was in Kodiak last year and they would watch this big bear come in every day after they left camp. He would walk up to the fence and walk off. Deer hanging in Camp. He was just using the style that ran on D batteries. I have one around my bees now in Homer. No problems yet.

On the ether bacon trick.
One time I had a bear come to my camp when not there. I had been cooking in my tent. It had a nice new door when I got there. Funny thing was I had a bottle of aresol bug dope. It had a hole in it. I figured that was what got him out of camp.

I vote for the electric fence. We put one up around the meat shed at Midnight Son's camp on the Hoho. With fresh moose meat hanging in it, the bears wore a trench 8" deep into the gravel walking around it, but they would not cross it. And that "fence" was only 18" high.

We are carrying fence kits in the fire warehouses now. You can put together a small one for a couple hundred bucks, including the solar panel to recharge it. Sounds expensive, but its less than the cost of replacing one chewed up wall tent!

And one more thing: Normally I find that just my buying a $25 bear tag means that no bears will ever come around....

Pete

Beat me to it!

I say kill it with fire! Preferably in the .375 caliber or bigger variety!

- Clint

I heard a rumor that a big can of bearspray, wrapped in bacon and strategically located, might disCOURAGE them from hanging around and having to get shot, at least for a few days. Same rumor has it that part of the strategy is NOT having them pointed towards anything you'd NOT want trampled all to [Please excuse my language... I'm an idiot] when the sub-baconal section of the little treat is arrived at by said soon-to-be-in-high-gear bear. Not that THAT part's very controllable, but just sayin - perhaps consider shorter guy lines on the cook tent, or something of the sort.

All only rumor, of course.

So where do you get these electric fences?

I thought they were just for wimpy backpackers, lol.

Jim

I think boodbock in Eagle River has them, or could tell you where to get them.
the owners I work for used them on Kodiak on the shore of Karluk lake, 20+ bears walking by each day.
they have video of their old man sleeping in a lounge chair and a sow sniffing him, 10ft away on the other side of the fence.

Yes, they are for wimpy backpackers, but it is good to see that you have finaly figured where you fit..... Just having fun.

Not sure where you can get them in Anchorage. Maybe REI or Mountain view sports? I have seen them in Cabela's a few times as well.

As for the bear spray stuff, it doesn't work. Some people the wife and I house sat for in the summers in Petersburg go up back packing all summer in the Northwest Territories. They are in areas that humans have never been. One day they come back to camp to find a bear checking things out. They drop their packs, pull out the pepper bear spray, and shoot him with it to run it off. It sits down, and starts licking around its mouth, and then starts lickig the stuff off its fur. It gets up and starts coming to them at a slow walk and they shoot it again. This time it starts licking the stuff out of the air and keeps coming at them. They back away from the packs and it proceeds to pick out granola bars from the pack, open them with a claw, and eat. They empty the cans on the bear and again it starts licking it out of the air, off itself, the packs, and off the ground where some of it was. They backed off and moved far away and watched the bear. It then proceeds to lick the ground and everywhere else that spray happend to touch. After that it then took off. After that incident, they quit packing it with them as it seemed like all it was to the bear was some cajun seasoning. Plus, then it was on their packs and they would get it on them later on.

-TJ

Well, I've never heard of a bear licking up a bullet. So I hope those backpackers finally got a clue on what they should carry.

Jim

They just go without. They don't want the weight. One of those wimpy back packers you were talking about.... Plus, Canada doesn't like hand guns...

-TJ

When I was a bit younger, and my knees still worked, I went on sheep and goat hunts for 7-10 days, carrying all gear and food on my back. Gear included a rifle, spotting scope, binocular, ammo, skinning knife, and meat bags.

Jim

You might also call Alaska Mill and Feed. I'll bet they carry the fencing.