Please, help me out here, I am hiking up a jagged trail on the mountain side, enjoying the hike and the beauty of the great outdoors. I come up behind you rocking out to music or in all honesty, you may be listening to book while you are out hiking in nature. You are hiking along with headphones muffling all noise except that which is being pumped directly into your ears.
The problem, you don’t hear me come up behind you which means that if there is a bear or wild animal on the trail, you’re not going to hear them either. You are not fully aware of your surroundings. Wisdom is better than strength, be prepared! We all want to stay safe out there, so no headphones or at the very least, just wear one ear bud so that you can hear the sounds around you, like a charging bear!
Do you enjoy hiking in Montana? Where is your favorite spot? A few great spots to hike in Montana include:
Mystic Lake is a 7 mile out and back trail located near Fishtail, Montana. The trail is primarily used for hiking and is accessible from May until October.
The Beaten Path (Backpacking) is a 26 mile point-to-point trail located near Roscoe, Montana and is rated as moderate. The trail is primarily used for hiking and is accessible from June until November.
Beartooth Highway: Silver Gate to Red Lodge is a 70 mile point-to-point scenic drive near Red Lodge, Montana. The trail is primarily used for birding, mountain biking and scenic driving and is accessible from June until October.
And while you’re out hiking in Montana this spring, protect your backside! UDAP offers the first revolutionary change in bear spray delivery in 20-years! The Back Attack Pack™, be prepared for your hike as well as any wild animals that may come charging along the trail.
Fishing season is just around the corner and one of my favorite places in Montana to fish is the scenic Gallatin Valley near Bozeman, Montana. They are truly blessed with hundreds of miles of blue ribbon trout water. Those waters include, but are not limited to, the Yellowstone, Gallatin, Bighorn, Jefferson, Stillwater, Boulder and Missouri rivers. Let’s don’t forget the world renowned spring creeks in Paradise Valley, as well as some lesser known but equally amazing spring creeks and lakes in that area. Fly Cast Fishing at its best.
UDAP chest holster is a great product and works well for Fly Cast Fishermen or anyone fishing and enjoying the great outdoors. UDAP Pepper Power holsters are designed for an individual to have instant and silent access to the canister. Every UDAP holster is designer for bear spray to shoot right from the holster if time does not allow you to draw it.
Before you head out the door, make sure that you are doing more than just carrying your Bear Spray! Make sure that you know how to use it. Practice using it. It took practice to learn how to catch those blue ribbon trout and the same is true for using Bear Spray properly. Practice, practice, practice! Now go enjoy that great Montana Flyfishing!
What is the official day of Spring for 2014? It’s March 20th and with spring comes hiking and fishing and lots of outdoor activities. Have you checked yourUDAP Bear Spray to be sure that you have plenty on hand? All UDAPBear Spray has an expiration date on them, be sure to check and make sure that your can of Bear Spray hasn’t expired. Our products have a shelf life of 4 years, but you should always check your Bear Sprayeach season or whenever it’s sat on a shelf for a long period of time.
With the unusual amount of snowfall this winter, we are all going to be ready for SPRING and outdoor activities with our friends and family! So enjoy your Spring, your friends and family and be SAFE!
Even though the Chicago Bears didn’t get in the Super Bowl XLVIII, the game between, bear spray vs bullets, has already been played and won. The winner is bear spray hands down! The firearm team played a good game and they believe that a person needs a hand gun or rifle to stop an angry bear. But the pro bear spray team has been adamant that bear spray works.
And the bear spray team won this super bowl, but we don’t want you to take our word for it, in a recent study done by Tom S. Smith, Stephen Herrero, Terry D. Debruyn and James M. Wilder bear spray lead its team to victory.
The Results of Bear Spray vs a Firearm
Bear incidents involving 175 persons resulted in 3 injuries, all minor (less than 2% injury rate). Firearms incidents involving 478 persons resulted in 17 fatalities (15%), 25 severe injuries (22%), 42 suffered moderate injury (37%), 29 suffered slight injuries (26%), for a total 113 injuries (24% injury rate). With firearm use, it can be hard to use protective gear like a level 4 body armor or even gloves out in the wild – this may be the mandate for tactical training, but under wilderness circumstances, many situations are out of our control. Hence firearm users experienced 12 times the injury rate of those using bear spray!
Of the 71 cases where persons sprayed bears to defend themselves, 14% (10 to 71) of users reported the spray having had negative side effects upon themselves, ranging from minor irritation (11%, 8 of 71) to near incapacitation (3%, 2 of 71).
Firearm failures were identified in 100 firearm cases, where users reported mechanical or physical issues with the use of a firearm, including lack of time (32%), unable to use firearm due to situation, such as having your partner in your line of fire (21%), mechanical issues (11%), safety/holster issues (95), insufficient caliber/no bullets left (9%), distance to bear (8%), missed bear (6%), or tripped and fell (4%).
No bears were injured in conflicts involving bear spray, however, 23 bears were wounded and 176 killed in incidents involving firearms.
Why bear spray is the winner…
Bear Deterrent Pepper Spray works better in a bear attack situation because of its ease of use. Aiming is not a big factor like it is with a firearm and you are not relying on a bullet to stop the bear by hitting it in a vital spot. Even when this is the case, sometimes the bear can advance and attack if it does not expire right away. This can actually work against the gun user as now you have a wounded bear and this may intensify the attack. With bear spray you’re not stopping the bear with pain necessarily. You might think this as it really is painful to be sprayed. However, what you’re really doing is taking away the bears senses. The bear’s sight is impaired, but more importantly its breathing and sense of smell are blasted away by the spray. Anyone that has ever been hit with a fog pattern pepper spray can tell you how difficult it is to breathe when sprayed. It actually can be like a shot to the head, since the bear navigates primarily with its nose. For a bear, this is certainly the case. The bear will have no idea what is happening and this changes the behavior the bear was displaying prior to being sprayed.
Pepper sprays for your key chain and the like do not work on bears. The minimum size of for bear pepper spray is 7.9 ounces or 225 grams. Each bear deterrent will contain an EPA registration and establishment number, date code and the words “bear deterrent,” “bear spray,” “bear pepper spray,” “bear mace” or “bear repellant.”Bear repellant is not a very suitable word for this product and only one manufacturer uses it. The word repellent can confuse the user in to thinking that they can spray themselves or equipment like you do a bug repellent spray.
This is NOT true nor is it the proper way to use bear deterrent. You need to actually spray low in front of the charging bear, for it to be used correctly.
This creates a protective barrier between you and the animal. In 1999, the EPA wanted to specifically label bear spray as a repellant. However, this misleads the public and the vendors into thinking that this product was to be applied to themselves and the site or equipment just like bug repellant spray. Mark Matheny worked diligently to change the word from repellant to deterrent and to stop the misuse of the product and to explain further the proper use of the spray for deterring a potential bear attack. Even though the words deterrent and repellant have the same meaning, repellant is used in relation to insect spray so commonly that deterrent is a much better fit.
You are taking a nice hike through the woods and all of a sudden you find yourself face-to-face with a bear.
What do you do?
Be sure to prepare yourself the next time you hit the trail in bear country, carry UDAP Bear Spray!Bear pepper spray deterrent is proven your best defense in stopping a bear attack. Remember to carry your bear pepper spray where it is accessible and you know how to use it. You will be relying on your reflexes to help you get your spray deployed into the face of a charging bear. Practice several times going for your spray. This simple step can save your life!
The polar bear is one of the official mascots for the Winter Olympics that starts February 7th and runs through the 23rd. The polar bear is one of three mascots-a snow leopard and the doe hare are the other two. They are the first mascots ever that won their spot in history by popular vote. They will be seen throughout Sochi!
Sochi is located in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. Sochi is a popular tourist destination because of its breathtaking location by the Black Sea. The city is also located directly by the border of Georgia and Abkhazia, the first of which has experienced constant violence such the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990’s. Sochi is a prime travel destination because of its warm summer temperatures and mild winter temperatures, making it a fun destination no matter the season. Russia is one of the nations where polar bears can still be found.
Polar bears live in the Arctic in areas where they can hunt seals at openings in the sea ice called leads. There are five nations with polar bears: U.S. (Alaska), Canada, Russia, Greenland, and Norway. Polar bears do not live in Antarctica. Penguins do.
We’d like to say, “Good luck!” To all of the participants in the 2014 Winter Olympic Games!
The American black bear is the smallest of the three bears types that can be located in North America, and are it should be noted that they are only found in North America. Black bears have the ability to climb trees because of their short non-retractable claws.
Black bears are very easy going and have a variety of habitat types, they are mostly found in forested areas with thick ground vegetation and an abundance of fruits, nuts, and vegetation. In the northern areas, they can be found in the tundra, and they will sometimes forage in fields or meadows.
Black bears are inclined to be solitary animals, with the exclusion of mamma black bears and her cubs. Typically, these bears will forage alone, but will endure each other and forage in groups if there is a wealth of food in one location.
Most black bears hibernate subject to local weather trends and the availability of food throughout the winter months. In areas where there is a reliable food supply and warmer weather all winter long, bears may not hibernate at all or do so for short period of time. Female black bears will give birth and stay denned throughout the winter, but you should know that both males and females who do not have young may leave their dens from time to time during winter months.
Brown bears can be found in forests and woodlands, sub alpine mountain areas, scrub, shrub and brushlands, lakes, ponds, rivers & streams to name a few. and across the tundra region. They can be found in Rocky Mountains, Southwest, Northwest, Western Canada, and Alaska.
In some areas their appearance and color depends on their habitat, diet and season. And did you know that the Grizzly Bear that lives in the contiguous U.S. is on the U.S. Endangered Species List. It is classified as threatened in the lower 48 states, although its current range extends only into Idaho, Montana, Washington (rarely), and Wyoming. (It has not been recorded in Colorado in many years.) It is said that
50,000 Grizzlies roamed the western U.S. in 1800 from the Canadian border to Mexico, as far east as the middle of the Great Plains. However, the settlement and development of the West meant changes to and destruction of the Grizzly’s habitat, competition with humans for game such as White-tailed Deer, and clashes between bears and humans.
For many, grizzlies have always been seen as a threat to humans and livestock, and were hunted, trapped, and poisoned extensively, both for food and fur and to eliminate them from areas where humans lived. In 1975, when the Grizzly Bear came under the protection of the U.S. Endangered Species Act, only about 1,000 remained in the lower 48 states.
When approached while feeding, guarding a kill, fishing, hungry, injured, or breeding
When conditioned to human foods, as has occurred in some Canadian and U.S. parks
If you are camping, you must firmly seal up food and place it out of reach. Bears will break into unattended vehicles if they smell food. The Grizzly is the most dangerous of all bears. Do not feed, approach, surprise at close range, or get between a Grizzly Bear and its food or cubs. While Grizzlies normally avoid humans, they will attack and have been known to seriously injure and even kill humans. Grizzlies can outrun
humans, and can climb trees. If charged by a Grizzly, stand your ground; if attacked, lie flat on your stomach and play dead.
