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Travel Guns
20-gauge is minimum size shot gun for black bear around here. Think I'd want something heavier than minimum for defense, which probably wouldn't be a planned shot exactly. Not a good thing to have to go looking for a wounded one. I carry pepper spray myself. There are some pamphlets that might be good to read. Some go beyond the usual 'don't do this' in bear country and talk some about bear behaviour and how to better judge if you're genuinely being threatened.
It comes up a couple of times a year that I need to dump something off-hours and find myself in a contest of wills with one or several bear. I figure it's best if I have some confidence that I know what they're about to do so I can give'um more room if necessary. With some persistence I do move them far enough from the pit so I can dump things. I figure that probably would work most times with a camp too. But from experience I can say that if a bear gets on your camp it's time to move. They'll always be back.
My wife came back from the store today and one of the township guys told her that our Natural Resources people shot and killed one of our dump bear. I think I know the one, and it took my brother in law and I quite awhile to move if off the pit several weeks ago. I guess that bear must have won a contest of will after our encounter. Funny thing is that the township guy said they shot the bear first with rubber bullets, which didn't work. The real bullets did. Rubber bullets? Wonder what they were thinking and how'd you tell if they didn't work? Sounds about as good as relocation. Something else that doesn't work.
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Travel Guns
Pepper spray is being billed here as far from 100% effective as well. I just as soon have some as not. I most of all rather know how to avoid needing it. As a volunteer fire fighter I'm not sure I care for the idea of flare guns but I probably don't understand how they actually work.
Few of our relocated bear are actually aggressive. It's just that they've connected humans and food and lost their fear. You can't get rid of them. Main thing is to keep food (including toothpaste and dishes) well separated from the camp. Also watch out for the little bear. Make some noise in the bush and mom usually will chase them up a tree and then will be a little calmer about things. Just back up and give'um space. No guarantees, but bear will stand up and they do make mock charges without actually attacking. A really serious one huffs and swats the ground. That's a sure sign to back up. I haven't seen this but I have seen a mock charge.
It sounds like it should be a good trip and I wouldn't worry too much about bear. It's mostly about food. I would keep in mind that trying to get a bear to do what it doesn't want to and hunting them are different things. I have pretty good luck with the former and having to deal with 300 lbs. of dead bear would probably take the enjoyment out of a bush trip for me.
We're in an area where the relocated bear are dumped but our bear population had been fairly constant. Tracking studies indicate that bear 3 years and older almost always go back where they came from even from over a hundred miles. That may be so but we can't tell our own bear from the imports. Government cut backs and there's not enough vets to knock them out so they can be tagged. Duh!
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06-22-2017, 12:29 
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