https://www.outsideonline.com/240124...miL9DDYRY_vL14
Does Bear Spray Work?
The science is clear, right? Not so fast, according to, well, science.
Fact #1: Bear spray is 98 percent effective.
Fact #2: Your odds of being injured by a bear while carrying a firearm are the same as if you’re carrying no defense at all.
I’ve always taken the scientific studies that arrived at those two conclusions as gospel. And I’ve written articles repeating their findings while arriving at the invariable conclusion that bear spray is better than a firearm when it comes to defending against a bear attack. But you know what? I was wrong.
“There was no thought of comparing the two [studies], though some do that,” says Tom Smith, who authored both reports, titled the “Efficacy of Bear Deterrent Spray in Alaska” and “Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska.”
Yet many people—including me, obviously—have compared the results of those two studies. And that, according to Smith, was never his intention.
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