DanielGraham

Hello, this is my first post...it not so much about hunting as much as it is about going outdoors in British Columbia. We are planning on moving to Vancouver in 2014 and like going outdoors, but there is the issue of bears!
I've looked online and the best protection people use is pepper spray?!
Does anyone here have a gun/ rifle licence. How easy are they to get, and how legal is it to walk around the forests with a rifle with a licence?
I don't fancy trusting my life to a bottle of pepper spray, and wouldn't mind having a bear skin rug to boot, so any advice would be appreciated.

tee1

Don't worry about the bears hehe. For the most part they are more scared of you than you are of them. Of course you take sensible precautions such as not keeping food in your tent or car and obviously don't try and pet a bear!!

If you look into the research your safer with bear spray than you are a gun. Several reasons for this including the fact that most people will not kill a bear with one shot and just piss the thing off even more, the shock of the spray often scares the bear away and bear spray also makes you more likely to stand your ground if charged

cougars now that's a different story

ash76lee

I am sure bears must be hibernating if you hunt in winters

On a serious note: no idea about how easy it is to get a license for a gun!

Mad Jockette

Our experience in the past couple of months- briefly. We asked about a gun licence and we were told we needed to have a letter from the UK police to vouch for our 'character' and that we had not been involved in criminality, had mental health issues (now or in the past) or used firearms illegally in the UK. I would also need to have firing range practice and lessons.

We still have not pursued it and may do next spring.

If I were to go hunting, it would be to kill that which I would eat. Also for protection when camping.

dbd33

This isn't true though it's doubtless a good idea. At the time of getting my license I'd never fired a gun. The gun license isn't about being able to shoot but about storage of weapons, avoiding accidental discharges, that sort of thing.

I think there's an understanding on the part of the examiners that by the time licensees start firing in the woods they're going to be half-pissed and driving a truck or SUV; they're not going to shoot straight anyway.

bats

Two localish incidents this year so far. One hunter accidentally shot himself, another accidentally shot his friend. No animals were harmed in the process.

caretaker

In order to purchase a firearm or ammunition you need a Firearms Aquisition Certificate. (FAC) and you have to pass a current hunter safety course to get that. There have been lots of bear contacts in the BC interior in the past few years so some cities have passed strict laws about leaving garbage out except for immediately before collection. A freon powered air horn you can carry on your belt might help scare a bear off before they get close enough for pepper spray. This summer in the Southern Okanagan 2 men out hiking shot a black bear that attacked them and wasn't deterred by bear spray, but most outdoorsmen I talked to said bears are normally happy to avoid people in their own environment. They have good hearing and smell, but poor eyesight so the main danger is in surprising them. Pin a little jinglebell on your jacket.
The Cypress Hills in Southwestern Sk and Southeastern Ab is a geographical feature that escaped being ground flat by glaciers in the last ice age, and remains the high point of land in the area. At the beginning of the 20th century there were still grizzly bears there, and there was a mountain man who lived there and made his living hunting grizzlys and selling the hides. The funny bit is he didn't even own a rifle - he only had a 44.40 revolver shooting black powder cartridges. He'd locate a den with a hibernating bear in it and if there was no natural cover he'd erect a blind in front of it, then he'd crawl in and wake the bear. He'd poke it with a stick and get it mad, then he'd run out and hide behind the blind. When the bear emerged into the sunlight it would be blinded (having been in darkness for months) and rear up on it's hind legs in a defensive position. At that point the man would emerge from behind the blind and pump 6 shots into the bear's heart as fast as he could, then run for his life hoping the bear would drop dead while chasing him. Now I have to get ready. For work, I guess my job isn't so hard after all.

Siouxie

http://www.bearaware.bc.ca/?q=safety - the interactive map of sightings is really interesting, set the date from 1st August to see hundreds of wild life; you can click on each symbol to see what it was.

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/exp...s/bearsaf.html

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/cos/info/be..._problems.html

The 'bear' necessities you need to know.

Danny B

You better watch out living in Vancouver as Bear fights can often turn grizzly.

dbd33

I've just renewed mine. No need for any such course. No need to have ever held a loaded firearm.

Oaken

A gun is unnessesery if for hiking and camping as long as your smart with storing food, I carry bear spray when hiking but have never used it they stay away from humans as much as possible, I see one every night walking home from the bar in town they are that common near me.

ninaDGBCA

bears around here keep themselves to themselves. They are seen regularly but cause no harm as long as you don't get between mother and cup or they are wounded or ill. They are not predators looking for prey. We go camping without firearms and the bears are not the problem really. It's the moose, cougars and bobcats/lynx. Don't like them around me or the kids. Had a bobcat purr all night next to the tent last year in the Adirondacks. And I so needed the bathroom

bats

It's sasquatch that you should worry about.

ninaDGBCA

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/real-or...iews-1.1395469

Aviator

You may want to look into this while you're about it!
http://www.nfb.ca/film/how_to_build_an_igloo/