Caribou Gear

Bear Spray- Accidental Discharge

R

roravetz

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Denver
Last season I was carrying bear spray on my waist belt and at some point while I was bushwhacking the safety clip must have popped off without me knowing. Some time after I dropped my hat and bent over to pick it up and pushed on the top of the bear spray hitting my brother with a pretty good shot to the leg. Fortunately that was the extent of it but it could have been a lot worse. He had a spare pair of pants back at camp but when he washed the pants that were sprayed and tried hunting in them again his leg was burning pretty good and he had to trash them. This year I was thinking about using one of the Mystery Ranch Bear Spray holsters on my bino harness but still think there would be the issue of the safety clip getting caught on something and popping off again. Has this ever happened to anyone or does anyone have any suggestions on ways to secure the clip a little better without defeating the purpose of carrying it and having it easy/ready to use.

On a side note if I did end up hitting my brother in the face is your best bet hopefully finding a creek or something to try to wash your eyes out and that's really all you can do?
 
I check the safety clip on my bear spray frequently. As far as treating the exposure a creek or using your drinking water is about all you can do... Unless you happen to be carrying some baby shampoo with you you’ll need a lot of water. Force yourself to blink into the water. Good luck, taking a shot of OC spray to the eyes is absolutely miserable.
 
roravetz said:
This year I was thinking about using one of the Mystery Ranch Bear Spray holsters on my bino harness but still think there would be the issue of the safety clip getting caught on something and popping off again.
Click to expand...
I have that holster on my bino harness and it works well. The safety clip can't come off because the strap that holds the canister in the harness goes over it.
 
roravetz said:
O wow. Was that can beat up at all where it might have had a few weak spots from getting banged around?
Click to expand...
It was not. I had it in my driver side door compartment for a couple months and when parked at work a couple weeks ago I thought "it's going to be a scorcher today, I should take it out". I placed it in the bed of my pickup and forgot to take it in the house that evening. Fast forward a couple days and I got a call while I was in the field. Apparently when I blew, it could be heard in the office. I guess it also cleaned up the under carriage of my pickup after it ejected from the box. When I placed it in the bed, it was in a place where it was not allowed to roll around. BTW, I was in bear country last week and did pull that can out yesterday morning. It went straight to the house. haahah
 
I keep a spare in the underfloor storage in my truck.

I think I'll move it inside tonight. Probably put it in my boots so I can't forget it.
 
roravetz said:
Last season I was carrying bear spray on my waist belt and at some point while I was bushwhacking the safety clip must have popped off without me knowing. Some time after I dropped my hat and bent over to pick it up and pushed on the top of the bear spray hitting my brother with a pretty good shot to the leg. Fortunately that was the extent of it but it could have been a lot worse. He had a spare pair of pants back at camp but when he washed the pants that were sprayed and tried hunting in them again his leg was burning pretty good and he had to trash them. This year I was thinking about using one of the Mystery Ranch Bear Spray holsters on my bino harness but still think there would be the issue of the safety clip getting caught on something and popping off again. Has this ever happened to anyone or does anyone have any suggestions on ways to secure the clip a little better without defeating the purpose of carrying it and having it easy/ready to use.

On a side note if I did end up hitting my brother in the face is your best bet hopefully finding a creek or something to try to wash your eyes out and that's really all you can do?
Click to expand...
What about turning the safetly clip inboard or wrapping a velcro strip around it so that when you pull it out the velcro drops off along with the piece that holds it to your harness. I still have to look at my bino harness and see how to mount mine so at the minimum I am going to follow this thread.
 
FHF Gear also makes a nice bear spray holster that can go on your pack or on your binocular harness. Like the Mystery Ranch holster, it has a retention strap for the safety clip.
 
Effin bear spray....

I took the family on a little road trip earlier this summer and we did quite a bit of hiking through bear country... seeing quite a few bear along the way. One evening, after a hot, muggy day of hiking, we had gotten some fantastic takeout mexican food which had some real kick to it and ate it on the tailgate of the pickup in front of our motel room. As we finished up the family went inside to wash up and wind down for the evening. I took a few minutes to organize the bed of the pickup and to get everything situated for the following days hike. At some point the safety clip fell out of the trigger mechanism for the spray canister and I grabbed my pack and drug it towards me. The top of the canister momentarily got hung up on a camelbak under it and whizzed a shot of the devils juice mere inches away from my face, not a direct hit but enough to give me a whiff. It cleared my sinuses but I was not worse for the wear. I searched the back of the pickup to see if any of my gear or the vehicle caught the spray but it appeared that it simply shot out over the bed rail and into the grass so I found the safety clip under some gear, finished getting organized, and locked up the back of the pickup.

Fast forward 15 minutes when it was my time to shower. I had put shampoo in my hair when my lips started to tingle, I kind of chuckled as I thought about how good and spicy dinner was, attributing the sensation to my capsaicin laced green chile sauce. As my hands moved to apply soap to more sensitive areas of my body my eyes started to twinge a bit and I thought, "this isn't right....".

About the moment that thought ran through my head the nether regions of my body started to burn and within seconds the harmony of pain surging through my lips, my eyes, and my unmentionables hit a Mariah Carey-esque high note. Suddenly and unknowingly I had incapacitated myself in a tiny, unfamiliar shower. I couldn't see, I couldn't find the water handle, and I couldn't decide which portion of my body deserved the stream of flushing water running over it more than the other parts of my body.

One may think that the eyes would be the most sensitive piece of the anatomy in that aforementioned chorus, but I can confidently report that it was neither they nor my lips that caused the most discomfort.

At some point the thought of that bear spray flashed through my mind, but I was blind and in excruciating pain so the cause wasn't all that important for the time being. I really only had 2 options, call to my wife for help or ride it out. I knew that if I asked for help there'd be all sorts of questions before I actually got any assistance and I didn't feel like going through a thorough medical screening from my wife (who works in healthcare, it's what they're trained to do) so I chose option B.

For the next 10-15 minutes I alternated rinsing my eyes, my mouth, and my manhood. I got through it, but now I knew I had another problem.... where did I get sprayed and what can I touch? I carefully inspected and sniffed the clothes I'd been wearing like a basset hound only to come up completely empty. When I came out of the bathroom and looked in the mirror it looked as though I'd just swam through the Berkeley Pit and kept my eyes open under water.

It wasn't until the next morning that I believe I found the source of my discomfort. When the canister discharged, it just caught the top of the hip belt on my pack leaving a quarter sized stain of the contents. After getting the covered wagon treatment over night under my tonneau cover, I got another small whiff when I opened up the tailgate to retrieve packs the next morning.

A day or two later we were entering Yellowstone National Park and I turned it onto the AM station to get current park info. In the repeating broadcast they had a segment on bear safety and claimed that the use of bear spray was 90% effective. I call bulls---. There is no way bear spray isn't 110% effective on the largest beasts on this planet. I got 3rd hand exposed 25 minutes after the discharge and it turned me into a helpless, feeble pile of sludge on the floor of an unclean shower. I'm not active in the anti-bearspray movement, but I have to wonder if bearspray really helps more people than it hurts.
 
smalls said:
Effin bear spray....

I took the family on a little road trip earlier this summer and we did quite a bit of hiking through bear country... seeing quite a few bear along the way. One evening, after a hot, muggy day of hiking, we had gotten some fantastic takeout mexican food which had some real kick to it and ate it on the tailgate of the pickup in front of our motel room. As we finished up the family went inside to wash up and wind down for the evening. I took a few minutes to organize the bed of the pickup and to get everything situated for the following days hike. At some point the safety clip fell out of the trigger mechanism for the spray canister and I grabbed my pack and drug it towards me. The top of the canister momentarily got hung up on a camelbak under it and whizzed a shot of the devils juice mere inches away from my face, not a direct hit but enough to give me a whiff. It cleared my sinuses but I was not worse for the wear. I searched the back of the pickup to see if any of my gear or the vehicle caught the spray but it appeared that it simply shot out over the bed rail and into the grass so I found the safety clip under some gear, finished getting organized, and locked up the back of the pickup.

Fast forward 15 minutes when it was my time to shower. I had put shampoo in my hair when my lips started to tingle, I kind of chuckled as I thought about how good and spicy dinner was, attributing the sensation to my capsaicin laced green chile sauce. As my hands moved to apply soap to more sensitive areas of my body my eyes started to twinge a bit and I thought, "this isn't right....".

About the moment that thought ran through my head the nether regions of my body started to burn and within seconds the harmony of pain surging through my lips, my eyes, and my unmentionables hit a Mariah Carey-esque high note. Suddenly and unknowingly I had incapacitated myself in a tiny, unfamiliar shower. I couldn't see, I couldn't find the water handle, and I couldn't decide which portion of my body deserved the stream of flushing water running over it more than the other parts of my body.

One may think that the eyes would be the most sensitive piece of the anatomy in that aforementioned chorus, but I can confidently report that it was neither they nor my lips that caused the most discomfort.

At some point the thought of that bear spray flashed through my mind, but I was blind and in excruciating pain so the cause wasn't all that important for the time being. I really only had 2 options, call to my wife for help or ride it out. I knew that if I asked for help there'd be all sorts of questions before I actually got any assistance and I didn't feel like going through a thorough medical screening from my wife (who works in healthcare, it's what they're trained to do) so I chose option B.

For the next 10-15 minutes I alternated rinsing my eyes, my mouth, and my manhood. I got through it, but now I knew I had another problem.... where did I get sprayed and what can I touch? I carefully inspected and sniffed the clothes I'd been wearing like a basset hound only to come up completely empty. When I came out of the bathroom and looked in the mirror it looked as though I'd just swam through the Berkeley Pit and kept my eyes open under water.

It wasn't until the next morning that I believe I found the source of my discomfort. When the canister discharged, it just caught the top of the hip belt on my pack leaving a quarter sized stain of the contents. After getting the covered wagon treatment over night under my tonneau cover, I got another small whiff when I opened up the tailgate to retrieve packs the next morning.

A day or two later we were entering Yellowstone National Park and I turned it onto the AM station to get current park info. In the repeating broadcast they had a segment on bear safety and claimed that the use of bear spray was 90% effective. I call bulls---. There is no way bear spray isn't 110% effective on the largest beasts on this planet. I got 3rd hand exposed 25 minutes after the discharge and it turned me into a helpless, feeble pile of sludge on the floor of an unclean shower. I'm not active in the anti-bearspray movement, but I have to wonder if bearspray really helps more people than it hurts.
Click to expand...
LOL, sorry for your misery. I had to chuckle on this. Reminds me of Randy's Dysentery episode he posted not too long ago. I smelled bear spray when a hunting buddy deliberately discharged his on way out at end of hunt and it definitely was not pleasant. Lucky for us, no one got hit with any residue.
 
A State Trooper called me one day as she was responding to a " two neighbors shooting at each other" complaint. I jumped in with her. As we were flying down the road at a scary speed, her OC discharged ! Opening the windows didn't help much. Minutes later we arrived at the scene. I bailed out, and drew on a whacked out moron who was pointing a Remington Model 742 30-06 at us, tears still streaming down my cheeks ! Thankfully, he complied with my orders. Having been sprayed at training (if you carry OC, you have to take a hit with it), I knew what to expect. Nasty stuff !!
 
I think it's a much better set up to have it attached to the harness, or even a backpack. What I'll do is throw it in a covered exterior pocket on the backpack, and attach some cord in case it ever falls out I don't lose it. Wearing it on the waste band is, impo, unnecessary and unsafe, as you find out lol good post.
 
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