As bear spray becomes increasingly popular thanks to recent studies and articles attesting to its effectiveness against bears, as well as plenty of anecdotal evidence. There’s been a lot of talk going around about its performance in comparison to regular pepper spray. Most especially campers and hikers needing a single product to protect them from human and animal threats.
While the evidence in its favor was enough to convince me that it is the real McCoy when it comes to dealing with bears, I simply wasn’t sold when people claimed it was just as effective against human threats, so I decided to do some research of my own – and organize my findings into an article that would help others who weren’t certain of their stance on the bear spray vs pepper spray debate.
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Bear Spray: Essential Facts
Spray deterrent for bears is quite like pepper spray, in fact, you could go as far as to say that it is a special type of pepper spray designed to work against bears. This is intended to deter the bear from attacking you while you’re out in the wild. It is not supposed to inflict a level of pain and incapacitation on par with what pepper spray does, which is why it contains only 1 to 2% OC. It also has a Capsaicin and Related Capsaicinoid concentration of 2%.
This concentration of active ingredient is more than sufficient to ‘persuade’ a bear to back off – in fact, if accounts of hikers and trekkers are anything to go by, bear repellents tend to work, varying degrees of success, on all mammals in the wild.
Pepper Spray: Essential Facts
Pepper spray is a chemically derived, non-fatal weapon for self-defense, intended for use on humans. It uses oleoresin capsicum as its active ingredient (at a concentration of around 10%) – this is the same stuff which makes chilli peppers unbearably hot – when you use it against an attacker, it leads to symptoms such as severe burning pain, tearing and closing up of the eyes, breathing problems, and possibly even temporary blindness.
These effects can last for over twenty minutes, making the product a great getaway weapon and deterrent – in fact, police forces employ it to bring down threats in an ultimately harmless fashion.
Performance Against Threats
As already mentioned, pepper sprays are specifically designed to bring down human adversaries – their OC concentration and their precise stream spray pattern (typically) makes them ideal for close quarter self-defense.
Conversely, the latter also makes them quite useless against wild animals in wide outdoor settings – letting a beast come close enough to spray it directly in the face would be reckless to the point of foolishness! Of course, you can always use it to defend yourself against smaller animals such as dogs, cats and raccoons.
On the other hand, bear mace is designed with intention of mere deterrence and not incapacitation; consequently, its OC concentration is, relatively speaking, a bit milder – just sufficient for impairing an animal’s respiratory and visual faculties long enough for the would-be victim to get out of the danger zone.
The fogger pattern in which the bear deterrent comes out makes it suitable for defending against a bear attack from a wide berth, but using it indoors against a human assailant could in fact harm the user just as much as it would the target!
That doesn’t mean that it is completely ineffective against humans – there are plenty of news stories where people have fended off humans successfully with bear mace, it’s just that it won’t be as effective or easy as would be actual pepper spray, since a large part of its success is dependent on the target blundering into the pepper cloud, which a human attacker would be smart enough to avoid if possible.
Legal Considerations – Bear Spray vs Pepper Spray on Humans
While carrying pepper spray around is perfectly legal in all US states, keep in mind that Canada has outlawed the its possession by civilians; you could be fined a sum up to $500,000 and handed a 3 year prison sentence for using it on a human, so it is virtually impossible to acquire the product if you’re a civilian. But on the bright side, you won’t have to worry about which side you pick in bear spray vs pepper spray for self defense debate!
Interestingly, Canadian law lets you carry bear repellent for use against bears. So you’re still free to take some bear deterrent cans with you on the trail. Note that you are not allowed to carry it in public places.
In any case, as far as the legal ramifications for using it on humans in self-defense situations go, the jury will be reasonable enough to understand its difference from criminal usage.
Conclusion
To sum up this pepper spray vs bear spray discussion, both products can be useful, but only when applied to the right situations: if you’re an adventurer who loves hiking, camping and generally exploring the great outdoors, bear spray will be an excellent wildlife defense and a reasonably good human defense owing to its effectiveness in wide spaces, in which most encounters are probable to occur.
Conversely, if you spend most of your time indoors, I’d advise you to go for pepper spray, since its precision and intensity make it suitable for close quarters defense against humans as well as small animals present in urban settings.
Obviously, you’ll also need to adhere to any laws in your state/province regarding the use of either product.If you have any further questions pertaining to OC spray vs bear mace, I’d be happy to answer them in the comments section below.
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hope you can help me here … live in the mtns with bears so kept a can of UDAP on hand … six weeks ago bear outside my bedroom door and in removing the safety cap inadvertently spritzed my bedroom … of course i had an immediate reaction but opened the door got the bear and returned … PROBLEM ~ six weeks later the effects are still being experienced and havent been able to use my bedroom which is also my office so with desk and lots of books and papers … yes completely washed bed linens yes called both udap and sabre … called udap and they said the pepper would not dissipate or degrade unless everything was washed called sabre who recommended i wash everything with a 50/50 water mix with isopropyl alcohol ~ did that … didnt work … called udap again because skin still burns when i go in there so yesterday spent all day with dawn soap and a bucket and sponges washing walls EVERYTHING! cant see the residuals although was told it would be orange/red but its insidious because i feel and taste it … realized that in washing everything some of the residuals transfers to the dryer so back onto things washed … google tells me the oc effects dissipate after a few hours but im now looking at weeks … suggestions???? im miserable and exhausted with more work to do on a rolled up area rug to clean …. any help would be much appreciated ~ thanks ~ morrine
There isn’t anything you can do to get rid of the mace. My boyfriend and I were robbed once and our attackers used bear spray on us before anything else. We had to throw away all of our furniture and clothing and bedding and books. We had to move entirely because it seemed to burn every time we went into the house.
Just curious if bear spray would still be your recommendation for tenting overnight at national park campsites while traveling with young kids. We won’t be leaving the campground and the only time I’d expect to meet a bear is if one came sniffing around our tent (or was predatory and attacked while we were sleeping). Want some defence but worried about use in the tent around kids and also that they could accidentally take possession and deploy it!