Bear proof food containers. | SouthernPaddler.com

Bear proof food containers.

oldsparkey

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Aug 25, 2003
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Central , Florida
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Well September is just around the corner and will be here soon , along with October which is when I like to start camping down here. It is a nice time of the year for being outside and gets a person ready to really enjoy the rest of the year up to April or early May for being outside.

Checking the National forests and a couple other areas , The Ocala National Forest , which the Florida Trail runs threw. Is considered one of the best spots on the 1,400 trail for camping has some new rules.

Before you could hang your food bag when paddling the lakes and camping or just backpacking threw the area. Not anymore , Thank's to a large Black Bear population now you have to have a bear proof food container to hike the area. If you decide not to have one it is a $5,000.00 fine and 6 months in Jail if you don't follow there rule.
My home made ones from PVC pipe do not count as bear proof even though coons can't get in them.

SOOooooooooooo I have been checking on bear proof food containers , WOW the sticker price on them is really high and the weight of them empty is rather heavy.
Surfing the web and looking at all of them , the different designs , are they waterproof , different ways to secure the lids on them , are they approved by the Parks and Forest service and the ease to get the food in and especially out is something.

I did manage to find one you can see threw , is waterproof , has a wide opening , Is sent ( no odors escaping ) proof , approved by the Parks and Forest service plus is also available in a solo motel that can hold 4 to 5 days of food. ( some reports say a weeks worth ) Plus it is the lightest one I could find at 2 pounds 2 oz , empty. The normal price it $67.00 but some folks have them for $59.00 with free shipping. :D
It's the Bear Vault ,BV450 model. So Mr.Bear my food will be safe along with small critters getting cheated of a free meal.
 

Kayak Jack

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Aug 26, 2003
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Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Well, that takes care of guarding the food. How about YOU?

"Camper attacked by bear - but not eaten. In an interview, the bear stated, "BLAHH! He tasted like Spam! I spit him out and ran!"
"More, on the 10:00 news."
 

oldsparkey

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Aug 25, 2003
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Central , Florida
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A Bear tries to eat me he will be in for the ... DEFIBRILLATOR ( Unexpected ) SHOCK ... :shock: of it's life , providing that shock does not kill him. If it can stop my heart and restart it then Mr.Bear would be in for the same thing. 8)

Now if he tries to catch me he will be slipping and sliding in a large pile of some brown smelly , fly attracting stuff. Just joking since the worse thing you can do is to run. That's why I take a large ( 7.9 oz ) container of the Bear Spray with me , in fact I normally have two , one on me and a spare in the vehicle.
It is some strong stuff , from reports I have read they say it will stop a Grizzle at 35 feet.

The UDAP Industries Pepper Power Bear Deterrent that has Oleoresin of Capsicum along with Capsicum in it. Trust me when I tell you it is some strong stuff . I took one can of it and shot very little of it in the air , waited for a few seconds and then walked threw that area where I sprayed it , it about knocked me to the ground and it was nowhere close to a full blast of it. It took a good 10 minutes before my eyes stopped burning and tearing and that was after rinsing them with a lot of water.

The stuff is nice to have and at night it is in the hammock or tent with me , close at hand to use on any critters , 4 footed or two footed that want to bother me. Walking it is in one pocket or attached to a backpack strap.
Heck I take it with me every morning when I do my 1 1/2 walk around here , so far no dogs have tried to bite me , one Pit Bull started but when I pulled that can out and aimed it he went the other way without me spraying any of it , my guess is that he has been educated about the spray before.

Dam .... I sure hope that Florida does not have any of those Cayenne Pepper loving Cajun Bears in it , if we do then I am in some deep Chit. :mrgreen:
 

Kayak Jack

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Aug 26, 2003
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Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
When we cross into Canada, they ask about bear spray made in the US. Evidently, Canadian bears don't like spray made in the US? I heard tell one guy tried to rob a bank using that instead of a gun. I also hear that wasp spray is pretty potent stuff.
 

oldsparkey

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Aug 25, 2003
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Central , Florida
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I heard the same thing about the Wasp Spray. Only thing I know for sure is that the wasp spray will make those tree rats scramble when it is shot in there direction , they do not like it.
I tried it on some that were homesteading in the rafters and it made them move. As far as for Bears , the range for it is way to short for my liking. I wanted something that covered a lot more distance.

YEP , on Canada they will confiscate any cans of the bear spray they find crossing into there country. Only thing I can think of is that they want you to purchase it there or let the out of country campers become bear fodder. I can see that camping in Canada and sleeping in a sleeping bag a person wakes up and two bears are standing there , one bear looks at the other and says ..." I love already wrapped take out food "
We the kids went on there paddle trip in upper Canada they hung there food bag and later told me that squirrels and coons were the problem but were also warned about bears. Mary and Neil are trying to get me back up there for the same trip at a liter date when the grandson is a little older.

As far as the bear food canister that can be used anywhere. When I was thinking about getting one I remembered John Deppas trip in the boundary waters when he had the ground squirrels raid his food bag and camp. My trip up there it was the chipmunks that raided my camp all the time.

Down here we have coons that will get into everything and it looks like the local bears are joining them , for the party at the campers expense. Since that canister is bear proof then a coon sure as heck is not going to get into it.
 

oldsparkey

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Aug 25, 2003
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Central , Florida
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Kayak Jack said:
Gotta wonder - if a critter can't get into the food, WHAT is he going to go after then??

Easier pickings. :D If there aren't any orders of food at your camp then there is no reason for it to come snooping around your campsite. I'm referring to stealth camping where you are the only one there and not a group like in the commercial campgrounds or mandatory back country campsites.
Critters tend to look at places like those as a food supply because of the large number of campers using them and not being really smart about there food.
 

catfish

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2007
996
3
jesup, ga.
chuck your coon friends in the okee sure aint gona like you now. :lol: :lol: yep i hear bears like geezer meat its more tender? :wink: :wink: :lol: :mrgreen:
 

oldsparkey

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Aug 25, 2003
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Central , Florida
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The coons in the Okefenokee Swamp could not get into the coon tubes we made out of PVC Pipe with a screw on lid. They tried for about 20 minutes but never got into them.
I am hoping that the bear food container ( canister ) is as advertised and bears can't get into it. I don't know why they call them bear food containers when the food is for people and not the dang bears. :lol:

As far as geezers being on the food menu for the bears , I believe the only time for that is just before the bears go into hibernation and are looking for some high fat meals so they can put on a lot of weight. :roll: Makes me think that skinny geezers would be safe or just thought of as a quick snack by the bears. You know sort of like a Slim Jim Beef Pepper stick for hikers. :wink:
 

Kayak Jack

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Aug 26, 2003
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Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Sometimes, if bears can't crack a food container, they just take it along with them. Just like our kids can do things with computers that we geezers can't - I expect that bear cubs can figure out a thing or two that their elders can't. Make sense?

Tie a chain on the canister. Do NOT tie the other end to your ankle.
 

oldsparkey

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Aug 25, 2003
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Central , Florida
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They say to put it under a bush 100 feet from the camp , I plan on putting a strap around it and hanging it from a tall branch. A good 10 feet up , or more , and 10 feet from the trunk of the tree. Since it is orderless and waterproof I figure hanging it would be the simplest way of doing things.
Plus I don't have any plans to camp in the Adirondacks.
( See note below ***** )

It arrived yesterday ( BV450 , solo ) and is well made. It has some bumps ( to keep a strap around the middle of it from slipping ) on it so you can attach it to the outside of a pack or even put a strap over the bottom and top of it.

As they say in one of there reports............
***** In 2007 one or more bears at Marcy Dam in the Adirondacks learned how to open BearVault models. The bear(s) opened the lids by pressing in the snap on the lid with its canine tooth, unscrewing the lid past the housing lock and then opening the unit. There were no problems with BearVaults outside of this area.

In response to this a new lid was developed for 2008 which had two snaps on the lid which both required being pressed in sequentially- this is the model BV450/500. Testing was conducted during June and July 2008 at Marcy Dam and Lake Colden. We now have the test results. Surprisingly, the bear(s) pressed in the first snap with its incisor, rotated the lid and then pressed in the 2nd snap with its incisor and opened the lid.

*******************************************************************************************************************************************************

Bear's can pry open locked car doors if they want something inside so anything else is just a matter of how long they want to work at it. I would not be surprised if someone found several of these containers in some bears den or should I say pantry. :lol:
 

Kayak Jack

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Aug 26, 2003
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Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
If you lock you cooler against raccoons, the lock has to be at least a three number combination. They'll figure out a two number combo quicker than Willy "The Actor" Sutton. Bears have larger brains than raccoons do.
 

oldsparkey

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Aug 25, 2003
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Central , Florida
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The coons down here are a real pain. They will chew threw the corner of a cooler and one time they actually opened one. We were on a camping trip at Sebastian State Park , camping and fishing. One of the guys had a cooler next to his tent with some "T" Bone steaks in it for his supper. We managed to get plenty of fish so we cooked them for supper and he did not have the steaks. During the night the coons got in the cooler , ate his steaks , eggs , bacon and got the shrimp he had in there for snacks.

They even got on top of the truck and into the bait bucket with the shrimp for bait , they cleaned out the camp and had one large party in the mangroves back of the camp.

On a trip in the glades they chewed a hole in our cooler to get the pita bread and the cooler was on the chickee between our tents. 95% of the campsites in the Glades have coon or rat problems.

The Okefenokee at the Stephen Foster State Park they chewed a hole in the corner of Bills tent to get a loaf of bread. Before then when he was taking stuff out of his van and the side door was open one big boar coon walked into the van , looked it over and left.

I won't list the times they have invaded a camp out in the woods but we normally count the campsites with the number of coons that visit. One camp out in the Okefenokee about 12 miles ( Cravens Hammock ) from civilization we had a fire going , it was a chilly night , a coon came up to the fire , layed down by it as if it was joined in the conversation we were having. That was the same campsite where we had to put all the food containers in the outhouse out on the end of the dock to keep them safe. That's also the place where they tried to get into the coon tubes but did not manage to do it.

The frighting part is that the Coon is related to the Black Bear , it's his closest relative.
 

catfish

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2007
996
3
jesup, ga.
chuck you may have to start having coons for supper? i guess you couldn,t let the local wardon know . they eat pretty good with a sweet potatoe :wink: :lol:
 

oldsparkey

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Aug 25, 2003
10,479
123
Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
catfish said:
chuck you may have to start having coons for supper? i guess you couldn,t let the local wardon know . they eat pretty good with a sweet potatoe :wink: :lol:

Believe it or not but there was a kid in school the same time I was there and he liked coon. He would get them , remove that musk gland in the hind legs , bone them out and grind the meat up to make Coon Burgers , his preferred way of cooking them.
Today at any of the state parks he could fill a pickup truck with them and his freezer with coon burgers and some of them are really fat.
 

stickbow

Well-Known Member
Feb 25, 2009
46
0
61
Americus, GA
Bleh. I had hoped FL & GA wouldn't need to start requiring them any time soon.

There's a bearproof 'bag' called the Ursack that is legal most places. http://www.ursack.com/ It's supposed to be a lot easier to transport, and meant to be hung, not just left lying around. Trouble is I can't find a retailer you could use - they are all out west.

We've been using five gallon buckets with screw on lids, hanging it from a limb. They aren't bearproof (or ranger approved), most likely, and you have to make sure not to mix the food bucket up with the one you use for a "boom box".

Speaking of coon infestations - We had a fun night about 25 years ago at St. Joseph Peninsula, in the tent camping area. The coons had been hanging around all day, stealing various things, finally chewing their way into a styrofoam cooler and eating our lunch meat and cheese. We were broke, but went and bought a solid cooler and kept it in the camper top of the truck the rest of the trip.

The day after, my wife had a granola bar wrapper in her backpack, left it in the tent while we showered. They unzipped the backpack, at least, but used a claw to "unzip" the tent. Like a good boy scout, I sewed the mosquito netting back up.

Next night, we cooked a big pot of heads-on shrimp. We cleaned up all the food leftovers, taking them to the "coon proof" cans, but put the shells and heads in the fire pit, tossed on some wood, and went to bed in our tent. About an hour or so later, we heard a pow-wow going on outside. A coon was on top of the camper drumming a beat for the three or four coons dancing around the fire, picking shrimp heads out and eating them.

There haven't been as many or as aggressive coons there the other times I stayed, though we haven't camped there in the past ten years.
 

Kayak Jack

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Aug 26, 2003
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Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Some spots in Canada that I camp, are too far north for coons. Not too far north for bears or red squirrels, though. We go after Labor Day, and the rangers have already gone into hibernation, bugs are dead, and kids are in school.