If you were carrying both on you, which would you use first? Let’s keep long guns out of it.

Only time bear spray would be nice is if a buddy is getting chewed on. It'd be tough if you killed somebody trying to save them.

10mm Glock 29 for me.

[quote=Grandpa Trapper]If you were carrying both on you, which would you use first? Let’s keep long guns out of it. [/quot
I am around grizzlies quite a bit. I carry both. I say and like to think spray first but in the event of an explosive charge, instinct may cause a different reaction. In many cases, I think a bear may get you before you can deploy spray and if you get hit with a gun drawn, the gun is likely to go flying. So my theory is spray first and if it gets me on the ground, the gun comes out of my chest holster.

So far, I've only accidentally deployed spray on myself. I was packing a boned-out load of meat and I had a can of spray in my pants pocket and it didn't have a trigger guard on it. Stupid thing to do. I stopped to rest and filter some water and let the pack go off one shoulder and let it swing around to catch it on my thigh. When I did, I heard the spray go off. I kind of opened my pocket and looked into it. Some vapor floated up and I immediately went into a coughing, choking, hacking fit. I couldn't believe how it incapacitated me. Well soon after, I realized that some of the spray soaked through my gortex and lit my privates on fire. I had to strip down and plunge my groin into a creek. The fire went out but a ways down the drainage it started coming back. Back into the creek I went. The relief was immediate but temporary. Three or four times I repeated this process as I made my way down the drainage to my truck. I remember thinking I'd rather shoot myself through the foot with a .44 than take a load of that spray to the groin. I finally made it back to my truck and I thought it was over and I was feeling pretty good. About 10 miles down the highway, the searing pain was back. It seemed forever before I finally came to a creek. I jumped from the truck and stumbled under the bridge to sit down n the creek and was instantly relieved. That ended it and the burning pain never came back. But when I went back the next day for another load, I carried a shotgun. Lol. Darn spray nearly killed my boys. It was like taking a hot brand down there.

When we were in Wyoming a couple of years ago we asked about hiking just outside of Yellowstone as we got tired of the crowds of non Americans in the park. On two occasions we were told not to hike without a weapon. I asked about the bear spray and was told almost word for word by both people bear spray only works on the ones that weren’t gonna eat you to start with .

Seemed like good advice !