Lets talk about firearms in National Parks

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Jcann

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
Feb 25, 2014
Messages
1,701
Reaction score
2,246
Location
Oklahoma City
My wife and I were looking at staying at the Great Bear Inn at Glacier National Park. There are several hiking trails close to the Inn which the owners supply all their guest with bear spray. I did not speak with them about side arm carry (non of their business) but use of deadly force on federal land against a federally protected "endangered species" is a big deal. You better be able to prove it was an unprovoked attack and every effort to mitigate the attack was employed. Few human injury bear encounters are predatory in nature with the majority being through surprise encounters. Employing a side arm to stop a charging/attacking bear is a difficult situation to be in. Striking the central nervous system to stop a bear in a high stress situation is a difficult proposition. Especially if its a close-in surprise attack. Your chances of being injured/killed using a side arm are probably higher than if bear spray was used. Even a wounded bear can do severe damage.

The best defense is to employ tactics to mitigate an encounter (both in camp and on the trail) which greatly reduces the element of attracting/surprising a bear. Second would be bear spray and lastly firearm. With the time separation between spray/firearm being milliseconds. But.........it's better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.
 

xseler

These are not the firearms you're looking for.
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Jun 18, 2018
Messages
6,739
Reaction score
11,632
Location
Moore, OK
With a strict interpretation of the law, it is illegal to carry a firearm into one of the stinky outhouses in a National Park. Poop at your own risk. Literally!

It's an eerie feeling when you take a hike early in the morning and find a still 'steaming' pile of bear poop on the trail and never see the bear. That happened once in my adventures. Talk about 'head on a swivel'!!
 

HiredHand

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Sep 13, 2007
Messages
6,341
Reaction score
2,731
Location
Tulsa Metro
It’s a park to preserve and protect wild nature. Letting people shoot at wild nature would seem to defeat the purpose of the park. Carry bear spray, keep you food in bear proof containers, wear a bell/make noise and give wildlife a wide berth.
 

MacFromOK

Sharpshooter
Special Hen
Joined
May 11, 2016
Messages
13,759
Reaction score
14,757
Location
Southern Oklahoma
It’s a park to preserve and protect wild nature. Letting people shoot at wild nature would seem to defeat the purpose of the park. Carry bear spray, keep you food in bear proof containers, wear a bell/make noise and give wildlife a wide berth.
:drunk2:

bear-encounters-jpg.200042
 

Attachments

  • bear-encounters.jpg
    bear-encounters.jpg
    41.6 KB · Views: 380

dennishoddy

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Dec 9, 2008
Messages
84,556
Reaction score
61,836
Location
Ponca City Ok
It’s a park to preserve and protect wild nature. Letting people shoot at wild nature would seem to defeat the purpose of the park. Carry bear spray, keep you food in bear proof containers, wear a bell/make noise and give wildlife a wide berth.
Late to this thread I posted, but I do have to give an update.
People do not randomly shoot animals in National Parks. In normal situations, firearms would only be used to defend one from an attack. Millions of people travel through these parks annually and the incidents of attack are very rare, but they do happen. Mostly caused by dumb arse humans encroaching into the animals safe space.
There are exceptions though where defending oneself from a predator may become necessary. Although those parks are built to preserve and protect those animals, humans do need to monitor and control the populations so they don't overpopulate, become diseased and spread that disease amongst the overall herd.
On occasion as biologist monitor the wildlife, hunters are allowed in to harvest enough animals to keep the food sources inline with the animals that feed from them. If food sources are over sourced, the herd overall suffers.
That happens nation wide for the most part. The elk hunt at the Wichita Mountains National Refuge is an example.
 

nic6

Sharpshooter
Supporting Member
Special Hen Supporter
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
519
Reaction score
658
Location
NE Oklahoma
What State? 5/6 years ago I went through a similar question going to CO. General consensus was at least one of us was carrying at all times. This is not legal advice.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom