Bears and camps

[dabigmoose]

How many of ya have had bears destroy ya camps,eat all ya supplys,
Chew ya four wheeler tires off,or eat your airplane from the inside out.
IF so [do not ]do the fololowing as friend of mine did. He worked at a amonia and urea plant in kenai.So he got these containers of amonia
and put them in strategic locations around his cabin he built
in the Caribou hills.
He had tried chain link fencing on the walls and steel bars on doors but they just peel it off and go on in so in his infamous wisdom he tied the containers to some bait and achored them to the cabin. Now old les had put about 20,000 into this cabin it was really a nice little house. well when he came back after the baiting of about a week he was crushed not a wall was standing and the wood that was on the ground was chewed into
tooth picks that bear had bitten into that amonia and went beserk he said the bear also made it a point to destroy and cover up all the amonia containers.
Well old les rebuilt but he put this one up on steel pilings with a retrievable ladder.He still hadnt got that old brownie yet.
Dabigmoose

[Dand]

More and more in the Bristol Bay area folks are going to charged electric fences.  Use a solar charger in remote areas and the plug-in type where you have AC power THEY WORK.  The Alaska Dept of Fish and Game has demonstrated their effectiveness around fish racks and smoke houses and dumpsters.  ADFG uses them around several field camps and so do the USFWS and I think the Park Service.  More and more fishing guides  and private folks are putting the fences around their camps as well.  The whole thing can cost less than $400 - just don't let the batteries freeze in the winter.  I really doubted the idea at first but I'm sold on them now.  You have to make sure you have good grounds and install the fencing carefully or the bears may crawl under or over, and make sure the thing is on at night.  I've used the woven wire / black and yellow plastic "tape" style foir better visibility to the bears and public - and its easier to use in temporary installations.  I'm thinking of putting a similar set up on my meat shed at home after lossing 1/2 a caribou to a bear this fall.  The ADFG in King Salmon forgot to turn on the fence one night and bingo, their dumpster was turned over and garbage strewn everywhere.

[dabigmoose]

Howdy  Dand
 yep I use The Electric method also thats what i was gonna
get around to.Have ya had problems with your batteries freezing
and have ya  insulated them with anything.I Have put my lights
to the smoke house on a timer .Have ya got any tricks for camps
without electric such as hunting camps.The  one I use is
put a transistor radio on my kill or around meat pole somtimes
playing some of that new fangled music they dont like it.
Dabigmoose

[Dand]

If you start with a well charged battery and position the solar charger in a good place it will work fine.  The battery freezing problem came when I stored the charger in a field camp all winter. I think the battery froze and stayed that way for a long time.  When I tried to charge it the next fall it just wouldn't take.  Since then I have brought the batteries back to town and keep them in warm storage - put them on a wall charger for about a week before taking them out.  One problem can be a real long spell of cloudy weather - the fence charger can fade a bit. Now we have a Coleman generator as a back up to make sure the batteries stay charged.

For kills - I mostly hunt carbou - so if I have to  leave it over night I move the meat well away from the gut pile and into as wide open a spot as possible.  I pee on brush near the meat and some times leave a piece of my clothing on the kill. Usually by that time my shirt is pretty sweaty and well scented up. Haven't tried a radio, and it sounds like a good idea.  I met an old nearly blind guy on the Susitna River who carried a big radio since he couldn't see well enough to shoot or even see a bear coming until it was real close. He never had a problem. But shucks after August KDLG goes off the air from midnight to 6 AM - might not help me much.  Most the time I'm able to get the meat to my boat before night.  This fall we anchored the boat well out in the river and kept a running line to it to pull the boat back in the morning.  BTW the December 2002 Alaska Magazine had another article about electric fences used by folks here in Dillingham - one guy said it was the best thing since the rifle to protect his fish!