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Bear proof, resistent or worthless effort?

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Katadyn - Making Water Drinking Water

Last Visit: 05/22/2013 08:43AM
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Gunflinter

07/01/2012 11:24AM

God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure. Eric Liddell

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Sierra1

07/01/2012 11:46AM

That looks pretty secure.

Watch out for that rock!!!........ Oooo.... That's going to leave a mark...

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AndySG

07/01/2012 12:13PM

Bear proof, No. Bear resistant, maybe for 10 minutes. Hard to carry, Yes. Other than that, it looks Great for smaller varmints!

Sincerely yours, Andy

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bellolake

07/01/2012 12:15PM

I'd say it would be as resistant as a barrel. Just the thickness of the plastic would help. May be able to break the top off though. Maybe two straps?

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LuvMyBell

07/01/2012 12:39PM

quote AndySG: "Bear proof, No. Bear resistant, maybe for 10 minutes. Hard to carry, Yes. Other than that, it looks Great for smaller varmints!"
+1

Although, if you only had a weekend trip planned and were base camping and if you weren't going to do more than a portage or two, and if you absolutely couldn't live without ice cold beer - then I'd say great idea.

Paddle Faster....I hear banjo music

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LuvMyBell

07/01/2012 12:43PM

quote LuvMyBell: "quote AndySG: "Bear proof, No. Bear resistant, maybe for 10 minutes. Hard to carry, Yes. Other than that, it looks Great for smaller varmints!"
+1

Although, if you only had a weekend trip planned and were base camping and if you weren't going to do more than a portage or two, and if you absolutely couldn't live without ice cold beer - then I'd say great idea."

Oops, I forgot - no cans or bottles allowed so forget the ice cold beer unless you brought quart plastic bottles of beer.

Paddle Faster....I hear banjo music

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yellowcanoe

07/01/2012 12:44PM

Not bear resistant. I have seen several reduced to a sculpture out West where bears roam campgrounds. Its against the regs to have a cooler out in some areas.

However your main enemies are small varmints who will have trouble breaking into a strapped cooler. They will have to work at gnawing for a while.

Blue barrels work on a secure metal latch that often is not secure enough. I use additional cotter pins on the latch to deter ursine thieves.
Its like a cooler in other ways.. but perhaps not as odorproof with the watertight seal that keeps water out and odor in.

The real question for me..is why.... Are you going to portage it. (Yep I know it looks like a wannigan..). Have you fashioned a harness for it?

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serenityseeker

07/01/2012 01:16PM

Not Bear proof at all. resistant maybe for a couple of minutes at most.

My suggestion is to take less cold/frozen food or drink and pack it in a collapsible cooler that can fit in a pack or blue barrel.

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overthehill

07/01/2012 01:26PM

Resistant......to the degree of an airtight seal to keep odors in.

Not to Hurry-Not to Worry

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VoyageurNorth

07/01/2012 03:20PM

Yes, resistant to be sure.

But I've seen cars that have been turned into "hatchbacks" by a bear who had wandered into the #14 Little Indian Sioux parking lot during a summer when the berry season was extremely poor.

One of the cars was a customer's mom's car. His car wasn't in condition to drive from Milwaukee to Ely so his mom said to take hers. Then her car wasn't in much condition to drive back to Milwaukee. :-( (but plastic sheeting and a lot of duct tape got it home).

He always got transportation to & from his entry/exit points after that.

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gutmon

07/01/2012 03:34PM

A metal Coleman with a ratchet strap may be close to bear proof, but who's going to carry one? I've used a plastic cooler with strap one time on a base-camping trip with no portages, but having no bears come into camp is the only reason it survived in my opinion.

"The trouble with the world isn't that people know too little, but that they know so much that just ain't so." Mark Twain

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Savage Voyageur

07/01/2012 03:53PM

I say bring it if thats what you want. It looks like it would take a bear a few min to open it, plenty of time to wake up and chase it away. Two handles for two people to carry. If you are just going in a little ways or base camping go with it.

"So many lakes, so little time."

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PINETREE

07/01/2012 04:48PM

They call things water proof and water resistant. Well your box is not bear proof,but will handle a light workout by a bear so it is bear resistant. It is better than a duluth pack.

Really only one way to find out? It would be nice if the Bear center south of Ely would let you try it out/ Maybe they would-who knows?

Sig: All of us our Dreamers. Dreams are what started everything. We our asking ourselves a great question? all of us interested in wilderness preservation are asking...What kind of world do we want.?

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gutmon

07/01/2012 04:53PM

quote PINETREE: "They call things water proof and water resistant. Well your box is not bear proof,but will handle a light workout by a bear so it is bear resistant. It is better than a duluth pack.

Really only one way to find out? It would be nice if the Bear center south of Ely would let you try it out/ Maybe they would-who knows?" if doing this I would suggest you bring two- one to test and the other to replace the tested one.

"The trouble with the world isn't that people know too little, but that they know so much that just ain't so." Mark Twain

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mooseplums

07/01/2012 05:02PM

not bear proof, but it will buy you some time. The BIG issue i have is it's "carry resistant"

"I am haunted by waters"~Norman Maclean "A River Runs Through It"

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gutmon

07/01/2012 05:10PM

"enough time to wake up and chase the bear away" is not a strategy I had considered. Upon consideration, I reject it.

"The trouble with the world isn't that people know too little, but that they know so much that just ain't so." Mark Twain

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