Hey guys! I got a question. I got 2 of remington 1858's! Thinking on going out to forest and camping in mountains over night. So i'm NOT out after hunting anything even tho my post is here....but in case i run into a bear or something out in mountains would a remington 1858 do the job to at least scare away a bear? Would that be pointless and make a bear even more angry or would it actually help in a case like that? I know nothing about hunting etc so i leave this part to the ones who do
If you want to run into a bear this time of year, walk softly and keep your face into the wind, and spend your time in areas of beech and oak forest, while keeping your eyes out for trees with lots of broken branches from bears climbing up and down to eat the acorns that haven't fallen yet, as well as raked up leaves underneath....
If you don't want to run into a bear, then don't walk softly with your face in the wind, and avoid those places altogether...
If for some reason you want to scare off a bear, just jump up and run towards him like you intend to jump on his back and tan his hide and marvel at how fast he climbs the nearest tree up to its thinnest branch...No 1858 needed.
You really shouldn't shoot at a bear to scare him away though, because you might hit him and needlessly maim him when he would have just left once you made your presence known anyway. It's senseless. Besides, as a protected game species, there are legal repercussions for shooting at them.
I interacted with a ton of bears while bowhunting them when I lived in the catskills, many times at a distance of less than 10 yards. They are very shy, cautious creatures, even the larger boars; and I wouldn't worry about them on your camping trip. To illustrate, many times, I have hiked an hour up to the midslope of a mountain on a bowhunt, and dropped off a sleeping bag, food, and water along the way, so I could return after dark and get a little rest and then hunt the area again the next morning (to avoid an accumulated total of 2 hours' after-dark navigation).... and instead just slept in the general area of where I was bowhunting the bears, with nothing but a sleeping bag on the ground, with the food and water inside the bag with me where my body heat would keep it from freezing, and my bow hanging unstrung beside me above on a whacked-off tree limb, and no fire at all, because i didn't want to disturb any bears that might be on the slope and risk ruining the morning hunt before it even started...