Packing an equalizer
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From: Sean_Q_ on 1 Nov 2009 16:12 The talk about coyote attacks made me think about what, if any defensive weapons I could carry. Naturally I can't guard against any and all threats, otherwise I'd be a walking fortress arsenal (rotating radar dish on my beanie, body armor, spikes, napalm dispenser -- like something from alt.binaries.pictures.sci-fi). Even packing a hunting knife could get me in trouble, legal trouble amongst others, especially in town: COP: Why are you brandishing that knife, sir? ME: To fend off the coyotes. COP: There aren't any coyotes in sight around here. ME: You see, it works! It's too bad the Toronto folksinger didn't carry a walking stick on that hike in Nova Scotia, or the whole affair might have ended with CRACK! YIEEEEEEEEEE! YIPE! YIPE! YIPE...! Of course the city has predators other than lions and tigers and bears (oh no) -- like muggers and hoodlums and thugs. Pulling a knife on a mugger is pretty well guaranteed to have some kind of effect, but not necessarily one favorable for me. It's worse when I'm traveling because I'd be away from my home turf on unfamiliar ground. Tourists in Miami have been robbed "because they took a wrong turn and got into a bad neighborhood by mistake" according to news reports, and here's me without a clue how to distinguish the safe turns in Miami (and most other cities) from the unsafe ones. Naturally the whole thing is about risk assessment and management, based on common sense, and talking to people coming the other way from wherever it is I'm heading. SQ
From: MikeWhy on 1 Nov 2009 17:45 Sean_Q_ wrote: > The talk about coyote attacks made me think about what, if any > defensive weapons I could carry. Naturally I can't guard against any > and all threats, otherwise I'd be a walking fortress arsenal > (rotating radar dish on my beanie, body armor, spikes, napalm > dispenser -- like something from alt.binaries.pictures.sci-fi). > > Even packing a hunting knife could get me in trouble, legal trouble > amongst others, especially in town: Adult coyotes are about the size of a small german shepherd. If you're not experienced or comfortable manhandling a dog that size and ferocity, a close contact weapon isn't a good choice. Leave the knife at home. Ditto for street bums and muggers. For the wilderness, a road flare in a jacket pocket is probably your best bet. They probably won't understand the threat of sharp steel, but fire and smoke will get their attention (and you're less likely to reek of fear with the placebo weapon in hand). If nothing else, you can build a campfire and all sing kumbaya together. In urban settings... is it too much to expect commonsense and just avoid scenarios where confrontation becomes a likelihood? The best defense seems already not an option. Some people just look and act the part of the victim.
From: Sean_Q_ on 1 Nov 2009 18:40 MikeWhy wrote: > For the wilderness, a road flare in a jacket pocket is probably > your best bet. I just remembered a stunt I pulled as a teen. I had an aerosol can of some kind of flammable material in my right hand and a lighter in my left. I lit the lighter and pressed the spray button. A huge fireball erupted! It must have been at least 4 feet long and gave me quite a scare. I was unhurt, but didn't try that again. However, this would probably put a good fright into a coyote, maybe even a bear. From Rudyard Kipling's _The Jungle Book_: ----------------------------------------------------- "He is a man--a man--a man!" snarled the Pack. And most of the wolves began to gather round Shere Khan, whose tail was beginning to switch. "Now the business is in thy hands," said Bagheera to Mowgli. "We can do no more except fight." Mowgli stood upright--the fire pot in his hands. Then he stretched out his arms, and yawned in the face of the Council; but he was furious with rage and sorrow, for, wolflike, the wolves had never told him how they hated him. "Listen you!" he cried. "There is no need for this dog's jabber. Ye have told me so often tonight that I am a man (and indeed I would have been a wolf with you to my life's end) that I feel your words are true. So I do not call ye my brothers any more, but sag [dogs], as a man should. What ye will do, and what ye will not do, is not yours to say. That matter is with me; and that we may see the matter more plainly, I, the man, have brought here a little of the Red Flower which ye, dogs, fear." He flung the fire pot on the ground, and some of the red coals lit a tuft of dried moss that flared up, as all the Council drew back in terror before the leaping flames. Mowgli thrust his dead branch into the fire till the twigs lit and crackled, and whirled it above his head among the cowering wolves. "Thou art the master," said Bagheera in an undertone. "Save Akela from the death. He was ever thy friend." Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life, gave one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long black hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing branch that made the shadows jump and quiver. "Good!" said Mowgli, staring round slowly. "I see that ye are dogs. I go from you to my own people--if they be my own people. The jungle is shut to me, and I must forget your talk and your companionship. But I will be more merciful than ye are. Because I was all but your brother in blood, I promise that when I am a man among men I will not betray ye to men as ye have betrayed me." He kicked the fire with his foot, and the sparks flew up. "There shall be no war between any of us in the Pack. But here is a debt to pay before I go." He strode forward to where Shere Khan sat blinking stupidly at the flames, and caught him by the tuft on his chin. Bagheera followed in case of accidents. "Up, dog!" Mowgli cried. "Up, when a man speaks, or I will set that coat ablaze!" Shere Khan's ears lay flat back on his head, and he shut his eyes, for the blazing branch was very near. "This cattle-killer said he would kill me in the Council because he had not killed me when I was a cub. Thus and thus, then, do we beat dogs when we are men. Stir a whisker, Lungri, and I ram the Red Flower down thy gullet!" He beat Shere Khan over the head with the branch, and the tiger whimpered and whined in an agony of fear. "Pah! Singed jungle cat--go now! But remember when next I come to the Council Rock, as a man should come, it will be with Shere Khan's hide on my head. For the rest, Akela goes free to live as he pleases. Ye will not kill him, because that is not my will. Nor do I think that ye will sit here any longer, lolling out your tongues as though ye were somebodies, instead of dogs whom I drive out--thus! Go!" The fire was burning furiously at the end of the branch, and Mowgli struck right and left round the circle, and the wolves ran howling with the sparks burning their fur. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/236 ----------------------------------------------------- I don't know much about road flares; how long would it take to activate it? Would I also need a lighter, or are some of them self-igniting? SQ
From: Datesfat Chicks on 1 Nov 2009 19:12 "Sean_Q_" <no.spam(a)no.spam> wrote in message news:hcktip$ncj$1(a)aioe.org... > > Even packing a hunting knife could get me in trouble, legal trouble > amongst others, especially in town: I agree with MikeWhy ... a coyote is likely to be very quick and might be harder to tag with a knife than you think. I'm not sure a flare is such a good option because of the difficulty of getting it going (I have minor trouble with that sometimes while I'm NOT being attacked). Striking two parts together might not be easy when one hand is already chewed to pieces and you're distracted because a coyote is now shaking you by the genitals. Constraints seem to be: a)Ability to operate one-handed even while injured. b)Not horribly illegal or dangerous to children (which rules out a firearm). c)Won't be too difficult to tag an agile beast. One of the best things I've seen is those collapsible steel batons. They are compact, can be deployed with one hand, and have enough reach that you can probably tag an animal. They would discourage a coyote or two, but I think it would just make a bear more determined to eat your genitals while you were alive and watching. There is a lot of good stuff here: http://www.crimehalter.com/collapsiblebatons.html I don't see these devices as especially threatening to children because they aren't more dangerous than other physical objects that children have access to (such as baseball bats). My only complaint against a safety flare is the reliability issues if they get waterlogged and the difficulty in getting one going. Datesfat
From: Doug Payne on 1 Nov 2009 19:38
MikeWhy wrote: > Adult coyotes are about the size of a small german shepherd. If you're > not experienced or comfortable manhandling a dog that size and ferocity, > a close contact weapon isn't a good choice. Leave the knife at home. > Ditto for street bums and muggers. For the wilderness, a road flare in a > jacket pocket is probably your best bet. Try pepper spray, the kind designed for bears. Works great on large dogs. (And bears). Haven't used it on a mugger, but I expect it'd work just fine for one of those too. Nothing is perfect, but capsaicin is a pretty effective deterrent. |