Review: Sabre Bear Spray & Bear Horn

There’s a new player in the bear-spray game, and they’ve added a new line of defense: the safety horn. It makes sense, right? Disrupt the raging bear’s behavior with as many sensory inputs as possible. Blast the charging bruin with the Frontiersman Bear Spray—its whopping 35-foot-long pepper cloud should do the trick—but also with a calliopean foghorn that’ll make the most bellicose beast reconsider its ursine assault. The Frontiersman Bear Horn blasts 115 decibels into the offending ear canals, exploiting the animal’s innate startle-flinch response to your benefit. The horn can also be used as a preventive measure, by issuing short bursts periodically while moving through the woods. Either way, you can trust that the can comes from good hands—SABRE’s got a long history in the business, supplying big-city police departments with pepper spray and other security items. SABRE also makes an inert training unit for bear-spray practice, which is always a good idea. $45 for the spray, $15 for the horn; sabrered.com.

Editor's note: Some experts may disagree, but it's a good idea to give your bear spray a quick test, to make sure it actually works properly. Just one short burst at the trailhead should provide peace of mind without depleting the cannister too much.