Has anyone ever actually had a bear break into a blue barrel? I'm talking the proper blue barrels - the Harmony barrels or the Recreational Barrel Works barrels. I don't want to see Fishguts post that bogus picture of the flimsy "blue barrel" that is clawed apart—this evidence is to be thrown out.

I have both brands and never had bear mess with mine to find out even though I’ve had bear tracks within 5’ of it. So no real experience with a prolonged bear bashing. I keep the lever band locked with a cotter pin. Most importantly though I commissioned an air brush artist to paint a likeness of Chuck Norris on my barrels. I don’t think anything is going to mess with them if i smear bacon grease on them.

Barry

I appreciate what you're trying to determine, but knowing the types of containers bears have shown themselves to be able to breach, there is no doubt in my mind that the Harmony/Mauser barrel is not bear-proof. Even if no one has ever had one breached, all that does is fuel the logical fallacy known as normalcy bias. I use a 60 liter barrel on my group trips KNOWING it could be compromised which is why I keep a reserve of food in an Ursack which doesn't hold all the food, but it holds enough for us to at least have some rations left if we were to lose everything else. Doing it this way is my compromise of safety with budget since buying enough bear-proof containers to hold all of the food my usual group brings would be stupid expensive.

Ya in all seriousness, I have Bear Vault 500’s too and they have been dismantled by bears in the ADK so the barrels are also vulnerable in my opinion. But I’m willing to play the odds with the blue barrel and the Bear Vault personally.

Barry

One data point - I've had our Blue Barrel for almost 15 years & many trips without any casualties. I love ours.

Probably thanks to "normalcy bias" my CCS Deluxe Food pack hung has not had a bear break in.

I'm pretty sure neither is approved for use in areas where bear resistant food storage is required. There's probably good reason for that.

Shimbo: "Has anyone ever actually had a bear break into a blue barrel? I'm talking the proper blue barrels - the Harmony barrels or the Recreational Barrel Works barrels. I don't want to see Fishguts post that bogus picture of the flimsy "blue barrel" that is clawed apart—this evidence is to be thrown out."

If your attempting to justify a small plastic barrel as "bearproof", you sound already convinced so it's pointless to suggest otherwise.

Fishguts posting the photo is hardly the only example and if you searched the topic just in this forum you should have read the several other bear vs blue barrel, McSweem, Kanoes, and Onematch come to mind right off. Far as perfect record I've never lost food to a bear and I do not use a barrel, 15 years good? How about 30 years?
If your looking for a bear proof system and decide a blue barrel is it, be ready to accept it possible failure at some time. Even approved bear canisters have been breached by "smarter bears".

butthead

Even the canisters that are designed to keep bears out are only labeled as "bear resistant". I think the test is that it has to take an adult bear more than "X" amount of time to get in. (Think different levels of waterproofing - X amount of time at Y depth) They are counting on a bear eventually getting bored or discouraged and wandering off. I have seen at least one picture of a blue barrel having been torn apart by a bear here on the board. (Links below - The original thread is about differing quality of blue barrels I think?)

I think the advantage of the blue barrel is that odors are contained. There are people here on the board who also use plastic pails with gamma lids on them. Same deal - contain the odors that might alert a bear.

Torn blue barrel

Torn Blue Barrel Thread

To answer the OP's question, I have never had a bear get into my Harmony blue barrel, nor has one ever tried. A bear is going to get into a blue barrel if it believes that their is food inside it. To Michwall2's point I think the key is odor/scent. I currently own (and use) Bear Vaults, Ursacks, and a Harmony Blue barrel. I stash the Bear Vaults, I tie the Ursacks to a tree, I hang the blue barrel. I normally don't trip where their have been reports of nuisance bears, my main goal is to keep the smaller 4 legged critters out of my food. At the same time I do take precautions for bears. I'm not worried about starving to death or making it out alive without food, my goal is to save a bears life by not feeding him. As far as the scent goes, a bear will most likely be able to detect the scent from within a blue barrel as they have a tiny vent to allow air transfer so you can get the lid on and off, but the scent should be minimal enough so the bear thinks it's residual scent like it would detect on pots, pans, cutting boards, fire grates, and etc. where it has not found food to satisfy it's hunger.

My guess if everyone put a game cam out each night they’d be surprised how many bear visits there actually are. I don’t believe bear are all that brave. But once they cross that line they are hard to stop. I’ve all but put bacon grease on my bear vault and nothing ever messes with it even when I know bear have been in camp. On such occasions I’ve had my Nida milk chilling in a container by a tree, and my bear vault(s) art to the side with everything packed in their bags and containers. I know they can smell stuff if they really put their nose to work. I like the ursack best. But only if I have good strong rope to tie it to something.
Nothing has a perfect record... one slap with the blue barrel they can likely do a lot of damage. I like my vaults...

If I picked up anything from the few bear hunting tags I have used is that trying to keep anything odor-free is not possible to a bear's sense of smell. Odor proof bags boxes barrels or any combo. If nothing else a bear can pick up the residual odor from food handling and prep.
First advise given to me by successful bear guides and hunters, is they can and will smell you and anything you touch, stop even trying to cover or hide odor. Pay attention to more useful prevention, cleanliness, varied routine, and consider a bear's curiosity.

butthead

Not very happy about carrying the extra weight. One trade off I found with the bear vault is you can use it for a chair while cooking. Hopefully this won’t prove to be a bad idea with cooking odors.

Spent a couple days acclimating in a busy campground in Colorado before starting our trip. Had a bear take down a screen tent close to us in the middle of the day, and noticed a pick-up truck at the trailhead with a back window pushed in and belongings scattered on the ground. I would really hate to finish out a trip and find my car like this. Way more concerned about camping in well used areas.

Cleaned up a couple of restaurant sized mayo jars last year and might try using those sometime on quick trips in future if bears are generally rare in the area and hanging is not an option.

To the original posters question. No I have never seen one of the camping blue barrels get broken into. I’ve seen pictures of the non camping blue barrels damaged by bears.

I’ve done probably 50 trips with them and had no issues. I’ve had a bear in camp just walk on by the barrel and check out the fire pit and leave.

With that said I have no illusions a determined bear could dismantle one. Nothing in my opinion is bear proof. Every device that is supposed to be you can find a post or picture showing a bear that broke in. We are all just trying to reduce our risk. For most of us the barrels are better than hanging and they keep the critters that actual steal my food at bay (mice, squirrels, pine martens, raccoons) very well.

T

Are these thinner ones?

https://algonquinoutfitters.com/faqs/camping-what-about-the-bears-2/

I know I've seen images of "real" blue barrels chewed open by bears. But I've also seen images of bear canisters chewed open. And I have seen very few bags hung in a manner that would provide any protection at all. In the end, I think it's about risk tolerance and luck. Keeping a clean camp means nothing if prior campers fed the bears. "I use xxx and have never had a bear in my food" typically means "I have been lucky to never have a bear truly interested in my food."

Lowest risk - carry a metal 55 gallon drum with locking ring. Highest risk - a bread bag tied to a tree with an opened sardine can in it. Every other option is in between :-)

Yep that is a harmony or similar camping food barrel.

arm2008: "Are these thinner ones?


https://algonquinoutfitters.com/faqs/camping-what-about-the-bears-2/


I know I've seen images of "real" blue barrels chewed open by bears. But I've also seen images of bear canisters chewed open. And I have seen very few bags hung in a manner that would provide any protection at all. In the end, I think it's about risk tolerance and luck. Keeping a clean camp means nothing if prior campers fed the bears. "I use xxx and have never had a bear in my food" typically means "I have been lucky to never have a bear truly interested in my food."


Lowest risk - carry a metal 55 gallon drum with locking ring. Highest risk - a bread bag tied to a tree with an opened sardine can in it. Every other option is in between :-)"

This is the first piece of evidence showing a Harmony/RBW barrel being torn apart. Thank you for providing this evidence—that is all I was asking for. My question is answered: they do not have a perfect record.

Let it be noted to those who received my question in a negative light: I was not asserting that I thought that these barrels were bear-proof. I was just trying to gather evidence. I observed that there was some confusion as to the different types of blue barrels, and that they were all getting lumped together in one category.

The Algonquin link text talks about the success of hanging. Clearly this is one of those issues that consensus will be elusive.

billconner: "The Algonquin link text talks about the success of hanging. Clearly this is one of those issues that consensus will be elusive."

In part because it appears that there is not a single answer. From what I've read, bears in different areas have different skill sets. Bear in some areas have learned to look for hung packs and how to get them, even when they are hung "correctly." And the infamous Yellow-Yellow in the NY state Adirondack Hike Peaks, who figured out how to open the BV bear canisters, and taught it to her kids. Bears around certain campgrounds in NY now know what a cooler looks like, and it is no longer good enough to just put them in cars, you have to cover the cooler with something so it can't be seen. And the bears have figured out if they mess with the door handles they can get in the car, so you have to lock them.

And of course, different areas have different types of bears. I found some great pictures of a polar bear totally crushing a blue barrel, but not a typical scenario for BWCA.

There seems to be more incidents of bears trying to get into food no matter what system more when left in camp with no one present during the day, and less during the night, emphasis on people being present.

AFAIK, the Garcia style bear canisters still have a perfect record. I haven't heard any claims to the contrary for several years.

Unless you're going to the Adirondack wilderness the bear vault is king. See through container, bigger mouth than all other containers, just can't beat it. I don't worry about bears anymore, infact I WISH they'd give my fault some scratches and bite marks to make it look cooler. Ain't no yogi getting my picnic food.

additional information

BobDobbs: "AFAIK, the Garcia style bear canisters still have a perfect record. I haven't heard any claims to the contrary for several years."

From Boonie's link above: July 18, 2013. Bear took rental Garcia canister out of a spot in the bushes around 1:40am. I got out and chased the bear away. I placed the canister deeper in the bushes. We were awake for another hour-hour and a half. We didn’t hear it again, but in the morning it was gone. On our hike out we found the empty and broken canister without lid about half way down the [Snow Creek Trail] switchbacks.

I wonder how long a would take a bear to break into a bucket with a gamma lid.
10 seconds?

Going strong for a decade here with a plastic bag stashed away from camp with no incident!

My favorite stash spots are in rocks that you have to hop in the canoe to get to.

BobDobbs: "AFAIK, the Garcia style bear canisters still have a perfect record. I haven't heard any claims to the contrary for several years."

They are great, but not perfect, you can find plenty of instances of failure of any of the barrels.

T

I like the Blue Barrels because I can put my BWCA stickers on them.

regarding this entire food barrel, bear robbing food containers topic is the scent of what's in them, or on them. how food is packed inside of them. also has a lot to do with the history of that particular campsite with bear activity. the area you are camped in( south arm, lake agnes) repeated bear offenses, year after year due to koa camping practices in the bwca.
sloppy campers are responsible for a large amount of bear activity.
like many of us, i have well over 40 trips and have been in these high bear area's and have NEVER seen one.
i have seen the campsites trashed by poor cooking practices, cleaned up what i could and moved on.
i think any barrel properly packed and stashed in the woods at night would be free from theft. just some barrels would take longer to get into, of course.

I’d say all of the above affect a bear encounter as well as chance and luck.

T

I like to turn mine upside down and cover the base with pine needles. Might mask scent a little. I never eat or prep food on my buckets and everything inside is in sealed bags.

Lots of good thoughts and information, thank you for starting the thread Shimbo. We have always hung the food pack on past canoe trips, but I do love the difference in how much less time it takes to stash the bear vault compared to hanging.

my Duluth Pack must be bear proof, I'v had it 30 years and nada a bear break in

I use a plastic liner, I remove and replace food with clean hands
i don't handle my containers with peanut butter or bacon grease smeared hands

I stopped hanging packs in trees about 20 years ago, often set them on a rock, hang by a tree branch stump, or on top of my upside down canoe, I've even completely forgotten to do anything with it, luckily there apparently weren't mice around or maybe couldn't smell it

several people have already mentioned it, clean is good

I wonder when someone will come up with a good electric fence type system. It would be fun to hear a bear get zapped in the night. Haha. I know they have something for far north trips. But my guess is those systems are heavy.

nctry: "I wonder when someone will come up with a good electric fence type system. It would be fun to hear a bear get zapped in the night. Haha. I know they have something for far north trips. But my guess is those systems are heavy."

3-6 pounds?

Electric bear fence?

I have not ever had a problem with mine but, I try not to take it for granted. Potentially any/every system could fail.

Just another reference to a blue barrel being chewed by a bear (I'm not debating the merits, just adding a photo because I remembered this thread when I came across this image). About 90 minutes into the podcast he talks about bears and such. Later on he talks about how sitting on a doubled up foam pad will protect you from lightning, too... It might make you feel slightly better, but it won't protect you from lightning, just in case you were wondering.

PK PODCAST 51: CLIFF JACOBSON – SKILLS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THINGS

Hey, some of the food requires preparation, even if just boiling water. What I'd like to know is if there's a bearproof stove out there. I think my MSR Dragonfly might be a little too easy for the bear to start up.

As for the barrels - I recommend tightening the harness/pack straps to the smallest setting. That way it will be ill-fitting to all but the smallest bear. By the time they properly adjust it to fit, you'll hear the commotion and be able to chase it away.

Blue barrel for 12 years ....no problems YET. One has never tried that I know of. It may look like Fishguts' pic if one tries; but it is all I use.