OPSak

Anyone uses these? I know a lot of you guys are required to carry a canister, but us folks on the east coast are still exempted, for the most part. I was wondering if these bags can reduce the range in which bears can smell the food? It seem pointless to me if you're going to cook at the campsite because, well, bear going sniff you out 20 some miles away if he downrange. In the Smokies we got bear cables, but in primitive wilderness of Western Carolina, such amenity don't exist. So, I thought those sack can help reduce other critters from climbing on my ropes, and reduce the range in which the bear can sniff it out if it hanging up on a limb. Thoughts?

Have used them and they seem relatively effective, certainly better than Ziplock bags, but find the closures not up to the task because they delaminate after a few uses.

Maybe they've improved? I gave up several years back.

Cheers,

Agree about the closures ripping apart after a few uses.

BPL had a study using police dogs who picked out the lockers containing drugs stored in OP sacks every time. However, when I tested my late dog using dry dog dog food in freezer bags (even I could smell the dog food through the freezer bags) vs. OP sacks, the dog ignored the OP sacks and went for the freezer bags. Of course my dog was not trained to sniff out drugs, although he was highly enthusiastic about dog kibble! Bears and mice have a more powerful sense of smell than dogs, too.

Some think these are better, or at least more durable and less pricey: Nylo-barrier odorproof bags. I haven't tried them yet, because I still have a bunch of OP sacks left. When their closures give up the ghost, I'll try these others. However, I use them inside my Ursack.

I imagine they work in the lab.

I doubt they matter in the field. Bears are not sharks, and there's probably more food smell on my beard after dinner than what would come out of an (admittedly imperfect) ziploc freezer bag.

With properly stored (hung, canistered, ursack'ed) food I doubt they would matter. For improperly stored food, it ain't going to help. By the time the bear is close enough to smell the difference, they're going to be curious enough anyway to try it out if they can get at it.

Just my two cents. FWIW, my food is normally in an ursack these days, in sealed ziplocs. I put my (aluminum) pot lid on top to keep rodents out of the end hole. never lost food that way, and I have had a bear chew on it some once.(and run off I yelled at it). I normally keep my ursack tied as per the instructions to a tree.. that might be an option for you if you don't like the weight of a canister.

Thanks for the inputs, you guys.

Do you put your pot lid on the inside or outside of your Ursack?

Inside - just at the top, so when I cinch down the closure the only thing you can get to is aluminum.- often I just put the whole pot in the top - same effect. while you probably *can* cinch the ursack opening closed enough to keep mice out, I don't trust myself to do it to keep the little buggers out - and I have had mice crawl in the hole before I learned to do that.

Note that in theory the ursack is not rodent proof - so I imagine R.O.U.S's with sharp teeth can chew through it - people sell different stuff for that, having said that, I've taken it all over the world and never had probelms with them chewing through it - and I've been in some pretty crittery spots.

Have never had anything come after my Ursack so no idea how long it would stand up to persistent little chewing things, but I definitely have seen photos of Ursacks where they simply drilled their way in, through the fabric.

For places like the Grand Canyon where it's a known issue, I'd want a metal mesh storage system, but for the casual explorer mouse, metal behind the top opening sounds prudent to me. Even a small piece of aluminum flashing would do the trick.

Cheers,

If I recall correctly, Ursack said not to put anything hard sided in the bag as it gave bears leverage. But I guess everything has its tradeoffs.

I guess what I should have said was that the OP Sacks definitely did keep my dog from getting into his pack after his food. Whether they would have kept trained drug-sniffing dogs or bears away is problematic, especially in view of the BPL article mentioned.

Urscack does recommend using OP Sacks inside the bag so there is less odor wafting out to the neighborhood.