jeeper1 wrote:
I have been thinking about getting and carrying some pepper spray. In as much as I know virtually nothing about it I am hoping that I can get a recommendation as to which is the most powerful one I can carry.
Do I want one that is a stream or spray?
Does it work equally on animals as well as people?
Am I restricted to certain sizes or can I get a hand filling size container.
Where can I buy it or is it better to buy it off the net?
I am very experienced in the use of O.C. Spray. I've undergone chemical spray defense classes. I can tell you for certain, that pepper spray is not pepper spray is not pepper spray. There's some stuff out there that's not that great, and on the flip side, there's some stuff out there that will make your eyes feel like they just got jabbed with a fire poker, straight out of a burning fire.
The active ingredient in pepper spray is oleoresin capsicum, which is the pepper itself. The oleoresin capsicum is measured in scoville heat units, which is the heat of the pepper. To give you a good idea, a pure cayenne pepper consists of about 30,000 to 50,000 scoville heat units. Imagine dripping some cayenne pepper juice in your eye.
The average scoville heat unit for pepper spray ranges between 2,000,000 to 5,300,000, all the way up to the VERY nasty stuff called VEXOR that has over 15,000,000 scoville heat units.
Pepper Spray is also measured in percentage of concentration, usually ranging from 1% to 18%. Generally, the higher the concentration, the longer the effects are, but does not necessarily mean that it's more powerful, because you can have 18% O.C. and it can be pure crap.
Generally, brands that I can absolutely vouch for are the following:
Sabre Red
Wildfire
FOX Labs
VEXOR
VEXOR was the absolute worst, and it's hard to imagine at the time that it's not causing any long term injuries, simply because of how painful it was. VEXOR generally only sells their products to Law Enforcement or Military, but they may sell lower OZ cans to citizens.
Fox Labs spray is oil based, and leaves a UV dye on the attacker, so they can be identified. It also hurts like hell, as does Wildfire and Sabre Red.