What kinds of pepper sprays are there? S.A. Self Defense explains.

Break Down the pepper spray S.A.

With a wide variety of pepper sprays and bear repellents available in the market, it’s crucial to understand the differences between them.

The effectiveness of these products depends on factors such as formulation, range, and ease of use.

Byrna Max and Hell BGR stand out as superior options in their respective categories, providing unmatched performance and reliability.

Different Types & Effectiveness

We will break down the different types of pepper spray, Range distance and effectiveness with ingredients.

1st up: Oil / Gel Based pepper spray – Oil or “Gel” based pepper spray like the Byrna MAX BGR pictured above, is more potent and longer-lasting than water-based pepper spray, as it sticks to the skin and eyes more effectively and is harder to wash off. It also has a slight advantage over spray for reducing the potential for cross contamination and blowback, as its sticky formula holds active ingredients within a concentrated stream focused toward your target. 

Side Note: On The Byrna Max pepper spray we sell. It contains powerful tear gas as well as pepper ingredients

2nd: Water based pepper spray – Water-based pepper spray like the Byrna HELL BGR pictured above, is safer to use indoors or in close quarters, as it reduces the risk of cross-contamination, inhalation and can be removed from the target area room, surrounding walls and furniture easier. The water based spray does shoot a pretty wide fan as the oil or gel based is more steady streamed. Each have their benefits and drawbacks such as the wind, proximity to other people, effective time to aim, and time it stays on the attacker.

3rd: UV Dyed in Pepper spray – We highly recommend finding a pepper spray and Bear or animal repellent with UV dye built into it like shown in the video above! The UV dye helps either law enforcement identify the attacker weather it’s a human or an animal like a bear. This way they just need a UV light to identify. Any way we can help it the best way! Say your hiking and need to use your repellent on an animal. That animal can no be singled out by a hero LE.

Those are pretty much the 3 different types on Pepper spray on the market today.

Now we can look at there effectiveness.

Which comes down to size, range and ingredients.

Size, Range and ingredients: – There are basically 3 sizes out there and each with increase there range as the size goes up like the pepper spray products above on Sale of course from your favorites a S.A. Self Defense. We will take a look at our favorite and recommended for the size comparison and range the Byrna BGR Max.

• Bryan BGR Max smallest 0.5 oz: This pepper spray is small and compact and can be concealed anywhere on person , at home or in the car. It has a range of 8 to 10 feet for 5 seconds and is highly effective with 1.4 Major Capsaicinoids (maximum allowed by law) for its ingredients.
• Byrna BGR MAX medium 2 oz : This pepper spray is medium size and is 4.25 inches tall and 1.35 inches wide and can be carried and concealed in most areas. It has a range of 8 – 10 feet for 15 seconds. It is highly effective with 1.4 Major Capsaicinoids (maximum allowed by law) for its ingredients. The range hasn’t gone up yet but the time to spray has.
• Byrna BGR MAX largest 1 lb: This is the largest and is usually used not only for all around but as a bear repellent as well. This size pepper spray while not to easy to conceal you can still carry and use it for home, car and outdoors. It has a range of up to 30 feet for 160 seconds. It is highly effective with 1.4 Major Capsaicinoids (maximum allowed by law) for its ingredients. The range and spray time has more than doubled with the 1 lb spray!

Depending on your comfort ,need or location we still highly recommend getting a spray that does include the UV dye in the ingredients. You can see the size variations in the products below:

The pepper spray ingredients

Pepper spray or Oleoresin capsicum (OC) sprays are usually made with these major ingredients  dihydrocapsaicin (35.8–48%), 

capsaicin (33–47.8%),

 nordihydrocapsaicin (7.7–20%),

homocapsaicin (1.3–7%), 

nonivamide (1.2–5.5%) and

homodihydrocapsaicin (1.9–2.9) [5], [6].

Yes we know that is not English for most of us but if you really want to dive into a case study you can check out this one on Pepper spray ingredients

As far as what’s in S.A. Self Defense’s Favorite and most effective pepper spray, the Byrna BGR MAX well that my friends is a trade secret, but Byrna kindly provided us with the SDS sheet for the Byrna BGR Max and we know it is as much this, they have 4 Major Capsaicinoids with maximum allowed by law.

See the Byrna Max BGR SDS sheet here

Pepper spray saftey and what to put on pepper spray burn.

Always use caution and saftey measures when carrying or using pepper spray. And yes it is recommended that you train with your pepper spray.

Check out our full article on “Safety Tips for Carrying and Using Pepper Spray” It explains what to put on pepper spray burn.

With that pepper

We hope you know more about pepper sprays and the different types to help you stay safe and happy.

We are always happy to help keeping our great country safe!

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