ACR Electronics
Fort Lauderdale, since 1956 — the rescue beacon that talks to a government satellite system and never asks for a subscription.
Counter Assault
Bear deterrent from the Adventure Ready Brands house in Littleton, New Hampshire — a pesticide-registered product whose EPA label and whose marketing no longer say the same number.
Counter Assault makes bear deterrent — an aerosol registered with the EPA as a pesticide, not a piece of outdoor equipment, which means its claims are governed by a label a federal agency accepted rather than by a catalog. The brand belongs to Adventure Ready Brands in Littleton, New Hampshire, alongside Adventure Medical Kits, SOL and the consumer QuikClot line. The most useful thing a buyer can know is that the EPA-accepted label and the current website give different maximum ranges for the same 10.2 oz can, and the label is the document that counts.
- 55541-2EPA registration number on the Counter Assault Bear Deterrent label accepted 26 March 2025
- 2.0%Capsaicin and related capsaicinoids, the active ingredient percentage on that label
- 40 ftMaximum range the accepted label states for the 10.2 oz can — the brand's site markets 44 feet
What we'd reach for
- Counter Assault Bear Deterrent, 10.2 oz (290 g)The large can. The EPA-accepted label states a range of "up to 40 feet (12 meters)" and a discharge of approximately 8 seconds; the brand's site markets 44 feet and 10 seconds.
- Counter Assault Bear Deterrent, 8.1 oz (230 g)The smaller can on the same registration, labeled at up to 10 meters — printed with bracketed alternates of 30 and 32 feet — and approximately 7 seconds.
- HolstersSold alongside the cans. Nothing regulated here — but a canister packed inside a rucksack is a canister you do not have.
Bear spray is not camping equipment. It is a registered pesticide, and that single fact changes how its claims should be read. Every number a bear deterrent is allowed to make is written on a label an agency accepted, and the label is public.
What the label says
The EPA-accepted label for Counter Assault Bear Deterrent, stamped 26 March 2025, gives:
- EPA Reg. No. 55541-2
- Active ingredient: “Capsaicin and related capsaicinoids….…………………………..…2.0%”
- Can sizes: 8.1 oz (230 g) and 10.2 oz (290 g)
- Range: 10 meters for the 8.1 oz, printed with EPA’s bracketed alternate wording as “up to [30][32] feet”; “up to 40 feet (12 meters)” for the 10.2 oz
- Discharge: approximately 7 and 8 seconds respectively
- Registered use: “This product may be used only to deter bears which are attacking or appear likely to attack humans.”
That last line is the product’s entire legal purpose. This page discusses nothing outside it.
The number that moved
The Counter Assault site currently markets the 10.2 oz can as “The Only 44-Foot Bear Spray” with “10 seconds of spray time.” Its own parent’s homepage says “Home of the only 40 foot bear spray.” The accepted label says 40 feet and roughly 8 seconds.
Three sources controlled by the same house, two sets of numbers. It is entirely possible a newer label has been accepted that we could not retrieve — EPA’s label search does not always yield to automated requests, and we will not print a figure we could not open on the regulator’s own server. Until then, the sentence that matters is simple: the accepted label is the controlling document, and it says 40 feet.
The same applies to the rest of the line. Counter Assault’s Bushwacker product sits on a separate registration with its own number printed on the can; we could not open an EPA-hosted label for it this session, so that number is not reproduced here. Read it off the canister, per product, every time.
Who makes it
The registrant address on the 2025 label is 944 Industrial Park Road, Littleton, New Hampshire — the Adventure Ready Brands house that also runs Adventure Medical Kits, SOL and the consumer QuikClot channel. The registrant is named as “Tender Corporation d/b/a Adventure Ready Brands,” which is the clearest public statement of the legal entity behind the ARB trade name.
The 2022 version of the same label shows a different registrant at the same address: Bushwacker Backpack and Supply Co., Inc. The consolidation is visible in the paperwork.
The site carries a “Made in Montana” mark and says the product was “Created by a grizzly encounter survivor in conjunction with the University of Montana,” dating the brand to 1986. None of that was tied to a specific SKU or checked against a corporate filing, and a registrant address in New Hampshire is not evidence about where cans are filled.
Where they fall down
Marketing and label disagree on the flagship figure. 44 feet on the site, 40 feet on the accepted label, 40 feet on the parent’s homepage. For a regulated product bought on range, that is the one number that should never drift.
Superlatives on a regulated product. “The Only 44-Foot Bear Spray” and “1st EPA-Registered Bear Spray” are competitive claims, not label claims.
Origin is a badge, not a disclosure. “Made in Montana” appears without a statement of what is made there.
Every SKU is its own registration. Buyers reasonably assume one brand means one product. It doesn’t — the numbers differ, and so do the labels.
Where Counter Assault fits
Bear country, carried on the outside of the pack. Range and discharge time are the specifications that matter, and both are on the can.
Expiry is a real date. Aerosols lose pressure. The canister prints its own date and that date is the schedule.
Not for: anything other than the registered use. The label defines the product, and it is deliberately narrow.
Why we rate them
The regulatory trail is open. Anyone can read the accepted label and check what we have written here.
The label states its limits. Ranges are “up to,” and the use statement is specific.
The house is identifiable. A registrant line naming Tender Corporation d/b/a Adventure Ready Brands answers an ownership question three of this batch’s other pages had to ask.
More in Field & pursuits
All brands →The nearest neighbors on the shelf — same categories first, same department after that.
Adventure Medical Kits
Littleton, New Hampshire, 1989 — first-aid kits laid out by injury rather than by item, built in the same house as SOL, Counter Assault and the consumer QuikClot line.
Battle Born Batteries
Reno, Nevada — LiFePO4 house banks from a public company, which means every number on this page arrives with a date attached.
Benchmade
Oregon City, 1988 — a family-owned American knife company that will sharpen your knife for the rest of its life, and whose signature lock is now out of patent.