Bear Attack!

“Pekka, you really think that 3-4 rounds from one of the worlds most powerfull handguns loaded with FMJs wouldn't drop a bear?”

“I would have to say that if you are using wadd cutters or fmj's and get a head shot thats it game over.......”

“I think it would. If you think about it, it is like a human being shot with a bebe gun with the pointed bebes, and going alot faster. They will penitrate, but eather way, a head shot and its dun”

“No, Tea, I don't think FMJ .45 ACP rounds would do the job. It is not as powerful a round as you may believe, and the FMJ will not expand and leave much of a wound channel. As for several rounds, they would all have to be in the exact same spot to penetrate a grizzly skull, if that would even work. To compare a .45 ACP pistol round with a .45-70 special load big game round, think about comparing a .50 cal. muzzleloader ball with a .50 cal. machine gun round -- two different realities when it comes to results.”

“Tea, bears have incredibly thick skulls. Head shots are virtually useless. 2 Years ago a bear hunter in Mi's Upper penninsula heat shot a bear from less than 30 yards with a 30-.06 The bear lived. A blood trail was followed for a Loooooong way before it petered out. Keep in mind a 30.06 in 180gr (an average load for bear) has a muzzle velocity in excess of 3300 ft per/sec and around 3000 ft/lbs of power. That is FAR more than a .45 (vel 1400 in a HOT load with less ft/lbs force than velocity).

From what I have read about many alaskan guides and FWS personell is that they carry a 12g. NOT magnum but reg 2 3/4 in, shells simply because if they need to shoot consecutive rds fast the recoil on a 3.5 in mag is to severe to recover quick enough to aim and fire.

Guns for bear defense are good because they are loud. Would I carry a gun in bear country? Yep, a .357 (cause I already own it). Would I even pretend or hope for a one shot kill? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

BTW My buddy shot a bear with .444 marlin. The bear, a 300 lb black charged him and stopped when it ran head long into a deadfall. It layed there, THEN died!”

“I sometimes carry 15% red pepper spray for black bears. Is Bear Spray something different?

I had this spray ready in my hand when a bear charged at me and three girls two summers ago. We were aware of the bear and had moved to the front corner of Silers Bald Shelter in GSMNP. The bear came from around the back side of the shelter, looked at us and started to charge. The girls ran back screaming with their cameras. I immediately threw my arms up high and hollered loudly at the bear. The bear stopped abruptly about 8 to 10 feet away and then retreated slowly in a half circle 30 to 40 feet away. When it hesitated and looked at us, we threw stones, but our aim was poor.

We think that it was the same bear that tried for my daughter's backpack that night. We watched in the moonlight and flashlights as it repeated hit two compression straps hanging from the pack. If the bear had possessed an opposing thumb, it could have grabbed it. In the morning I measured 8 feet from the ground to the bottom of the straps.”

“slimmer, That is one big bear! I had a bear literally steal my pack once. I was 16 and pretty ignorant about bear. Never again!”

“You should prolly stick to hunting blue jays and tin cans.”

“It all comes down to being smart and never doing anything dumb....If you carry a gun hey it's there use it only if you have to...”

“These two guys were out hunting for rabbits, or whatever they could kick up and they only carried shotguns with light-load birdshot. They worked their way up along an old grown-over creek-bed that looked to be likely cover for rabbits and maybe even some quail.

They were talking and walking along in hopes of jump-shooting anything they might turn up. They weren`t being quiet and they had even killed a rabbit or two already so, they weren`t expecting what happened next.

Both were very good birdhunters and crack shots, well used to reacting fast in any given moment. They had many years of hunting experance together and they could almost read the mind of the other one, they just knew what the other would and wouldn`t do in any given shooting situation.

It happened so fast, the bear broke out of the cover of the thicket less than twenty yards ahead of them and was on them in nothing flat. One shot the bear catching him in the head at less than three yards and then the other one shot catching the bear between the shoulders at the same time.

The bear plowed into and over them both before they could get off a second shot, but neither hunter was hurt bad. The bear was maybe fifteen feet away and it swung left to turn back and the hunter that hit it first, shot it again, this time right behind the right front shoulder and into the bear`s lungs.

The almost three hundred pound bear sacked up in a heap, dead in it`s tracks. Any of the three shots should have killed the bear and would have done it alone if it haddn`t been light load birdshot they were shooting. Birdshot at that distance doesn`t spread out and is a lot like a slug, but bears and hogs have layers of fat and heavy bones and it takes a lot to penatrate the vitals.

Knowing your gun well and what it can and can`t do and shot placement is very important and even more so if you were to take on a bear. They were experanced hunters and they knew they had to have the bear right on top of them before they could shoot, or it wouldn`t do any good at all and they didn`t have time for a second shot. It just happens mighty fast and had they not had thier guns in their hands at the time, things might have turned out much different.

Turns out the bear found a dead deer and was eating on it in the creek bottom when the hunters just got to close and the bear attacked them.”

“And I bet it was a black bear. At not quite 300 pounds, less than half the size of the grizzly sow in Alaska. These guys were at the top of their gun-handling game and still extremely lucky.”

“Yes,... very much so and they got cut up a bit and got the wind knocked out of them as well and it happened in the blink of an eye.”

“Good point.”

“That bear never stoped, or gave any hint it was a false charge, it came on hell bent on doing business. There wasn`t a bear season back then and the last thing they wanted to do was get into trouble for killing a bear, but each did what they had to do, then and there.

There`s always a price for living wild and just trying to live past it. Make no mistake here, they knew what they were doing and each hated having to do it. To this day neither man can talk about it openly and tell others what that was like for fear of fines and jail time for just trying to save their own lives.

They were both just very lucky that it turned out like it did. You should never think you can stop a bear in it`s tracks just because you carry a gun. I have seen bears hulled out that ran over three hundred yards and killed as many dogs that got close enough to matter.

Keep your head and hold your shot until it`s a matter of life and death. I know those old boys and that wasn`t the only time that happened, but it was the only one that caused a death. Most times it is a bluff!”

“Teen successfully fights off bear”

“Holy crap I wonder why the bear was so aggressive?”

“Yam... you shouldn't be reading that article. lol”

“Wouldn't you be a little grouchy if you just woke up after sleeping all winter and found some teenagers in your living room and an empty refigerator?”

“Wow, that kid kicks arse! Only 400 lbs.? The bear was probably also a teen, and they're the more aggressive ones a lot of the times... you know, just like humans.”

“Wait a minute, this was in Alaska, right? Are they sure it wasn't just a mosquito?!”

“I know tarabull, that just gives me the shivers!”

“Interesting. I just finished reading Outwitting Bears: The Essential Handbook for Living with Bears, Avoiding Encounters, and Preventing Attacks on Anyone Living in Bear Country
by Gary Brown. One of the things he says is a last resort is to fight the bear. I mean if the bear is already attacking you and you're probably going to die if you let the attack continue, what have you got to lose?”

“Black bears in the SE vs Grizz in Alaska, I'll play with blackies all day long if given the choice.”

“Black bears are worse, Ram, they live beside us and can lose their fear pretyy easily.

I remember backpacking in Kananaskis, Alberta in 1988. The park brochure said that when attacked by a grizzly at night or a black bear any time to fight back. I guess on the premise that, while you'll probably die, there's a remote chance that what happened with the teen just might happen for you.

I remember two years ago when a 27 year old woman was killed by a black bear on a Canadian Army base near Quebec City.

The irony is that she had just arrived from the Yukon to train on the Canadian Biathlon tema and was out for a training run.

Biologists explained that an aggressive male bear will return closer and closer every time you chase it away until it decides to leave or to kill you. They said there was pretty much nothing she could do.

Up here in the Adirondacks black bears have become a real hazard.”

“Yam, just take an air horn, pepper spray and now, a flare with you. You'll be fine.”

“Oh, and brush up on your left hook there, too.”

“wolf--my whole pack will consist of bear attack prevention gear. It'll weigh 60 lbs!!

And I think I'll start taking kick boxing, too!!”

“Just take an Iraqi sherpa with you with explosives attached to him, and let him take lead on the trail...this should help a bit, too. I'll start looking around for ya here in Dearborn.”

“When the bear approaches, tell him it's Allah.”

“The kid was part of a wilderness expedition for emotionally troubled youths. I wonder if he's made any progress after that little adventure.”

“i can take a high powered gun for less weight then that”

“The flare idea is interesting - particularly as I have some. I'd probably blow my own hand off with the stress and considering what a klutz I am.”

“It wouldn't hurt to surround yourself with electrical fencing providing power from a solar power panel.”

“LMAO @ wolfeyes!!!!”

“ok I would have froze up!
I know wrong move...but I would have.”

“Hey Gremlin, I believe that girl that was killed by the black bear near Quebec city, was wearing headphones and playing a "walkman" while she jogged. She never heard/knew what hit her.”

“The kid did right. A brown bear that attacks a sleeping person is looking for a meal. A very different situation that coming upon one on a hike and being charged and knocked down. That is play dead time.”

“Yellowstone employee tells of weekend bear attack
Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Denton Turner figured he was dead already.

So he didn't cry out, didn't move, didn't even open his eyes as a bear attacked him last week at Yellowstone National Park.

"The way he was biting me, I thought that I would be so torn up, I'd lay there and die," Turner, 19, told The Charlotte Observer by telephone from the park in Wyoming.


The Charlotte native, a sophomore at Appalachian State University, suffered bruises, lacerations, puncture wounds to his back and a bite below his right armpit.

Story...

The larger bear charged, and Turner dropped face-down to the ground, curling into a fetal position with his hands behind his neck. Within seconds, the bear had covered the 30 yards and was on top of him.

Bob Matson, a spokesman for the North American Bear Center, said it's possible the bear attacked because it was surprised, then simply lost interest.

...sounds like he did the right thing...”

“Brown Bear.

A Black Bear would have eaten him.”

“You immediately drop when a Griz charges? And I would need to sew my mouth shut to keep quite!

Can't wait for the orientation film this summer in YNP. Do they serve popcorn?”

“He heard a rustling in the bushes and realized he had company: two grizzly bears.”

“I've heard quite a few cases where hikers have dropped down and covered up in a griz attack and they've generally escaped with a few bites and were batted around a bit. The bear just gets bored and moves on. easy for me to say...

we ran into a medium sized grizzly in the Bob Marshall and he took off running--the oposite direction. They get hunted in there and I there's not a lot of garbage around or other human stuff.”

“The guy was a wimp. Only two grizzlies at once? I would've taken 'em both on, right then, right there.”

“I wouldn't fight them; I'd just make sure I was hiking with someone slower than me!”

“You might try yodelling like Slim Whitman. Their brains might explode --- ya never know..... LOL

In a situation like that, what have you got to lose?”

“It could be worse; yodeling might sound like their female mating call...”

“You could have the "Trading Places Monkey-In-A-Cage" moment...”

“Aero, the hiking with someone slower may not work.

Predator studies show that when the predator selects a target they ignore other targets in the area.

The reason is that herd prey species (sometimes) will pretend to be injured and slower to distract the predator from their target. Like the way birds will fly up to attract intruders away from their nest site.

Need to look stronger/faster than the other hiker so the predator selects the other hiker and not you. Once the predator breaks cover that selection has already been made.”

“It could be worse; yodeling might sound like their female mating call..."
aero
02:49:05 PM
06/24/04

LMAO! "I was a bears beeotch for the summer!"

Manuka - what if you throw the slower hiker at the Grizz?”

“Yeah, that would suck wouldn't it?”