Posted on 03/12/2019 8:30:01 AM PDT by Perseverando
I have seen DEAD people trying to protect themselves from the bears with 9mm. I’ve seen a DEAD man trying to protect himself from a white bear with AK. All of them barely missed and it didn’t help them much.
“And that most bears run way from you when possible.”
I think I see a serious hole in his reasoning.
In November my son and I had a close encounter with what I believe was a black bear in the Superstition Mountains here in AZ. Something was definitely moving around the tent (my son heard it first). Heard it moving through the brush, sounded fairly large. The I heard breathing and snuffling that sounded decidedly bear-like. I whispered to my son (he’s 12 and he was holding onto me in a death grip lol) that bear attacks are pretty rare and we might be more likely to scare it off. In the meantime I was trying to formulate a plan on what to do if it tried to get in the tent. And I was praying it was not a mama bear with cubs. The only thing I had close to any kind of “weapon” was a pair of hiking poles, but they were just outside the door of the tent. I then heard a licking sound. I had moved all of our food in a bag to a fence down the hill. But our packs were still outside, about ten feet from the tent. We had no food in the tent, of course. After a while, we turned a light on and started speaking in normal tones, hoping if it was still lurking about, to scare it away. Finally I went outside to check it out. Nothing was around, nothing too disturbed, but one of our day packs did look wet (like it had been licked). Next morning I only found one, old, bear track. No other animal tracks that I could make out. Our bag of food hung on the barbed wire fence down the hill was undisturbed. To this day I do not know what I would have done if it tried to get into the tent. I felt completely helpless, but if I had at least even my .40 I would have felt better protected in that situation.
Smart Alaskans carry at least a .357, no autos.
Unfortunately, these days I'm that buddy for others.
I grew up before air conditioning, and spent most of my childhood outdoors.
Though there weren't many predators larger than coyotes (back then - big cats started becoming common in the nineties) around my section of the prairie, we had western diamondbacks, eastern diamondbacks, copperheads, timber rattlers, and water moccasins. All of whom might invade your swimming hole, or take up hunting at the bottom of the rope ladder to the tree house you were in.
You kill them with what is handy, unless it's a whole lot of water moccasins in which case you need five to eight kids with their father's shovels.
Sticks are good. Get one maybe an inch and a half in diameter, three to four feet long, forking at the end.
If necessary you can pick up your bike and smash them with it, but that could damage the spokes.
Never let a poisonous snake get away. Someone else might not see it before getting bit next time.
Always make sure it is dead.
My childhood friend has a bear skin rug.
The guy was the best athlete when we were kids. His Eye hand coordination was perfect.
He goes hunting for bear. They corner a big bear in a tree. He tells his partners that he’s going to hit the bear in the neck to break its spine, and then blast a hole in its heart.
Bang, first shot the bear starts to fall. Bang, second shot. Right trough the heart as the bear was moving through the air.
My friend told me he was scared to death because it was so big and wanted to be certain it was dead when it hit the ground.
On the island of Newfoundland the black bears can reach 600 pounds. And if you get away from them you may run into a moose on same trail. Seen both large scat piles and dropped antlers on the same path on the mountain side with family. Locals pretty well armed but visitors Limited in options.
Had they been Brown Bears I would have been out of there.
Okay, while we’re at it, can we rethink “steel slats” and “bollard fencing” as an adequate wall at our borders:
check it out at 15 seconds (especially) and 58 seconds.
Was Trump snookered by the CBP unions that didn’t want a dent made against their jobs and human and drug smuggling—or was his Javanka admin in on this hoax as well?
https://twitter.com/TyRobertsMDM/status/1105089392841031680
Of the two bicyclists recently attacked in Washington state, the one that ran was the one that was killed.
A 380? You’re better off to use it to jam into the bears jaw and prevent him from closing. Where I live even the black bears are massive. I carry at a minimum a ruger scout 308 loaded with 220gr round nose bear killers. I don’t think they sell them in the US even though hornady is the manufacturer. If I’m more concerned than usual, then it’s a ruger 375.
If all I had was a pistol, I’d put on an accessible chest rig with an absolute minimum of a 357 mag in it.
No, smart Alaskans carry a Glock 20. 16 rounds before you have to reload is much more comforting than six rounds. And switching out magazines takes a second. You'll never reload a .357 before the bear gets you if he's still mobile. Same applies when up against two legged predators. Anyone who carries a revolver as their primary sidearm is flirting with death.
Read the Article!?!
This is FReerepublic!
“I was talking with an Outfitter just last Saturday who regularly travels into Bear Countty. Unarmed.”
They have a name for guys like that; bear scat.
MOST, ?
all it takes is One.
I’m working on a Jet powered
Walker,,,
It’ll even the odds!
Thanks for sharing!
Wow,
I camped Mt. Lemon years ago,
No encounters but lots of tracks.
The problem with “never cross a mother and cubs” is that that while we sad humans in the woods know that, it’s those pesky mother bears with cubs that seem to have a habit of finding us between them...
Hence, we carry the tools required for extrication from the equation. Oh well.
I would like to know the name of or the organization this out fitter works under so as to avoid him....
No.
The supposed impervious to bullets nature of a grizzly skull is a myth.
I suspect it comes from ignorance of where the brain is inside a bear's head.
If you shoot a bear "between the eyes", and are 1 inch high, you miss the brain entirely.
If you shoot the bear in the eye, from straight on, you miss the brain entirely.
Bella Twin shot and killed a world record grizzly bear in 1953, with a single shot .22 rifle and .22 long ammunition (not the more common and powerful .22 long rifle).
A bear's brain is lower in the head and more narrow than many people think.
A .380 will penetrate the skull. It will kill the bear, but it has to be aimed at the right spot.
Here is a video of a grizzly being killed with a 9.3x18 Makarov. It almost certainly was loaded with full metal jacketed bullets. A 9.3x18 is only a little more powerful than a .380 (9x17) cartridge.
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