Posted on 04/30/2008 7:31:32 PM PDT by marktwain
LIVINGSTON - Bob Johnson, the mountain man mauled by a grizzly bear last week, has decided to tell the rest of the story.
He shot the bear dead, he said Wednesday, plugging it with a .41-caliber Magnum pistol after it had mauled him once and was returning for a second attack.
Johnson, 55, maintained last week that the details of the attack were hazy. On Wednesday, he said he had been reluctant to tell the whole story because of legal concerns.
He was convicted of a federal poaching charge in the early 1980s and was unsure if carrying a handgun would land him in trouble.
"I was scared of going to jail," he said Wednesday.
After conferring with a lawyer and his doctor, he said he decided to tell the Chronicle the whole story.
The incident began last Wednesday as Johnson was walking quietly in the Soldier Creek drainage of the Gallatin Range, in Tom Miner Basin north of Yellowstone National Park.
He said he was walking slowly, looking for petrified wood specimens.
"I smelled bear," he said. "But that ain't nothing new. Then I took about five steps and got hit somehow."
He said he probably awakened the bear from its daybed.
He said he fought hard with the bear and grabbed its nose with both hands, trying to protect his eyes.
During the battle, the grizzly ripped off a big chunk of Johnson's scalp, scraped a wide groove of meat from beneath his right arm, and battered and scratched his torso. A small backpack probably helped him avoid further injury.
"I really fought," he said. "I fought hard."
After a while, the bear left him and moved some distance away. Johnson said he isn't sure how far the bear went.
"I'm mauled. What am I supposed to do? Get out a tape measure?"
He said last week there might have been a cub present, but now he isn't so sure.
"I don't know," he said. "I might have hallucinated it."
Then the bear attacked again, he said, moving incredibly fast, and that's when Johnson, still on his back, reached for the pistol he wore in a holster on his belt.
"I had my hand by my side," he said. "I pulled the gun and went boom. Tell me how fast that is."
The bullet struck the bear just below the snout and it collapsed immediately and almost landed on him, he said. Then he rose to his feet and put three more 240-grain slugs in it.
Johnson wrapped some of his wounds, then had what he estimated to be a 3- to 5-mile hike back to his truck, then a drive to the B-Bar Ranch, where he got help.
Doctors in Livingston needed 75 staples to reattach his scalp to his skull and lots of stitches to close his other wounds.
Still, Johnson insisted on leaving the hospital Friday. The staples were removed Wednesday.
Game Warden Randy Wuertz said Wednesday he will have to investigate the scene. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service likely will investigate as well.
"I'm sure they're not going to do anything to him for carrying a handgun," he said.
Killing a grizzly bear, which is protected as a threatened species, is illegal unless it is in self defense.
"I should've been paying more attention," said Johnson, a burly man with an oversize beard, who often spends weeks at a time alone in the mountains. "I usually do."
But he doesn't regret defending himself.
"He wasn't feeling too sorry for me, either," he said of the grizzly. "I like some of them. But that one I didn't like. That one was trying to kill me."
If I killed a bear in a fight, I wouldn’t have to “admit” I won.
Better to be tried by 11 than carried by 6.
There is no way -for instance - that I would ever again hike in Glacier National without being armed.
Two differant bear attacks one person can defend himself the other one can’t because he was in Yellowstone park.
That also is illegal, does this man not know you are not allowed to steal out of a public park.
I can identify with the general area. I have been fly fishing on the Gallatin River and have picked up some of the petrified wood myself. In fact South of there my brother and I were chased by a Moose in the upper reaches of the Gallatin River while fly fishing. Luckily we never saw a grizzly in that area.
Can you kill a grizzly with a handgun? A grizzly would grab the handgun and eat it.
Guess he has the self defense angle covered.
That’s right. A bear mauls me or a member of my party, the end of that story is going to be “...you’re damn right I shot and killed it!”
I'm not sure he was taking the petrified wood from the park. Does anyone just go find petrified wood to look at it as a hobby? I'm not from that part of the country, I've never heard of it actually.
With a .41 mag, yes. I wouldn’t want to depend on a 9mm against one, though.
Anybody who walks away from a grizzly fight has my respect.
Bear-killin’ ping.
A man got caught moving water bed rock up on the blue ridge parkway, thought it looked good around his house. After he put it all back like he found it, and the replacement inspection was passed,he and his fines were paid I don't know if he still had a house.
“Yep, my brother killed a 4 year old Alaskan brown bear with a 9 mm pistol in self defense. “
But, but - we’re invading their homes in the woods! Don’t you people watch Disney? Can’t we all just get along and love God’s fluffy and gentle critters? [Ah, for the good old days when every man and boy carried a rifle, and the sight of us struck terror in their dim brains.]
A reminder: “When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.” - Jacobson
“If you believe he was looking as a hobby I have a good tip on some bridge stock.”
You know, some say there’s a bear in these woods...
(if you don’t know what I’m talking about, go and stand in the corner)
Check out the real story of “Grizzly Adams”, he use a Colt and finished the bears with a Bowie Knife.
Does it have value to sell?
I believe him.
I myself collect petrified wood as well as many other rocks. We do it at mines, private land, forest service land where allowed, etc. I collected petrified wood on my own land in Texas.
Not everyone is a criminal up to something. Many of your posts seem to give the impression that you think everyone is.
Depends on if the crime of poaching is a felony, punishable by more than one year in prison. If so, he's in deep doo-doo when the BATFE gets wind of this "felon in possession". But if, as I suspect, it's a misdemeanor, then he's ok. I did find one reference for someone getting a year for poaching, but couldn't find the actual allowable punishment.
Isn’t the law truly screwed up when a person has to choose beteen protecting his life and obeying the law?
Well, if they throw him in prison one thing’s for sure - nobody’s gonna mess with him.
LOL!!
That is silly, you can take anything you want off of your own property, but if you take it from public land you are stealing from me.
.50 CAL HANDGUN??!!! I would have to hold that monster with both arms ... and both feet.
Clean shoot as far as I’m concerned.
That S&W .50 could probably be had for less than a Desert Eagle.
First Griz I ever saw in the wild was at Glacier; more precisely, at a trail near Logan Pass. I had...a stick. It wasn’t a good feeling, although it felt great to be able to talk about it afterwards having not been eaten. I’d never hunt a bear with my .41 magnum but if he were hunting me I’m thinking it would be one heckuva lot better than a stick.
You are allowed to take rocks and petrified wood from certain public lands without permits. Different lands (ie. BLM vs. USFS) have slightly different regs. for quantity & size. Larger quantities require permits and may actually be harvested for commercial use.
If as a child 50 years ago, you lost a toy in the USFS and found it today, it is no longer yours and you can’t pick it up. Lots of regs out there.
It isn't illegal to look for petrified wood. It's illegal to remove petrified wood.
Here in Washington state, you can metal detect in the national forests, but you can't dig a hole to investigate a signal.
I'm guessing he probably does.
Do you know how to read an article fully?
I'm guessing again.....no?
Not illegal to remove petrified wood from some public lands. Check the regs before you harvest.
A .41 Remington Magnum is much more powerful than a .44 Special.
Glad he shot the bear and killed it.
That being said, one thing might be better to carry up there. Bear Spray.
Even if you don’t hit it in the face the fumes are overpowering. From what I understand no one using bear spray has been killed by a bear.
I’ve heard it works well on black bears but not grizzly...but I have no personal experience.
The only place grizzlies should be is in a zoo where the tree- huggers can feed them.
What part of illegal do you not understand.
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