Just remember when in the ocean to make your anti-Sea Bear circle.
Posted on 07/25/2011 8:28:15 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner
A grizzly bear sow with a cub attacked a group of teenagers on a month-long survival-skills course Saturday night in the Talkeetna Mountains, causing severe injuries to two of the hikers, according to Alaska State Troopers.
(snip)
The group was on the 24th day of a 30-day backpacking trip, school spokesman Bruce Palmer said by phone from Wyoming. It was the group's first day unaccompanied by adult instructors, Palmer said.
"For the last bit of the course, we would have them travel as a student group without the instructors, utilizing the skills that they've learned over time," Palmer said.
(snip)
The seven group members were in a line, calling out to make noise as they crossed the creek, Palmer said. The first hiker had apparently made it out of the water and was out of sight of the others when he began screaming, Palmer said.
The grizzly mauled the teen, attacked another group member, then returned to the first victim, Palmer said.
"It sounds like it was moving around within the group," Palmer said. The hikers carried three canisters of bear spray, but there was no initial indication that the hikers used the repellent, Palmer said.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
All of Fred Bear’s bear bow hunts were backed up by a .458 Win Mag. with 500 Grain SPRN. I know one of his Kodiak guides very well. Used to partner with his son. (Marlin Grasser.)
There was a Merkel double in .416 Rigby available locally. It was a sweet handling gun, fortunately I resisted temptation... I think it’s about $10 a bang for the ammo.
I was only going with what I know, and I know more about pistols than rifles.
He asked me about my weapons, and I replied.
I’ve got him convinced to at least think about it -about it being better to head up into known bear country for hikes and camping armed with something, rather than nothing.
Of course, I have the most effective deterrent against being attacked by bears: Don’t go into their habitat.
Works every time it’s tried.
Yep. That’s the ticket. 12ga with an 18.5” barrel, alternating 00 buck and slugs. Autoloader or pump.
That’s my strategy too. It’s never failed.
Heh! Yep.
Works on sharks, too.
I’m in Denver.
No, no. see you said “stop”, which other posters here say is the wrong terminology because it doesn’t physically stop the bear it just changes it’s behavior.
Even though we both knew what you meant.
“In 2008, BYU professor Tom Smith published a study titled”the efficacy of bear spray in Alaska. In 72 incidents, the spray stopped undesirable behavior 92% of the time for grizzlies(brown),90% of the time for black bears, and 100% of the time for polar bears.
In his database on bear spray use in Alaska, there are 40 cases when people sprayed charging bears. In 84% of those cases the bear turned away.”
That’s just one study of many. Please don’t try and tell me you know the difference between a bluff charge and and a full charge before the charge ends. That would just be stupid.
We’ve got an estimated 4500 black bears in New Hampshire. What would you suggest as a sidearm for defense against them? I’m a long haul hiker, going 13-15 miles in mountains where the vegetation is very dense and the trails are most often only 1 person wide. In other words, there is no place to hide, you’ve got no shelter, and carrying rifles is not permitted. These black bears are 300-600 lbs; I’ve seen them on the other side of the fences in the pens where bear trainers work with them for shows.
The 416 has great power. Part of my preference in a charge stopper is the cartridge taper, which is why the .375 is the best choice. The rounded shoulder .458 and straight sided .416 does not feed very dependably for a follow up shot, which is most always usually the case in a frontal charge.
Of course, a .223 can kill a bear with the right angle and shot placement. But in a frontal charge, there are few options. Heavy caliber, high energy is the only choice to be safe. (Not to mention the most dependable rifle design, usually in a Mauser action.)
I know exactly what you mean, hunted Browns last year on the Nushagak River about 150 miles north of Dillingham.
Those trails are spooky things, made triply so when those damned alders are involved.
Even the guides acted verrrry carefully when on them.
Yeah, I’m in Iowa. The closest sharks are in the aquarium at Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. :-)
Here is how you know if it was a bluff charge or not; If the bear turns away, it was a bluff charge. If it keeps on coming, hit it with your empty pepper spray bottle! (Just before it makes you into a food cache.)
Just remember when in the ocean to make your anti-Sea Bear circle.
LOL!!
Last time I was near the sea was safely on the deck of my LHA back in ‘97.
Those sea bats, however...
In the blink of an eye, a defensive grizzly bear sow was rolling like a freight train through the willows along Peters Creek.
Then the brush was bathed in an orange-gray mist.
And in that instant, hiker Carl Ramm saw the sow’s eye go wide “and it was gone,” he said.
Neither Ramm nor his wife, Susan Alexander, clearly saw the bear leave. They heard it crashing through the brush as it beat a retreat with a cub trailing behind.
“It sounded like a small cub,” Ramm said.
The couple hadn’t known until almost the last moment that they had somehow walked between a grizzly sow and her cub along the Peters Creek Trail, eight or nine miles into Chugach State Park last weekend.
Similar situations have prompted nasty encounters with brown bears. Grizzly sows are extremely protective of their young. Statistics on bear attacks show a predominance of sows with cubs ripping into people, though they don’t often kill.
Read more: http://www.adn.com/2003/06/08/147318/bear-spray-stops-charging-sow.html#ixzz1T8j38gPO
Uhh, no, you don't.
Attacked possibly, but not killed every year.
My understanding is that when Winchester re-tooled with computer controlled machinery a few years back, they switched back to the pre-1964 design / features... If so, would a new or late-model model 70 be a good choice?
If you mentioned where you live, what your credentials are as an expert on bear, how and where you hunt and and any other information that might add to your credibility; I missed it.
If one charges you give it the first round in the center of the chest, or break the front shoulders. Then follow up the shot to the neck or head.
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