Hunt Ends in Ambush: Hunter Uses 10mm Pistol to Stop Bear Attack

AmmoLand ^ | July 31, 2024 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

In the last week of May 2024, Bowhunter Tyce Erickson used his 10mm S&W 2.0 handgun to defend against a large Kodiak brown bear. The 10mm handgun was loaded with Underwood ammunition utilizing 220-grain hardcast bullets. The hunt was on Kodiak Island in Alaska.

Tyce had wounded a large Kodiak bear in the last two days of the hunt in a shot at a moving bear from 200 yards with a borrowed rifle. The bear was tracked for two miles when it decided to ambush the hunters. The guide was about 10 feet in front of Tyce with a .375 magnum rifle. Tyce followed with his 10mm handgun. His hunting companion was out of sight, about 50 feet away in the dense alder thicket.

The following occurred in a few seconds:

The bear charged the guide from the front, appearing 20 feet away. The guide managed to get off one shot, which hit the bear in the chest/shoulder area, slowing the bear. The guide fired another shot as he backed away, tripping on the brush. The second shot missed as the guide fell backward, trapped in place by the tangled vegetation. The guide yelled for help. Tyce crawled forward to get a shot at the bear without shooting the guide. Alongside the guide, Tyce used the 10mm to fire three rapid shots at the bear, which was whirling around 12 feet away. The bear dropped, rolled downhill, and lay still.

In one account, the guide yelled, “Stop. Don’t shoot the skull!”  The initial wound was to the bear’s hind leg, leaving the bear mobile. The guide’s first shot might have proved fatal, eventually. Two of Tyce’s three shots from the 10mm hit the bear in the neck and back, incapacitating it.

[rod5591]

>>Too bad the bear didn’t get his killers first.

>>So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. (Genesis 9:1-2)

Thank you for your response and I am always encouraged by those who answer with the Word of God. But, wild animals have a hard life and I feel its wrong to hunt them for sport, intending to not eat them for food but only to take their hide, claws and head as is done in bear hunting. More so when you miss your shot and wound the animal who then flees in pain and needs to be hunted down.

Isaiah speaks of a world free from cruelty even for animals in Isaiah 11:6-9

6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together;
and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
9 They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

Most Christian know that the Old Testament is the history of the jews and its commands are under the old covenant, much of which is superseded by the New Covenant under Jesus. For example, should a stubborn and rebellious son be stoned to death as is taught in Deuteronomy? If this were done today not many of us men would be left alive.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21: “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

blessings

[43north]

I performed a “field necropsy” on the bear. My first shot(a Nosler 150gr. tipped soft point) hit him just under the right eye, blew out the back of the skull, traveled along the spine, and I recovered the 30 gr. base of the bullet between the hide and the ribs on the right side. It had penetrated about 24”. I believe that was a kill shot but the adrenaline dump was so strong he just kept on coming. The fourth shot tumbled and made an elliptical entry wound at the left chest, traversed across the ribs, and created a 6” diameter exit wound that completely tore the right foreleg away from the shoulder. It was pretty dramatic. Best part is I lived to tell about it!

[riverrunner]

Most likely his forward momentum and some nerve reaction that he kept moving.

Being a hound hunter we head shoot a lot of bears out of the tree.

Good solid brain hits mostly result in DRT the way we like them.

But strange things do happen once the bullet leaves the barrel.

[43north]

Color me shocked when that head shot didn’t make him DRT. I shot a big Prince William Sound black bear one spring with a .338 Win Mag broadside through the chest. He jumped up and ran bleeding profusely. I followed the blood trail across a snow field, up a rock face, over a hill top, across another snowfield, and into the rainforest for a total of about a mile and knew that without a dog I’d never find him so you are correct - funny things happen to bullets after they leave the barrel. Plus, you rarely see hunting failures on YouTube.