Another Revolver Saves the Day in Polar Bear Attack

AmmoLand ^ | December 28, 2023 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

On Sunday, March 24, 2013, a determined polar bear made a fatal error in the prey selection process. The six-year-old healthy male would not be deterred from getting at two humans in a cabin located on Svalbard (administered by Norway) at Hornsund on the island of Spitsbergen. Hornsund is the most southern fjord on the southern tip of the Island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago, about 140 km south of Longyearbyen.

The incident was reported in newsinenglish.no in 2013. The incident is confirmed in the PBHIMS database obtained by AmmoLand, which includes many reports of polar bear attacks that happened in the Svalbard archipelago. In the PBHIMS database, the incident is number 132. It has not been included in the pistol defense database before because the type of firearm used was not mentioned in the PBHIMS.

Several interesting facts are gleaned from the two separate reports. This was the second time the bear was at the cabin on March 24th. It had been driven off with “several means” previously and came back.

The couple inside the cabin went to extreme lengths to avoid shooting the polar bear, which was forcing its way into the cabin through a window. They fired four warning shots. Their defensive firearm was a revolver, which most commonly hold six cartridges. After firing four warning shots, they would only have one or two shots remaining before the necessity of reloading.

Reloading can involve considerable stress when a polar bear is forcing its way into your residence. The incident is listed as self-defense by both the Svalbard administration and in the FOIA database obtained by AmmoLand. This was considered to be a predatory attack. The couple, a man and a woman, were in their 40s. The most common revolver caliber used for bear protection in Svalbard

[Chode]

100%

[Big Red Badger]

I’ve been studying the brain pan of bears as I’m in Northern Arizona and like exploring solo. Dean has written about Bella Twin and the skull of her kill with
a .22 long is very informative. Shot placement being between the Eye and Ear.
From the Front between Eyes and mouth.
I guess From the rear...
Your on your own!

[reasonisfaith]

Any tinnitus would not have been permanent.

Human being 1, deadly bear 0.

[Chode]

lol...