Beats: 
Eventually. If you have a fully loaded magazine.
Beats:
Eventually. If you have a fully loaded magazine.
There are many stories of bears taking multiple .30 caliber hits and still coming.
The AK-74 clone is probably in 5.45X39, approximately the same power as a 5.56X45 or .223 that is most common in AR-15 type rifles.
Interesting
Bloomberg says you only need 10 shots.
Isn’t that a kinda small round for taking bear?
I think I had rather have an FN-FAL but it did the job which is all you can ask in the grand scheme.
I once killed a bear with a picture of Hillary Clinton I kept in my backpack for scaring off snakes, sharks, alligators, kudzu, etc. Poor bear vomited himself to death and all the surrounding plant life died too. I burned the picture and bought a Sherman tank for hiking.
I think that falls into the "hey" boo-boo category.
That is one tough hiker! Killing a bear is impressive enough, let alone a bear with an AK-74!
Quantity has a quality all its own.
But, but, but . . . an AK-74 is an ASSAULT WEAPON, and everybody knows that an assault weapon will blow an elephant into tiny little pieces, shattering bone and punching through both sides, showering blood, hide and brain everywhere.
If the hiker had stayed in his car this would not have happened. /Trayvon
Turnagain Arm trail closed after hiker kills charging bear
A man hiking on a popular Turnagain Arm trail near the Seward Highway killed a charging brown bear with a semi-automatic AK-74 rifle Sunday, prompting Chugach State Park rangers to close a section of the trail.
The hiker, who has not been identified by Alaska State Troopers, had set out from the Rainbow trail head at Milepost 108 of the highway Sunday morning, said Tom Crockett, a park ranger. He was near the first Turnagain Arm viewpoint, about a half-mile up the trail toward McHugh Creek, when he spotted the bear. It was on the edge of a birch and spruce forest with abundant blueberries and serviceberries.
“The bear presented its rear end to him,” Crockett said.
The man called, “Hey, bear,” hoping not to startle the animal, he said.
The bear turned and charged, the hiker later told rangers.
The man fired the AK-74 he was carrying, Crockett said. The bear stopped after the first volley of shots, and then charged again.
The man fired once more, Crockett said.
That time the bear folded into a ball, rolling and running downhill and thudding to a stop in a clump of birch trees about 100 yards from the trail.
“There it expired,” Crockett said.
The man called 911 and asked for help.
Crockett and an Alaska State Trooper who responded found the man in the same spot on the trail where he encountered the bear. He wasn’t willing to walk out alone.
“He told me he’s never been so scared in his life,” he said.
Crockett estimated the bear weighed 500 to 600 pounds. The animal bore marks of an eventful life: He had a “big hulking” scar running over the top of his head, likely from a tussle with another bear.
“It was sad to see him go because he was a beautiful specimen,” he said.
It’s not unusual for people recreating in the Chugach to arm themselves with guns for bear encounters, Crockett said. But the gun used in Sunday’s encounter isn’t a typical choice for bear defense.
The AK-74 rifle is an updated version of its cousin, the better-known AK-47 assault weapon. It fires a smaller caliber round than the AK-47 and remains popular in the countries of the former Soviet Union, where it was produced in the 1970s.
“Most people carry something larger caliber,” he said.
It’s legal to carry a gun in Chugach State Park, but guns can only be discharged in defense of life and property or legal hunting.
Crockett says he believes Sunday’s incident met the defense criteria.
The bear’s head and hide were removed and turned in to Alaska Department of Fish and Game for sealing and confiscation, said area wildlife biologist Jessy Coltrane. That’s legally required in incidents of defense of life and property.
The rest of the carcass is still at the spot where the bear was killed, Crockett said. It would have been impractical to remove because of the terrain.
“It’s a heck of a lot of bear to haul out,” he said.
Crockett said he has been fielding calls from residents of Rainbow Valley, who heard the semi-automatic gunfire coming from the trail. Some have raised concerns about the carcass remaining near the trail. Bears protecting a food cache like the carcass can be especially defensive and dangerous.
Bear sightings are reported each summer all over the Turnagain Arm trail.
Crockett said he’d heard a report of a sow and cubs a few miles away on a section of the trail near Windy Corner Monday.
People should hike in groups, make noise and be aware of their surroundings, Coltrane said. “Surprising a bear is usually the worst thing you can do.”
Bear spray can be an effective deterrent.
This is the second time a brown bear has been killed in defense of life and property in the Anchorage area this summer, Coltrane said. A brown bear was killed in Chugiak earlier.
The trail remained closed Monday afternoon. A yellow sign warning of hikers of the presence of a bear carcass was posted near the trail head.
The carcass near the trail will attract other bears, Crockett said.
“This guy is going to get recycled by nature,” he said.
People should stay away.
“My fingers are going to be crossed that a trail runner doesn’t just blow through the warning signs, thinking, ‘Oh, it’ll be OK this time,’ ” he said.
Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/07/29/2997953/section-of-turnagain-arm-trail.html#storylink=cpy
Geez, this guy is lucky, I think. I would be carrying a 45-70 and a .44 Magnum sidearm MINIMUM.
There’s a reason the Mujaheddin called it the “poison bullet”.
I’ve posted this before and I’ll post it again.
In the early 1980’s the AK Dept of Fin and Fur found themselves with a freezer full of bear skulls in the Anchorage office on Raspberry Road (they sold the hides of defense of life and property killed bears at the Fur Rondy auction in February). Some nimrod had the brilliant idea to thaw the skulls, take them to the Rabbit Creek Range, and shoot them with a variety of weapons to see what would reliably penetrate the skull.
Handguns: .357 mag was iffy but larger calibers (.41 mag and up) were effective. This was pre-.454 Casull, .500 S&W, etc.
Rifles: any centerfire .30-30 or larger would reliably penetrate the skull.
Shotguns: this was interesting. It was common practice to alternate buckshot and slugs in a high cap 12 gauge. The tests showed the buckshot to be preactically useless - no matter the size it would not penetrate the skull. The common round nose slugs would skid off the skull about 50% of the time. They tested the then-new-to-the-US market Brenneke 12 ga. slug which has a sharp shoulder and a wadcutter profile. 100% penetration leaving a 12 ga. hole in the skull. Guess what every Alaska fish cop and local LEO carried after that?
Guess what I carried after that? You are correct - a .22LR pistol. My plan was to shoot my wife in the leg and run like hell!
OK, the first part of this post is true.
I once killed a charging black bear in the backyard of my home in Wasilla with a 7.62 x 51 Galil AR. First shot was just below the right eye. Necropsied the bear while skinning. The 150gr. Nosler soft point blew out the back of the skull, traveled down the neck, and I recovered the 30gr bullet base between the hide and the ribs on the right side after about 20” of penetration. That bullet did its job.
When I was hiking in bruin territory I carried a Marlin 1895 in .45/70 with “warm” handloads pushing a 400gr. Speer JSP. There are better bullets available now. I live in the grizzly country of N. Idaho and I still carry that rifle loaded the same way.
My absolute favorite bear attack survival story involved an Inupiat woman in the village of Pt. Hope at the extreme NW corner of Alaska who was walking to a friend’s house in the darkness of January during a blizzard. She was appropriately attired in a skin parka, mukluks, and big mittens. A polar bear jumped her from behind and rolled her over onto her back to kill her. As it opened its jaws she balled up her fist and jammed it into the bear’s gaping mouth. After she had her hand in deep she uncurled her fist and slid her hand out of the mitten leaving it lodged in the bruin’s airway. It choked to death and she lived to tell her tale. Now THAT is a survival story!