Posted on 07/31/2009 5:47:05 AM PDT by marktwain
BOULDER, Colo. — It took three rounds from a shotgun, five bullets from a handgun and two shots from a rifle to kill the 120-pound black bear that broke into a Boulder County home early Monday morning.
The bear break-in was the fifth time in a week hungry bears have gotten into Boulder County residences, all while the residents were home. That has wildlife officials urging area residents to take precautions and bear proof their homes.
Brenda Fischer's barking dog woke her at about 2 a.m. Monday morning. When she went upstairs to investigate, she found a bear in the kitchen of her home on Poorman Road, between Sunshine and Fourmile canyons.
Fischer quickly returned downstairs to wake her two children and her husband.
"As soon as I knew there was a bear inside the house, I went to gather up both our weapon and our ammunition, because they are in two different places, and went to place myself with the weapon between the family and the bear," said Paul Fischer, Brenda's husband.
"As soon as I moved to try and make a place for him to get out, he charged me," Fischer continued. "That's when I shot him and he kept charging me. I shot him a second time, and he kept charging me. I shot him a third time and he was finally disoriented enough for me to get away."
The first two rounds from the 12-gauge shotgun were birdshot and the third was rubber bullets, according to a report by the sheriff's office. The Fischers escaped through a bedroom window, leaving the wounded bear inside the house.
When officers arrived on the scene at about 2:30 a.m., they found a bloody bear trying to claw his way through a screen door.
Sheriff's Sgt. Lance Enholm, after determining that the bear was severely injured and would need to be put down, fired his .45-caliber handgun five more times at the animal.
"(The first shot) struck the bear in the head, and it immediately reacted and began flopping around and growling," Enholm wrote in his report. "... I fired another round from my handgun, again striking the bear in the head. This didn't appear to have any impact on the bear, and it kept coming towards me."
It was shot number nine, however, this time from the sergeant's .223-caliber rifle, that finally felled the bear; a final round ended the bear's suffering, according to the police report.
Paul Fischer told officers he was certain the bear, determined to be a juvenile male, was the same one he'd seen on his property several times recently.
State wildlife officials said it's impossible to know, however, if this bear was the same one that broke into three other Boulder County homes in the past week.
"The bears are out right now, and they're looking for food," said Jennifer Churchill, spokeswoman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. "I had hoped that, with all the wet weather this year, we wouldn't have as many incidents. But I'm told they're kind of between food sources right now."
But even with abundant natural food, high-calorie human food can be irresistible for bears, which eat as many as 20,000 calories a day by late summer and early fall to fatten up for the winter. And once the bears have gotten a hold of a human-made food, they'll keep coming back no matter how many berries are on the bushes.
"Birdseed is often times the first thing that bears get in trouble with," Churchill said, "and that starts the vicious cycle of them getting too comfortable with humans."
“It took three rounds from a shotgun, five bullets from a handgun and two shots from a rifle to kill the 120-pound black bear...”
That must have been one mad bear.
I read a story in one of the outdoors magazines where a griz was killed with one shot from a .220 swift. Shot placement is critical.
The 12 gauge should have ended the incident - but the home owner had it loaded improperly and I’m guessing that since it was a tube gun (as it most likely was) he couldn’t swiftly change load.
I have a Saiga 12, a magazine fed 12 gauge AK-pattern shotgun. Primary load is 10 rounds of 00 buck - but I have a second 5 round mag of magnum copper slugs clipped to the side Picatinny rail in case the 00 doesn’t work.
The Diaries of Lewis and Clark record a grizzly shot 9 times by .60 caliber rifle slugs through the lungs who was still capable of chasing men up a tree before it finally succumbed.
A guy down the road from me came upon a similar sized bear in his livestock pen. One round of .44 mag from his Redhawk did the trick.
That’s a sweet weapon. Was looking at that Saiga myself at the last gun show I attended.
I think it would make my Bushmaster AR-15 a fine companion!
Militant
You can tell these guys aren’t FReepers, they needed 3 guns.
The Casull .454 is a more appropriate round for large animals at close range. The .45 ACP was designed to take down homo sapiens, and for that it works quite well.
:)
It does rather solve the traditional AK problem, doesn’t it? :D
The bears must have discovered that most or the COMMIES in Boulder are a soft touch!
That was some magic bear. Just imagine how tough he’d have been, if he’d come holding a grudge.
Well there's a problem. For a habit like that you'd need just about every picnic basket that's in Jellystone Park.
First he had to find his unloaded gun, then go find ammo that was stored in a different location.
Next stupid plan was to load the gun with birdshot ( likely low brass 7 1/2) and freaking rubber bullets!
Had it not been a cub his entire family would likely be dead.
Now this is what I call very very stupid. What was the plan to make the bear die laughing!
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO BLACK BEARS IN AMERICA!!
As soon as the police identified him as a true black bear they should have left him alone.
Obama says the police acted “stupidly” in dealing with the BLACK bear and that this highlites the struggles many black bears have with profiling. - Tonight at 5.
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