Bear Attack in Alaska Stopped with .40 S&W Pistol

AmmoLand ^ | November 10, 2022 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

The bear who attacked the Bates family was a sow about 20 years old, estimated at 350 lbs. It was starving, with nothing in the stomach but parasites.

The attack occurred as the Bates family, Weatherly Bates, her husband, their 12-year-old son, Rockwell, their 10-year-old daughter Vera, and two family dogs, on leashes, were hiking on the Glacier Moraine Trail in Kachemak Bay State park.

Weatherly Bates had a .40 caliber S&W in her backpack. The bear came at them at about 3 p.m., even though they yelled at it and bunched together.

Weatherly Bates explains what happened:

“It did attack. It was a predatory bear That year we had a lot of problems. The bears were starving. There was, like, no berries. We were hiking and we noticed there was a bear spray cap on the ground. A couple of minutes later a bear came up behind us.  I tried to yell and scare it away, but it kept coming. I did have a gun in my backpack, so I started backing up to my husband.”

Weatherly’s husband accessed the pistol from her backpack. Weatherly continues:

“I could tell this bear wasn’t stopping. Our dog got in between the bear and our son. She didn’t even bark at it. It tackled her and started biting her head. We let our other dog go, he was on a leash. He started biting the bear. We think that is what saved our female German Shepard.

My husband had to grab the bear and get it so he could dispatch it without shooting our dog. He shot it point blank in the spine. It took two shots before it let go. Then he shot it about five more times.”

Weatherly said about two weeks previously, a biologist had been waking in the park with her dogs.

[Flaming Conservative]

Thanks.

[DarthVader]

I believe that this bear was a Kodiak that killed Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard who had no business being there. The woman who killed the bear with a 22 had the luxury of being able to snipe it. A charging bear is a different story. You really need a .44 Magnum or 10-mm Auto minimally.

[marktwain]

.44 magnum and the 10mm are both good, proven cartridges with enough penetration to be effective on body shots to big bears.

I have read the account on how the bear which killed Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend, Amy Huguenard.

There were three people involved at the killing of the bear. Two were armed with 12 gauge shotguns loaded with slugs; one was armed with a .40 caliber pistol.

Each of the men with shotguns fired five times. The man with the pistol, Ranger Ellis, fired 11 times.

[DarthVader]

They are great cartridges. Also .454 Casull, .480 Ruger, .500 S&W, 475 & 500 Linebaugh are real good to. A friend of mine lives in bear and moose country and carries a .454 Casull. He swears by it.