Posted on 02/03/2026 4:20:16 AM PST by marktwain
The pellet appears to be .177 caliber, using the knife bolt head to scale the pellet size. The bolt head is assumed to be .25 inches, the size of a bolt head on Outdoor Edge Razor-Lite knives. The knife seems to be a Outdoor Edge Razor-Lite variation, but the identification is not certain. The pellet could be distorted by impact forces, as well.
On September 1, 2024, in Willits, Colorado, a resident shot a black bear sow with a pellet rifle. The man said he was attempting to harass the sow to have it move away from his neighborhood, because children might encounter the sow and the two cubs.
According to the Aspen Times, the pellet hit the bear in the side, penetrated a rib, hit at least one lung, and was lodged in the opposite rib cage.
The man who shot the bear was charged with the unlawfull killing of a black bear and unlawfull failing to comply with provisions of a license. The citations carry penalties of $100 plus $37 surcharges each, for a potential of $274. He said he used the pellet gun only after attempts with a garden hose and ammonia failed to persuade the bear to leave. He said he made multiple attempts to obtain help from the authorities.
The sow appears to be about 200-250
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
Talk about a golden BB. Both bear and homeowner were unlucky.
0.177 Hornet.
I use those on nuisance vermin like chipmunks and squirrels.
Quite effective for penetration, pushing aside the dense fur.
Pathetic. He likely saved human lives.
Shooting a bear with a pellet gun, usually ends up with an injured and pissed off, in this case, mama bear.
You can get lucky once in awhile.... The majority of black bear attacks are by male bears not sows with cubs as most folks think.
We have bears around all the time and like watching them. When they get to close to the house I’ll toss out a large firecracker and they’re gone. Had about a 2 or 3 year old staring at me through the deck door one night last summer about 4’ from my chair. I hollered banged on the door and went out after him... luckily I scared it enough he took off over the railing..the deck is 14’ off the ground with access through the house. He went over an electric fence around the deck railing as well. We have anti climb spike rails now. Wife said I was nuts. We’re in our 70s. I wouldn’t do it again but it seemed appropriate at the time.
Had another nuisance bear... firecrackers didn’t work but 12 guage buckshot in the azz did.
They’re beautiful animals to watch and far better than humans for the most part.
Its was there home before a unneeded subdivision was dropped there .
Now who raises the cubs so they can go back to the wild .
The same clowns are here in FL .
The black bear land becomes another dem yankee invested ugly complex .
BS
He was stalking the bears for fun and killed a mother with two cubs .
Charge him .
Dead bear = zero recidivism rate. No repeat offenders.
Another advantage is the message it sends to the ‘hood.
(Both to the bears and the nutcases who like to feed them)
Eventually , you’ll have a back yard that’s safe for kids to play.
Shooting a bear with a pellet gun, usually ends up with an injured and pissed off, in this case, mama bear.
Bears do not like to be hurt. The pellet probably caused as much discomfort as an insect sting. The bear did not react very strongly. It likely felt weaker and weaker, then could not stand, then died.
Nearly all bears are more afraid of humans than humans are afraid of bears, and for good reason. Humans are much more deadly to bears than bears are to humans.
This does not mean humans should regard bears as harmless. It means bears should be very wary of humans.
Probably illegal, everywhere, could result in an injured bear. Usually use a dozen bottle rockets in an empty beer bottle fired off at once, sends them running.
FTA:
“...the pellet hit the bear in the side, penetrated a rib, hit at least one lung, and was lodged in the opposite rib cage.”
.
Lung tissue offer little resistance to the passage of a pellet. This momma-bear didn’t drop in its tracks, and suffered.
Charge him.
We must have read different descriptions of the incident.
I didn’t see anything about him stalking the bears. Sounds like he was trying to scare them out if his yard.
The cubs were also human-habituated. They should also be put down as future problem bears.
A fed bear is a dead bear.
Bears which become human-habituated become problems. They should not be allowed to become human habituated in the first place.
Chipmunks are native to Appalachia, so we don’t have them in Florida. When I get to New Hampshire, I have trained chipmunks. They’re a lot of fun and do very little damage.
Red squirrels, on the other hand, should be eradicated...!
Once the whale was exhausted and the longboat pulled beside it, the harpooneer would administer the coup de grâce with the lance. The lance was similar to the harpoon but shorter than the harpoon with a sharpened rounded head about 2" wide. And it wasn't barbed like the harpoon so it could be withdrawn easily and re-inserted again and again.
Piercing the heart produced the quickest death but that was a harder target and took some skill to locate, usually resulting in the spouting of blood as the plural sac filled. The lungs were larger and more accessible and piercing both assured death, albeit slower and more agonizing.
So even the largest animals that ever lived can be killed by a relatively small injury to the lungs, even 40-foor whale, by means of slits just 2" long.
To the hunter's advantage (and the prey's regret) the lungs of most large prey mammals are situated very close to the heart, so aiming for the heart at the very least usually assures at least a lung shot.
Bear was eating crab apples, never went into peoples trash.
“This is terrible. The mother bear was not aggressive at all. She came onto our property with her cubs (and) ate grass and apples,” Diana Elliot, a resident of the neighborhood, said in an email to The Aspen Times. “Once our dog had her cubs treed, and she just looked at her and went back to eating grass. We got our dog inside and rang a triangle, and she and the cubs left. She didn’t get into the trash or approach the house
Didn't know they kill birds, until I saw it happen.
Today’s pellet guns/rifles are not the same as the old Daisy BB guns we had back in the 60’s, but I’m still surprised a pellet took down a black bear.
Your comment takes the prize for the most incoherent statement I have read this month. Take heart, there is a lot of month left.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.