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In Jasper National Park of Canada, in the Province of Alberta, a couple’s beloved pet was taken by a black bear and killed in a predatory attack. Bear spray was used at very close range, directly into the bear’s face. Then the empty can of spray was used as an ineffective impact weapon. It did not work well. The predatory black bear took the dog into the woods and killed it without remorse or thought. A bear, when hungry, is not a friend to other animals. The other animals, including other bears, are just a source of meat.From ParksCanada (facebook):Parks...

A bit after noon on February 27 at Vestpynten in the Svalbard Archipelago (administered by Norway), far north of the arctic circle, a polar bear was shot during a conflict with people and dogs. Vestpynten is a small village in the Archipelago roughly 90 miles North and a bit West of Longyerbyen.The incident report was uncovered with a Freedom of information Act (FOIA) request by AmmoLand. Individual names have been redacted. The report was translated into English, so it has been edited for readability, and fictitious names have been substituted. From the FOIA account, incident 162:The bear was observed around...

As the research into how effective pistols are when used as a defense against bears has progressed, a startling progression has been observed. The recorded use of pistols in defense against bears has grown by two orders of magnitude in recent decades.As pistols came into common use, they were almost certainly used in defense against animal attacks. Portable, reasonably reliable pistols, which could be used as a defensive weapon against an unexpected attack, were unavailable until about 1534 when wheellock pistols became available. They were relatively expensive. Arms of the period were commonly privately owned. Some were likely used in...

Salmon on My Mind, by Francis E. Caldwell, 197 p. Lighthouse Press, 2004 They spotted a flock of goldeneye ducks and made a plan to get within range of the birds. The plan involved rounding a long spit of land in their skiff, then crossing the spit to come up on the ducks. Paul was running the outboard motor. As the skiff grounded on the beach, Frank jumped out to tie up the boat to an alder at the edge of the brush.From page 124 of Salmon on My Mind:I carried a Remington pump shotgun. Paul had a rusty, beat-up...

In 2020, Mike Becwar was, without provocation, attacked by a cinnamon black bear in Alaska. He fought back with a folding knife and survived. This is his story. On May 29, 2020, Mike was going stir-crazy. This was during the COVID restrictions. He had been pushed to extend two weeks longer than the usual period in the remote camp at Pump Station Number 5.He had to get out of the camp to relieve stress. He chose to take a run along the road to the camp airport, around the runway, and back into camp, about a 3 1/2 mile run....

In the research done by this correspondent and colleagues, much credit must be given to those who sent detailed information about bear attacks and pistol defenses. As incidents of defense against bears with pistols mounted, some did not have enough information to be considered documented. One of those was mentioned by Warden Louis Kis in “More Alaskan Bear Tales” by Larry Kaniut on page 276. In previous articles, it was mentioned as an incident requiring more information. Readers were asked to provide information. The information was presented thus:Early 1960s, North Fork of the the Flathead river in Montana, .22 H&R...

On July 20, 1993, near Paulabren, Norway, three people fought off a polar bear using two handguns. Paulabren is part of the Svalbard archipelago, under Norwegian administration, north of the arctic circle, south of Longyearbyen. This story was uncovered as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by AmmoLand. The names of the individuals involved were redacted. The original account is a translation. Names have been added to make the report more understandable. The report has been lightly edited for ease in reading. The attack was by a single sow polar bear, on polar researchers in their camp.From...

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On October 11, 2022, a Washington State resident and his wife were hunting birds on block grant land near a creek bottom, with their dogs, in Choteau, Montana. They were charged by a large grizzly bear boar. The 51-year-old doctor was hit by the bear and his lower leg was broken. The doctor defended himself with his shotgun and his sidearm, a 10 mm pistol.Block grant land in Montana is privately owned land on which the landowner has signed a contract with the Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks (FWP). The contracts vary but provide access to...

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 9-year-old boy was seriously injured by a brown bear while hunting north of Anchorage, Alaska State Troopers said Wednesday. Troopers said the bear attacked two people — a 41-year-old male and a 9-year-old boy — near mile 36 of the Glenn Highway, at the end of Matanuska Townsite Road on Tuesday. The man and young boy came across a brown bear sow and her cub while hunting in the Palmer Hay Flats area. The bear mauled the boy, leaving him with serious injuries. The adult who was accompanying the child was armed and shot and killed the brown bear...

Detailed, official information has surfaced about the defensive use of a pistol failure involving a .22 pistol and a polar bear in the Svalbard archipelago of Norway. One of the three documented cases where a pistol was fired to defend from a bear and failed was the sad tale of crew passengers from the tour/expedition ship Origo in the summer of 1995. The event, as related in a travel guide, was documented on AmmoLand. There were several other sources that corroborated the event; the details were from the travel guide.As part of ongoing research to discover documented cases where pistols...

On August 6, 2022, at about 1 p.m., a hiker In Jasper National Park was approached to within about 100 feet by a black bear. The hiker was carrying a 20 gauge shotgun. He fired a warning shot, which did not dissuade the bear. He continued down the trail a short way, only to discover the bear had stalked closer to him. He fired a slug at the bear. The bear was hit and rolled down a creek bank toward a stream. From CBC.ca:A person called Jasper Dispatch to report their friend had shot a black bear with a 20-gauge...

A bear entered a home in Steamboat at 2 a.m. Saturday. Kelly Mauldin heard her dogs barking and got up to investigate and discovered the 300-400 male bear in her house. She screamed for her husband, Ken, who got up and shot and killed the bear. When I went to my bedroom door, I saw the bear about 10 feet away and shot it instantly with a 40-caliber, semi-automatic handgun. Then the bear charged me. I continued shooting at it as fast as I could. The bullet hole in the floor suggested the bear got about five to six feet...

Image of Old Groaner's skull from the front. The bear's left eye arch is intact. Thanks to Hayley Chambers of the Ketchikan Museums for pictures of Old Groaner's skull.In the first three segments of this series, the formation of the myth of Old Groaner was discussed.In segment I, the original article, published in February of 1936, almost certainly written less than two months after Old Groaner was killed, is detailed. Old Groaner was killed in November of 1935. It takes time to put a paper magazine together and to print it, especially in 1936.In segment II, the 1953 re-write and...

The original illustration by F.W Gabler was changed for the 1953 and 1986 re-writes of the article.This is the part III in a series of four segments on the Old Groaner legend.In segment I, the original article, published in the February 1936 issue of Alaska Sportsman is examined.In segment II, the 1953 re-write and some of the major changes in the rewrite are examined.We may never know why the many changes were made to the Old Groaner story when it was re-written by W.H. "Handlogger" Jackson and published in the March issue of the 1953 Alaskan Sportsman as "The Moaning...

Part I. The events which started the storyIn early November 1935, at the upper reaches of the Unuk river in Southeastern Alaska, prospector, trapper, and logger, Bruce Johnstone, shot a near-world record grizzly bear in self-defense. The bear had been shot in the head previously but had survived and healed, leaving the skull deformed and the bear blind on the right side.The skull was brought back to Ketchikan. The story was published in the February 1936 issue of the struggling Alaska Sportsman, written by F. W. Gabler. Gabler interviewed the shooter, Bruce Johnstone. Both Johnstone and Gabler were longtime residents...

Scene five hours after Leah Lokan was Killed by Grizzly Bear in Ovando, MTIn the early morning hours of July 6, 2021, in the village of Ovando, Montana, mere feet from several buildings, Leah Lokan was attacked by a 417 pound grizzly bear. She valiantly used bear spray in an attempt to stop the attack. The bear spray failed. Ms Lokan was a small but strong woman. She was killed in the unprovoked predatory attack. Leah Lokan as remembered by a friend.Leah Lokan facebook image link While not the first bear spray fatality in 2021, the attack and defensive failure...

On August 13, 1977, Cynthia Dusel-Bacon was working for her third summer as a geologist for the Alaskan branch of the United States Geological Survey. She was 30 years old and in excellent physical condition. She was field mapping, doing helicopter-assisted traverses of the Big Delta quadrangle. She had a geologist’s hammer, a walkie-talkie radio, and a rucksack with lunch, which she also used to stow rock samples she collected. The project chief believed “guns added more danger to an encounter than they would prevent”. Her views became policy on the project.Cynthia later said, in a taped interview for Larry...

A little before 11 p.m. on Friday, May 20, a wife and mother looked outside her rural home on Castle rd. near Medford, Wisconsin, in Taylor County. A bear was eating the bird feed from their bird feeder. She partly opened a window and yelled at the bear to go away. The bear disputed her position as owner. From wqow.com: According to the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office, authorities received a report of a bear attack at a home on Castle Road in the Township of Medford Friday around 11 p.m.In a press release, authorities report a husband and wife noticed...

<p>MEDFORD, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin couple say they killed a bear that attacked them inside their home after they spotted it eating from their bird feeder.</p><p>The Taylor County Sheriff’s office said the attack happened around 11 p.m. Friday at a home near Medford in north-central Wisconsin. The couple told authorities that the bear charged through a window after they yelled at it to go away.</p>