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Say you run into a grizzly bear in the woods...
- Thread starter DocHolliday
- Start date
that was actually funny. Like the bear was just saying 'hey, what's up? Oh, sorry, I'll come back later."
I spent one summer in the interior of Alaska mapping soil types for the USDA. We stayed in tents the whole time deep in Griz country. We took two days of "Bear Safety Training" from a very experienced guide up there. He had taken 3 Griz in self defense in his life. He used both a .357 and .44 and preferred the .357 because it had adequate penetration(with good bonded bullets, not hollow points), he could shoot it more accurately, and send follow ups faster. The bottom line is the correct combination of penetration and shot placement. He had also used the pepper spray successfully.
As for me, I never had to test any of this training because thankfully none of the Griz we encountered charged us. I was issued an 870 with slugs. It was too heavy to be practical, so I carried my Glock 20 10mm with Cor Bon 180 grain bonded soft points. A better choice would have been a lead hard cast bullet, but you need an aftermarket barrel for them to fly good. Glocks polygonal rifling wont stabilize them. I really wasn't savvy to all that back then anyway. Personally I trust a Glocks reliability as much as any revolver and feel a lot better about having 16 rounds ready to go quickly.
As for bear pepper spray; I think it would work well...BUT when we tested it in ideal conditions and pointing downwind it darn near took us out of the game. I also heard many first hand stories of the cheap plastic trigger and safety breaking at bad times filling up your tent or the face of the guy behind you with some pretty nasty stuff. It takes about 12-24 hours for you to be able to function normally after that happens. This isn't the end of the world in and of itself, but if you are deep in the wilderness it could lead to getting lost, not being able to find water, or running out of food before you recover. Call me crazy, but I just feel safer with a firearm.
As for what to do in the event of an encounter the following steps are what I would follow, but depending on how fast things happen you may have to skip to the last step at any time. All the bears we saw moved along after step one.
1. Make the bear aware that you are not food by yelling and waving your arms. You don't want to run away or approach.
2. If the bear is starting to charge or just coming too close, then a warning shot at the dirt in-front of the bear is good practice.
3. "Mock charges" are common, so you don't want to actually shoot the bear until it looks committed(like 25 yards and closing fast).
4. Shoot the bear, shoot the bear, shoot the bear, shoot the bear. You need to hit the central nervous system.
I'm sure every state is different, but at the time in Alaska shooting in self defense means that you have to pack out that whole bear and donate it to the state. This is of course to discourage unnecessary killings; basically poaching. Black bears are not nearly as much of a problem, but the same steps apply. So that's my bear safety 101. Other sources will have slightly different advise as non of this is an exact science.
As for me, I never had to test any of this training because thankfully none of the Griz we encountered charged us. I was issued an 870 with slugs. It was too heavy to be practical, so I carried my Glock 20 10mm with Cor Bon 180 grain bonded soft points. A better choice would have been a lead hard cast bullet, but you need an aftermarket barrel for them to fly good. Glocks polygonal rifling wont stabilize them. I really wasn't savvy to all that back then anyway. Personally I trust a Glocks reliability as much as any revolver and feel a lot better about having 16 rounds ready to go quickly.
As for bear pepper spray; I think it would work well...BUT when we tested it in ideal conditions and pointing downwind it darn near took us out of the game. I also heard many first hand stories of the cheap plastic trigger and safety breaking at bad times filling up your tent or the face of the guy behind you with some pretty nasty stuff. It takes about 12-24 hours for you to be able to function normally after that happens. This isn't the end of the world in and of itself, but if you are deep in the wilderness it could lead to getting lost, not being able to find water, or running out of food before you recover. Call me crazy, but I just feel safer with a firearm.
As for what to do in the event of an encounter the following steps are what I would follow, but depending on how fast things happen you may have to skip to the last step at any time. All the bears we saw moved along after step one.
1. Make the bear aware that you are not food by yelling and waving your arms. You don't want to run away or approach.
2. If the bear is starting to charge or just coming too close, then a warning shot at the dirt in-front of the bear is good practice.
3. "Mock charges" are common, so you don't want to actually shoot the bear until it looks committed(like 25 yards and closing fast).
4. Shoot the bear, shoot the bear, shoot the bear, shoot the bear. You need to hit the central nervous system.
I'm sure every state is different, but at the time in Alaska shooting in self defense means that you have to pack out that whole bear and donate it to the state. This is of course to discourage unnecessary killings; basically poaching. Black bears are not nearly as much of a problem, but the same steps apply. So that's my bear safety 101. Other sources will have slightly different advise as non of this is an exact science.
I think I will just stay out of brown bear country.
or sling my saiga .308
or sling my saiga .308
Bears are freaking strong. I used to date a girl in Spartainburg SC who had a friend with a farm in Greenville. She took me there once to go horseback riding...When we came back off the trails, the owner of the farm said he was about to feed his pet bear...wanna come watch? All day there and no one mentions a pet bear. Okay...intrigued. The bear was in the barn in 3 horse stalls with the inner walls removed making one large "bear stall". It was a young female probably 150-175 pounds. She was friendly through the bars, licking my hand and even reached through and pulled me close for a light gnaw to the top of my head in an oddly non-scary way. She never bit down, nor did she sink her claws in. I ended up inside the cage/stall with her. She was very playful and I forgot I was on a date at the time...bear crap all over my clothes became an issue later on lol. The farm owner tossed me a big leather collar and told me to put it on her and we could take her out for a walk. Sounded like a fun plan. Wrong. When she saw that thing...she wooped me pretty decisively. I'm not sure exactly how I ended up under her with her bouncing her front paws up and down on my chest like she was trying out CPR on me but that's where I was and I wasn't getting up till she allowed me to. I outweighed her by at least 100 pounds but that didn't help AT ALL. And...this was all play with a very tame, hand raised youngster. I imagine a tangle with one in fear or rage or hunger or whatever drives a bear to attack, would have been MUCH more painful ...and include the pointy ends of the claws and teeth. Anyway, after I had the wind knocked out of me and was wondering if I may have some damaged ribs and if I was actually pissing her off enough to get her to swat me with open claws...I gave up and told him I couldn't get it on her. He laughed and said, "I never could either. I just wanted to see if you could" ...a$$hole.
Then he told us a story about her getting loose one day. He didn't even know she was missing. Some men were working on the power lines that run along the side of the bottom of his pasture. They left their truck door open and she climbed in and ate their lunches. When they saw her, they ran to the nearest house across the other side of the farm she belonged to where an 85 year old lady lived alone. They came running there screaming about a bear. She looked out and said.."OHHHH I know that bear!" She had one of the men pull the back seat out of her Astro van. She then drove down the powerline to the men's truck and grabbed the bear by the scruff and pulled her out of the truck.. and swatted her back side and chased her into the back of her van and then drove her home...while the 3 big burly men stood huddled safely on her porch watching. I believe the story because you just can't make this sh* up.
Then he told us a story about her getting loose one day. He didn't even know she was missing. Some men were working on the power lines that run along the side of the bottom of his pasture. They left their truck door open and she climbed in and ate their lunches. When they saw her, they ran to the nearest house across the other side of the farm she belonged to where an 85 year old lady lived alone. They came running there screaming about a bear. She looked out and said.."OHHHH I know that bear!" She had one of the men pull the back seat out of her Astro van. She then drove down the powerline to the men's truck and grabbed the bear by the scruff and pulled her out of the truck.. and swatted her back side and chased her into the back of her van and then drove her home...while the 3 big burly men stood huddled safely on her porch watching. I believe the story because you just can't make this sh* up.
Here's on old thread about a black bear on our farm.
http://www.theoutdoorstrader.com/threads/74522-Yogi-Bear-came-by-today?highlight=yogi+bear
The picture which is no longer being hosted by tiny pic was a birdfeeder on top of a eriously thick pipe that the bear just decided didn't need to be so high for his mean and stood on it bending it to the ground.
http://www.theoutdoorstrader.com/threads/74522-Yogi-Bear-came-by-today?highlight=yogi+bear
The picture which is no longer being hosted by tiny pic was a birdfeeder on top of a eriously thick pipe that the bear just decided didn't need to be so high for his mean and stood on it bending it to the ground.
I literally fell to pieces, laughing when I read this ^^^
That ^^^ would be sooo cool having a pet bear cub... And then when the bear grows up he's gonna be loyal & rip apart anyone who screws with the family or your house.
Imagine a burglar breaks into your house at 3am, instead of running into the jackpot of ca$h & appliances... He runs into your 450lb. pet grizzly };^)
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