Wounded Black Bear attacks hunter, hunter responds with .45

[rhoggman]

Notice in the article the bear stalked them for 3 hours after the initial "shot". I highly doubt this bear was in shock. I'm more apt to believe the "shoulder hit" was superficial, and basically a non player in this story. 3 hours is enough time for any animal to bleed to death from a body shot even if it were not an ideal hit. Going into shock from a gunshot wound is a direct result of blood loss. The fact that the bear stalked them, and circled them fr a long period of time tell me that this animal was already winning the game. The hunted and the hunter in this story are twisted rounds.

Like I say it is only my guessing, but my guesswork tells me these folks did not have a "dead bear walking" or a significantly wounded animal. They also could not find a blood trail.

We have a joke for people who take bad shots. After we walking around for hours trying to find an animal that has been squarely hit we sit around the campfire and tell stories about that "dead deer on the loose".

In the case of a bear. You had better damn sure know that it is dying before you go tromping around looking for it.

As in your advice... wait 30 min.... go look for blood.... If you cannot find ANY blood.... You probably should go home and sleep it off. Maybe come back at day break to figure out what happened. Maybe this would not be the ideal method for all animals, but for a bear, I would require some blood on the ground before I started running around in the woods looking for the bear that ain't bleeding. At least with some blood you know the animal has been hit. Then IMO it is your obligation to do everything you can to find the animal.

 

[eye5600]

Maybe the guy should have spent some more time at the range. A good shot from a .338, .45, or .44 mag with the right bullet should drop an animal that size. Carry what you can shoot the best, a rifle, pistol or whatever.

This is called failing to learn from other people's experience.

 

[shooterfromtexas]

45 is too slow........

 

[JohnnyOrygun]

I was thinking this happened in Washington, since it was a Seattle paper... but then I did something, I read the article! Whoa, imagine my shock when I find out this article was quoted from my local paper! I live in Douglas County Oregon, my friend just shot a big black bear this last spring. We have a lot of black bears around here, I almost ran over one several years ago while my buddy and I were changing locations while elk hunting, all I saw was a black blur and my friend yelling "Bear!!".

While I love my 1911, I don't think it's enough for protection from bear. Since I don't have a 44, if I am in the woods I carry my King Cobra in 357, while 357 maybe marginal for defense against bears, it's better then 45.

In the end I am just glad that he survived and from the article it sounds like, for someone who was mauled by a bear, he actually got off pretty light. No arteries hit or tendons torn. So all in all, God was looking out for him.

JohnnyOrygun

 

[mgregg85]

I don't know of any gun that I could carry that I would feel comfortable using against a charging bear. If I had to pick one(a legal to own one, ie not a machine gun) I'd take a Marlin Guide gun.

People have killed bears with pieces of firewood though, so its really more about where you hit them and a lot of luck.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

some old boy let the air outa a bear with a knife a few years back

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1023312/posts

http://neveryetmelted.com/2006/07/23/55-year-old-ontario-man-kills-bear-with-knife/

 

[Five-O]

- - a woman in VT died and her honda CRX was totaled when she hit a moose at night <snip> Problem with hitting a moose with a CRX is that you basically knee-cap it, and then the body/trunk falls through the windshield and into your lap. After I heard that story, I got a VERY big sedan <snip

Around 1990 I was sleeping in the back seat of my cousin's Olds sedan while on our way from Anchorage to the Kenai for some salmon fishing. It was very eary in the morning and still dark. I awoke, and shortly started talking about how dumb moose are. Suddenly a large female appeared right in front of the car. My cousing applied brake but still hit the moose sending it over the hood, sliding back, hitting the windshield. There was not enough speed to send it smashing through the windshield but it was smashed. The moose continued sliding across to the passenger side taking off the radio antenna. It landed on the road, got up a little shaken, and slowly walked away. We stopped and got out to see if it had been killed. She just looked at us for a few seconds, probably thinking, "dumb driver" and dissappeared into the brush. Had I been sitting in the front seat, and had there been more car speed, it may have gone through the windshield and I would now be looking down from above wondering, "why me?"

 

[mbt2001]

Who knows if the story they tell is true, but if that bear really did start circling around on them, to hunt them, I would have taken a tip from the Indians and gone to a sweat lodge after the confrontation was decided. Bears do not usually act that way. There are legends of dead warriors that have come back as bears or wolves to count coup though...

Just saying....