AK-74 bear kill, article

[Float Pilot]

Alaska man kills charging bear with assault rifle

Published July 30, 2013
Associated Press




ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A trail south of Anchorage has been closed after a man killed a brown bear that charged him.

Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist Jessy Coltrane tells the Anchorage Daily News that an unidentified man came across the bear Sunday morning while hiking alone. He told Coltrane the bear charged him, and he fired 13 rounds from an AK-74 assault rifle he was carrying on his hike.

Chugach State Park Ranger Tom Crockett said the bear ran off, but later died.

Officials say the bear was skinned and the head taken to Fish and Game. But a large portion of the carcass remains about 100 yards off the trail, and likely will attract other bears.

Rangers have closed the trail between McHugh Creek and the Rainbow trailhead.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/07/3...arging-bear-with-assault-rifle/#ixzz2aYksc5Ky

 

[Cosmoline]

The version in the ADN describes two volleys being fired, and the bear rolling up and falling down the hill not running off.

 

[Napalm]

Who the heck hikes with an AK74?

 

[fallout mike]

"Death" bullet at work..

 

[MtnCreek]

man killed a brown bear

Anyone want to take a wild guess at what brand ammo was used.

 

[fallout mike]

Silver bear?

 

[Adam123]

Who the heck hikes with an AK74?

A smart man.

 

[JShirley]

A larger round would have been smarter. It worked, but he got lucky.

 

[mooner]

Brown Bear.

 

[Sam Cade]

A larger round would have been smarter.

After the first 10 rounds I'm sure the shooter would have been in total agreement.

 

[M1key]

This should open up many more lively discussions...

opcorn:

M

 

[jack44]

That's a strange cal. to hike in bear country! you would think something like a 45/70 or larger cal.

 

[redneck383]

Why does anyone NEED more than ten rounds? I'd like to hear this guy's reasoning.

 

[Fishbed77]

he fired 13 rounds from an AK-74 assault rifle he was carrying on his hike.

Wow. A transferable full-auto AK-74 assault rifle is an awfully rare and expensive woods gun to carry while hiking.

 

[Float Pilot]

Many years ago I was posed down in Petersburg Alaska and my buddy next door worked for the FAA doing remote navigation site maintenance and repair.
So he was dropped off via helo and had to hike up to the top of mountains and hills to ply his trade.
He once carried an AR-15 and had to use it on an aggressive Brown Bear.
When I interviewed him later the next day, he was still out of breath. When asked about how many rounds he fired, his immediate answer was..... " Thirty "

 

[Fryerpower]

Might have been his best choice from his personal weapons. Obviously it was not the worst weapon to carry. Not too heavy. Large standard magazine capacity. If he had a 30 round magazine in it, he still had 17 left. I can think of a lot WORSE weapons to have carried that day.

Still trips the pet peeve about assault weapons. It is not an assault weapon. It is simply a medium caliber, semi-automatic rifle with a detachable magazine. Your choice of 5, 10, 20, 30, or 45 round magazines are readily available.

5.45 x 39mm to the rescue!

Jim

 

[Cosmoline]

Ammo has been a real problem for most big bores this year, but 5.45 has been available continuously.

I've had more wildlife encounters on that Turnagain trail than I have anywhere in the sticks. It's full of bears, though they're usually black bears. Every year it seems like a brown bear will come down there and start chasing people around until it's shot. That's the same trail network where two people were killed in '95.

 

[HorseSoldier]

Who the heck hikes with an AK74?

There's a guy up here in the Anchorage area who used to post on the Bushcraft USA forum. From his posts there he seemed like a pretty serious prepper/survivalist type, and had a lot of pics of him out and about doing woodsy/bushcraft stuff with the AK74 he carried as a woods gun. (Which struck me as an odd choice.)

Certainly not the only 74 in the state, but I'm wondering if it's that guy, as 5.45 (or 5.56) just isn't a common caliber choice up here for hiking/bear defense.

 

[adelbridge]

How big was the bear? How close was it? I am sure the forensic evidence had to match his story, State Wildlife Officers have seen and heard everything.

 

[JShirley]

I wonder if the hiker was hoping to get a shot at some small game? But, no, then he would have been described as a "hunter", I suppose.

 

[mr.trooper]

A bear is more than capable of absorbing a hit from any rifle that you can reasonably hike around with.

Daydreams about dropping a charging bear with one expertly placed shot, and a steely look on your brow are nothing but fantasy.

I think the AK74 is a great choice. You can rattle off a LOT of lead in a hurry, and still stay mostly on target - just the ticket for turning a charging bear. Basically, your chances of getting a physical stop on a bear that is already charging are very low. Chances of getting a psychological stop seem to be much higher from the incidents and reports I've read... but then again, I'm no bear expert.

 

[jmr40]

AR's and Mini-14's are quite popular among native Alaskans. They hunt moose and caribou regularly and don't seem to have any problems using them for bear defense if needed. I watched an episode on Discovery Channel a few years ago where they were going after a problem polar bear armed with AR's.

 

[jungle]

Lots of game has been killed with the .223/5.45 in Alaska, and it has stopped at least one known Polar Bear attack. Maybe not the first choice, but it does better than most would think and scores 100% in both documented cases of small bore military carbines vs big mean bear. Think of it as a much better shotgun.




http://newsminer.com/news/2008/mar/28/polar-bear-killed-fort-yukon/

Polar bear killed near village in Interior Alaska
By Mary Beth Smetzer

Published Friday, March 28, 2008

A polar bear wandering around the outskirts of the Interior village of Fort Yukon, 250 miles inland from its normal coastal habitat, was spotted eating lynx carcasses Thursday morning and was killed later in the day because of safety concerns.

The bear was first spotted outside a cabin on the edge of town by Peter John, said Tony Carroll, who had recently been skinning lynx at the cabin.

Most people didn’t believe him, Carroll said, but as word spread around town, more than a half dozen hunters began tracking the bear.

Zeb Cadzow, maintenance director at the Council of Athabascan Tribal Government, took off work after lunch to join in the hunt.

“There’s usually grizzly around this time of year,” he said. “You want to get rid of it because it’s hungry.”

The men tracked the bear three miles out of town to the Porcupine River, where it moved onto a river island.

At that point, most of the hunters returned to Fort Yukon for a sled dog race, leaving Cadzow, 30, and Paul Herbert, 60, to continue the hunt.

“We assumed we were chasing a grizzly bear,” Herbert said.

Cadzow concurred, thinking the white description meant it was an albino bear or a grizzly covered in frost.

While Herbert waited at one end of the island, Cadzow, on foot, went into the brush tracking the bear.

Suddenly, the bear came out from under a brush pile about 10 yards away. It charged straight at Cadzow, who was carrying an AR-15, a rifle similar to the U.S. Army’s M-16.

The encounter was so close, Cadzow said, he didn’t have time to lift and sight the rifle.

“I shot from the hip, seven or eight times,” he said. “If I had gotten it to my shoulder, it (bear) would have been on top of me. It happened so quick, by the time it was down, it was about 10 feet from my feet.”

According to the hunters, the young female bear appeared to be in good health and wasn’t starving.

 

[MattShlock]

The only other more nutty thing than going after polar bear with an AR is carrying an AK74. This guy is kooky and I hope they figure out what the heck really happened and move him back to South Central, in cuffs...

 

[jungle]

A lot of the natives to the area are slightly built, poor and need something light that fires cheap ammo that is easy to carry. Lots of ARs and Mini 14s in the area as all purpose rifles.

They don't read gun mags, ballistics tables or gun forums, but they have a huge amount of real world experience. Something a lot of us don't have.