Bring Enough Gun

[Shawnee]

On the VERY outside chance that I were inclined to challenge a grizzly to the death, I suspect I would be inclined to do it with a handgun.
Insane as it sounds, I think I would feel safer with a handgun - probably because I know I can fire multiple aimed shots faster with a handgun than with a rifle.

But I'll never know because I have no intention of bearding a Grizzly.

 

[JImbothefiveth]

( hey i like adventure , not the possiblilty of suicide

+1.
If he hadn't brought a guide, this wouldn't have turned out so well.

 

[TCB in TN]

I hear Ya, .22.

There just seems to be something tacky about going on a hunt where you have to take a back-up shooter with a rifle. It's like a tacit admission that you aren't prepared - either with skill or equipment or chutzpah or all of the above.

Even in Africa where a rifleman hunting large dangerous game is often required in many places to have an armed pro along - there is (imho) a sort of "cop-out" element involved. Seems like if I don't have the skill and nerve and equipment to do it on my own, I porbably don't need to be doing it at all.

Again, local opinion may vary.


Here in Buckeyeland it is illegal for bowhunters to carry a firearm too.

Not during "firearm" season!

 

[caribou]

In Alsaka, it is "Law" that you bring,( or get brought by) a hunting guide to hunt Brownbear and Mt.Sheep, Goats.

Part of the challange of hunting a Brown is the fact that the animal CAN kill you if you screw up. ..... LOL!

Dont hunt Browns if your not willing to take that chance. Stay home and watch the hunting chamnnel and tell the screen all the mistakes you noticed and rewound to watch again with TVO......

Myself, Ive shot more than a dozen Browns with a rifle, and none with an arrow, but is still a matter of "Shot placement".

.243Win with 100grain soft points is an excellent BrownBear killing round. Totals the Neck bones and one shot kills are the norm, but then again, you must shoot it in the right spot.
A bigger, faster bullet will not help you at all if you do not place it right. ......EVER.
I use a Mosin Nagant rebuilt by Sako, and Czech LPS FMJ's with 100% great results.

The guy was not an idiot, more likely a bad shot.....and probly glad his Guide was 'Cool" when most needed.
I take my kids Brownbear hunting, and we "flip" to see who take the shot. Gotta show 'em myself, I figure and I have had great results with watching them catch Bears themselfs.

Nobody got to contemplate over the skin...the state takes them, if they were shot in self defense, poached or shot by the Guide.
They will auction it at the Fur Rondy, and use the $ to fund the Fish and Game programs.

Hunting Brown Bears is like swimming..., certainly you may drown, but that shouldnt stop learning to do so, or getting good enough to be cautious while having fun.

 

[buck460XVR]

sounds like to me that the guide was only defending himself and others from a charging bear....not just shooting the bear for the bowhunter that couldn't get the job done....saving one's self from obvious harm, IMHO is not distasteful, but smart.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

If you plan the hunt for a dangerous animal, planning to use a bow/blowgun/throwing star/fists, *in a place and under such conditions where use of a gun in the hunt is illegal under the rules*, solely with the idea that you'll cause a charge, and have justification legally to shoot with a gun - in essense, just a subterfuge to hunt with a gun - then that's wrong and unethical and stupid. But otherwise, I have no problem whatsoever with people using whatever minimalist weapon they choose to, and have a backup/guide with a lead-spitting hammer of thor, in the event that it goes bad. If you're successful, then you took that griz with a bow. If you're not, then you didn't.

Having said that, I'm for truth in advertising. If you get the animal with a bow, then you should make the disclosure when telling the story that "and by the way, my guide was there with .500 eargasplitten loudenboomer". You will get respect, but deservedly, you won't get *as much* respect as the guy who actually shoots the griz all by his lonesome, armed with bow only (in which case you're fair to partly insane unless you're up in a tree stand, and even then...).

Sidebar: Get this - quite a coincidental story, considering this thread.... Went to lunch with a friend last Thursday. Couple of his buddies from his motorcycle "gang" (that's what they call it) show up to eat with us. One of these guys tells a story related to him by his brother in law (which he apparently accepts because he repeated it as gospel truth with an "aren't you impressed?" tone to the story). Seems that his BIL was hunting for "bear" with a bow in Canada (somewhere - he didn't know where - I asked). Evidently the hunt was for either/or black or brown bear (possible?), because the BIL got a 600-something lb black bear one day, then on the next day, he and the guide run across a brown bear at 15 yards. The guide proceeds to start yelling "shoot it now!" and so the BIL obeys and manages to get off either 5 or 6 arrows, from a compound bow mind you, into the griz before it drops 5 yards from them. And get this, all 6 (I think it was - but maybe 5) arrows hit the griz's vital zone. I believe the griz went over 850 lbs. Whew boy; I had to roll up my pants legs!

 

[koja48]

Thanks for the enlightenment . . . I never realized that what, when, & how I hunted was done primarily to earn the respect & approval of other hunters. Silly me, here I thought that I hunted in the manner of my choosing because I actually enjoyed it. I stand corrected.

 

[rswartsell]

Look, do what you want and for your own reasons. My disagreement was that even if it looked silly to me, I still owed my support and should defend the action because of the "us" and "them" created in the national debate about guns and gun control.

Believe me I am enough of a "Libertarian" to be against controlling what another man is able to do (within reason, lets leave murder illegal if we can see eye to eye on it being wrong). I would be very much opposed to governmental control to the extent that a man cannot decide for himself.

On the other hand I don't feel handcuffed to every action a pro- gunner or sportsman might take even if he leaves his common sense on the porch at home. If we collectively are against excessive governmental controls, in my mind we are not likely to be in favor of creating a de facto control based on peer pressure and the fear of the opposing viewpoint.

Let every man to extent humanly possible and reasonable make up his own mind and feel free to express it in appropriate ways.

There is a Darwinian self correction that will take place amongst our number who feel compelled to take on grizz with razor blades.