he fumbled with his bear spray while his wife was being attacked

[RavenVT100]

.44 Mag? How about a flippin' 12 Gauge?

 

[stevelyn]

stevelyn, just curious what you're using/carrying to take one with? bet it's not bear spray.

A Win. M-70 in .375 H&H loaded w/ Federal Premium Safari stuffed w/ 300 gr Nosler Partitions. I think it's a bit much, but I shoot it well and my '06 is in Fairbanks.

 

[Pocomoke]

Waterhouse,

Amen brother! the 1973 Corona station wagon with non-power windows didn't git 'er done either.

In 73' I was camping in Baxter State Park in Maine with my phd girl friend (perpetual condition white). Went to the dump after having picked up fresh molasss cookies in town. Big mistake...a medium size black bear, just under 5 ft standing, was entertaining the campers by dancing around on his hind legs and snapping up tidbits tossed to him. Funny looking because the scraped fluff seemed like a ballet dancer's tutu around his hips.

Ol blackie smelled the cookies and quickly, I mean quickly, ran to the wagon and smacked his fore paws on the roof, dragging his claws down and catching the edge of the window. The was only a starting gap of 1 1/2". My left hand went immediately to the window crank as I looked at his claws about 6" from my face. And I was losing the tug of war. Yelled at the woman professor to throw cookies of the roof while I backed the wagon up pdq.
Cookies worked, but the windows was down by 6 more inches. If I hadn't had the sense to leave the engine running...well enuf' said.

Edge of the drip rail looked like bread knife.

Woman prof. thought it was cute. Sold the wagon and her after getting home. ;>)

 

[Omni04]

Sounds like the guy beat his wife in the footrace.

that was wrong on sooooo many levels!

 

[0007]

Working on Resolution Island(120kms from shore) in the middle '90s. Guy comes in and says some polar bears are coming ashore down near the landing(at the bottom of the road from the top of the hill). I'm not dressed so everybody else runs out and jumps on the quads to run down the access road to the landing. I get on the ARGO(6-wheeled slow-mover) and start down by myself in my ECW cammo parka. As I'm toodling along the trail down into the valley(where we had seen bear tracks a few days before) with the fog drifting in, I suddenly realize that I'm by myself on a slow moving, open vehicle looking kinda like a nice fat walrus. Turned around and went back up the mountain to call the wife instead.

 

[Cosmoline]

People throwing tidbits to the bears to watch them "dance" are right up there with Treadwell. It's amazing what folks used to consider appropriate behavior. :banghead:

 

[Cosmoline]

Turned around and went back up the mountain to call the wife instead.

Wise move. Some military contractors working at an isolated Arctic station on the slope in the '90's actually got attacked while they were inside their station. The bear walked up on a snow back and smashed in their main window, waltzing in with every intention of eating them. It badly mauled a man and was only stopped when one contractor brought out his shotgun and killed it. IIRC, that fellow was promptly termintated for violating DOD restrictions against having firearms.

As a sidenote to that, the contractor who was mauled sued the feds under the FTCA. His case was dismissed by revived on appeal in Chaffin v. U.S., 176 F.3d 1208 (9th Cir. 1999)

I like this bit:

"Another co-worker eventually killed the bear with a shotgun, which was hidden in his bedroom and not readily accessible because it was possessed in contravention of the firearm policy dictated by Lockheed Martin's contract with the Air Force. Chaffin suffered grave, permanent, and disfiguring injuries due to the attack."
...
"Finally, Chaffin contends that the government's insistence on prohibiting firearms at the site creates an issue of fact as to the government's liability under Restatement § 410, which authorizes employer liability where the employer has given negligent instructions to an independent contractor, see Moloso, 644 P.2d at 217. Restatement § 410 provides:
The employer of an independent contractor is subject to the same liability for physical harm caused by an act or omission committed by the contractor pursuant to orders or directions negligently given by the employer, as though the act or omission were that of the employer himself.
The district court correctly observed that the government never gave the contractor any specific directions about bear safety. However, the record read in the light most favorable to Chaffin leaves unresolved questions about the relationship between the government as landowner and the contractor as Chaffin's employer.

In citing the Restatement, we express no opinion as to whether any of the exceptions to the FTCA's waiver of government immunity may preclude a cause of action for negligence against the United States, particularly with respect to the ban on firearms."

Thus, the government's insistance that firearms be banned in the contract was an issue of fact for the jury--though the liberal 9th circuit made it clear with that last quip that if they were to examine it in the FTCA context they might decide the government was immune even if negligent.

Nevertheless, it's an interesting precedent for cases where private employers (with no FTCA and no sovereign immunity) ban firearms.

 

[rick_reno]

I won't carry bear spray, I don't how to use it. I carry a handgun, I know how it works.

 

[rudolf]

People throwing tidbits to the bears to watch them "dance" are right up there with Treadwell. It's amazing what folks used to consider appropriate behavior. :banghead:

Never heard about the main dish serving the apetizer before