jamesinalaska
Member
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2015
- Messages
- 256
So, true story, growing up there was a man in our neighborhood, a pipefitter, who would boast about going into the woods on the Fall deer and elk hunts with "only two bullets" because "it was more sporting" he liked to say with his chest out a little bit further.
My older brothers knew the man better than I did; they were close the same age as that man's son but even so, after the news broke even my brothers had to wait to hear the gory details from dad as nobody wanted to get caught prying into the private details of such a big event. But, eventually, we all heard the story as it made its circuits through the neighborhood. Funny though, as tragic as the gossip was, I do remember my dad getting quite a chuckle out of the whole thing when the man finally got discharged from the hospital with 30 stitches in his scalp and with his arm and shoulder cemented into a half-body cast.
Apparantly he was on one of his annual "two bullet" hunts when he met an old grizzly sow that hadn't put on enough fat for the winter and had become rather desperate. He reported to the police and the game wardens that on the hunt he heard noises in the brush circling around him, but that he thought it was an elk, so he had his rifle at ready for when he suspected the "elk" would enter the clearing above him. But it wasn't a bull elk that burst out of the brush that morning and charged through the clearing, downhill, and not at him, but FOR him. [And it's true, that's how bears do it, they circle around until they are above their prey and then they'll attack running downhill.]
Anyway, the neighbor...he said time slowed down and every second seemed an hour and he got this uncanny sense of intense concentration and that he knew instantly what had to be done, so he fired...both of his cartridges and hit the bear each time, and then after the second shot, knowing his mistake, just waited, forever, for the inevitable.
I'm sure the whole thing happened quickly. Just a few moments really. Bears are fast. But I never heard him say or even a rumor that he had said, "I had time to shoot her again" or "I had time to shoot her twice more." He may not have had more time for a third shot, but we'll never know for certain as I don't think he would have ever confessed to such a thing after being known for the often said and braggadocious claims about "two bullets is more sporting". I was only 11, maybe 12. I sure wasn't the one that was to go over and ask. But knowing some of the other men in the neighborhood, I''m sure one of them did.
The sow mauled him severe; ripped his scalp, broke his arm and shoulder where she bit. He just kept curled up he said, thinking it was the end, but then she stumbled off and fell. Dead from the gunshots.
My older brothers knew the man better than I did; they were close the same age as that man's son but even so, after the news broke even my brothers had to wait to hear the gory details from dad as nobody wanted to get caught prying into the private details of such a big event. But, eventually, we all heard the story as it made its circuits through the neighborhood. Funny though, as tragic as the gossip was, I do remember my dad getting quite a chuckle out of the whole thing when the man finally got discharged from the hospital with 30 stitches in his scalp and with his arm and shoulder cemented into a half-body cast.
Apparantly he was on one of his annual "two bullet" hunts when he met an old grizzly sow that hadn't put on enough fat for the winter and had become rather desperate. He reported to the police and the game wardens that on the hunt he heard noises in the brush circling around him, but that he thought it was an elk, so he had his rifle at ready for when he suspected the "elk" would enter the clearing above him. But it wasn't a bull elk that burst out of the brush that morning and charged through the clearing, downhill, and not at him, but FOR him. [And it's true, that's how bears do it, they circle around until they are above their prey and then they'll attack running downhill.]
Anyway, the neighbor...he said time slowed down and every second seemed an hour and he got this uncanny sense of intense concentration and that he knew instantly what had to be done, so he fired...both of his cartridges and hit the bear each time, and then after the second shot, knowing his mistake, just waited, forever, for the inevitable.
I'm sure the whole thing happened quickly. Just a few moments really. Bears are fast. But I never heard him say or even a rumor that he had said, "I had time to shoot her again" or "I had time to shoot her twice more." He may not have had more time for a third shot, but we'll never know for certain as I don't think he would have ever confessed to such a thing after being known for the often said and braggadocious claims about "two bullets is more sporting". I was only 11, maybe 12. I sure wasn't the one that was to go over and ask. But knowing some of the other men in the neighborhood, I''m sure one of them did.
The sow mauled him severe; ripped his scalp, broke his arm and shoulder where she bit. He just kept curled up he said, thinking it was the end, but then she stumbled off and fell. Dead from the gunshots.
