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Mr. Weingarten locates another good self-defense against bear story.

On March 5, 2005, two people were attacked by a polar bear in the remote area of Kapp Lee, Edgeøya, in the Svalbard archipelago.

The .500 Smith & Wesson revolver had been on the market for just over two years when this occurred. The individual responsible for security had one of those big revolvers on his person.

This story was uncovered as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by AmmoLand. The names of the individuals involved were redacted. The original account is a translation with some grammatical and spelling errors.

Paul saw a polar bear coming at a constant pace along the beach towards the cabins.

He yelled that there was a polar bear and went immediately to the cabin door and met Sally.

He loaded the signal pistol with a red signal flare. From earlier experience, he had found that red flares are just as efficient as bangers to scare bears since the red flares are red and visible the whole way, compared to the bangers that are not visible before they explode.

Paul fired two red signal flares toward the bear with no apparent effect.

The first flare was fired in front of the bear 73 meters away. The 2nd flare was fired at 54 meters away. The bear continued towards them. Paul loaded and prepared to fire a flare/banger as the bear closed to 25 meters away.

He saw the bear was too close. The flare would explode behind the bear. He fired it toward the ground in front of the bear. The flare bounced over the bear and exploded behind it. The bear did not react.

Sally was standing beside Paul with the rifle. Paul took the rifle and chambered a round. He fired 2 warning shots right after one another as the bear closed to about 11 meters over the bear’s head.

The bear did not react to the warning shots. It continued at a quick, constant pace toward them.

After the second warning shot, Paul gave Sally the rifle and commanded her into the cabin.

He went to the door but noted that only the light was from the open door.  There was a lot of equipment in front of the door. Sally had managed to jump over the equipment. Paul turned around and tried to close the door. The snow made it impossible to close the door completely.

The bear was very close. Paul used the handgun to shoot two warning shots, in the air, over the bear. The dog was barking at the bear at the same time.

The bear did not stop or react to the shots or the dog.

Paul felt that the bear would get into the cabin if he did not shoot it.

He had trouble closing the door, did not know how to lock it, and did not know the inside of the cabin.

He waited too long to shoot. Read the rest at AmmoLand.