Archive for the 'Animals' Category

From a reader, news from Alaska.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Allen Minish was alone and surveying land for a real estate agent in a wooded, remote part of Alaska, putting some numbers into his GPS unit when he looked up and saw a large brown bear walking about 30 feet away.

“I saw him and he saw me at the same time, and it’s scary,” he said by phone Wednesday from his hospital bed in Anchorage, a day after being mauled by the bear in a chance encounter.

The mauling left Minish with a crushed jaw, a puncture wound in his scalp so deep the doctor told him he could see bone, lacerations and many stitches after a 4½-hour surgery. He also is wearing a patch over his right eye, saying the doctors are worried about it.

All that damage came from a very brief encounter — he estimates it lasted less than 10 seconds — after he startled the bear Tuesday morning just off the Richardson Highway, near Gulkana, located about 190 miles (306 kilometers) northeast of Anchorage.

The bear, which Minish said was larger than 300-pound black bears he has seen, charged and closed the ground between them in a few seconds.

Minish tried to dodge behind small spruce trees. That didn’t stop the bear; he went through them.

As the bear neared, Minish held up the pointed end of his surveying pole and pushed it toward the bear to keep it away from him.

The bear simply knocked it to the side, the force of which also knocked Minish to the ground.

“As he lunged up on top of me, I grabbed his lower jaw to pull him away,” he said, noting that’s how he got a puncture wound in his hand. “But he tossed me aside there, grabbed a quarter of my face.”

“He took a small bite and then he took a second bite, and the second bite is the one that broke the bones … and crushed my right cheek basically,” he said.

When the bear let go, Minish turned his face to the ground and put his hands over his head.

And then the bear just walked away.

He surmises the bear left because he no longer perceived Minish as a threat. The bear’s exit — Alaska State Troopers said later they did not locate the bear — gave him time assess damage.

[ … ]

Minish, 61, has had his share of bear encounters over the 40 years he’s lived in Alaska, but nothing like this. He owns his own surveying and engineering business, which takes him into the wild often.

“That’s the one lesson learned,” he said. “I should have had somebody with me.”

He left his gun in the vehicle on this job but said it wouldn’t have mattered because the bear moved on him too fast for it to have been any use.

That’s a hard-learned lesson.

I’ll accept that he couldn’t have deployed a handgun from a holster fast enough to defend himself if he says so.  He was there and I wasn’t.

But I’ll tell you what.  If it was me and I had to go out in the bush alone, I’d keep a tactical 12 gauge shotgun loaded with 00 buck or slug on a sling at the ready on my body.  I say a tactical 12 gauge shotgun because I’d want something with a shorter sight radius than a fowling piece – where I could drop what I was going and pick the gun up within a second or two.

Still better, go out with someone.

Maybe The Alaskan has some better suggestions.

From reader Richard, awful news about a man being killed by a bear in Yellowstone.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Grizzly bears are part of life in the gateway communities around Yellowstone National Park, and backcountry snowmobile guide Charles “Carl” Mock knew well the risks that come with working, hiking and fishing among the fear-inspiring carnivores, his friends said.

Mock was killed after being mauled by a 400-plus pound (181-plus kilogram) male grizzly while fishing alone at a favorite spot on Montana’s Madison River, where it spills out of the park and into forested land that bears wander in search of food.

The bear had a moose carcass stashed nearby and wildlife officials say it likely attacked Mock to defend the food. The grizzly was shot after charging at a group of seven game wardens and bear specialists who returned the next day.

Bear spray residue found on Mock’s clothing suggested he tried to ward off last week’s attack using a canister of the Mace-like deterrent, considered an essential item in the backcountry. He usually carried a pistol, too, but wasn’t on the day he was killed just a few miles north of the small town of West Yellowstone where he lived, according to two friends.

While some on social media questioned the inherent perils of such a lifestyle in the wake of Mock’s death, those who knew him said he accepted the risk as a trade-off for time spent in a wilderness teeming with elk, deer, wolves and other wildlife.

“People don’t understand that for us who live here, that’s what we do every day,” said Scott Riley, who said he fished, hunted, hiked and kayaked numerous times with Mock over the past decade.

[ … ]

Mock, 40, managed to call 911 following the mauling and was found by rescuers propped against a tree with the cannister of bear spray in one hand, his father, Chuck Mock, told the Billing Gazette. His other hand had been “chomped off” as he tried to protect himself.

One of the animal’s teeth punctured his skull and Mock died two days later in an Idaho hospital after undergoing extensive surgery.

One more failure in the bear spray category.  The pistol he usually carried didn’t do him much good sitting at home.  While the risk wouldn’t have been nonexistent, it would have been reduced with a large bore handgun.

I cannot embed the video.  Go to reddit/Hunting to check it out.

That boar was intent on an attack.  The notion that wild pigs are all “runners” now and won’t charge is clearly false.  A pig tusk can cut a femoral artery and cause death in minutes.

He had an AR pattern rifle shooting 300 BO, with a standard capacity magazine.

But hey, who needs standard capacity magazines anyway?  He could have just let the pig kill him.  PETA would have loved that.  Maybe not so much though when they invade their yards and kill their pets and tear up their lawns and gore their children.

You do the math.  They reach maturity in several years, have three or four litters every year, 12 pigs per litter.

Even if you’re not intent on hunting, carry a large bore handgun when in the bush.

Tell WiscoDave he needs to get control of his pets. That raccoon could get hurt.

Man I’m so sorry. I don’t deal well with the loss of dogs. I still grieve my Heidi-girl, and think about her each and every day.

Every once in a while I run across videos of people on this blog.  This is Fred’s new pet cat.  I thought you would enjoy seeing him come home to his cat.

Dean Weingarten.

Neighbors in the Dupuyer area had warned him about the dangers of grizzly bears in the area. He had taken their advice and was carrying a Smith & Wesson 629 stainless steel .44 magnum revolver.  The revolver was loaded with 305 grain HSM cartridges. He had a can of bear spray.

[ … ]

As the bear knocked him down and twisted him, he managed to free the revolver from the windbreaker, release the thumb break, and draw the revolver.

He could see the back of the bear, but not it’s head. He shot the bear in the back, into the shoulder/chest, with the muzzle of the revolver just inches from it.  Ken said, maybe he should have shot her in the head, but he did not want to shoot his own leg.

Ken says the first shot worked. It hurt the bear. The bear immediately let him go and retreated. As the bear turned and presented its side, he shot again at its chest. As the bear staggered away and paused, Ken emptied the revolver at it.

Then Ken attempted to reload with an HKS speed loader. The HKS is a handy way to carry spare ammunition. It seemed to take a long time to reload. He attributed the lack of speed to a lack of experience.

The bear staggered away. Ken finished reloading, assessed the damage, and limped back to his truck. He was able to drive to the hospital in Conrad. It took him four months to heal.

Dean has the rest of the story.  This speaks well of the practice of carrying a large bore handgun with you.

A large bore long gun, of course, would be better in certain circumstances, but I’ll willing to bet that a shotgun or rifle would have been knocked out of his hands during the initial assault, and that a handgun was much easier to turn and wield.

Finally, there is the added advantage that a handgun is on your person at all times – or at least it should be.

Dean Weingarten.

When the deputy arrived at the young family’s location, he exited the vehicle with a Colt AR15 style rifle in .223 caliber.

The mountain lion was not deterred, even after the deputy arrived. The deputy tried shouting at the animal. It stopped pacing back and forth and started advancing toward the deputy.

The deputy fired a warning round in front of the big cat.  It continued to advance.

The deputy fired at the front of the cat, below the head. At the shot, the cat started charging the deputy. The first shot was from 25-30 yards out.

The deputy continued to fire, hitting the cat three or four times out of four or five shots.  The last shot was into the side of the cat as it turned. It dropped to the ground about 10 yards from the deputy.

[ … ]

When mountain lions were routinely hunted with dogs, it was common for even a small dog to tree a mountain lion.

Today, thirty years after regular lion hunting was banned in California, mountain lions routinely kill and eat pet dogs.

That’s closer than I want to be to an advancing mountain lion.  As I’ve said before, there aren’t any animals in North America that will stand and take on a pack of dogs.  Flight is their first instinct.  For large predators it needs to be a large pack.

Via Wirecutter.  This ridiculous report.

Okay, first of all, I don’t want cops to have dogs.  I see absolutely no need for it.  I don’t agree with their “war on drugs,” and most cops don’t have the temperament or training to handle dogs, horses, farm animals or any other living creature.

Second, this isn’t the way to train a dog.  I know how to train dogs, whether positive or negative reinforcement.  This isn’t training.  This is just abuse.

Third, I’d say with certainty that the cop isn’t suitable for law enforcement work.  I don’t know about the dog, but the cop must go.  The jury is still out on the dog, but most dogs are a reflection of their handler.  If the cop wants to understand why the dog did what he did, he needs to look in the mirror.

Fourth, the chief is a moron.  Both the cop and the chief need to be fired.

That about covers it.

From Dean Weingarten, the master chief of bear attacks and firearms.

Years later, Bridger Petrini gave me a lead to the person who had been attacked and had defended himself with a .41 magnum single-action revolver.

Early the next morning, Tanner woke, and before breakfast, accompanied by his dog, Ovada, he prepared to glass for sheep. He had seen signs of bears digging for roots on the mesa. Almost as an afterthought, he strapped on his Ruger Blackhawk .41 mag in its holster and pistol belt. The pistol was loaded with five rounds of factory ammunition. Loops on the belt held six more rounds.  To Tanner, the pistol and rounds were another piece of gear. He wasn’t known for babying himself or his gear. His friends had kidded him about his old and abused ammunition.

There wasn’t much wind at sunrise. As he gained elevation to the top of the mesa where he would be glassing for sheep, the wind picked up. The visibility was excellent. He did not see any sheep.  By 8 o’clock, he was thinking about heading back to base camp, a thousand yards away, looking forward to coffee and something to eat.  A sound caught his attention. He looked toward the sound.  There was Ovada, a sow grizzly bear and two cubs, charging full tilt at him from a hundred yards out.

Tanner drew the Blackhawk .41. He does not consider himself a pistolero, but the big revolver was comforting in his hands. He fired a warning shot over the sow’s head. It made no impression.

He fired again. A miss.  The bears and dog were close, now. The sights lined up. A pause, perfect sight picture… click and misfire!  He fired again. Another miss, but now the bears and dog ran off, out of sight.

One round was left in the Blackhawk. Tanner had six rounds in his gun belt loops. He reloaded. He decided to leave the area, in case the bear came back.

50 yards away, a narrow chute gave a less than vertical way done the mesa. He started into it. He had only descended 20 feet when he heard and saw the sow again.  It had circled around the bottom of the mesa and was now coming up the chute, directly at him! He reversed course, climbed up, and scrambled onto a rocky outcrop.  Sow, dog, and cubs all moved as fast as they could up the steep slope of the chute.

Tanner cocked the pistol and held it steady. As the sow’s head came to within two feet of his position, he fired directly into her forehead. Instant death. The sow tumbled backward and rolled over and over down the chute, with Ovada in pursuit. She came to rest 150 feet away.

[ … ]

On the way out, they located Ovada. She had treed a mountain lion, and held it, by herself.

Tanner says bear spray would not have worked, because of the wind. He says the wind is almost always strong at the higher elevations.

What a wonderful dog.  And that was a close call for him.

Hey, I think we have a fan of the .41 magnum aboard here, don’t we?