Source:

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.

First, Here Kitty Kitty,

Bend police shoot, kill cougar in NW Bend neighborhood after deer-kill site found in a backyard.

“The cougar was exhibiting behaviors consistent with being a public safety risk, including showing no fear of humans in extremely close proximity, hunting in a heavily populated area and returning to the kill site,” the police spokeswoman said.

Sounds like hunger. People won’t’ hunt the dear, so Lions do. Reality is a hard lesson; somebody will get attacked pretty soon. The suburbs of America are now full of deer. The grazing is good; those deer face no human threat and are fairly docile, prime targets for predation by an apex hunter. These “rare” incidences will likely increase.

After setting up a containment area and ensuring the location was safe, officers shot and killed the cougar, Miller said. ODFW took possession of the animal and later reported it was a 1- to 2-year-old, 77-pound female.

Beth Quillian, a public information officer for ODFW, says the cougar was shot instead of tranquilized because of the threat it posed to the community.

“Tranquilizing animals like a cougar can be pretty tricky,” Quillian said. “It’s not always as easy as tranquilizing the animal and it’s down.”

Miller says it was a hard, but necessary decision.

“We don’t take this decision lightly, we care a lot about wildlife as well — but our role is the safety of our community and our neighbors,” Miller said.

And there was this “rare” Mountain Lion recently captured in a Los Angels neighborhood.

Next, Hunter Shoots Himself in the Leg While Fighting Off Grizzly Bear

“firing a gun in a grizzly bear encounter is rarely the right decision.”

That bit of expert advice sounds like the punchline from a standup skit.

After Francis shot himself, his son activated his SOS device to get help, according to the news release. Then, he provided first aid to help control his father’s bleeding. With darkness approaching, they worked out a plan with emergency responders through the SOS device.

Francis’ son, unnamed in the news release, got his father on a horse and led him toward nearby Water Dog Lake. Search and rescue workers caught up with the pair at about 9:20 p.m. and administered first aid. They extracted Francis by UTV to Flying A Ranch, the news release said, and then flew him via helicopter to the University of Utah Hospital for treatment.

A search and rescue official also accompanied Lee’s son and horses back to the trailhead.

His son, whose age was not mentioned, did a very good job. Fill your mind with useful knowledge, practice those skills, carry the tools you need in the bush, and don’t go alone.

Wyoming game wardens have begun an investigation and will try to locate the grizzly bear that Francis told police attacked him.

Western Wyoming officials said the incident marks the second grizzly bear attack in the area this month. On Oct. 15, a grizzly attacked two college wrestlers outside the town of Cody.

Wait, we were assured, attack after attack, year after year, that these encounters are “rare.”

Such incidents have become more common in Wyoming, where grizzly bears have made a comeback, especially around Yellowstone National Park. As a result, Wyoming leaders have asked the federal government to remove grizzly bears from the Endangered Species Act. If approved, the bears could once again become legal game animals.

[…]

Wildlife officials continue to recommend bear spray as the preferred method of dealing with grizzly bears. According to the National Park Service, it’s actually more effective than firearms for defending yourself in a bear attack. Not only that, but it’s also a better move from a legal standpoint.

That last highlighted link in the embedded article provides zero data and no evidence of the assertion that bear spray is more effective. It’s just a bunch of government propaganda about how it’s always best to be a disarmed slave, even in the wilderness.

I don’t know why he didn’t shoot (maybe licensing or permitting), but he certainly had nerves of steel to be bluff-charged by a bear like that.

Source.

I don’t think this guy would have had time to unholster a firearm, at least initially.  But when the bear came back around on him he could have had a firearm trained on it.  I think I would have.

I suspect cubs are somewhere in the mix.

Mountain Climber Fights Off Bear (2022) pic.twitter.com/70DTpPsfSL

— Billy (@Billyhottakes) October 17, 2022

Dean Weingarten at AmmoLand:

On Tuesday, August 30, at about 6:50 p.m., James Little settled into campsite 674 in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). His youngest child was a few feet away.  His youngest cried out, and James grabbed the child and took a couple of steps, uncertain of what had happened.

Then his oldest yelled, “Bear!” and James turned around. The bear was about six feet from him. It had been within 3-4 feet of his back when the child was startled. This was the start of the remarkable incident. In James’ words:

Just finished a trip to Horseshoe that should have been three nights, but turn to one. (Campsite 674) Had a bear walk right into camp and within four feet of my youngest! Nothing would discourage him till I fired a couple of rounds.  We packed up and bolted to an open site (campsite 677) a half mile away on the other side of the lake. Weren’t there five minutes and was pulling up the food bag and my wife screamed. There was another bear fifteen feet away heading to our canoe with our kids in it. I had to fire another round before he would be deterred.  Left that site and unexpected BWCA.com member Ausable and his crew took my family and me in for the night. (Campsite 672) Early the next morning, we broke came and headed out. My family had had too much. Across from the portage from Caribou to Lizz, (campsite 645) the campers there had their breakfast intruded upon by a bear who would not be deterred till he had taken their food bag.

This correspondent talked to James, who reported the incident to the BWCA authorities.

James used a North American Arms mini revolver, the Wasp model in .22 magnum, with a 1 5/8 inch barrel. The revolver was loaded with Speer Gold Dot defensive ammunition.

Read the rest at the link.

Mr. Weingarten explains several drills that can be used to prepare for a bear encounter.

AmmoLand:

Realistic bear defense drills can help prepare gun owners for actual situations.

The success of Eli Dicken in stopping a mass murder in the early stages, with excellent marksmanship at a claimed 40 yards, has engendered a plethora of people creating and executing some form of a “Dicken Drill” of ten shots at 40 yards.

There have been a number of “bear defense” exercises, usually arranged to simulate a worst-case scenario. I know of one such scenario, as it was related to me, by the inventor/trainer who ran it for a major agency.

The “bear” ran on a cart, as I recall, starting 10 yards away.  Speed was determined by the person who ran away from the shooting line, pulling the bear, which also moved up and down on the terrain, toward the trainee shooter.

I’ve seen a video of a drill similar to this.

The trainer prepped the trainee, to be tested, thus the trainee was armed with a pump shotgun with a sling. There were rounds in the magazine, but none allowed in the chamber. The shotgun had to be slung on the shoulder, with the safety on, and the bolt locked forward.  To engage the target, the trainee had to unsling the shotgun, disengage the bolt lock, work the action, disengage the safety, then shoot.  Alternatively, the trainee could unsling the shotgun, disengage the safety, dry fire the shotgun, which would disengage the bolt lock, work the action, and then shoot.

Once preparation to do the drill was ready, the trainer would engage the trainee with a question or small talk. When the trainee’s attention was off the “bear” the trainer would give the secret signal to start the bear charging at the trainee. Unsurprisingly, few trainees managed to get off a shot and hit the “bear”.

Trainers can create a drill to obtain the effect they want to establish.

A bear’s brain is reasonably close to the size and shape of a 12-ounce beverage can. To build confidence in shooters concerned about bear defense, I suggest these drills, taken from actual bear defense situations. The 12-ounce can should be oriented close to how it would be in a bear.

I have serious reservations about going for a headshot with a grizzly or even a black. Their skull is pretty thick. Large caliber hits at center mass seem like the best option. He explains The Ralph Fletcher Drill, The Dusel-Bacon Drill, The Cecil Rhodes Drill, and The Tanner Allen Drill.

Source:

A hunter was attacked by a brown bear Thursday morning [This happened at the end of August] near Ship Creek after he shot it but didn’t realize it was still alive, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game official said.

That’s a perilous situation. Any large animal and all predators can be dangerous when shot, and it can be hard to know if they are actually dead.

The hunter, treated at a hospital for injuries, was able to make his way out of the area without calling for rescue, said Cory Stantorf, an assistant wildlife biologist for the Anchorage area.

The man shot a large adult brown bear between about 9 and 10 a.m. in an area near Ship Creek and up the valley from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson land, Stantorf said. It is legal to hunt in the area, he said.

The man then approached the bear, which he thought was dead, and it got up and charged him, the biologist said.

The bear wounded him during the attack, according to Stantorf, although he said he could not provide additional details about the injuries or how severe they were.

Others in the hunting party shot at the bear, Stantorf said, and it stopped attacking and left. The hunters made it out of the area without further incident, he said.

It wasn’t clear by Friday morning if the bear had died from the gunshot wounds, Stantorf said. The hunting party was returning to the area to look for the bear, he said.

Grizz are tough critters.

There have been several other bear maulings in Anchorage this year. A soldier was killed and another was injured during a defensive attack involving a sow brown bear with cubs on a remote area of JBER in May.

A man was treated at the hospital last month after he surprised a sow brown bear with a cub in Eagle River. A woman was also injured last month when a black bear swatted at her on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail near Point Woronzof.

Stantorf said it’s important that anyone recreating outdoors in the backcountry or even in Anchorage is paying attention to their surroundings and looking for bears.

F&S.

A man in the ski town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado shot and killed a black bear that entered his home in the middle of the night. According to the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife (CPW), homeowner Ken Mauldin dispatched the bruin with a .40 caliber Glock handgun after it opened and walked through an exterior door.

“The door was unlocked, and it’s one of the older-style lever door handles. So, the bear pushed on that to get the door open,” CPW public information officer Rachel Gonzalez tells F&S. “[Mauldin] was alerted when his wife screamed. It was just after 2 a.m. when we received the incident notification.”

Three things pop into my mind.

First, this is yet another anecdote that justifies carry inside the home.

Second, this anecdote justifies closing and locking the door.

Third, that’s a lot of rounds.  Nine rounds to put this bear down.  This advocates for accuracy or high capacity, or preferably both.

Source.

Early on July 6, 2021, Leah Lokan awoke to a 417-pound grizzly bear a few feet from her tent, so close that she heard when the bear “huffed” at her head.

“Bear! Bear!” Lokan yelled, prompting Joe and Kim Cole — two other cyclists camping in the small town of Ovando as they trekked across Montana — to spring from their nearby tent, armed with bear spray and clamoring as much as possible, according to a 26-page report addressed by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee’s executive body earlier this month.

The bear fled.

After scaring it off, Lokan, a 65-year-old visiting from Chico, Calif., moved food out of her tent to a nearby building. She armed herself with a can of bear spray. She declined an offer to stay in a hotel for the night. Then, she and the Coles returned to their respective tents.

Lokan’s extra precautionary measures weren’t enough. The bear returned about an hour after the first encounter and mauled her to death.

A year later, wildlife officials said the bear that killed her had developed a “predatory instinct.” Although they couldn’t determine exactly how such an instinct evolved, food and toiletries inside and near Lokan’s tent, as well as the lingering smell of cooked food from July Fourth picnic celebrations, likely played a role.

“While foraging under the cover of darkness in Ovando, perhaps due to a simple movement made by the sleeping victim, or a certain sound made by the victim, the bear reacted,” the committee’s board of review wrote in their Jan. 4 report, which was discussed earlier this month during the executive body’s summer meeting. The 11-member review board included officials from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and the U.S. Forest Service.

The bolded section highlights three bad decisions.  She should never have had food in her tent to begin with.  Next, bear spray isn’t enough.  Third, a hotel rather than a tent near city establishments would have been a better choice.

Getting rid of food is essential.  Protection is necessary.  A large bore handgun would have been the right medicine.

Via WRSA, On The CCP Role In The Ongoing COVID Con

This story is about a bear stalking somebody that moved into the woods, which the author, the target of the bear, uses as a metaphor for facing the Covid Vaccine damage. You’ll be interested in the Covid Vaccine data. The author indicates that CCP is at war with the U.S. but is missing a known piece of the puzzle; the illness started in a lab in the U.S., making the U.S. government a combatant against its people. You should read it; the vax data is excellent, assuming it’s accurate.

But the best part is about the bear encounter.

I sped indoors, locking the door. I grabbed a weapon out of the hall closet. In my haste, I grabbed the weapon that looked like a rifle, instead of the actual rifle, which was in a case. Thus I found myself locked in an upstairs bathroom, cowering, armed with a BB gun.

[…]

I looked under the bed: hiding there could not save me if the bear made it into the house. I realized I was holding a BB gun, and felt ridiculous. Even if I managed to shoot it, this would do nothing but enrage him. The thin bedroom doors that I had thought so rustic and charming, could be broken down by an angry animal of that size in no time.

My heart pounded as I realized that he was not leaving; he continued pacing and circling, no matter where I went.

I went back into the bathroom, and locked that door with its flimsy lock.

City folk are cute.

When I called back in spite of myself and begged the police for help, they told me to call again only if he managed to break into the house.

When seconds count, the police are a third phone call away.