DonC wrote:Dropped off a "Food Stamp Pioneer" to hike around the Mts for a month and get back to nature. After dropping him off on a lake, I took off and made a low pass on him on the way out. To my surprised he was laying on the ground looking like he was having some kind of epileptic seizure . I came back and landed and asked him what had happened. Turned out he had sprayed himself with the Bear spray thinking it was like bug spray....

Poor bastard is going to die stupid

For years there was a Kodiak brown bear mount in the Sears Mall on Northern Lights in ANC. That bear was killed by a Navy recruiter currently living in ANC, and hunting on Kodiak Island, near Karluk Lake.

Ther story was these two guys (the recruiter and his buddy) were hunting near sunset on the north end of Karluk Lake on Kodiak Island. THey came across this bear, and the recruiter shot it.

Now, EVERYbody who goes bear hunting is told repeatedly that if you shoot a bear, give it some time before you approach it....cause they don't die easily....

Mr. Navy recruiter and his buddy immediately after shooting the bear, charge into the dense alders (and you've never seen dense alders till you've been on Kodiak Island) to where the bear lay dying. The bear, of course, wasn't quite done dying, and promptly clamped a large jaw onto Mr. Navy recruiter. Who promptly yelled for his buddy to save him.

After which his buddy discharged his LARGE caliber rifle, shooting the recruiter in the knee, and the bullet ran down the recruiter's leg, and came out his heel....

The bear, not being as stupid as folks seem to think bears are, apparently thought "Holy shit....if this guy's buddy will do THAT to him, what'll he do to ME??" and promptly dropped the recruiter and departed post haste.

The Coast Guard and some others of us wound up with the task of retreiving the recruiter, his buddy, and of course, the bear, who had died after bleeding out, which he would have done in any case, had the two compadres just left him alone for a half hour.

The recruiter wound up pretty disabled, his "Ms Alaska" wife left him, and I'm not sure his buddy and he were all that close after said event.

Now, the plaque on the bear mount in the Sears mall didn't go into that much detail, but.....

True story. There are times when I'd MUCH rather deal with an unarmed bear than an armed "friend".

MTV

The recruiter wound up pretty disabled, his "Ms Alaska" wife left him, and I'm not sure his buddy and he were all that close after said event.

Is Ms Alaska now hooked up with the buddy

we use air horns they are about the same size and weight as bear spray, i have never actually used bear spray, but the air horn scares the shit out of them and is much safer for the user.

If you don't use pepper spray, your hunting partner better be a better shot than this guy.



SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - An autopsy shows that a Nevada man believed to have been fatally mauled by a grizzly bear in northwestern Montana was instead shot and killed by his hunting partner, authorities said Friday.
Steve Stevenson, 39, of Winnemucca, Nevada, was mauled on September 16 by a grizzly bear that had just been shot and wounded by Stevenson's friend, Ty Bell, 20, also of Winnemucca. Bell opened fire on the bear again when it turned on his buddy.
"In attempt to stop the grizzly bear's attack on Stevenson, hunting partner Ty Bell shot the bear multiple times. One of those rounds struck Stevenson in the chest," Lincoln County, Montana, Undersheriff Brent Faulkner said in a statement.
Faulkner said an autopsy by the Montana State Crime Lab showed Stevenson died of a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Stevenson and Bell had paired off as part of a four-man hunting party seeking black bears in the rugged Purcell Mountains that straddle northeastern Idaho and northwestern Montana.
Bell mistakenly identified a young male grizzly as the quarry he was licensed to kill and shot the bear, which sought refuge in a heavily wooded area. The two men tracked the grizzly, which then attacked Stevenson and was shot repeatedly before being killed by Bell. It was one of those shots that caused Stevenson's death, authorities said.
"It was a very unfortunate, tragic accident where bad timing and the snap judgment on the initial shot at the bear came to a head and someone lost his life," Lincoln County Sheriff Roby Bowe told Reuters.
Preliminary findings from the investigation showed the grizzly was on top of Stevenson at one point and that the animal was dragging him, Bowe said.
Bear experts said the case of mistaken identity will reemphasize programs designed to ensure hunters can distinguish between black bears and their hump-shouldered cousins.

I have ran into more bears in the last couple of years in the north Cascades than I did living in Anchorage for 4 years in the 80's. I carry a pistol, and am considering bear spray. I have never had to draw my gun. Reving my dirtbike and honking the horn work pretty good. I always make a lot of noise even of foot and am carefull about walking on varrow overgrown trails.
A friend in Wasilla AK just got some bear spray. She sprayed a bear between her and her garage, which was upwind, and got a good facefull of the stuff. I think she went back to carrying the .44.
I need to research the spray a bit more before I buy. It wont replace a pistol.
I don't worry about bears that much because I am carefull, and from what I have read and seen, they really don't want anything to do with humans if they can aviod us. Big cats do scare me. Last year there were several sets of BIG cat prints over my 2 hour old ski tracks in a narrow canyon. I had my wife and our 2 dogs with me. Pretty sure we were being followed for a bit. Then days later I see a video from a game camera in that area with a pride of 8 cats. I forgot what you call a herd of cats, so I googled, and found a photo, also near where I hike and ski http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2011 ... eight-big/
Way scarier than bears.

So the moral of the story is this, even after you shoot a bear you still might have to outrun your buddy.

I'd still lean towards a 12g magnum slug

However this looks promising

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px_N2WLE ... re=related

Glidergeek wrote:oleo capsicum? How bout just using a taiser on them like cops do

Are you refering to the video of the cop in Anchorage doing that this spring?? that was one funny ass video! Cop hit the blackie with the taser and the blackie did a 1 1/2 with a twist, a quick chicken dance, then hauled ass outta there. not sure I would trust my life to it though. I use the .454 not the bear spray when in the woods.