Father kills bear with firewood

[victorcharlie]

This is an incredible story.  Seems the bear came into the campsite and grabbed a cooler.  A six year old went after the bear with a shovel and the bear turned and growled at the boy.  The father, an ex-marine, hummed a piece of firewood at the 300 pound bear, hit it in the head and killed it.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/13539456/detail.html

Be sure to watch the video.

As dry as it is here, the bears and ranging farther for food.

It just goes to show how little it takes to kill a large bear if you put it in the right place.

[Siskiyou]

Clearly those who would like to hunt bear with a switch  would like to know the type, length, and wieght of wood used to make the kill.  Another need to know item would be the velocity of the wood as it left the father and the energy at point of impact.

Good arm Dad.

[ironglow]

VC;

  Was that piece of firewood a super-duper, belted magnum ?

[magooch]

Is it true that Difi and McCarthy are now working on firewood control?  It is also rumored that Jim Moron, Dem. Virginia is going to introduce a bill to ban firewood altogether.

[victorcharlie]

No, I don't think it was a belted magnum, but a low velocity big old honking slug.......more like what Elmer Keith would have used.

If you watch the video, you'll see it was probably 18" long and maybe 3 inched around.......

That would be my luck....throw something to run the bear off and wind up killing it..........

Or, make a perfect shot with my 45.70 and have it run off........

You got to admit, this don't happen every day!

[Siskiyou]

While I may joke about the event, campground bears are a serious risk.  As events in Utah and Tennessee show they can result in death.  I do not think that victim selection is an accident but a result of the bears hunting skills.  In nature the bears normally kill and eat a major number of fawns.  The reason is they are helpless , less threatening to the bears, have not developed escape skills and the ability to fight off an attack.

I think the comparison of the 45-70 is apt.  It is big, slow, and gets the job done. 

[victorcharlie]

Part of the story that isn't told is the fact that the southern part of Polk County Tennessee, south of the Ocoee river, is a Bear preserve.  Quite a few of the rouge bears that are trapped in Gatlinburg and the Smokey Mountains are released in this area.  So, in some way's, the bears that already know how to raid a picnic basket are there.  There is no hunting bear hunting south of the Ocoee river to the Georgia line.

This is only a few miles from where the bear was killed.....which, by the way, is very close to where the film Deliverance was filmed.  Many of the bears that are release make there way into Georgia.

[Siskiyou]

California has learned the hard way that moving a problem bear just moves the problem for location “A” to “B”.  Many years ago I was an agency rep to a bear study.  My job as the “rep” was to help the college types set up the covert trap, help pull the bear out of the culvert onto a net and weigh it.  In the processed data was recorded on the bear and they were normally given antibiotics.  After the process was completed the bear was transported a remote location and turned lose.

We were amazed when we would capture the same bear in a few days.  The problem with moving a bear is that in today’s world you just move it into somebody else’s back yard.  We moved one guy a long distance and he was back in a few days.

Southern California has rapidly growing bear problem.  The word is that in the 30’s there was a need to expand the bear population in Southern California.  One way of doing that was to move problem bears from Yosemite, Sequoia Nation Parks to Southern California National Forest.  The theory is these highly trained garbage bears were sent South and they have passed their skills on to their off springs. 

Some people cannot separate the difference and complexity of real bears versus the Teddy Bear the take to bed.  VictorCharlie sure highlights the issue behind the story.  And highlights how hidden truths can result in families being put at risk, and criminal sanctions taken against a person because of miss-managed bears.

I feel that problem bears should be transported to Golden Gate NP and NY Central Park  turned lose.  That way the bear huggers could have Teddy close to home.