ANYONE KILLED A BEAR IN DEFENCE?

[catblaster.375]

And if so with what?
Just curious

Thanks

[DeerMeadowFarm]

The closest I come to killing a bear in self-defense happened in 1995. I was deer hunting in Maine. A storm was scheduled to come in that afternoon so we were thinking that the deer might already be in some thick stuff. We hit an area that had been logged 15 years prior and left to grow wild. It was a tangled mess. My buddy and I were attempting to still-hunt through the area about 100 yards apart hoping to kick something to each other.
It was very noisy and I didn’t expect to see anything. I came to an area that had some evergreens and the branches were high enough off the ground that I could walk pretty quietly by stooping under them. I came to a spot where there had been a large tree that the loggers must have left, but it had since fallen. I figured I’d climb up onto the fallen tree; it would give me a better view over the whips that were growing all around. I stepped onto the root area of the up-ended tree and glanced down. Between my feet through a hole in the roots I could see black hair breathing up and down.
I knew what I was looking at, but not what part I was looking at. Let me tell you, the adrenalin gets going pretty quick! The area was so thick I felt like I was standing in a closet full of clothes; the quiet “trail” I had just snuck in along was the bear’s trail in and out of there; everything came together at once. I peeked around the roots and saw the bear looking away from me towards where my buddy was (I could now hear him breaking his way through the thick stuff). I could see the bear’s head and right shoulder. The bear was looking away as I mentioned, but I could see his nose sniffing the air. I watched as he caught my scent and turned to look at me. As his muscles tensed, I fired my .280 Remington model 7600 into the base of his neck at a range of less than six feet. He dropped and I crashed my way out of there!
My buddy yelled over “Did you get him?”
I answered “Yes, but you better get over here quick!”
When he got close enough to see me he said, “You shot a bear didn’t you?”
I asked how he knew and he replied, “You look white as a ghost!”
The bear was a boar weighing 204 pounds dressed. His hide is 6’ from nose to tail and 6’3” from front paw to front paw.
Was it truly “self defense”? Who knows for sure? The direction he perceived danger from was in the direction of my friend, but then he winded me behind him and up close. I was standing on his only trail in and out of there. Any animal can be dangerous when he feels he is cornered. Maybe he would have just run right over/through me? I don’t know, but in the same circumstances I’d do the same thing over again.

[Sourdough]

Go to the NEF section,  Outdoor Experiences, "Luckiest Shot I Ever Made",
Feb 23, I think you might like it.    Also "A Black Bear Climbed Into Out Tree Stand".  Mar 12

[Lawdog]

catblaster.375,

Twice.  Once by a Black Bear sow(she only weighted a little over 200 lbs.) that I crossed her path when she was having a PMS attack and a Brown Bear that we though was dead but turned out that he wasn't.  The Brown I killed with a .340 Weatherby Magnum(but I was not alone, there were my two brother in-laws with me at the time) and the Black Bear sow I used what I had, a .25-06(I was deer hunting not bear hunting).  I was alone when the she charged and she scared me more than anything else, ever.  By the way I don’t carry a .25-06 while hunting in that area anymore.  This year it will be my new .270 WSM.  Lawdog
 

[Sourdough]

My very first Black bear.  A small bear about 150lbs.  There was a cut in the rocks that the trail to the fishing stream was cut through.  The sides were about 15ft high and the cut was about 6ft wide, and 20ft long.  I was about half way through when I heard a squall and looked up to see a bloody Black Bear running straight at me.  I pulled a 12ga off my belt ( Due to the ignorance of youth I had cut the barrell off at 8" and the stock leaving only a pistol grip) and shot the bear in the face at 6ft.   Stopped the bear instantly.  I turned and ran about 20 yards thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest.  Cautiously went back to make sure the bear was dead.  Some guys came running up to see what had happened.  They had caught this little fellow stealing their fish stringer.  One of them had throwen a hand ax at the bear, hitting it in the head.  Afterwards I realised the bear was only trying to get away and I was just in his way of getting out of there.  

Oh yes, when I found out that shotgun was illegial, it was cut up and thrown in the scrap barrel.

[Sourdough]

Avid Poster
Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Total posts: 239
Location: North Pole, Alaska
Age: 55
Gender: Male
   
Post subject: Grizzley With A .35 Whelen
    
1989: I had hunted that year with the usual bunch and we had all gotten our Moose early in the season. A young Airman from Eielson AFB wanted to get a Moose so after I had finished my regular hunt I decided to take him out. I had just recieved a gun back from the gunsmith after having it Parkerized. I had sent a Mauser action in and had a .35 Whelen barrel fitted, with peep sites. After sighting it in at the range the day before we left I decided to take it along. We went out the trail and camped at Fish Creek. Checking the gut piles from the earlier Moose I seen a Grizzly had been in the area. The first two days were uneventful. Early in the morning on the third day, I heard something outside. I thought it was possiably a Moose. I awoke my partner, we slipped out of our sleeping bags, and stepped into our boots. As I pulled up the zipper on the tent the Moose started running down the trail. We stepped out and watched him running away. I grunted like a Bull Moose and the Bull stopped and turned broadside looking back at us. Gary took his shot, right behind the shoulder. The .375 H&H bullet exited the far side spraying blood over the snow. The Moose turned and ran into the willows. Gary and I followed to see if he was down. As we went by the place where the Moose had been shot, we heard a Woof. We looked up and there stood a Grizzly. The bear was standing on his hind legs looking at us, at the edge of the bloody area. Immediately Gary started with a string of profanities, in short his gun was jammed and he could not reload a new round into the chamber. The Grizzly roared, I threw up my gun and fired. My sight picture just before the gun fired was of a bear coming down onto allfores. I had been aiming for the center of his chest, but felt I had held the shot too long. Instantly I thought: "Too late! I can't work the bolt fast enough to make a second shot! My first shot was too high!" I fully expected to get hit before I could reload. I worked the bolt as fast as I could, sighted for the bear. He was lying in the snow not moving. I moved up and made sure it was dead. There we stood two guys in their shorts, tee shirts, and boots. Temp in the twenties, and we were sweating.

We went back to the tent and got dressed. We built a fire, ate breakfast, cleaned my gun, tried fixing Gary's gun, got out my shotgun, and all the time watching that bear. After two hours we went back that long 75 yards to start the job of skinning. At first we could not find the bullet hole. I knew I had been aiming for his chest, but there was no bullet hole. Gary looked in the mouth and noticed most of the tounge was blowen away. He followed the bullet path back to the back of the mouth, through the throught and into the spine.

After our close encounter Gary took the gun back to the dealer, he explained what had happened. The dealer showed him a service bulletin from the manufactor about the problem dated a year earlier. Seven or eight months before Gary bought his gun. That gun shop went out of business shortly thereafter. Oh yes Gary got the bear, I did not have a Grizzly tag, he did.
_________________
Gun Control, means hitting your target
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[catblaster.375]

Thanks guys

Sourdough- you had couple great stories. I liked how you shot that bear with your "Mad Max Special". Some day when I am old enough I will go through all that legal Class III stuff and build me one of them (there was an article in American Handgunner on how to do it LEGALY). Sounds Like it would be a blast to shoot.

[Sourdough]

Muzzleblast was horrendous, and you had better have both hands on it, or you could not hold on to it.  Several times it flew out of peoples hands when they tried to shoot it onehanded, or they tried anything other than light skeet loads.  One young MACHO dude had it rip out of his hand and lay his head open, got him four stitches.  If I had not got rid of it I probably would have been sued over injuries.