B.C. Black Bear Hunter Hospitalized After Killing a Grizzly in Self Defense
BY Herschel Smith
2 months ago
In a press release, the RCMP explained that the father and son “had been tracking a bear with dogs” when the adult grizzly suddenly attacked the son. The two men were hunting on a steep mountainside south of Elkford, which lies in the Canadian Rockies just west of the Alberta border. Both men were locals, according to the RCMP, and the son lives in nearby Sparwood. “The man suffered serious injuries,” the RCMP said, “including broken bones and lacerations to his body during the attack.”
At some point during the attack, the son was able to shoot the bear with the firearm he was carrying. Neither the RCMP nor the BCCOS have shared any details about the firearm used, but it was likely the same rifle or shotgun he would have been using to hunt black bears; Canada has strict laws prohibiting hunters from carrying handguns unless they have a special license or explicit permission from the government.
Presumably he used a long gun to dispatch the bear. I would rather have a long gun than a handgun, but the advantage of the handgun is rapid deploy-ability.
Assuming you have the long gun in low ready, I would have to surmise that this is just a failure to respond to get off a shot before his father was wounded by the bear.
It would be interesting to know the style and make of the long gun.
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On May 22, 2024 at 7:03 am, foot in the forest said:
Learning your place on the food chain can be an interesting experience.
On May 22, 2024 at 7:39 am, Nosmo said:
Unfortunately, official reports almost always fail to include useful pertinent information; some detailed info about what tools worked, or did not work, and under what specific circumstances they were utilized, would be quite useful, especially to potential future participants in the bear/man encounter thing. I don’t know how to fix that, but “man was attacked and injured, bear got shot” doesn’t tell me anything worth the keystrokes to record it.
On May 22, 2024 at 5:40 pm, X said:
Definitely not a handgun in the Peoples’ Republik of Canada. Probably a .30 cal bolt-action sporter.
On May 22, 2024 at 9:20 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
The terrain has a lot to do with which long gun one chooses for bear defense. For heavily-forested or other closed-in country, an arm which can be brought to bear quickly and which can be fired rapidly if needed is the choice of many pros and guides in the Yukon and Alaska. Semi-auto 12-ga shotguns with dangerous game slugs are a popular choice, as are lever-action rifles and carbines in 45-70 and other hard-hitting cartridges.
If the terrain is more open and sight-lines are better, then a bolt-action might be the choice in a hard-hitting cartridge such as 30-06, 300WM, 338 Win-Mag, 7mm Rem-Mag, etc. might be ideal. Some guides and hunters even use rifles in 375 H&H, the old safari cartridge so famous in Africa.
There are also a variety of semi-auto hunting rifles available for those who favor them instead of bolt-action rifles. The Browning BLR series are magazine-fed lever-actions which come chambered in a variety of excellent hunting cartridges, including some suited for bear, since these rifles feed from a magazine, they can handle spitzer (pointed) bullets and loads not normally seen in a lever-action, i.e., 30-06, 7mm RM, etc. They are fast-handling, accurate and dependable.
Conventional wisdom says that it isn’t enough gun, but many old-timers up in Canada swear by surplus rifles and carbines in .303 British, the various versions of the Lee-Enfield bolt-action used by the British Empire and Dominions over the years, including Canada. Grandpa’s old Mk. IV No. I has been getting the job done for a long time, in particular 180-gr. SP loads. The famous Canadian Rangers used them up until just a few years ago, when they finally turned them in for Tikka bolt-actions chambered in .308 Winchester.
On May 24, 2024 at 3:29 pm, X said:
Cop executes harmless dog in cold blood.
3:00-6:00.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_BRQKCmpCA&t=1s
I’m goin’ home at the end of my shift, bro.