Archive for the 'Animals' Category

Recall that there were multiple bear attacks briefly discussed in this earlier report.  Bear spray was deployed, but there was another attack not fully discussed, where pistols were used.

In addition to their archery equipment, both men had 9 mm pistols. Chris Gregersen had a Glock 43. Donivan Campbell had a Sig Sauer P320. Both guns were loaded with full metal jacketed (FMJ) cartridges.

I like Dean’s detail – I always want to know what weapon was used and what caliber it was.

He took a snap sight picture and fired at the bear’s rear. It was probably 16 seconds into the attack.  The point of aim was the bear’s hind quarters. There was no other choice.  The bear and Donivan were up slope with brush on either side. There was no time to flank the bear, on a steep hill side, with considerable brush, when fractions of a second could make the difference between life and death.   Chris had a clear shot. He has considerable experience shooting under stress while hunting. He says he has “shot a lot.”  He had a brief worry about hitting his friend, so he had to do it right.

[ … ]

Chris emphasized bear spray would not have been sufficient. The spray would have been directed at the bear’s backside. If the spray had reached the bear’s head, it would have disabled Donivan as well. When the bear charged again, the bear spray would have been unlikely to reach the bear through the heavy cover.

There were multiple charges, each time repelled by yelling and gunfire.  The injuries were bad, and Dean has some good pictures of the area as well.

This further confirms that bear spray is simply not an effective deterrent against a determined, large predator.  But a gun is – I guess I would have chosen a larger bore handgun.  There is also this observation.

A warden suggested more power, and a large magazine capacity gave a better chance of hitting the central nervous system. He recommended the Glock 20 in 10mm

I have a better solution: A 1911 shooting 450 SMC, with higher muzzle velocity and a heavier bullet.  I’m accurate with it, I just can’t shoot 50 rounds without ceasing to have fun.  It’s not a plinker.

News from Georgia.

Deer season for archery is currently open in Georgia, but firearms season doesn’t start until Oct. 19. Meanwhile, Glynn County police and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources is continuing to investigate how a teen was shot dead by another man’s rifle while hunting Saturday.

Bobby Lane, 17, was pronounced dead at a hospital after police say fellow hunter Hector Romero mistook him for a deer, according to a DNR news release.

Witnesses told police that all of the parties involved knew each other and came to the Myers Hill area to go hunting. Police were called to a wooded area in the 500 block of Myers Hill Road in response to reports of a person shot. Once there, officers met with a group of hunters at Friendly Express on highways 82 and 303.

First Coast News spoke with Lane’s cousin who says Lane and Romero were hunting friends and had been on trips before.

Firearms season doesn’t start until October 19 and Rawling said Lane and Romero knew of the state regulations.

“I’ve been hunting for a very long time and in all my years of hunting, I’ve been told if you don’t exactly know what it is, 100 percent exactly what it is, you do not pull the trigger,” Rawling said.

Let’s see.  Four legs versus two, deer skin versus human skin, clothing, etc., etc.  Yea, I can see how the mistake was made.

This is absolutely stupid.  First of all such a shot risks an unethical kill on a deer.  Second, it risks killing a human.

Don’t be this person.

Fox News.

A Canadian man fighting for his life begged his assailant to let him go, but his pleas went unheeded — which is probably because black bears don’t understand English.

Brandon Lattie, 27, was on a walking trail in British Columbia at the Ferguson Lake Nature Reserve on Wednesday night when he says he spotted the bear, which began to chase him.

Lattie told CBC News he ran and jumped into a small lake, not expecting the bear to follow him.

“It happened so fast I couldn’t even think, so that seemed like the right thing to do,” he said.

Brandon Lattie says he was attacked by a black bear at Ferguson Lake Nature Reserve in British Columbia, Canada.

Brandon Lattie says he was attacked by a black bear at Ferguson Lake Nature Reserve in British Columbia, Canada. (Brandon Lattie)

But the swampy water slowed him and the bear swiped at Lattie, leaving him with scratch marks on his back and arm. The 27-year-old said the dogged bear even tried to hold him underwater.

“I think it was trying to hold me underwater. I was already physically tired and kind of out of breath from when I ran away and then the next thing I know I’m…going to try to get drowned by a frickin’ bear,” he told the news outlet.

Lattie said he noticed “there was at least a foot or two of water above me” and pushed himself “back up to fight back.”

It was then, Lattie said, he resorted to begging.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said he told the bear. “You don’t want to do it.”

A family said they were nearby and saw Lattie running away from the bear in the lake. Lucky for Lattie, the family’s dog began to bark, distracting the bear and giving the 27-year-old a chance to break free and swim to a dock.

“It could have been a whole lot worse,” Lattie said. “As soon as I got hit, I just thought, ‘OK, this is where I die. This is where my head gets chewed apart.'”

I don’t think bears have feelings of sympathy or a conscience.  I think a large bore handgun would have been a better choice.

News from the Northwest.

MTN News reports that the morning attack involved two bowhunters who, after getting medical care, “came into Shedhorn Sports in Ennis dressed in hospital gowns looking for new clothing. Shedhorn staff told MTN the men said they were able to deploy bear spray which ultimately drove the bear off.”

I don’t consider this successful use of bear spray.  If it had been successful, the men wouldn’t have been in hospital gowns.  I think a large bore handgun would have been a better choice.

Via David Codrea.  Too good not to link and embed.

News from Alaska.

Troopers received a report at about 7 p.m. that a moose hunter, who was with another hunter, was attacked by a bear.

“Reportedly the two hunters surprised a sow brown bear with two cubs,” troopers wrote. “The sow attacked one of the hunters causing serious injuries.”

According to AST, the second hunter shot the adult female bear and ended the attack. The hunters then evacuated to a cabin and the injured hunter was flown by helicopter to an Anchorage hospital for treatment.

The report doesn’t say with what gun or caliber the bear was shot.  Next up, news from Canada.

A black bear killed a Minnesota woman on a secluded island in Canadian waters in an attack that experts call extremely rare.

Catherine Sweatt-Mueller, 62, of Maple Plain, was staying with her parents in a remote cabin on Red Pine Island in Rainy Lake when she was killed, Ontario Provincial Police said.

Police Constable Jim Davis said Sweatt-Mueller went outside Sunday evening when she heard her two dogs barking, but that she never returned, the Star Tribune reported.

The dogs, one of them injured, returned to the cabin. Her parents, who are in their 80s, also were on the island and her mother called police, Davis said. Officers found a bear standing over Sweatt-Mueller’s body and shot the animal.

[ … ]

Minnesota wildlife biologist Andy Tri says a predatory attack by a black bear is “beyond extremely rare.”

Remember that.  “Beyond extremely rare.”  Beyond, mind you.  Whatever that means.

Perhaps it’s so beyond extremely rare we could persuade Canadian law enforcement to turn in their weapons.  Or perhaps she should have had means of self defense, and state law be damned.

By way of update, recall that I linked Dean Weingarten’s research work Pistols Or Handguns 95% Effective When Used To Defend Against Bear Attacks, 63 Cases.

Dean has expanded and updated his work and it now includes 73 cases.  He can now add the case from Alaska, which will make it 74.  It would be good to know the weapon and caliber used.

Grok the right lesson here.  It isn’t that bear attacks, whether brown or black, are that rare.  It’s that people who successfully live through such attacks carry means of self defense.

Via WiscoDave and BRVTVS, first, in Banff National Park, Canada.

The Rispolis were asleep in their tent at the park’s Rampart Creek Campground when they were jolted awake after midnight by the wolf.

“It was like something out of a horror movie,” Elisa wrote in the Facebook post.

Matt instantly threw himself in front of his wife and the children, fighting the predator as it ripped apart the tent. While her husband was trying to keep the wolf at bay, Elisa wrote that she lay on top of her two boys to shield them. Together, the couple cried out for help.

Luckily, Fee heard them.

When he arrived at the family’s campsite, Fee told “Calgary Eyeopener” that he saw the wolf attempting to yank something free of the tent, like it was “pulling on a toy.”

“It was big enough that I immediately figured out what it was, which is weird because I’ve never seen one outside of the zoo,” he said. “It was just so much larger than any dog I’ve ever seen.”

Inside the now mostly collapsed dwelling, an intense tug-of-war was unfolding. Elisa wrote that the animal had “started to drag Matt away” and she was holding on to his legs.

“I cannot and don’t think I’ll ever be able to properly describe the terror,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, as Fee ran toward the tent, carrying only the lantern his wife gave him, he devised a hasty plan.

“I just kind of kept running at it and I just kicked it . . . in the back hip area like I was kicking in a door,” he said on the radio show. “I booted it as hard as I could.”

The kick may not have done much physical damage, but Fee said it was enough to startle the wolf into letting Matt go. Then, the animal emerged from the tent and Fee said he “immediately regretted kicking it.”

“I felt like I had kind of punched someone that was way out of my weight class,” he said.

But before Fee had to think of another way to take on the wolf solo, he said Matt, whose “whole half side was just covered in blood,” came flying out of the tent. The two men began screaming at the wolf and hurling rocks about “the size of a head of cabbage” at the animal to drive it back, Fee said. Soon, the wolf was far enough away that the group was able to flee to Fee’s campsite, where they hid in his minivan.

Next up, Vancouver, Canada.

Keeping his bike between him and the bear, he gave it a firm poke with the hiking pole, which led to brief a tug-of-war.

He remembers negotiating with the bear, saying “I know this is your territory, I’m just passing through – we don’t have to do this”.

The grizzly kept coming at him with “methodical, heavy swats” and – as those swats got heavier and stronger – Mr Dowler threw his bike towards it.

That’s when it came for him, biting deep into his abdomen below his ribs.

“It was so much pain and weirdness, I could feel the hot blood,” he says. “I’m being rag-dolled, suspended by my flank by a bear carrying me.”

It dropped him near a ditch about 50ft away and began taking deep bites into his thighs. He tried gouging at the bear’s eyes, and briefly, playing dead.

He then reached for a pocket knife in his right pants pocket – it was painful to do so as he could hear the grating of bear teeth on bone – and went for the bear’s neck. There was a rush of blood and the bear let go and walked away from him, back towards where it had come from.

Do you see anything in common here?  Let me point out two things: [1] Both of these instances occurred where the victim wasn’t carrying a large bore handgun, and [2] both of these instances occurred in a country that prohibits the carrying of large bore handguns.

The solution here isn’t to suggest that we not enjoy the wilderness God gave us.  He commanded us to “subdue the earth.”  The solution here in both instances would have been a large bore handgun.  If you lose a fight like this it will be because you relied on fists, rocks and pocket knives.

News from the mountains.

A woman had “an unusual encounter” with a bear while hiking on the Appalachian Trail Saturday, according to officials from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

GSMNP spokesperson Dana Soehn said the park’s wildlife biologist and park Rangers interviewed the woman Monday morning after receiving a radio report of a “bear attack.” She said she wanted to make sure to pass on the information to our staff regarding her interaction with a bear along her hike.

The woman was hiking in the eastern section of the park in a fairly remote section of the Appalachian Trail near Camel Gap when a bear darted quickly across the trail knocking her over, according to details from the park.

The woman told park officials the encounter happened very quickly, but she was certain that it was a bear. The bear did not linger or react when it knocked into her and kept quickly going on its way.

She was hiking with headphones so she had no advance warning of the bear approaching the trail as it crossed over, according to the park.

Soehn said while it’s not unusual for bears to cross the trails while people are hiking, it is unusual for a collision to occur. Normally people hear a bear’s approach and have time to react before the crossing.

By the time she heard movement in the tree branches near the trail, the bear was already crossing and knocked her over, according to the park. She was not injured and the bear did not attempt to access her pack or interact with her in any way.

Why does anyone want to listen to music when you can listen to the birds, wind, rustling of the trees, and animal life?

And for goodness’ sake, keep your head on a swivel when you’re in the bush.

This video has apparently gone viral.  What isn’t apparent, and seems very clear to me with all the giggling going on, is that she doesn’t understand anything about bears.

This man and woman don’t seem to either, relying on the bear speaking English and their ability to reason with it.  And of course this woman seems clueless.

Here is a recent video the girl should watch before giggling any more when a bear is interested in her.

Outside:

I’m not anti-gun, nor am I a city-dwelling ideologue. I’ve lived in Montana for nearly 20 years, and I own guns. The only time I carry one into the woods, however, is to hunt. To kill game. That’s what they’re built to do.

I’ve been an outdoor writer and editor for nearly as long, covering everything from skiing and climbing to hunting and fishing. I own a backcountry guide service and operate exclusively in grizzly country, including some of the most bear-dense parts of Yellowstone. I’ve had dozens of grizzly encounters, run-ins with polar bears on Arctic ski expeditions, and more than a few awkward conversations with disturbed individuals over the years—all sans sidearm and no worse for wear. Some of these experiences were scary, but I’ve never pulled the trigger on my bear spray (much less a pistol), and every one of those encounters made me a better outdoorsman.

Honestly, every time I read one of these pieces my eyes just glaze over when I have to wade through their ridiculous creds.  Why can’t anyone simply say what they think?  Why do they have to trot out their creds?  You know, that’s “appealing to authority,” or in other words, it’s formally called the genetic fallacy.  But this guy still isn’t finished.

I’ve also worked as an armed courier, transporting millions of dollars in an armored Freightliner—a job that required defensive-firearms training and certification with law enforcement and former military contractors. Guns were part of my wardrobe, and I’m comfortable with almost any firearm you could put in my hand. It’s guns in other peoples’ hands that make me nervous.

I’m not going to cite statistics about rifles and pistols or their effectiveness in wilderness-self-defense scenarios (the outcomes are generally piss-poor).

I don’t know anything about this guy and I’ve never met him, but one thing we learn from his writing is that he’s either a liar or a very sloppy and careless man.  But you knew that already.  His allegations disagree with what we learned from the fantastic research work performed by Dean Weingarten concerning bear attacks.  So whatever else you think of what he says, just remember he’s lying or is just too stupid to know the real facts.

We are not in danger on our favorite hiking trails and in our national forests. In fact, these places are ridiculously safe

So if someone listens to him, he disarms himself and loved ones in the face of potential danger.

There are three practical reasons why carrying a gun in the backcountry is silly.

First, any responsible owner knows that the highest priority is the security of their weapon at all times. On the trail, that becomes a real issue, since there’s no way to safely store your weapon. Want to go for a quick swim? Sorry, you can’t leave your sidearm unattended. Need to head into town for a resupply? Public transportation is off-limits, and most businesses don’t allow firearms. Want to grab a cold beer at the local watering hole after a particularly humid stretch of trail? Bummer, because in most states guns aren’t allowed in bars.

Second, hikers and backpackers are notorious gram counters. Are you seriously going to agonize for months over how to save a few grams on your stove, tent, and shoes, and then pack two pounds of loaded pistol on your hip? You may as well carry an external frame pack and a canvas-wall tent.

Finally, and most importantly, carrying a gun changes the way we interact with and feel about others. For thru-hikers, the social element is an enormously rewarding part of the experience. They meet people from around the world, adopt kooky trail names, share information (including who might be sketchy or carrying a weapon), and coexist for a brief time in a remarkable place, doing a remarkable thing. Bring a firearm into that dynamic, and it won’t be the same. Others don’t know you—they don’t know your training, demeanor, judgment, or intelligence. All they know is that you have a weapon and, with it, the power to hurt them. And that’s all that truly matters. Guns intimidate.

So basically this all boils down to three things with him.  First, beer.  Second, weight.  Third, intimidation.  So if you like beer on the trail, or if you’re concerned about a couple of pounds that could save your life, or if you like to gather with folks who call each other by kooky names, then perhaps he has a point.  Or maybe not.  I didn’t have any problems with a couple of additional pounds, I never had beer on the trail, and I’ve just never worried about intimidation when I carry.  That’s not the point.

If you’re not experienced in the bush but very concerned about how people feel about you – in other words you’re a unique and special snowflake – this might be the guide for you.  On the other hand, he might get you killed too.  My bet is that for whatever reason he has been blessed in the bush, and he is conflating his lack of means of and need for self defense with something totally out of his control.

He isn’t in control over the disposition of wildlife or two-legged threats in his life.  On the other hand, he is indeed in control over his own decisions, and he has chosen the option less safe.  That’s his prerogative, just as it is mine to call him an idiot.