This one was shot by a local farmer when the Polar Bear got too interested in the farmers sheep herd...

This Bear was shoot by a farmer on his daily routine looking after his sheep’s, hi was carrying a ´222 and shoot the bear at 80. Meters and killed it in two shoots.
When asked if he was not taken by surprise seeing a bear he told the reporter;
Use your imagination.

So much for double rifles and dangerous game
Must have been a somewhat special experience though.

Was this on the northen part of Iceland?
Lots of ice floes, or how did he made the landfall?

Arild, nobody knows, There is no Ice anywhere near the cost where he was found,
And after the incident, the coastguard went looking for some evidence of more Bears.
He must be one hell of a swimmer,
or had a boat

quote:

He must be one hell of a swimmer,
or had a boat

Holy s...

Seloushunter

Beautiful beast.

There needs to be some sort of special book for the craziest thing shot with a 22 centrefire.

This has to be top ten...

It must be difficult enough to graze sheep on that stuff without polar bears roaming about on top of it all!!

Rgds,
FB

Good example of...; it’s better to place a small bullet in the right place than to put a big one in the wrong place. It’s amazing what one can shoot with a .222 !

Arild ! The bear was shot in northern Iceland a few km. from the town of Thorshöfn

Ingvar / Solvi.
Even if there was some drifting ice, the nearest island to the north is Jan Mayen and that´s quite a distance!

I know northern Iceland are within the ice flo (drifting ice) belt, but how often do you get visits from polar bears?

(Perhaps he was planning to do some sheep "crutching" ref Trans-Pond )

Arild ! Polar Bears visits are getting quite regular lately....(about 500 recorded animals have arrived), but as you say they usually follow the drifting ice which is more common in late winter or early spring ! So a polar bear during this time of year is a bit unusual ! The record year is 1880-81 with 63 Polar bear “visits” !

Great respect to the shooter.
Its a sound achievement to stalk up to a deer and shoot it at 80 Metres when you are the predator and it is the prey.
Quite a different kettle of fish when you are the prey and it is the predator who wants to kill and eat you!
That takes some nerve. Well Done!

I second that Dave.
I know very well that I would have felt a bit "under gunned" facing a polar bear with 222 Remington.
More comfortable with my 35 Whelen or the 375 Ruger

Hi - can the polar bear only be shot if threatening to livestock/humans? Looks like a subadult, though I may be wrong...

My next gun will be a 222 anyway, at least I know what it's capable of! A lot of guys used the 222 when culling red deer in Scotland, before (and after) the Deer Act.

quote:

Originally posted by Arild Iversen:
.... I would have felt a bit "under gunned" facing a polar bear with 222 Remington.

Same here!!

Back 20 years ago I worked in a fur dealers shop. We delt with Eskimos a lot both buying and selling furs and tanning there fur for them.

I spoke with several of them about the polar bears they shot and basicly they shot them with what ever they had.

I did some tanning on a bear that one old guy told me he he shot with a 7x30 waters.

Mini 14s are popular in bush Alaska and a few brown bears have been killed with them. Also 30-30s have taken there share of big bears.

In the case of the low income residents of wilderness Alaska (or anywhere) it's more a matter of what you have or have in your hand at the time than whats best.

that happened to an ex-neighbor of mine about twenty years ago. The newspaper did not say if the farmer actually caught him in the act, or just "looking".

Rich

From those pics, the bear looks on the small side?

The Polar Bear was a healthy young female just over 4 years old and weighted about 310 lbs. (140 kg.) The farmer just happened to see the bear while walking on his daily routine looking after his sheep. The bear was close to the heard and evidently very interested in it. And fortunately for him he was carrying a rifle on his shoulder !

hi
it was a hunting report in a swedish hunting magazine a few years go about hunters in gronland. a guy who had killed more than 23 polarbears was armed guess you with which caliber?? 222 remington in old sako rifle and he said only a couple of times he needed a second shot with the same gun he had hunted for years and hundreds of sea mamals of all seize
i run a test with my combo 20/222 and these loadings .
win 50 grain varmint!!! norma 50 gr and new 55 oryx loading all went through a 5½ inch log some even a telfon katalog behind that!!! i have the pictures , but don't know how to send it to this forum . if some one can help i send it and you can publish it here.

Well done!

In Russia the farmer would probably recieve few thousands dollars penalty for killing such animal (no matter that he defended his sheep). Is it legal in Iceland?

It is legal to shoot them if there is any danger to people or livestock as was in this case as far as i know..

Looks like a young bear to me! The body is pretty small for a polar bear.