Warning shots scared the bear away I wonder if someone else might end up regretting the fact he didn't kill the bear later on.

Is it a flaw in AKs DLP law that the shooter must always recover the skin and turn it in. Seems to be it would be a very public service to have killed this bear.

Instead of getting penalized for ridding the country of a dangerous animal.

http://www.freerepublic.com/fo...f-chat/3056944/posts


White Mountains trail closed after grizzly accosts family
NewsMiner ^ | August 20, 2013 | Tim Mowry


FAIRBANKS - A hiking trail in the White Mountains National Recreation Area north of Fairbanks has been closed after a big grizzly bear accosted a family picking berries along the trail last weekend.

The Bureau of Land Management temporarily closed the Table Top Mountain Trail off Nome Creek Road about 45 miles northeast of Fairbanks while it investigates the incident. The 3-mile loop trail is a popular hiking and berry-picking destination.

BLM spokesman Craig McCaa said the bear, described as a large grizzly, approached the family of four, which included two small children, several times as they were picking berries near their camp on Saturday night. The father fired several warning shots at the animal with a .44-caliber handgun to scare it away but the bear persisted with its aggressive behavior, McCaa said.

“They pulled camp and hustled down the trail and heard a crashing noise in the brush,” he said.

The bear then evidently charged the father, who put himself between the bear and his family, McCaa said. The man fired his last two shots at the bear but wasn’t sure if he hit it.

“It was quite dark at that point,” McCaa said.

According to a narrative written by BLM ranger Jonathan Priday, who interviewed the man, the bear “made an unnatural movement into some thick vegetation” after the father shot at it. Priday checked the trail on Sunday but found no sign of the bear, McCaa said.

Priday and the father returned to the area on Tuesday to see if they could find any sign of the bear and to determine if the bear was possibly wounded or killed.

The man reported the shooting to Alaska Wildlife Troopers as a defense of life and property shooting and plans to skin the bear if he finds it, as law requires, McCaa said.

BLM put up signs to alert hikers and berry pickers that the trail is closed because of the bear encounter, McCaa said.

It’s possible the bear is the same one that uprooted and pilfered a pair of bear-proof trash cans at the nearby Ophir Creek Campground back in June. Nobody ever saw that bear but tracks on the road indicated it was a large grizzly, McCaa said. The trail is about two miles from the campground.

“We don’t know if it’s the same bear or not,” he said. “There’s no way to tell, especially since nobody ever saw that bear.”

I have to vote that the bear should have been killed, if for no other reason than this particular bear was showing progressively more aggressive behavior.

Just my opinion, nothing more, but personally I would be better able to live with myself over killing a bear as a pre-cautionary measure, than sending condolences and expressions of sympathy to some persons family or some child's parents due to a lack of action on my part.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Warning shots scared the bear away I wonder if someone else might end up regretting the fact he didn't kill the bear later on.

Is it a flaw in AKs DLP law that the shooter must always recover the skin and turn it in. Seems to be it would be a very public service to have killed this bear.

Instead of getting penalized for ridding the country of a dangerous animal.

The skin recovery law is to dissuade folks from spraying the countryside with lead everytime they see a scary bear.

All bears are scary. They've got big teeth, big eyes, big claws,....oh my!

quote:

Originally posted by Scott King:

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Warning shots scared the bear away I wonder if someone else might end up regretting the fact he didn't kill the bear later on.

Is it a flaw in AKs DLP law that the shooter must always recover the skin and turn it in. Seems to be it would be a very public service to have killed this bear.

Instead of getting penalized for ridding the country of a dangerous animal.

The skin recovery law is to dissuade folks from spraying the countryside with lead everytime they see a scary bear.

All bears are scary. They've got big teeth, big eyes, big claws,....oh my!

Personally I find bears to very interesting critters that one doesn't take for granted.

As with any critter that could cause you harm small or very large. A brown recluse spider bite can cause you lots of problems.

If you find one about to bite you take care of it. Is one scare because you took care of the problem. Same with say a rabid raccoon. There millions more raccoons then there are bears. No body is spraying the brush because their might be a deadly rabid one in there.

Just because one kills a critter that is about to do one great bodily harm or kill you doesn't make one scared.

LOL found this on another gun site Maybe this is why the skin wasn't turned in. LOL

Well, you see, Mr. Ranger, after I shot the bear I realized that before I could skin the sucker out I ought to go home and change my pants.

And on the way home I realized that I was shaking so much that it would be better if I had something "to calm my nerves". So I stopped in at Joe's on the way home, and after convincing the bartender that I was not already so drunk I did not have control of myself he called a bunch of guys over for me to tell the story to.

As other guys wandered in I had to tell the story over and over again - and each time I did folks bought me a drink or three and slapped me on the back while calling me a hero.

By the time I finally managed to get out of Joe's it was closing time and I still needed to go home and clean up and change my clothes.

I had to call three different taxis to take me home before one would agree that the reason I needed to clean up and change my clothes was not because I was so drunk. And he got on the radio and told all the other taxi drivers in town about me and the bear, and they all wanted to meet me and hear the story first hand.

And at least one of them stopped off and got a six-pack or three, so by the time I finally got home I was really feeling the effects and I'm pretty sure that instead of heading straight to the bathroom and cleaning up I must have gone into the bedroom and fallen asleep right there on the bed. Which woke up the wife who would not believe me when I tried to tell her that the reason I needed to clean up and change my clothes was not because I was drunk but because of the bear.

She said something about teaching me to tell the truth and to not come home stinking drunk, which was why I decided to sleep outside. And because it gets cold at night I went and curled up in the car, which is where the cop found me because he said I must have kept hitting the brake pedal because it was the flashing brake lights that got his attention.

And then I had to tell the story all over again - and he didn't believe me any more than my wife did, so I ended up sleeping for the rest of the night in the drunk tank - which really means I didn't get any sleep at all. So when I got released I went home and started to get cleaned up so I could change my clothes but it looks like I fell asleep in the shower - well, until the hot water ran out.

When I got hit by the cold water I must have woken up with a start and run out of the shower - except I kept on running until I fell down when I tripped on the kid's tricycle in the front yard and hit my head, passing out. That old biddy that lives across the street must have called the cops because the next thing I remember I was being stuffed bare-butt nekkid into the back of a squad car and going to the police station again.

They gave me a blanket to put around myself and threw me in a big holding cell with a bunch of other guys already in there. They wanted to know how come I got arrested so I started telling the story of the bear and Joe's and the taxi drivers and sleeping in the car and being thrown into the drunk tank, and it seems one of them called a deputy over to hear the story and he thought I was crazy and making it all up so

I got hauled down to the psych ward for some sort of evaluation where I had to tell the story of the bear, and Joe's, and the taxi drivers, and sleeping in the car and being thrown in the drunk tank, and running out of the shower bare-butt nekkid and winding up there in the psych ward.

The docs there were not sure if I was bat-snit crazy or suffering from alcohol poisoning or was a pathological liar or what, so I had to stay there for three days while they made me tell the story over and over again. So anyway, by the time I got out of the psych ward and went home and had to explain everything to my wife,

who at first wanted to either brain me with a rolling pin or just throw me out on the sidewalk until I finally convinced her that I was not smart enough to make this stuff up, and we had great make-up sex which I fell asleep after.


Anyhow, I finally got cleaned up and changed my clothes and went out to find that bear so I could skin him out and turn in the hide. But by the time I got to where the bear was when I left it, it looked like wolves and coyotes and buzzards and maybe even a few other bears had more than one meal out of the carcass, which had no hide for me to skin out and turn in. Which is why I can't turn in a hide from the bear I killed.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

It's like with human bullies.
Aggressive bears need to be taught lesson, except they are not human so once they are aggressive, book closed. Boom.
Tell Fish and Game dept. where it is and end of story or don't tell them.
It's just like self defense in robbery or defending your life from thugs. You don't need to back off. Boom.

I think the father was kind of dumb to carry a .44 with only the loads in the cylinder in grizzly country. I'd of had at least 2 speedloaders on me!

quote:

Originally posted by lee440:
I think the father was kind of dumb to carry a .44 with only the loads in the cylinder in grizzly country. I'd of had at least 2 speedloaders on me!

Probably not. Have you ever tried to spend all day every day walking around, working recreating, resting and eating with a handgun and two speed loaders on your person? Its cumbersome, obnoxious and noone that actually lives in grizzly country does so. I know, I do live in grizzly country.

I've got bear poop on my driveway, bear poop on the road out at the end of the driveway, bear poop on the highway, and bear poop on the sidewalk. I don't have to drive up in the hills to see bears or go camping, they're all over. Bears are out the front door, the back door, over on the lawn and behind the trees. I can't,....... we can't bring ourselves to run around here armed to the teeth. It just doesn't work.

Look, the only reason I respond to this hysteria is because it is the internet and some readers believe what they read here and come to genuinely believe the bears or wolves or squirrels are out to get us. "Voracious Man Eating Bears!" ranks right up there with ".416 Is Minumum Caliber For Alaska Hunting!" Both are just not so. Yes, occasionally someone gets bit or ate by a bear. Coincidentally, here in Alaska, people are also injured by deer, elk, moose, geese, domestic dogs and trees. There are actually more domestic dog bites in Alaska every year than bear bites. Seriously. Just the other day a dog bit a mailman in Wasilla. I read about it.

Maybe the gun owner in the original article made a mistake in not simply shooting the bear to start with. Maybe. I'm not sure I'd of wasted ammo shooting near it. On the other hand, nothings been heard from this bear since, and if five or ten years from now if nothing more is heard,........Maybe he shouldn't have killed it. Maybe.

Speaking as someone who really actually lives in and among bears every second of every day, I am telling you emphatically that bears just aren't as dangerous as other common day to day hazards. Use your brains, practice some common sense, and yeah, sure, you might be struck by lightning, have a tree fall on you, be stomped by a moose or be bit by a bear but probably not.

Sounds about right for Wyoming griz also

I've read of many bluff charges over the yrs.
I wouldn't know a bluff charge IF I watched a 100 of 'em.
I do know IF I'd ever get to bear country and was charged, bluff or not. I'd kill the SOB. I never ever go out in the woods without enough gun. Shucks, I even carry one sitting right here in my own livingroom typing: yes, right now!
no, I'm not scared of much, but, there's been quite a few doors busted and a/h's barging in to rob and beat folks. This is why I'm packing 24/7. One thing for damned sure, I don't believe in warning shots either.
Hopefully that bear got the message and left the area and won't be back. Time will answer that question.
Thanks for posting the story. Also, the gent above this that lives among 'em. I wish you well in never getting bit.
George

In Wyoming, We call it a bluff
If you don't die.

quote:

Originally posted by georgeld:
I've read of many bluff charges over the yrs.
I wouldn't know a bluff charge IF I watched a 100 of 'em.
I do know IF I'd ever get to bear country and was charged, bluff or not. I'd kill the SOB. I never ever go out in the woods without enough gun. Shucks, I even carry one sitting right here in my own livingroom typing: yes, right now!
no, I'm not scared of much, but, there's been quite a few doors busted and a/h's barging in to rob and beat folks. This is why I'm packing 24/7. One thing for damned sure, I don't believe in warning shots either.
Hopefully that bear got the message and left the area and won't be back. Time will answer that question.
Thanks for posting the story. Also, the gent above this that lives among 'em. I wish you well in never getting bit.
George

George, your well wishes and a healthy dose of luck may well be all I've got going for me. So far, so good.