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forgive me if this has already been posted!

WILLIAMS LAKE, British Columbia (AP) -- John Hirsch went toe-to-claw with a black bear - and won.

Hirsch had only a 3 1/2-inch knife blade when he came across the bear in his backyard in Williams Lake, about 190 miles northeast of Vancouver.

"He came out of nowhere," said Hirsch, 61, an avid hunter and outdoorsman.

"I can remember thinking that he's not stopping - he's coming," said Hirsch. "I just didn't feel I had any place to go."

He was attacked Oct. 29 while checking on the 15 turkeys he and his wife, Sharon, raise on their spread.

As the bear began to circle him, Hirsch faced it like a wrestler in a ring.

"It was like a knife fight that you'd see in an old-time Western," he said. The bear swatted out at him, but each time it lunged, he managed to stab it.

"I couldn't tell you if the fight lasted three seconds or three minutes," Hirsch said.

Three stabs to the bear's chest and one to its neck finally did the bruin in.

It stood about 5 foot 7 inches to Hirsch's 5 feet 9 inches and weighed 200 pounds, according to conservation officers who inspected it.

"I can say it sure looked smaller the next morning than it did during the fight," said Hirsch.

The bear was in poor shape, suffering from a severed tongue and broken jaw, the conservation officer said. Its stomach was empty and the bear had little fat on it.

Hirsch, a retired electrical foreman at B.C. Hydro, suffered a scratch to the top of his head and scratches to his back - and a shredded T-shirt.

As for the battle itself, Hirsch said it never occurred to him that he would lose to the bear.

"I just felt that however long this took, I was going to come out OK," he said. "I always felt that I was at least his equal."


Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

At least he did not do the old tree hugger move lay down and be eaten. I kind of like how they compare the man size to the bear size like the poor bear was over matched. Any weapon is better then no weapon but a pistol of most any size would have ended this a lot sooner let alone a rifle or shotgun. But don't you have to keep your guns locked up and unloaded in Canada.

You have to keep them locked up and unloaded if you are not able to control them. Like if you are not at home.

He was in his backyard and it would have been perfectly legal for him to have a gun at hand.

And to further what Gatehouse mentioned we can keep loaded firearms handy for stock protection purposes. If I were to have a bear or cougar after my stock I sure as hell would not want to have to unlock a safe to get at a gun.

But I have to say though that Mr. Hirsch was amazing on being able to maintain his cool enough to fight off that bear. We had a hot dry summer here in the Cariboo (Williams Lake is in the centre of the Cariboo region BTW) that left many bears in poor shape due to a poor berry crop. Many bears were wandering around looking for food long after they should have been denned up. The one Mr. Hirsch fought with sounds like it was hungry enough to try taking on a horse or moose and got it's jaw broken for it's trouble.

The story reminds me of a contemporary of T Roosevelt, Ben Lilly. The knifemakers out there may recognize the name, he made as "s" shaped blade that he prefered for bear killing. Story goes he would wait for the charge, then jump on the back and drive the knife home. An original Lilly blade (verifiable) is a rare commodity. As was the man. As is this man.