In the newspapers today.
A Swedish moose hunter is found killed utside his cabin.
His fellow hunters missed him this morning and went to the cabin where he had spendt the night.
They found him dead outside the cabin , obviously killed by bear.
His dog layed dead beside him the news paper said.

The area is north of the city of Østersund, close to the Norwegian border.

And all the authorithies and the greens sternly predict that the bear is not dangerous...

I guess every country has it's "Treadwells" who say they're harmless. A sad story.Any idea why he was attacked ? Natural food sources poor ? Food in the cabin ?

well
generally the people are so brain washed by animal lovers that they beleive the bears are harmless teddy bears like winni the pugh or bamse. they forget that bears are dangerous predators .and media often try to blame the victimes instead of explaining to then. how dangerous a bear could be. poor man my condelance to his family.
regards
yes

According to the big Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet the theory goes like this:
The hunters dog was on a lash outside the cabin. Most probably the bear saw the chance for a easy meal and went for the dog.
The hunter must have heard the noise and barking outside, and tried to defend his dog.
The bear have attacked the hunter and killed him. There was no gun at the scene utside the cabin.

The police have decided that the bear will be killed, and team of experienced bearhunters with dogs are on their way to the area.

Still acording to Aftonbladet, Sweden have a bear population of approx 2500 individes with an 5 % annual increase.

The county of Jamtland where the killing took place have 40 bears on the hunting licence this fall, and they are already shot.

Whatever the reason for the killing, it´s a very sad story.

He obviously underestimated the situation and the risk. A sad story indeed.

Sad indeed - tho my guess (just speculating - based on that there wasn't a rifle on the scene - hunter was taken by surprise) would be that hunter was out around cabin and dog on loose in the woods near by when he hit on bear - pissing him off and bear chased the dog. Dog escaping back to the cabin with bear on his hills, bringing bear and hunter in a cleft stick. I guess bear finished hunter first - dog tried to help but at the end got the dog too - I guess we will never know - nevertheless - sad.

P.S. Oh just missed that dog was on the lash - discard it then - but solving scene like that without rifle in the hand is a bad idea.

Yes, you may be right in general but the people of this small village in Sweden do have all the experience and respect that one need or should have regarding bears.

The hunter is killed and so is his dog, all in all the references to Aftonbladet are no better than the SUN in GB, ie one can´t be sure of there accuracy in terms of details.

The whole fall the people of this village has been more and more trubbled by hungry bears invading there yards raiding trashcans.

While this is not uncommon in say Alaska and other parts of US, Swedish bears a shy to extremly shy, it has been said that a shortage of berries has them starving and thouse loosing there natural shyness.

In sweden in gereral there is a big political and real problem with our larger predators, the government and EU forbidd us to hunt them in sufficient numbers and illegal hunting and accidents like this one is on the rise.

Serious and hard actions has to bee taken, I am truly sorry for this man and his family but incidents like this one will lift the issues to a national level.

I for one belive in more predator hunting.

Best regards Chris

quote:

Originally posted by yes:
well
generally the people are so brain washed by animal lovers that they beleive the bears are harmless teddy bears like winni the pugh or bamse. they forget that bears are dangerous predators .and media often try to blame the victimes instead of explaining to then. how dangerous a bear could be. poor man my condelance to his family.
regards
yes

Very unfortunate.

I saw a lot of fresh bear crap in the woods this September. I mentally rehearsed the scenario of dog coming back fast looking scared.....

Very sad indeed.

Do continental hunters take the presence of bears into account when deciding on a hunting calibre for other game?

How big do these bears get?

Rgds,
FB

Very sad news.

Last weekend i was bird hunting in Finnish Lapland and in the area we stalked in there is several bears. All the licensed bears in the area have already been shot. We didn't bring any heavy rifles with us. Only carrying shotguns we didn't want to see bears.

I felt a bit unease stalking birds in the heavy bush as we did find fresh tracks and crap every day. Its not fun when you realise you are walking the same track as a bear did maybe just a couple of hours ago. I was happy that we didn't see any bears in the end.

It is a problem when you stalk very quietly and accidently approach a bear below wind so it cannot smell you. This way you can surprise yourself and the bear and specially if it has a cub it can turn nasty.

Deaths are very rare but almost every year somebody is harassed or mauled by a bear. EU wants to protect bears and its ok in countries like Germany where bear population is 0 but it can be a bit of a problem in Nordic and other bear rich countries.

Our local bears can be 300+kg, i suspect its the same in Sweden. Note that a 50kg brown bear can hit your head off so not a teddy bear even if its a young one.

Here in Sweden, most hunters have gravitated towards 9,3x62 in M98 systems cause they are/were plentyfull or other cals like 338 Win and upwards.

This reaction is due to the arrival of boars and in the nothern half of sweden the big browns,

The classic 6,5x55 that a lot of moose hunters use is now slipping in popularity.

A typical swedish brown male is 120-150 kg in the fall.

I can also now verify that the bear in question has been shot by local hunters after decision by the police.

I my self don´t hunt in areas where either boar or bear is present and I will continue to use my 308 Win as my all round cal, for driven hunts etc, I have a 9,3x74R, used to have a x62.


Best regards Chris.

quote:

Originally posted by Fallow Buck:
Very sad indeed.

Do continental hunters take the presence of bears into account when deciding on a hunting calibre for other game?

How big do these bears get?

Rgds,
FB

TonyCH, are you allowed to carry some 000-buck or Brenneke shotgun cartridges? Here fortunately we don't have any bear, but I agree with you; it's unpleasant and unsafe to walk in a forest populated by bears, with a shotgun loaded with #5-6 shotshells only.....

quote:

Originally posted by Fallow Buck:
Very sad indeed.

Do continental hunters take the presence of bears into account when deciding on a hunting calibre for other game?

How big do these bears get?

Rgds,
FB

Not in our places - major selection is made upon possible meeting with reds or boars so ~ 7 mm or 30.06 cal is a custom (it would flatten a bear as well). Bears are generaly not dangerous "per-se" - their character vary between single animals (we know the majority of our bears on our hunting ground) and serious incidents are rare (if I recall correctly there was only 1 fatal accident since WW2)...but mood may change in a split second. So when meeting the bear - a rifle in the hand (not on shoulder) is recommendable - they just can't be trusted (once you see those small cunning eyes up close you will get the pic).

Tony is correct they are incredibily strong - I saw a 100 kg bear at his last gasp snaping 10 cm diameter pine tree like a toothpick and here they can reach 350 kg - here are some pics of one such sized from our places:

quote:

Originally posted by wildboar:
TonyCH, are you allowed to carry some 000-buck or Brenneke shotgun cartridges? Here fortunately we don't have any bear, but I agree with you; it's unpleasant and unsafe to walk in a forest populated by bears, with a shotgun loaded with #5-6 shotshells only.....

Yes, we can carry any type of shotgun cartridges. In fact I did have 2 Rottweil Brenneke slugs with me just in case. I had a 12/70 S/S shotgun with me so not very powerful ammo available but obviously they outrank my #5 bird shots. And in any case bear attack happens usually quite fast so being able to change ammo while he is closing at 60kmh might be a bit difficult.

A problem with bears is that the lethal zone is relatively small when compared to other animals (only size of your palm). And this area is very difficult to hit from the front. Additionally as bear blood pressure is very low even if you hit him into his heart his brain will work quite long without fresh blood. He might run 100 meters without heart and slap you senseless.

I think 9,3mm is also quite popular here among the bear hunters. I think the last bear attack I heard about in Finland was a case where guy hit the bear with 2 rounds of 9.3mm and it still attacked. He had no chance to reload so he dropped the rifle and pulled his backup revolver (not very common to carry one) and shot the bear in the head from extreme close range. He was very lucky as bear skull is very thick and a brain shot usually is not successful.

I've been on a bear hunt once 3 years ago and loaded very hot load with 26 gram (405grain) Woodleighs into my 45/70. Didn't want to take anything smaller with me. We followed the bear into very thick bush and then decided to abandon the chase as visibility was only about 2 meters. Our local bears are sometimes known to stop and hide waiting for the hunters and charge them from close range. So without a dog its not safe to follow them into such area.

Its good that the bear in Sweden is now down. I've heard that the problem bears might take a habit of harassing people.

Mouse93 is right. 99.9% of bears run away when they detect people. So, you don't need to be very afraid of bears. Just try to avoid them. Especially if they have cubs with them. They will protect them fiercly even if you just happened to walk by with no intention of harming them. Mother bear might attack a human too close to the cub just in case. Also surprised bear might react by attacking. Wounded bears are always dangerous.

It seems like the bear in Sweden was about 200kg.

http://www.op.se/parser.php?level1=2&level2=352&id=830922

Interesting stuff...

I notice there seems to be a big range of weights quoted, for what must surely be the same sub species of bear...Is there any partiicular reason for this?

Regards,

Pete

Here's an incident in the USA. www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,300513,00.html

quote:

Originally posted by Pete E:
Interesting stuff...

I notice there seems to be a big range of weights quoted, for what must surely be the same sub species of bear...Is there any partiicular reason for this?

Regards,

Pete

the artical states that 200 kg is on the light side for a grown male, so he must have been hungry. i also heard about the lousy berry season so you got starving bears in an enviroment where you arent allowed to regulate them.....

peter

quote:

Originally posted by Pete E:
Interesting stuff...

I notice there seems to be a big range of weights quoted, for what must surely be the same sub species of bear...Is there any partiicular reason for this?

Yes, they are all brown bear (Ursus arctos): european (Ursus arctos arctos), grizzlies in USA (Ursus arctos horribilis) and the big ones in Russias Kamchatka area (Ursus arctos beringianus) and the huge kodiaks in Alaska (Ursus arctos middendorffi) etc.

I think the northern european brown bears are quite the same size as grizzlies (average weight 250kg for males). Some will grow up to about 350 kg.

The one in Sweden had probably not yet fully grown or was starving like Peter said.

Some info:
http://www.greatbear.org/brownbear.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_bear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Brown_Bear

Guys don't forget that bears may vary in size/weight - they do gain weight with age but some are just bigger than others and vice versa - 200 kg bear is a respectful sized male (see Husquarna note - 120-150 kg on average male) and his weight might just be OK (depends on genes, age, food availability...). Looking at the pic looks like this guy was fully grown (note shape of the head - nice one) but very slender (note a small - skiny hump) - might be from not enough food or old age or something else.

Yes you are right. Sizes vary just like with humans.

Well, any size of brown bear can kill a human with almost no effort. So don't go petting one when you meet him in the woods.

Car against bear collision yesterday in Finland. People were not injured but the bear escaped the crash scene.

Local police in the area in question is suggesting people stay inside or only move by car until they determine where the bear is, how badly it was injured and if its dangerous.

They are using local hunters and dogs to track the bear.

Above news article translates something like this; (On-line translater)



The bear in Valsjöbyn is that shot


bear as put to death a man in Valsjöbyn is now shot. It was shot of Lars Svanberg and his pursuit teams a pair kilometers from the cottage where the man was put to death.
Lars Svanberg is relieved.
- it was comfortable that it went so fast and smooth. Comfortable for the villagers that they balances exit on the evenings.
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type contributions! - with 95 percents security knows we that it is correct bear. The size agrees and the tracks where more or less cohesive all the way, he says.
It was a low-fat bear that was fälla. It weighed only 200 kilos, what is little for a fully grown male.
Svanberga pursuit teams comprize Lars, his brother bear and the son Pär. They had prepared themselves through dialing in each tracks after the bear was last night. The wide half seventh time this morning gave they itself away.

They're sweet just like teddy bears ! In the same general area - www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article2048344.ece

I like the Norwegians point of view, at least that of those form Svalbard
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1948234.ece

These pictures are of a guy who works for the Forest Service in Alaska. He was out deer hunting. A large Grizzly charged him from about 50 yards away. The guy unloaded a 7mm Mag Semi-auto into the bear and it dropped a few feet from him. The monster was still alive so he reloaded and capped it in the head. It was over one thousand six hundred pounds, 12'6" high at the shoulder, 14' to the top of his head. It's the largest Grizzly bear ever recorded in the world. Of course, the game department did not let him keep it. It will be mounted and put on display at the Anchorage airport (to remind tourist's of the risks involved when in the wild). Think about it. You would be level with the bear's belly button when he stood, he would look you in the eye when walking! This bear on its hind legs could walk up to the average single story house and look over the roof at eye level. The bear had killed 2 other people. His last meal was the poor fellow (pictured above) on a nature hike....Ouch. The Forest Service found his 38-caliber emptied. He shot 6-times and hit the grizzly 4 (they found seven 7mm slugs and four 38 caliber slugs in him) but obviously only wounded him since that encounter was estimated to be 3 days prior to the bear's death. The 7mm has about 10 times the energy of a 44 mag pistol and the 38 is a pop-gun compared to the .44. Fear is good