Paul, this whole discussion is reaching out into never-never land. How many people do you know that were ever attacked by a bear.
Too many. One is one too many. I know of two fatal maulings within 15 air miles of where I live, and the brown bears never fed on either of the victims. Bears tore off the tops of these men's skulls leaving their brains exposed. These two men weren't killed for food. Both of these bears made clean getaways. I knew one of these victims, and still own a Winchester M70 Featherweight, 7mm Mauser that I purchased from him. The bear killed him about 10 years after I purchased his rifle. He'd decided to get some exercise and hike out a well known horse trail off Funny River Road on a spring Sunday. I've hiked out that very horse trail myself several times. A few miles off the highway, he stopped, took his day pack off, and was preparing a bite to eat for lunch. A large brown bear evidently got the jump on him. He never returned. He was a very accomplished rifleman. An avid target shooter and hunter. The search party found him and his gear, his rifle, but no bear. The bear clearly killed him outright. No savage mauling. The bear tore portion of his skull loose/off. The bear was gone and never found.
I know of two additional men that would have been killed had they not killed the boars before the boars killed them. Again both maulings within 15 air miles of where I live. I knew one of these two men, and described his mauling earlier in this Thread. My brother knows the other man, and I also posted a link to the story of the boar that charged him. Both of these men survived their attacks with revolvers. One a .44 Magnum S&W, the other a .454 Casull Ruger Alaskan. The bear that was shot with the .44 Magnum was never found. The one shot with the .454 dropped in the middle of a gravel subdivision road.
While hunting on Kodiak Island several years back, another deer hunter was killed on Uganik Island by a brown bear, about 15 miles from where I was hunting.
Last spring my brother was flying to his remote house in Uganik Bay, on the NW side of Kodiak Island. He observed a boat on the east side of Sally Island about 6 miles from his house. When he arrived, his neighbor and he listened to the radio transmissions in Uganik Bay and learned that a man had just been mauled on Sally Island. The US Coast Guard was enroute. The mauling victims hunting partner shot and killed the sow brown bear while it was mauling his buddy with his own hunting rifle. Shot the bear in the rear quarters initially, causing the bear to reposition itself, and then shot it thru the shoulders. Next thing he knows another brown bear appears, a cub of the sow he'd just killed. He dispatches that bear as it approaches with another shot from his rifle. Good thing he didn't use up his can of bear spray on that first bear.
Bear maulings are a regular occurrence where I live and hunt. Victims seem to be killed maybe 20% of the time.
An older woman well known within the long distance/marathon running circles in Alaska was jogging up McHugh Creek Trail just south of Anchorage, with her son. I've been up that trail myself several times. A brown bear mauled and killed her. Her son approached and tried to assist her. The brown bear mauled and killed her son.
I could go on. I can provide links to these maulings, which were reported in the Alaskan media.
I posted earlier of a black bear that stalked up to within 20 feet of me while I was napping on a spring bear hunt. This bear came up from directly downwind. He followed my scent trail up to me. Fortunately, I raised my head just in time to see his two black ear tips slowly come into view off the edge of the knowl I was resting on. The last 7 yards of his approach, we were in complete view of one another. His eyes were locked on mine. Step by step. I killed him at 20 feet with a 7mm 160gr Nosler Accubond from a 7mm Rem Mag. He charged off 30 yards and collapsed, down within about 6 seconds from the time the bullet struck home.
I get the impression you believe bear maulings and attacks happen so infrequently that there's little cause for concern. The bears where I live, play, and hunt often play for keeps.
I can go on. A ladies husband from our church was charged by a large boar brown bear up Fuller Lakes Trail 30 miles east of where I live. I've hiked up this trail a number of times, and packed a black bear back out down this trail once. He was with several friends. Steve Devito shot and killed the boar while it was headlong into its charge at point blank range. A friend was also shooting at the bear. These aren't boo boo bears. The large boars with wide enough jaw spreads can crush a man's skull in one bite. The smaller ones try but end up ripping off pieces of scalp, or the entire scalp.
Al Thompson, a local game warden was mauled out the Funny River Horse trail 35 years ago. Forgot about him. My brother knew him well and I had also met him a couple of times. He was camping with his wife hunting moose when a large boar brown bear came into their shelter in the middle of the night and grabbed his wife. Al instinctively grabbed the bear by the head, and then the bear grabbed him and drug him out and off. This bear didn't kill Al, but gave him a terrible whooping. Being as Al was a game warden, and folks were too kindly toward game wardens back in the day, locals kindly nicknamed Al Thompson "Bear Bait Al". The first time I met Al was when I was doing a soils investigation on property he owned, preparing it to be subdivided. He was in his Fish and Wildlife clothing. When he took his cap off, I notice about 5 separate hair part lines on his scalp, and there was evidence of scarring on his forehead. This boar must not have crunched down on Al's face, because his face was well balanced. Hardly disfigured at all.
And then there was the Riverside Auto Parts owner (Gary) mauled down by Ninilchik during a moose hunt. He heard a grunt, thought it might be a moose. He poked his nose out thru some alders only to face two adult brown bears coming in full charge. Gets mauled pretty good. Seems like he got off a shot to no avail. Gary had weird hair parts on his head also.
So yes, I know folks that have been mauled, and worse yet, I've known folks killed by bears. The odds are good I'll know a few more as time goes on. Bear maulings are a fairly regular occurrence. I consider them a real possibility, and I prepare for them as if my life depends on it. Because it might. I'd rather not offer myself up, and make an easy victim. And if a bear attacks me and I can kill it, others will be thankful for making the area safer for all. At least two separate individuals thanked me for killing that black bear. It was near a heavily used hiking trail in the Kenai Mountains.
I prefer to kill problem bears with a firearm, than take the chance of smartening one up with pepper spray for the next victim. The majority of the folks that live where I live feel likewise. And the one's that don't quickly change their perspectives on that matter after they or someone they know has a bad bear experience.
