hypothectical bear trouble while cleaning a elk

[mike33]

Great posts, never heard that many first hand stories on grizzlies before.
mike

 

[HUAINAMACHERO]

Very interesting and impressive stories!!!
Keep them coming, I guess we can learn from them some tips that might be helpful sometime somewhere.

 

[bigngreen]

I have found that a horse can be a grizzly early warning device, unfortunately they tend to leave you in a pile to distract the griz from themselves.

 

[sp6x6]

A buddy and I where riding out of the high country and rounded a tight corner. Yards away was a gbear, and HE TOOK off up the mountain, but it was so close my friend was doing the funky buck and my horse was monkey see monkey do. We both stayed in the saddle, but usually ride with a handgun for that reason, if we get separated from horse and half to walk out

 

[elkmaster101]

1. Carry a frying pan, cook up as much elk as you can eat.
2. Hand gun is a good plan. i carry one while bow hunting.
3. Make camp there for the night, build a substantual fire.
4. carry out what you can. hoist the rest up a tree with a rope.
you should have the roap with you anyway.
**** all around the base of the tree.
5. you should be hunting with a buddy anyway, so make him help carry.
6. 300 yard jaunts then return for the rest.
7. Shoot the bear. here again use the frying pan & eat what you can.

if you get a chance check out
http.//www.blackdiamondhunteraccessories.com
be safe

 

[sdkidaho]

lets say your feild dressing a elk could the blood attract a grizzly bear?

I don't believe it's the smell of blood, but rather this is your answer:

Apperantly bears (black bears as well) learn that gun shots are dinner bells.

I think if you are not ready when a bear is 20-50 yards away you wont get the chance to be ready...they are that fast.

Truer words were never spoken. I really do believe that 99% of us wouldn't have time to draw, let alone get off a lethal shot on an attacking bear. It would seem that an animal that is that big would not or could not be that fast, but they can run down a horse if that gives you any sort of comparison for what speeds they are capable of.

You could try what this guy does, but I'm thinking he's got balls of steel:

YouTube - Man talks his way out of bear attack

Check out this video, in less than 3 seconds of time being elapsed the bear is on you: http://www.udap.com/video/Bear Attack.wmv

 

[sp6x6]

My wife and I HAVE THIS ARGUMENT ALL THE TIME. Spray vrs. firearm. This is paper work she gave me, here father has logged thousands of miles in local park and stopped G bears w/spray.Study by TOM Smith, Efficancy of bear spray in AK, 72 CASES spray to defend, 92% stopped, 98% uninjured. 1992 USFWS STUDY, 50% of the time injury when defending with firearm, spray shorter duration of attack. ME, I SHOT AS a member on 2 state champ pistol teams, I CARRY my 44 in a low slung, old west style,gunfitter set up, my son Packs bear spray and a pistol. I bow hunt all fall the last 2, and spring bear in grizz area. I am on point, agreement with son, if bear gets me, shoot him, but be extra careful not to hit me

 

[MontanaRifleman]

IMO, spray is a much better bear defense than a firearm. I startled a bear once while backpacking in the Beartooth Mountains, North of Yellowstone. It moved with incredible spped and it reached top speed instantly. Fortunately it was moving quartering away from me instead of toward me. Bears can move at 40 mph which equates to 50 fps. If you startle a bear at 100 ft, and it charges, you have 2-3 seconds to draw and aim your weapon at an object that is moving at the speed of blur over uneven ground toward you. Good luck. Had those two hunters (or just one of them) in BC used bear spray instead of a 30.06 they would both be alive today. And BTW, there are differnt types of spray. The stuff designed for human deterent and LE only works marginally on animals, or people for that matter. It is usually is a weaker mixture of ingredients and the big thing is it remains a liquid that irritates skin surfaces. The most effective type, becomes a fog like aerosol that is breathed in. This is what really works. I have personal experience with it.

At one time I thought I would be able to tough my my through any kind of spray if i really had to and put more stock in a gun than spray for defense. One day I got a can of UDAP and decided to test fire it just to make sure that it worked and i knew how to use it. I took it outside on the back stoop and pointed it downwind and gave it a quick micro second burst. It instantly sent about a 30' long cloud of orange fog out ahead of me.. At that moment the light breeze shifted back toward me and the cloud started coming my way. I decided to back off to avoid any unpleasantries. I backed off about 50 ft for a minute or so until the cloud completely disapaited, then walked back over to the stoop, with no visible trace of the fog. As soon as I got to the stoop, I started gagging and choking and became nausious. That moment made a believer out of me. UDAP has been used successfully many times to stop bear attacks and I dont know of a single case where it has failed if there has been time to successfully discharge it. Counter Assault is another very similar product.

If I am traveling in high density bear country, Then I'll have a can of UDAP with me. If I'm in a situation, like traveling after dark, where I feel I have minimal response time, I'll have it in hand, ready to discharge instantly.

Firearms can be effective against bears depending on the circumstances, but not even the best shot in the world is going to hit a full charge bear in the head (which is the only sure thing stopper for a bear) before it's on top of him. Spray is a lot more flexible and easier to employ and more effective than a firearm at close range.

-Mark

 

[rooster740]

Just something to chew on, have you ever spayed that crap into the wind? It sucks! If a grizz is hunting you, he will most often come from down wind, but a surprise can happen with disregard to the wind.
I hear and live by the saying" lawyer bills are cheaper then doctor bills". I have had cross hairs, shotgun beads and pistol lasers on a bunch of nasty fuzzies, and never had to squeeze yet.
To top it off I ran into 5 grizzly bears in one morning last fall. That sucks also, most were between 100 -400 yards, but after already seeing 3 yearling cubs, which by the way were orphaned because a hunter justifiably shot their charging mother 2 falls ago, and a large male grizzly, what are the chances of seeing another bear in 1 square mile..... Well pretty darn good on the Yellowstone park line. So as the story gets better I am on a new horse back tracking a small grizzly bear away from a wolf killed elk, when my cellular rings. As I head back to the truck, yacking on the phone, my horse stops traveling and no amount of kicking will get him going! I hang up the cellular to hear the all too familiar huffing of daddy bear 15 feet in front of me, holed up in a juniper. I did have time to.....well I pooped a little, is what I am trying to say! I can atest to the fact that the new horse can turn and burn up hill. Had that stupid phone not rang I would have been off that horse leading him down that hill with my rifle in the scabbard and my 357 under two layers of coats. It was a small 200-250lbs. grizzly. Proof right there that being stupid can kill you. I never had a bear bother me untill the last two or three years. These poor buggers have no elk, or comparably elk gut piles to eat around here, and last year the pine nuts were in low supply. These hippees stink too much, so it is us fat bastard hunters that get ate!

 

[winmag]

Just something to chew on, have you ever spayed that crap into the wind? It sucks! If a grizz is hunting you, he will most often come from down wind, but a surprise can happen with disregard to the wind.
I hear and live by the saying" lawyer bills are cheaper then doctor bills". I have had cross hairs, shotgun beads and pistol lasers on a bunch of nasty fuzzies, and never had to squeeze yet.
To top it off I ran into 5 grizzly bears in one morning last fall. That sucks also, most were between 100 -400 yards, but after already seeing 3 yearling cubs, which by the way were orphaned because a hunter justifiably shot their charging mother 2 falls ago, and a large male grizzly, what are the chances of seeing another bear in 1 square mile..... Well pretty darn good on the Yellowstone park line. So as the story gets better I am on a new horse back tracking a small grizzly bear away from a wolf killed elk, when my cellular rings. As I head back to the truck, yacking on the phone, my horse stops traveling and no amount of kicking will get him going! I hang up the cellular to hear the all too familiar huffing of daddy bear 15 feet in front of me, holed up in a juniper. I did have time to.....well I pooped a little, is what I am trying to say! I can atest to the fact that the new horse can turn and burn up hill. Had that stupid phone not rang I would have been off that horse leading him down that hill with my rifle in the scabbard and my 357 under two layers of coats. It was a small 200-250lbs. grizzly. Proof right there that being stupid can kill you. I never had a bear bother me untill the last two or three years. These poor buggers have no elk, or comparably elk gut piles to eat around here, and last year the pine nuts were in low supply. These hippees stink too much, so it is us fat bastard hunters that get ate!

Having spent many years on the back of a horse I realy got a kick out of that story. Your lucky the horse didnt pile you up on the ground and leave you for Griz bait.
I had a simmilar moment on a ranch in Montana, but it involved me workin cows, and an unexpected Moose getting involved while I was on a GREEN horse. I think I had 2 whole days on him, but we had a bit of a ''come apart'' when the moose showed up. haha Thanks for sharing your story and perspective on bear spray. That was great.

 

[Guy M]

About ten years ago I went on my first hunt in Wyoming, and was advised to pack a heavy-loaded .44 mag handgun as we were hunting elk in grizzly country. I did so, and my buddy wore a .454 Freedom Arms all the time too. Seemed prudent. I took a nice 6x6 bull, and we never saw a grizz although we were camped 9 miles from the nearest road for a week or more.

Last year, hunting mulies in Wyoming, near Yellowstone, my bud and I were armed with only a .270 and a .25-06. We'd planned on hunting the sagebrush flats down low, mostly out of grizzly country but ended up much higher in and out of timber. Ran across grizzly sow and cub tracks on our trail. We took two deer, boned them out and backpacked them out - but with a wary eye for the bear.

A bigger rifle would have been welcome.

Regards, Guy

 

[dook]

In 2004 I went on a guided elk hunt with an outfitter named Mitchell I think in the Frank Church /Selway NF in Idaho. After I shot my bull I asked him about bears hearing gunshots as dinner bells. What he said surprised me...He said that in his 20 or so years of guiding elk hunts he has never had a bear bother a downed elk.

 

[winmag]

In 2004 I went on a guided elk hunt with an outfitter named Mitchell I think in the Frank Church /Selway NF in Idaho. After I shot my bull I asked him about bears hearing gunshots as dinner bells. What he said surprised me...He said that in his 20 or so years of guiding elk hunts he has never had a bear bother a downed elk.

Wow. I hope he has as good of luck for another 20 years. Thats pretty fortunate.

 

[cornshank]

Old thread , but good advice