Originally Posted by
deepcreek
I work close to west yellowstone its the bear huggers breeding ground for grizzlies.Every year i see more bears.Im in the area from may tilldecember. Ive been charged several times by both blacks and grizzlies.I do not carry bear spray,icarry a RSBH 320 grn cast bullet 21 grns 296.It has got me out of a few situations. I will not put my life on the line with bear spray! Every year i see mom ,dad and the kids walking in bear country with an 8oz can of spray because they are told thats what you need ,stupid! As far as the dead bear, just say IT WAS A FAIR SHOOTIN MARSHAL HE DREW FIRST!!! or not
NO, IT IS NOT STUPID!!
Like I posted earlier, most people cannot shoot a handgun well enough to stop a charging bear. Spraying a bear with Pepper spray is as easy as squirting someone with a garden hose. A face full of bear spray will turn any bear. It's been proven many times.
I knew one West Yellowstone Forest Service Smokejumper who was hunting grouse down there one fall. It was just him and his dog. He was hunting with a 20 ga shotgun and was carrying a 9 shot .22 revolver. His dog had been working in front of him and suddenly came running back toward him with a grizzly chasing him. The Jumper emptied all 9 shots from his .22 pistol at the bear, then fired two quick shots from his shotgun at the bear.
The bear fell dead literally at his feet.
When the Fish and Game later autopsied the bear, they did not find any .22 bullets in the bear, and they found a few shot pellets had penetrated into the bear's spine.
I also worked and hunted in the woods in the West Yellowstone area for 30 years. I killed 2 moose, 2 bighorn rams, a mountain goat, and 7 or 8 bull elk down there. All on DIY hunts, and many were solo hunts. That's also where I bounced a rock off a grizzly to scare him away from our camp. And I have physically chased a half dozen or more black bears away.
Like I also posted earlier, I'm not against killing bears. I've killed several black bears. But I am against killing a bear unnecessarily.
The last bear "incident" that I was involved with was 10 or so years ago where a Forest Service trail maintenance crew was working on a train in the Gallatin Canyon. It was a 3 person crew, and one of them was working about 100 yds up the train from the other two.
He was suddenly attacked by a black bear. The bear knocked him down, but he was able to fight off the bear with his shovel and he climbed a VERY tall spruce tree. The other two workers heard him screaming, and they also climbed trees.
The two workers had a radio, and they were able to radio for help. Every time the single worker yelled for help, the bear climbed the tree and bit his feet and legs. That happened three times.
I got involved as I was driving home past a trailhead where there were two Forest Service trucks and a Gallatin County Sheriff's Deputy. I stopped to see what was going on and to see if I could help. One of the FS trucks was the FS LEO, and he told me what was going on, gave me his AR-15, and he, the Deputy and I headed up the trail.
When the 3 of us reached the tree that the injured worker was in, the bear came out of the brush, charging us. All three of us fired at the same time, killing the bear.
Later, after we got the injured worker out of the tree and a whole bunch of other help arrived, including a Park Service helicopter to air lift the injured worker, I spotted a small black bear cub running through the brush and up a tree. We had killed his mother!
I felt terrible. I knew the little guy couldn't make it on his own, and I was afraid that someone would shoot him too. So I climbed up the tree and caught him. That was not an easy task!
After I got him out of the tree, I had to tightly hold him -- one hand on the back of his neck and the other holding his back legs, and carry him back down the trail to the vehicles which took about an hour. I then gave the cub to a F&G biologist at the trailhead.
I later learned that the F&G went back there the next day with dogs and found a second cub. They took both cubs to a re-hab facility in Helena. Also, because the little cub had bitten and scratched me, my boss made me go to the doctor where I got a tetanus shot and a prescription for antibiotics.
Sorry about the long rant, but looking back, I really felt bad about killing that mother bear, and I think that if the trail worker could have sprayed the mother bear and/or if we had sprayed the bear, those two cubs wouldn't have been orphaned.