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Alaska bear attack: A shot too late
Alaska Dispatch ^ | 11/4/2010 | Craig Medred

Posted on 11/04/2010 8:43:43 PM PDT by Saije

Even as Scott Oberlitner squeezed the trigger on the .375-caliber H&H Magnum rifle and sent a massive slug flying toward the hulk of the charging Afognak Island grizzly bear, he sensed it was too late. This was like trying to stop a freight train with a bullet. A miracle was going to be necessary to halt this madness, and there was no miracle. The bullet hit the bear, but did nothing to slow it. There was no time for a second shot. There was no time for anything except the fleeting thought that what was happening couldn't be happening. Then the bear was on Oberlitner.

"I thought it was all over," the 40-year-old Anchorage man says now, just over a week later.

About the last thing he remember doing in the split second before the bear hit him was trying to make a bullfighter pivot out of the way of the charge. It didn't work. The bear hit Oberlitner, and he went down.

From then on, he was powerless. His life was in the hands of fate.

"She bit me on the leg. She bit me on the butt," he said, "and then she threw me on a log and cracked some ribs."

(Excerpt) Read more at alaskadispatch.com ...


TOPICS: Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: alaska; attack; banglist; bear
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Geesh. My life is so tame.
1 posted on 11/04/2010 8:43:47 PM PDT by Saije
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To: kanawa

You tell ‘em how they shoulda done it....:)


2 posted on 11/04/2010 8:48:40 PM PDT by Salamander (Can't sleep......the clowns will eat me.)
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To: Salamander

“You tell ‘em how they shoulda done it....:)”

I have no idea! I think I’d opt for not being there at all.


3 posted on 11/04/2010 8:50:58 PM PDT by Saije
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To: Saije

I never thought about it but it makes sense. If you’re shooting at a bear to end an attack pray that you hit bone and not a vital organ. Weird. The energy from the bullet hitting bone will knock the bear on its ass whereas a fatal organ shot just pisses it off until it finally dies with you half way down its throat.


4 posted on 11/04/2010 8:53:02 PM PDT by oldvike (I'm too drunk to taste THIS chicken)
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To: Saije

Wish it’d been a Mama Grizzly and Ma’am Boxer


5 posted on 11/04/2010 8:54:27 PM PDT by bigbob
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To: Saije
iirc their heart only beats like 12 times a minute, you can shoot them right in the pump and not even slow them down...
6 posted on 11/04/2010 8:55:23 PM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: Saije

Guy I know grew up in Alaska, his parents were both wildlife mgmt workers. They never left for work without TWO .44 magnum revolvers.


7 posted on 11/04/2010 8:58:33 PM PDT by ikka
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To: Saije


Maybe next time.
8 posted on 11/04/2010 8:59:48 PM PDT by Question Liberal Authority (Worst. Post-Racial. And Post-Partisan. Agent Of Hope And Change. EVER.)
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To: Saije
Hunting Kodiak Island with a .375-caliber H&H rifle, Oberlitner always figured he was pretty well protected. The cartridge traces its history to the British company Holland & Holland, which designed it in 1912 for hunting dangerous African game -- lions and tigers. I

Was he deer hunting or bear hunting? Was the deer they shot bear bait? The .375 H&H is a way oversized for deer.

9 posted on 11/04/2010 9:02:34 PM PDT by fso301
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To: Saije

Interesting juxtaposition: The story with a picture of Sarah’s “Mama Grizzly” immediately below.


10 posted on 11/04/2010 9:03:20 PM PDT by CedarDave (Juan Williams to NPR: "You and your far left-wing mob fired me. Wasn't that enough for you? ")
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To: Saije
A .375 H&H packs a wallop. A BIG wallop.

About 2.5times the energy of a .06.

Only a 12 guage, 3.5in mag with slugs would be a better choice.

11 posted on 11/04/2010 9:03:23 PM PDT by Mariner (USS Tarawa, VQ3, USS Benjamin Stoddert, NAVCAMS WestPac, 7th Fleet, Navcommsta Puget Sound)
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To: ikka
They never left for work without TWO .44 magnum revolvers.

I have heard, don't know if it's true, that there is no confirmed record of a grizzly bear charge successfully being stopped with any handgun, ever.

The guides in Alaska always recommend you file down the front sight of your revolver, so it doesn't hurt quite so much when the grizz shoves it up your a$$.

12 posted on 11/04/2010 9:04:49 PM PDT by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order)
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To: Saije

“Bears sometimes decide they want the deer a hunter has killed and take it away.
Fifty-three-year-old Ned Rasmussen of Anchorage is believed to have died in a confrontation with a bear that wanted a deer he’d shot in 1999 on one of the smaller of about a dozen islands in the archipelago”

The bear can have it. Heck, I’ll shoot a dozen more for Mr. Bear if he wants.


13 posted on 11/04/2010 9:05:54 PM PDT by rickb308 (Nothing good ever came from someone yelling "Allah Snackbar")
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To: Salamander
You tell ‘em how they shoulda done it....:)

Grin, I'm thinking standoff weapons, like BVR standoff.

Or maybe an airstrike while I have a beer in the bar, then I'll go out and pack in the meat in the back of a pickup.

Tough being at the top of the food chain when the local fauna doesn't agree...

14 posted on 11/04/2010 9:06:26 PM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Restore santiy to DC, send obama, Reid, and Pelosi on vacation.)
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To: Saije

“She bit me on the leg. She bit me on the butt,” he said, “and then she threw me on a log and cracked some ribs.”

typical date of odumbi and michelle.


15 posted on 11/04/2010 9:08:17 PM PDT by TomasUSMC ( FIGHT LIKE WW2, FINISH LIKE WW2. FIGHT LIKE NAM, FINISH LIKE NAM)
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To: Saije
... This just goes to show, it doesn't matter how big a gun you have," said Oberlitner

I'm not so sure I agree.

16 posted on 11/04/2010 9:09:24 PM PDT by The KG9 Kid
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To: ccmay
This guy definitely used a rifle. Photobucket Photobucket
17 posted on 11/04/2010 9:09:34 PM PDT by rickb308 (Nothing good ever came from someone yelling "Allah Snackbar")
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To: oldvike

It is all about displacing energy in the bear. If the bullet passes through the bear much of that energy is lost.


18 posted on 11/04/2010 9:10:35 PM PDT by oldenuff2no (Rangers lead the way...... Delta, the original European home land security)
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To: rickb308

That bear could SLAP your head off.


19 posted on 11/04/2010 9:12:14 PM PDT by Mariner (USS Tarawa, VQ3, USS Benjamin Stoddert, NAVCAMS WestPac, 7th Fleet, Navcommsta Puget Sound)
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To: ccmay
I have heard, don't know if it's true, that there is no confirmed record of a grizzly bear charge successfully being stopped with any handgun, ever.

Go here and click on the dropdown for "Bear Encounter."

20 posted on 11/04/2010 9:13:13 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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