I watch with interest any stories of bear attacks, as some have selected my neighborhood as the prime target for large predator reintroduction. We're already overrun with mountain lion and black bears that go around 400 pounds, so that leaves grizzlies and wolves. Frankly, there are enough folks around these parts who trace their ancestors to the last wolf hunt that I doubt any reintroduction attempt would last more than a few weeks.
A few years ago my family was camping in the woods just north of town. We were awakened by a bear pushing against the tent, sniffing for goodies. I only had a .45 colt with snake and badger loads so I was seriously undergunned. After what seemed like hours the bear finally wandered away. All the food was enclosed in our vehicle or hung up in a tree, but he apparently found the tent interesting. As Elmer said, "... overgunned? Hell, it's better than the alternative!" I now carry some 300 grain teeth rattlers in my "sleeping bag" gun and keep a shortened and long chambered .45-70 loaded with 350 grain FPs for the "tent gun." But I don't sleep too soundly in the woods if it's a dry summer.
Here's a real hair-raising story of an Alaskan bear hunt chipped in from a viewer of the photo in post 105.
phurley posted 01-20-2003That picture brings back my Bear hunt, like it was yesterday. I will make it short, because I have told it here before and don't want to bore those who have heard it. I was hunting near Cold Bay with a close friend, who was a Bear guide, my brother-in-law who lived there two years and another hunter.
On the third day of the hunt we spotted a big Bear in a Salmon stream and crawled a half mile up the stream. At 90 yards I shot the 91/2 ft. Bear with a .300 Win mag using my 200 grain Nosler Partition handloads at 2900 fps. The Bear fell splashing water 20 ft. and made a tremendous roar I will never forget. Immediately, three more Bears rared up from other Salmon streams close by. We had crawled with 20 yards of one, the others were with 30 yards of us.
The guide said G.D. shoot bears. We killed two more bears, one took 5-shoots the other 4-shots from a .375 H&H, and another .300, and a 30-06. The fourth left with gusto flinging sod that would weigh 10 pounds per piece behind him, much like our Ky horses on a muddy track. He also sounded like a large horse running on dirt, you could hear the footsteps and feel the ground shake plainly. I cannot describe the roar's, shooting, screaming, and general confusion, that occured, and will hear everytime I see a Bear's picture. A young Bear guides coolness, green hunters following his instructions, saved the day.
We were tagged for three Bears but certainly didn't want them all at once, because each is a formidable skinning job.
Well that is my story, a repeat to some of you and my apologies for that, but that picture made my hair stand on end, bringing the sounds and smells of Alaska back in living color. I hear debates on rifles adequate for the big Bears, and listen with interest. My next Alaska trip found me with a .340 Wby and my next, this fall, will find me with a .358 STA shooting a North Fork 270 grain bullet at nearly 3000 fps. I have a buddy in the ground up there that thought a 30-06 was enough gun.