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Wyoming: Another Successful Handgun Defense against a Grizzly
Gun Watch ^ | 18 June, 2018 | Dean Weingarten

Posted on 06/18/2018 4:21:19 AM PDT by marktwain

Image by Troy Nemitz

On May 31, 2018, about two o'clock in the afternoon, 23-year-old Noah Kolis was guiding three friends from Chicago. They started at his boyhood home near Cora, Wyoming. His dog, a Chesapeake-Lab mix, was with them. They were heading to some rock formations. Noah was carrying his 460V Smith & Wesson revolver. Two other men in the party were carrying bear spray. 

The two men with bear spray had fallen 50 yards behind. The dog alerted on something. Noah thought it was some sort of big animal. Then he saw the bears, a grizzly sow and cubs, uphill. He yelled at the dog, but it was too late. The dog came running back. The sow grizzly charged, moving extremely fast. His friend from Chicago bolted back down the trail.  Noah had his revolver out, as the bear came to a stop, just a dozen feet away. From jhnewsandguide.com:
“I was just thinking, ‘Don’t make me do this, don’t make me do this,’” Kolis said.

As he scanned the ground where the grizzly stood on all fours about a dozen feet away, the sight of the claws spurred the thought “Those will kill you.” His gut told him a second charge could be imminent. Adrenaline pumping, “my mind was quiet,” he said, as he then calmly pulled the trigger on his Smith & Wesson Model 460V revolver. The bullet struck the stationary bear in the cheek, and she fell.

Potential harm to himself averted, Kolis started “cursing up a storm,” mad at the situation and himself, as the bloodied bruin rolled down a steep hillside in the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s Boulder Basin. He shot at least three more times to end the sow’s misery, knowing the gravity of what had just happened.

“With the pull of my finger,” he said, “I just killed three bears.”
Smith & Wesson 460V revolver

The Wyoming Game and Fish department investigated the shooting. They found it to be justified self defense. From gillettenewsrecord.com:
“The dog saw the bear, the bear came after the dog, the dog ran back to the people,” he related.

The grizzly charged “head on” toward one man who was legally carrying a handgun and shot it several times as it ran to 10 feet in front of him.

“It happened really quickly,” Lund said.

One hiker carrying bear spray had it ready but couldn’t spray the bear because the other man was in front of him.
The sow had been involved in conflicts with people before.  Cora Wyoming is inside the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Grizzly bears in the GYE have a bad record of being dangerous to humans. In 2017, over five percent of the grizzly bears in the GYE were either shot and killed in self defense, or killed by government officials after being shown to be an serious threat to people and their property.  In 2017, that was 35 bears out of a population of about 690.

The bear was wearing a collar. The collar showed the bear had been trapped and collared after conflicts in the Upper Green River area. The sow had two cubs with her. There is a good chance the cubs will not survive through the winter. Bear cubs have a high mortality rate. They are often killed and eaten by adult boar grizzlys.

The 460 S&W magnum is one of the most powerful pistol cartridges chambered in a revolver. This case illustrates how effective it can be at stopping a grizzly bear.  Handguns have stopped bear attacks 97% of the time in the cases that have been documented. All cases that involved pistols being used to defend against bears, that could be found, were included.

Bear spray might have worked. It can be effective.  In the studies most cited to recommend bear spray, the researchers refuse to release their data. Numerous flaws have been found in the methodology. The primary flaw seems to be in the selection of what cases to include in the data base. Most of the cases involving bear spray were with non-aggressive bears. In a study of firearm effectiveness by the same authors, most of the cases involved aggressive bears.

In this case, the bear had stopped only a dozen feet away. The situation was extremely dangerous. 23-year-old Noah Kolis my not be a big game hunter. He said the biggest thing he had killed previously was a rabbit he had hit with his car. He was calm in the face of a deadly threat. Others have said a magnum revolver in the hand calmed them enormously. From The Longest Minute-Terrifying Bear Attack:
  As I pulled the revolver out, a sudden calm came over me, and I knew everything would be fine.
Noah kept his cool and did what he had to do. He protected himself and his friends.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch


TOPICS: Outdoors; Pets/Animals; Society
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; banglist; grizzly; gun; nra; secondamendment; shortfacedbear; wy
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Another effective use of a handgun to stop an attacking Grizzly bear.
1 posted on 06/18/2018 4:21:20 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

I would feel bad about the cubs, but at a distance of 10 feet I’d get over that very quickly.


National Park Rangers are advising hikers in Wyoming to be alert for bears and take extra precautions to avoid an encounter.

They advise park visitors to wear little bells on their clothes so they make noise when hiking. The bell noise allows bears to hear them coming from a distance and not be startled by a hiker accidentally sneaking up on them. This might cause a bear to charge.

Visitors should also carry a pepper spray can just in case a bear is encountered. Spraying the pepper into the air will irritate the bear’s sensitive nose and it will run away.

It is also a good idea to keep an eye out for fresh bear scat so you have an idea if bears are in the area. People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear scat.

Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur. Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper.


2 posted on 06/18/2018 5:08:41 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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To: marktwain

I have mixed feelings about this incident. Its not smart to let your dog run loose in bear country because they will find a bear and lead it right back to you causing a potentially deadly conflict. The bear had stopped it’s charge and may have chosen to run off to its cubs or continue the attack. Considering the circumstances I probably would have done the same thing.


3 posted on 06/18/2018 5:12:16 AM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (The first step in ending the war on white people is to recognize it exists.)
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To: Pollster1

“Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur. Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper.”

I dont think I have ever come across a bear thread where someone didn’t post this. It so common it’s cliche.


4 posted on 06/18/2018 5:16:16 AM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (The first step in ending the war on white people is to recognize it exists.)
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To: Brooklyn Attitude
I have mixed feelings about this incident. Its not smart to let your dog run loose in bear country because they will find a bear and lead it right back to you causing a potentially deadly conflict. The bear had stopped it’s charge and may have chosen to run off to its cubs or continue the attack. Considering the circumstances I probably would have done the same thing.

I agree with you. The whole incident is a damned shame. The bear was protecting its habitat and cubs against what it perceived as an invader. Once the contact was initiated between man and bear (by the dog), the outcome was probably unavoidable. A sad tale.

5 posted on 06/18/2018 5:21:10 AM PDT by Blennos
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To: Brooklyn Attitude

Other people avoid cliches like the plague, but I like them.


6 posted on 06/18/2018 5:21:29 AM PDT by Pollster1 ("Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed")
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To: Brooklyn Attitude

Also use a smaller caliber handgun...it’s easier to go through a bears digestive system


7 posted on 06/18/2018 5:23:24 AM PDT by 2nd Amendment
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To: 2nd Amendment

Handguns have been proven to be highly effective for bear defense.

Disproving many old wife’s tales about them.


8 posted on 06/18/2018 5:28:32 AM PDT by riverrunner
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To: marktwain

Bear cubs are often killed and eaten by adult boar grizzlys.


9 posted on 06/18/2018 5:34:35 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: marktwain

Interesting that the bear went after the dog, if it wasn’t really going after the man. Dogs are usually pretty good at keeping bears away. Dogs tend to hit and run a few times, effectively convincing a bear to move on.


10 posted on 06/18/2018 5:35:49 AM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: marktwain

Bears, at least Grizzly’s, belong in ZOOS, or other tightly controlled and walled off areas.

People shouldn’t have to risk their lives to take a walk in their backyards.


11 posted on 06/18/2018 5:37:55 AM PDT by BobL (I drive a pick up truck because it makes me feel like a man)
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To: Pollster1

You chose a real oldie for this time to amuse us all.


12 posted on 06/18/2018 5:38:45 AM PDT by OKSooner (Don't be a Fudd.)
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To: riverrunner

My brother shot a black bear dozens of times with a .38 special to no avail. Got himself a .454 Cadillac...case closed!


13 posted on 06/18/2018 5:47:48 AM PDT by 2nd Amendment
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To: Brooklyn Attitude

I agree. Too many dumbasses let their dogs run wild in the forest. That dog saw a bear and went charging up to it. And that’s just what he’s gonna do to a hiker or someone else.
That 23 year old needs to control his curr.


14 posted on 06/18/2018 5:52:06 AM PDT by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: 2nd Amendment

“Got himself a .454 Cadillac...case closed!”

So, he just runs over the bear?

Will one head-on crash do it? Or, does he have to back over it, and do it again just to be sure?


15 posted on 06/18/2018 6:03:18 AM PDT by moovova
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To: marktwain

BS. It supposedly stopped a dozen feet from him and he thought all these things before firing.


16 posted on 06/18/2018 6:06:20 AM PDT by pas
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To: 2nd Amendment

So, was the bear moving when shot with the .38?

At long distance?

Did the bear stick around to be shot with the .454?

Where did it all happen?


17 posted on 06/18/2018 6:13:07 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: pas

People think fast in deadly force encounters.


18 posted on 06/18/2018 6:13:55 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: 2nd Amendment

Did he recover the bear shot with the 38


19 posted on 06/18/2018 6:15:34 AM PDT by riverrunner
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To: Pollster1

“They advise park visitors to wear little bells on their clothes ...”

There will be an uptick in bear stools with little bells in them.


20 posted on 06/18/2018 6:16:28 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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