Yep. We went every day for a week for a project I was hired for, and you realize that the pilots/guides that put you on them are like rodeo bullfighters in the sense that it’s 99% understanding the psychology of the animal you’re getting too close to. I have family in Alaska and the next time I visit I’ll pay out of pocket to do it again…and recommend it to everyone who goes.
Don’t smell like fish, make sure the bears live somewhere where they gorge themselves on fish and don’t have to hunt things on four legs, remain calm, avoid sows with cubs at all costs…and realize that you’re MUCH more likely to die in the super cub landing on some beach filled with drift wood than you are to be mauled to death by a bear.
Dangerous? Sure. But like akdoug said, not as dangerous as all of these threads on various forums would lead you to believe. Now there are definitely islands where coastal browns don’t behave that way…and being a hunter or fisherman changes your outlook dramatically as a bear may see your kill as something it can easily claim. People have been torn up pretty good on Afognak recently…but once again, standing next to a dead elk.
I’ll agree. We don’t have bears but we do have alligators. Just this year we had a women killed walking her little dog near a lagoon. She is dead. If someone bet me I couldn’t catch an alligator in 30 minutes I would troll lagoon banks with a toy poodle with a 12/0 hook in its collar. I would win the bet! A few years ago we had a stupid golfer who thought retrieving his ball lying 3 feet from the nose of a 12" gator was OK. He lived but doesn’t play golf anymore. It’s tough to do with one arm. My point is… People are stupid!!
None of them have pools, but in preparation we’ve been taking the little man to the local indoor pool since he was 6 months old. He’s comfortable in the water and swim lessons will start as soon as he’s old enough.
I can teach the boy to swim, it’s a life saving skill.
A guy I knew use to pick up small rattle snakes by the tail and play with them like they were toys and one random day, he got bit in the arm pit by a 16-18" rattle snake. He didn’t die, but he was hospitalized for 7-8 days and it cost him a ton of money. I guess that’s why they say, more people die from an unloaded gun.
You can also teach him how to be safe when he’s living somewhere that is a two day walk and an 11 hour drive from the nearest city.
This is not something to be afraid of. It’s something to learn about.
Your hobby is infinitely more likely to kill your son than a stupid bear…and the reality is that this is true for people living in big brown bear country too(like this mother and son.)
Life is a tough road. That lady and baby that got killed just as easily could have been killed in a car accident. That bear video I posted… taken by my friend Jake… his wife Amber dropped dead at age 39 on Monday before Thanksgiving leaving him with six kids. No clue why she died yet, autopsy pending, but she was up and getting the kids ready for the day when she passed.
I’ve lived in rural Alaska for 40 of my nearly 50 years. We have bears all around us, they’ve been in my yard, and all around me. Had a sow and two cubs tear up my dog once. It never stopped me from having my kids playing outside or even letting them go fishing well into the night. It’s just part of the deal around here. I don’t want every bear dead, but I don’t mind killing them.
Yeah, but a magazine of 20 that can be quickly deployed does take up a lot of slack. But if you had a hypothetical FAL chambered in .45-70, yeah that would work.
I just am of the opinion that magnum handguns aren’t sufficient and you need to be able to hit some bears HARD and SEVERAL TIMES before they realize they aren’t going to win. And really, really big bears can do a lot of damage before they die. It’s not something I’d fool around with.
A grizz closing at 35 mph isn’t going to give you time for a mag dump. At least not from video footage I’ve seen. Big bore rifles slinging heavy bullets have a well proven track record of stopping large angry animals all over the world. When I see professional guides in Africa start carrying .308’s for stopping rifles I might take that option seriously.
We know that high performance.45-70 loads are not too far off the mark of a .458 Winchester. Plenty of big critters in Africa and North America have been dumped in place with both, or similar performing cartridges.
But I wasn’t saying any of that. I was saying .308 semi autos are a better option than magnum handguns. And if a .308 semi auto isn’t gonna get it done, it’s never gonna happen with a magnum handgun. I’m all for magnum rifles, but personally I’m more comfortable with a faster action and larger capacity.
My concern is am I’m capable of first shot hits in that high stress situation. Again, I’m not dismissing the suitability of a more powerful rifle. Some stuff just isn’t going to be stopped by .308 and I know that, especially in Africa. But modern .308 is very close to old 30.06 and old 8mm Mauser which have respectable track records and I personally believe a LOT of modern .308 would suffice for bear country.
A piece of rebar with a tennis ball on it. Hit the tennis ball or hit the rebar if you want the lights to go off immediately.
The problem is that the tennis ball is inside of a cinderblock of a skull and that the piece of rebar is behind hundreds of pounds of meat and bone. Moving quickly while you shit yourself and maybe don’t even have any ability to process what’s happening yet because you’ve never experienced it. SteyrAug is spot on about the difficulty of putting rounds into that. Hell go shoot an IDPA or USPSA match where there are movers that you get to see the speed of and think about. And they’ll be a hell of a lot slower than a brown bear. And just see how you do. Most people suck.
THAT is not only the problem with magnums that 99.9% of people can’t shoot well, but with firearms as a primary defense against a bear attack that just springs on you out of brambles.
Spray is a smarter option for most people, even most firearm enthusiasts. Will it help once it is bound and determined to rip you apart? Probably not…but in that critical few seconds as it’s deciding whether or not to bluff or hit you like a truck? The studies are pretty clear as to its effectiveness.
As to bears you see coming? Time to stand up tall, scream, wave your arms, and let it know you’re there. He doesn’t have any desire to play with your loud ass. And sure, have a rifle ready to shoulder and make a loud bang or put rounds into him.
