Back when I was teaching people to fly a friend of one of the other CFIs I worked with went bear hunting somewhere in area, probably out to the west of Anchorage, with a hunting buddy..
This is from the guys friend who didn't get chewed...
Saw two bears from the boat and eventually the one guy shot one, twice as I recall, with a 340 Weatherby.
Bear runs off down the mountain through an alder patch.
They follow. Like a "pickup drove through the alders" etc.
They finally decide its getting dark and they should give it up till the AM.
Bear comes back to the party. Chews the shooter. Companion shoots gun dry single loads several times. Bear finally leaves to tear up more alders before expiring.
Carried chewed friend to river, leaves both guns and heads for the boat. Hears shot "Oh S**T bear came back". No gun so goes on to boat, swims around sow and cubs enroute.
Returns to friend, shot was a fox who came buy to see if he could get in a few bites.
Shooter survived with the obligatory stitches and part of his heal either shot or bit off.
Bad initial shot placement or poor choice of calibers or tough bear. Take your choice. As I recall the recovered bear was about 9-10'. But this is 30 years ago now
![Roll Eyes ::)](https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif)
This was all over the news for a day or 2 at Anchorage and the above story is the one my fellow pilot got from the guy that was there.
I am not afraid of bears, I do respect them. I have also noted that the gun I am packing somehow shrinks when I find a big bear track, don't have to be all that big really
![Wink ;)](https://americanlongrifles.org/forum/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
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For me anyway griz tracks always make me vigilant. I don't like working on equipment next the to brush knowing bears come by everyday. While Gbears are semi-rare here I have had two small BB in the back yard over the years. One was big enough to be a "problem" the other was just out of cubhood and was found up a pine tree by the house by the Jack Russell pack. Daughter was about 10 and I asked her to check the dogs to see what the barking was about. Her eyes were pretty big when she came back in. This one was darted. The bigger one made it out of town with no perforations.
These were the Delta Junct dump bears until the closed the dump.
Was changing the oil in a truck the next day and kept hearing noises in the trees right behind me. No bear, probably ravens. But it caused my startle reflex to get activated and this always sours my temper. They pulled 2 quarts of oil our of a fairly small hole in the case that night and bit a hole in the bottle and tooth marked another.
Dad says bears still come by now and then but not like it was, having the dump 1/4 mile away. They got into ANYTHING that was in plastic. Bit or tore the plastic just to check.
Dan
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