"How about a homemade Claymore mine?" LOL My favorite lightweight option

And pretty much anyone REALLY good enough with a pistol to have a faint chance armed with one that also knows anything about Grizz knows the pistol really isn't gonna cut it, will basically improve the odds to about those of an icecube's chance in H E double hockey sticks and is probably carrying a 10 ga.

Try shouting this out instead:

I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

No no! The handgun is to shoot your partner in the leg! Doesn't anybody watch The Walking Dead, for crying out loud!

" but is any BPLer willing to go out in prime polar bear habitat and pet some cute fuzzy white bears without said firearm??? "

yes. (walked there , but not the petting the bear thing)
and i might add, they are absolutely terrifying.

so, it's been done. i also have noted that even in Jerry Kobalenko's (extremely experienced arctic sled hauler) writing you can find that he, with all his exposure and skill, is having second thoughts about la-dee-da just "being with the bears", and it's starting to weigh on his mind. Jerry packs when he's up there, no doubt about that. and he is not liking the idea at all of non-packing in the arctic.

anybody here ever sprayed a grizzly ?
sure.
range : 3 to 4 feet.
i missed it too ! (misjudged the cross wind)

and no, i was not overly nervous or shaking. i was concerned and engaged as a man can be. had plenty of time to watch this thing stroll on over to see if i was good to eat. it just kept coming on, they do that sometimes.
a very short burst (like pop'n a steam valve) of the spray, even though it shot across his bow did the trick. he was more surprised by where the noise came from than the caustic effects (it was not a total wiff of a miss)

white bear issues trend to come to about (if you read enough of them) during situations where folks are camped. not seeing a lot (if ever) of "Jane and Timmy" are walking along and eat by a polar bear. but guys get drug out of their tents often enough that it gives cause to worry, i will tell you that !
---
separate subject :

i do not agree in concept with David's analysis of the bear trends in Yellowstone. he relates four incidents (that's ok), and then goes on to describe how each incident may have been prevented (also Ok).
the issue i am seeing is that his work does not take into account that (in my words) "people have been doing the same stupid things for decades" and that is actually a control in the data, not a variable !
then we are told "the campground should have been closed ..." (or such to that effect), but it wasn't, was it ? and it was open ALL those years before, so it's part of the control data as well. and then we are inferred that using the control as a removable item is ok, and thusly we have no trend showing.

in my view, David's analysis is flawed in those regards, and thusly his conclusion is unsupported. (though granted, he may well be correct.)

cheers,
peter v.

but did you carry a few bottles of coke to feed him just in case ;)

polar bears are the one bear that will hunt and stalk humans in general ... they know a food source when they see it ... or rather smell it

"in my view, David's analysis is flawed in those regards, and thusly his conclusion is unsupported. (though granted, he may well be correct.)"


I wasn't trying to make any particular conclusion other than the original article's claim that Griz attacks are on the rise in the GYE is presumptive. As you point out Peter, we don't have enough data, and won't for quite some time.

The Soda Creek campground is an example of the need to be informed while in Griz country. Look at a map, the campground is at the apex of at least 4 major bear travel corridors. There's a reason the Fishing Bridge campground has been hard shell only for decades, and (to move north) there's a reason there are no BC camps in either of the three drainages which flow into Many Glacier.

"No no! The handgun is to shoot your partner in the leg!"

For that you don't need a .44. Carry a .22 and save a couple pounds. This is BP LIGHT, fer cryin' out loud!

Wait a minute, a .22? This is BackpackingLIGHT, a .22 is a least 4 or 5 oz. A much better option is to take a partner who is slower then you and no gun. Without that extra 4 oz in your pocket you should be able to outrun that slow partner...

Edited to fix dumb spelling mistake

Edited by Cameron on 12/15/2012 16:22:02 MST.

"A much better option is to take a partner who is slower then you and no gun. Without that extra 4 oz in your pocket you should be able to outrun that slow partner..."

While this sounds good in theory, the slower runner will know he's slower and may very well beat you to the punch. Literally. Better to take an overconfident, faster runner and kneecap him out of the blue. ;o)

I went to Yellowstone this year. And after watching the stupid humans....I actually am very, very surprised that we don't see more bear/human issues. I was absolutely appalled by the stupid behavior of some of the visitors.

Everywhere you go, there are warnings about bears. Yet, I was driving down a road and noticed cars starting to pull over and also that people were out of the cars while others were joining. No rangers were there yet. I slowed down, of course, to see what animal was in the area. I noticed immediately that a bear was feeding in the trees about 50 feet off the side of the road. This section had pretty dense vegetation. An additional note....this was springtime and a sow with cubs had been spotted in this area the day before.

While I sat there people started leaving the side of the road to go into the trees toward the bear with their cameras. I finally leaned out the window and told them they needed to get back and get into their cars. Part of the group turned and looked. When they saw I was just another visitor they turned back and / or kept walking. One guy took a double take....it was like it just hit him how stupid he was being. He also started telling people to get back and went back to his car. THEN.... Since the bears butt was directed at them... A group started to go deeper into the trees at an angle trying to get to the other side of the bear.....basically pinning the bear in. The worst was this stupid lady dragging an obviously scared kid by the are thru the brush while yelling ...'COME ON. ..you are gonna make us miss seeing the bear up close'

I actually took a picture where you see human butts in the foreground and a bear butt in the mid ground of the photo. The photo is not very good. I did not have a wide angle lens readily available in my front seat. The fuzzy brown thing to the right of the tree is the bear.

My phone had no signal, so I drove until I got one and called the rangers.

My issue is that if one of those idiots had been hurt that the NPS would have to probably kill the bear.

Again, I cannot believe that more bad things don't happen with bears in Yellowstons. I can't express how dumbfounded I was at the total lack of any sense of those people. It had to be over 25 of them who actually went into the woods to get a close up view of the bear. It was like it was a freaking zoo.

Edited by Helintexas on 12/16/2012 09:07:12 MST.

I did a Yellowstone trip in about 1966

We counted more than 100 bears - bears on the side of the road causing traffic jams, bears going through campgrounds with people shooing them away by banging against metal garbage can lids (remember when they had metal garbage cans?)

I think since then, the officials have tried to discourage bears from being in public areas

I did a Yellowstone trip in maybe 1976 and I don't think we saw any bears

It never ceases to amaze me how stupid people can be about wild animals. Too much exposure to Hollywood animals, not enough exposure to the real thing?