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Bear Attacks: The Reality of Deterrents
AmmoLand News & Journalist Dean Weingarten have documented hundreds of bear attacks on humans, prompting a close look at deterrents. Contrary to popular media portrayal, bear spray isn’t reliable. Factors like wind direction and bear aggression can reduce its effectiveness, sometimes leading to tragic outcomes.
Conversely, firearms have shown a statistically higher success rate in deterring aggressive bears. This isn’t an endorsement for indiscriminate shooting of wildlife but an observation from real-life encounters.
While bear spray has limited benefits, it’s vital to understand its limitations. In Bear country, being informed, armed, and ready to use deadly force, if needed, will save your life.
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The Connecticut Senate has passed a bill to allow people to kill bears when the bears are a threat to the people or the peoples’ pets, or if the bear is attempting to enter a building they are in.
On August 16, 2014, a Fish and Wildlife employee shot and killed a polar bear which was attempting to enter the tent they were sleeping in on Arey Island off the coast of the North Slope of Alaska.
Andrea Papi was killed by an aggressive European brown bear (same essential species as the North American brown/grizzly bear). His death is part of the price of expanding wild bear populations worldwide.
The dog did what it was born to do. It alerted its master & made the threat apparent. The master made a poor choice using bear spray. Now the dog is dead.
At Austfyorneset, in the Svalbard Archipelago, a man protected his family from a foraging polar bear, with a revolver, on February 3, 2003.
In February of 1993, a handgun was used in defense against a polar bear in the Svalbard Archipelago. Polar bears are relatively common in Svalbard. They have been protected there since 1975.
As I walked up the beach, a bear tore out of the brush and came charging down the beach straight at me. Gravel sprayed from the bear’s feet. I’d never shot a bear before in my life…
In 1962, Chuck Jonkel of the Montana Fish & Game, using a .22 revolver, shot and killed a 500 lb male grizzly bear in self-defense.
A polar bear killed a mother and child in an Alaskan village. This doubles the documented number of people killed by polar bears in Alaska.
The man who witnessed and shot the polar bear during the attack at the Panarctic camp on King Christian Island contacted AmmoLand.
A Russian research expedition had serious problems with polar bears in the Svalbard archipelago in the summer of 1990. When a polar bear attempted to break into an occupied cabin, it was killed.
In 1988, at Krosspynten, part of the Svalbard archipelago, a polar bear attack on two people in a trapper’s cabin was stopped by shots fired from a .44 magnum revolver.
On July 20, 1993, a trio of researchers were able to stop a polar bear attack using revolvers. All three escaped injury at Paulabren, part of the Svalbard archipelago.
A recent video from Yellowstone Park shows a mature Boar brutally attacking and mortally wounding a sub-adult bear. Killings of young bears by mature boars is a common occurrence.
During a grizzly bear attach near Choteau, Montana, in early October, 2022, a bird-hunting doctor used his shotgun and a 10mm pistol to stop the attack.
Wyoming dentist, Lee Francis, stopped a grizzly bear attack with a 10mm Glock firing hardcast bullets. He wounded his leg during the fight.
Tom Tilley killed a 200 lb black bear that stalked him and his dog, Sam. Sam placed himself between Tom and the bear. The bear grabbed Sam, and Tom killed the bear with his knife, Tarzan style.
On March 5, 2005, two people were attacked by a polar bear in the Svalbard Archipelago. One of them stopped the bear with a .500 Smith & Wesson Magnum.
A black bear attack on a family in an Alaskan park was stopped with a Smith & Wesson .40 caliber pistol. Pictures and interview with Weatherly Bates.
Then his oldest yelled, “Bear!” and James turned around. The bear was about six feet from him. It had been within 3-4 feet of his back…
Several different firearm drills are proposed to simulate real bear defense situations.
In 1983, a worker for Panarctic Oil was attacked by a sow polar bear and her cub. In heroic actions worthy of a science fiction movie, his colleagues rallied and saved his life.
Information from an FOIA request has revealed details on the .22 caliber pistol defense failure which occurred in Svalbard, Norway, in 1996.
On August 6, 2022, at about 1 p.m., a hiker In Jasper National Park was approached to within about 100 feet by a black bear.
In the final segment of the series on the legend and myth of Old Groaner, the author speculates on the actual attack and details how the legend has grown in the era of the Internet.
In the third part of the four part Old Groaner series, the changes in the ’53, ’56, ’86 and ’94 versions of the Old Groaner stories are considered and examined.
Part II of the examination of the creation of the myth of Old Groaner, the mankiller of the Unuk river in Alaska. This part examines the 1953 rewrite of the original article from 1936.
Part 1 of a four part series investigating the myth of Old Groaner, a world record grizzly shot as it attacked Bruce Johnstone on the Unuk river in 1935, written about extensively since then.
In 2003, a famous Russian bear researcher, Vitaly Nikolayenko was killed by a brown bear when his bear spray failed to stop the attack.
The fatal grizzly bear attack on Leah Lokan in Ovando, MT, was a fatal failure of the use of bear spray to defend against a grizzly bear. The report by the IGBC documents the failure.
