Sometimes the Bear Gets You

Cosmoline · Post by **Cosmoline** » Thu May 14, 2009 10:47 pm

This is an old photo I was reminded of by another thread a month or so ago. From what I understand it was taken on one of the islands up here and shows what's left of a levergun in the undergrowth between what's left of a man and bear who killed each other.

Filed under "use enough gun"

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Thu May 14, 2009 10:54 pm

I guess any gun will kill a bear eventually.

Post by **Ysabel Kid** » Thu May 14, 2009 11:00 pm

Ouch! That left a mark...

Post by **Old Savage** » Thu May 14, 2009 11:11 pm

The man chose to enter the bear's territory.

mescalero1 · Post by **mescalero1** » Thu May 14, 2009 11:12 pm

Old Savage is right.

pokey · Post by **pokey** » Thu May 14, 2009 11:39 pm

reminds me of hatchet jack, in jeremiah johnson.
here's the rifle kilt the bear that kilt me.

Cosmoline · Post by **Cosmoline** » Thu May 14, 2009 11:42 pm

Old Savage wrote:The man chose to enter the bear's territory.

Of course, up here it's ALL the bear's territory

FWiedner · Post by **FWiedner** » Fri May 15, 2009 12:42 am

I wonder who started it, ... and who finished it...

Doesn't look recent to when that live fella in the photo found it.

Cosmoline · Post by **Cosmoline** » Fri May 15, 2009 1:47 am

In an old gunshop up here I remember seeing a cut-out of the photo with some text from a newspaper describing it. I can't remember much of the detail though, and the owner since retried so the shop is gone. I'll toss it around a local forum and see if anyone knows more.

1886 · Post by **1886** » Fri May 15, 2009 7:19 am

It would be interesting to know the rifle model and chambering. 1886.

Bogie35 · Post by **Bogie35** » Fri May 15, 2009 7:55 am

pokey wrote:reminds me of hatchet jack, in jeremiah johnson.
here's the rifle kilt the bear that kilt me.

+1

Bogie

Bogie35 · Post by **Bogie35** » Fri May 15, 2009 7:59 am

Cosmoline wrote:
Old Savage wrote:The man chose to enter the bear's territory.
Of course, up here it's ALL the bear's territory

+1

Bogie

rjohns94 · Post by **rjohns94** » Fri May 15, 2009 8:30 am

kewl post. thanks

kimwcook · Post by **kimwcook** » Fri May 15, 2009 8:57 am

Yep, the price is potentially very high when you enter the bruins territory.

Buck Elliott · Post by **Buck Elliott** » Fri May 15, 2009 10:33 am

You fellers have it all wrong... This is OUR world, and we only sometimes tolerate the existence of such nasty critters as (including, but not limited to...) bears, wolves, coyotes, lions, jackals, hyenas, wolverines & left-wing wackos...

Any bear (or other of the above-named predators) that comes into MY territory had better look out for himself.

That's why God gave us the brains, the incentive, and opposable thumbs to create tools for our own defense.

Too bad the human decedent didn't make the first move, and make it count...

gamekeeper · Post by **gamekeeper** » Fri May 15, 2009 11:11 am

"Someone back East says, Why don't he write?"

Cosmoline · Post by **Cosmoline** » Fri May 15, 2009 12:59 pm

You fellers have it all wrong... This is OUR world, and we only sometimes tolerate the existence of such nasty critters as (including, but not limited to...) bears, wolves, coyotes, lions, jackals, hyenas, wolverines & left-wing wackos.

Having lived up here for a decade, I find woods I used to hike down in Oregon, which have no brown bears anymore, to be oddly empty and uninteresting. The edge is gone, and without that edge we ourselves become dull creatures of concrete. The left wing nutcases like PETA and such are a direct result of living without the great beasts. I GUARANTEE you that if you were to take a hundred or so Alaskan brown bears and drop them off in southern California, and an equal number in the UK, the PETA types in those places would very quickly change their tune.

I think the good Lord put these animals here to remind us from time to time what life REALLY IS. And what death really is. When you see a bear rip the beating heart out of a moose in your driveway, it's difficult to maintain a Disney-type view of wildlife. It's also more difficult to want to destroy all of these magnificent creatures. Your view becomes more complex. Respect is the word for it. Respect for nature, for Creation. If you destroy all these beasts all you're left with is human-created and human-controlled. That leads directly to humanistic hubris, and to a rejection of the divine.

But maybe I've digressed too much here

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Fri May 15, 2009 1:07 pm

I'm guessing he was toting one of those new fangled "lightning fast" bolt guns. Certainly it wasn't an '86 ... in any caliber so chambered.

airedaleman · Post by **airedaleman** » Fri May 15, 2009 1:30 pm

Rimfire McNutjob wrote:I'm guessing he was toting one of those new fangled "lightning fast" bolt guns. Certainly it wasn't an '86 ... in any caliber so chambered.

I'm thinking the dead man DID have a lever action rifle; look at the picture and you can make out the familiar receiver shape. It also appears that the live man has his fingers in a bent lever...

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Fri May 15, 2009 1:50 pm

Rough way to check out...... Prolly better than taking 6 months to rot out from cancer, tho

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Fri May 15, 2009 2:13 pm

airedaleman wrote:
Rimfire McNutjob wrote:I'm guessing he was toting one of those new fangled "lightning fast" bolt guns. Certainly it wasn't an '86 ... in any caliber so chambered.
I'm thinking the dead man DID have a lever action rifle; look at the picture and you can make out the familiar receiver shape. It also appears that the live man has his fingers in a bent lever...

It looks to me more like his hand is user the remnamts of the wrist of the buttstock. And that piece coming out of the end of the handguard area could be a mag tube but it's broken off like it's a wood fragment. I suppose it could have rusted and broken off. I can see the trigger guard but I don't the the lever behind it. A Remington pump action perhaps? Seems like way to long and skinny of a barrel for a lever gun to me.

Cosmoline · Post by **Cosmoline** » Fri May 15, 2009 2:51 pm

In the better quality pic it was pretty clearly a Savage 99, or what was left of it.

Rimfire McNutjob · Post by **Rimfire McNutjob** » Fri May 15, 2009 3:13 pm

Cosmoline wrote:In the better quality pic it was pretty clearly a Savage 99, or what was left of it.

Well that clears it up. Here I am looking for a mag tube. Now it makes more sense ... the longer skinny barrel.

PrimitiveHunter · Post by **PrimitiveHunter** » Sat May 16, 2009 9:55 am

Thats is really cool... Bad Medicine though.

I hope if i ever go get cut down by a grizzly or black bear, it goes down too

SmokeEater2 · Post by **SmokeEater2** » Sat May 16, 2009 3:53 pm

That's one heck of a powerful picture, Thanks for posting it. I wonder if they ever found out who the guy was and the approximate time this happened?

SmokeEater2 · Post by **SmokeEater2** » Sat May 16, 2009 3:54 pm

game keeper wrote:"Someone back East says, Why don't he write?"

Good point GK.

Sixgun · Post by **Sixgun** » Sat May 16, 2009 5:04 pm

Cosmoline,
I'm with you--there are too many people. I hear it all the time around here, "Too many deer, they are eating my bushes and jumping in front of my BMW." I tell 'em there's too many people and they should move back to the city.

As far as your story is concerned, I remember reading a story on "Old Moses", the 2000 pound Grizzly that terrorized some state back around the turn of the century. One hunter who went after him was found (well, part of his leg was all that was found) dead, along with his 1886 Winchester in .33 W.C.F.---------------Sixgun

Lastmohecken · Post by **Lastmohecken** » Sat May 16, 2009 5:35 pm

Sixgun wrote:Cosmoline,
I'm with you--there are too many people. I hear it all the time around here, "Too many deer, they are eating my bushes and jumping in front of my BMW." I tell 'em there's too many people and they should move back to the city.

As far as your story is concerned, I remember reading a story on "Old Moses", the 2000 pound Grizzly that terrorized some state back around the turn of the century. One hunter who went after him was found (well, part of his leg was all that was found) dead, along with his 1886 Winchester in .33 W.C.F.---------------Sixgun

If I remember right, I read somewhere that Old Moses finally got killed by a young man with one of those new fangled Winchester model 94 30/30's.

Sixgun · Post by **Sixgun** » Sat May 16, 2009 6:45 pm

Lastmohecken wrote: If I remember right, I read somewhere that Old Moses finally got killed by a young man with one of those new fangled Winchester model 94 30/30's.

I don't remember much unless it concerns guns, Jeeps or huntin', but......If I remember correctly, (no disrespect intended

)
I thought it was a 30-40 Krag in a Krag rifle.

Come on out there--anybody remember?

mescalero1 · Post by **mescalero1** » Sat May 16, 2009 6:54 pm

I have heard both versions, but do not know if they are the same story or two different incidents.
Catch me when I'm feeling windy and I will tell the story about the mad trapper of the Gila.

rjohns94 · Post by **rjohns94** » Sat May 16, 2009 7:00 pm

http://www.iment.com/maida/family/fathe ... rizzly.htm

30-40

Cosmoline · Post by **Cosmoline** » Sun May 17, 2009 2:19 am

Re. the photo, it seems this was taken by a Kodiak guide, either Bill Pinnell or Morris Talifson, on a hunt where they found the bones. Probably back a few decades, no later than the 60's. It may be from the book "Last of the Great Brown Bear Men," so I'll see if I can find out more.

Sixgun · Post by **Sixgun** » Sun May 17, 2009 8:03 am

rjohns94 wrote:http://www.iment.com/maida/family/fathe ... rizzly.htm

30-40

Thanks Mike, Good read!------------Sixgun

JReed · Post by **JReed** » Sun May 17, 2009 8:46 pm

game keeper wrote:"Someone back East says, Why don't he write?"

Great movie and a very appt quote in this instance.

Batman1939 · Post by **Batman1939** » Sun May 17, 2009 9:33 pm

Cosmoline- I stayed in Bill Pinnell's cabin on Karluk Lake about 25 years ago with my wife and just-graduated high school age son. After 10 days of hiking the area, we would agree with you that walking in real bear country does give an "edgy-feeling" to one, especially when grass and other plants are higher than a man's head and you must stick to bear paths to move through the country. Coming onto a pile of steaming bear scat will really wake you up!

I've also spent several months camped out in remote parts of Africa where lions and spotted hyenas were present and my wife and I had no firearms--just common sense and, perhaps, good fortune. We were never bothered by these predators, but when we heard hyenas whooping or lions roaring at sundown, we always slept inside our small tent.

I appreciate these wild places and the bears (and other large predators) give the wilderness its true meaning. I hunt often and hard, but I have no need to kill these critters-especially to prove my "mastery" over nature. I suppose some of you will accuse me of being a PETA type but definitely 'taint so.

FWiedner · Post by **FWiedner** » Sun May 17, 2009 9:42 pm

Batman1939 wrote:I appreciate these wild places and the bears (and other large predators) give the wilderness its true meaning. I hunt often and hard, but I have no need to kill these critters-especially to prove my "mastery" over nature. I suppose some of you will accuse me of being a PETA type but definitely 'taint so.

No need to be defensive.

I don't think anybody here kills things "just because" (except Mad Dog).

Gobblerforge · Post by **Gobblerforge** » Mon May 18, 2009 6:06 am

game keeper wrote:"Someone back East says, Why don't he write?"

I always loved that line.

Gobbler

Travis Morgan · Post by **Travis Morgan** » Mon May 18, 2009 8:04 pm

1886 wrote:It would be interesting to know the rifle model and chambering. 1886.

Yeah, I guess we KNOW the range!

Travis Morgan · Post by **Travis Morgan** » Mon May 18, 2009 8:05 pm

game keeper wrote:"Someone back East says, Why don't he write?"

I've always LOVED that line! The rest of the movie was stuff, though. The book sucked, too.

Travis Morgan · Post by **Travis Morgan** » Mon May 18, 2009 8:07 pm

BlaineG wrote: Rough way to check out...... Prolly better than taking 6 months to rot out from cancer, tho

Hear, hear! darned if I wanna die of old age!

Travis Morgan · Post by **Travis Morgan** » Mon May 18, 2009 8:08 pm

Lastmohecken wrote:
Sixgun wrote:Cosmoline,
I'm with you--there are too many people. I hear it all the time around here, "Too many deer, they are eating my bushes and jumping in front of my BMW." I tell 'em there's too many people and they should move back to the city.

As far as your story is concerned, I remember reading a story on "Old Moses", the 2000 pound Grizzly that terrorized some state back around the turn of the century. One hunter who went after him was found (well, part of his leg was all that was found) dead, along with his 1886 Winchester in .33 W.C.F.---------------Sixgun
If I remember right, I read somewhere that Old Moses finally got killed by a young man with one of those new fangled Winchester model 94 30/30's.

That bear must have never heard a .30-30 is "no good for large game"!

Travis Morgan · Post by **Travis Morgan** » Mon May 18, 2009 8:10 pm

Batman1939 wrote:I appreciate these wild places and the bears (and other large predators) give the wilderness its true meaning. I hunt often and hard, but I have no need to kill these critters-especially to prove my "mastery" over nature. I suppose some of you will accuse me of being a PETA type but definitely 'taint so.

I have more fun watchin' critters than killin' em.