I smell a possible Darwin Award


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Posted by Keith in Washington on Friday, December 14, 2007 at 12:32:27 :

In Reply to: OT Sorry: Difference between 22 & 22 "magnum" posted by Doinco on Thursday, December 13, 2007 at 15:12:32 :

Let her have her 22 Mag. I smell a Darwin Award coming down the road. I will carry a much bigger gun to have a better chance. It is no guarantee but it improves the odds.

I have had several occasions in my life where I could have been the looser against a wild animal.

When I was 12 years old I was hiking in Glacier Park with the family. I ran down the trail and came across a mountain lion on the side of the trail. It was about 6 ft away and slightly above me. I am glad it was not hungry at the time. We stared at each other for a couple of minutes then it walked off. When the parents caught up they could not believe it not did the ranger later that day. They finally did in the end. I have also had a bobcat try to take me out.

When I was leading geological field work in Alaska in the late 70's and early 80's we always carried a shortened shot gun (legal) called a bear gun. Each person had one. They we 12 ga. and loaded alternating buck shot and slugs with the plugs removed. The only time one of the group needed them when one guy set his down with his pack and was waiting for the helicopter to pick him up. He walked off 50 yards away to look at something. When he turned around there was a brown bear 20 yards beyond where he had set the gun and his pack. His basic comment was "Oh Sh..". The bear was just getting a whiff of him and his gear and had not seen him as yet. He had dropped slightly over the ridge so he was partly out of sight of the bear to begin with. He called for help to the helicopter on his radio and was told to hang on for a few minutes. The bear did finally smell him and located him and stood up to get a better smell and look. At that point the bear went on full alert and made a couple of short bluffing charges then standing at the end of each charge to take a look and assert its dominance. The guy was talking on the radio to the copter he could hear it coming but did not know how long it would be. Finally the bear made a full charge at him and was about 10' from him. The pilot was a fantastic guy who was a Vietnam pilot and a bit crazy but had excellent timing. He was flying up the ridge from behind my buddy and came into sight as the bear was charging. The skid marks from the bear were impressive. For some reason it wanted out of there. I was a mile away waiting my turn to be picked up and listened to all of this on the radio. As group leader I had made it very clear that the gun was to on your person at all times when we were in the field no matter what. Even when you needed to visit mother nature. The guns had slings for a reason. I casually asked him if he would ever set the gun down again. His response was "Hell No". It took he a couple of days to return to his normally happy easy going self.

I have also been run out of my fishing hole in Alaska several times by bears and sometimes they will follow you.



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