Oh' The stories I could tell.....Some of you must know Lance T. former head of Habitat at Alaska F&G. In about 70' three of us were engaged in unofficial Porcupine control. Back then there were thousands of porcupines, I don't know why. I shot 74 in 60 days that summer. (In case you are prone to being judgmental, save it.....I don't care).
So we were shooting porky-pines between Los Anchorage and lovely Hope, Alaska. It was about 11
M mid-May and the last, or nearly last light. We were on the rough "Dirt" road that was the Hope Road. Roughly mile 9'ish. We saw a large'ish Black Bear cross the road, and we pulled up and stopped at the spot.
Now Lance and the other guy both had .22 LR pistols only, for executing Porky-pines. I had a Winchester model 100 in .308 Win. w/ a tip-off scope.
So we are all on the passenger's side of the truck, and we are listening to this God awful crying and thrashing just fifteen or twenty feet away. It went on and on, and we figured that it was a sow spanking and driving cubs up a tree.
It was almost dark, and we could hear the crashing coming to us, In one heart beat a bear busted out of the dark woods/alders/willows from about six or eight feet, coming straight a Lance T. With out thinking from the hip I shot the bear as it was with-in a foot or two of Lance, the muzzle about 6" from the bear.
The bear turned and went the way it had come, back into the dark woods.
Now all Hell broke-out 15 feet away, crying and thrashing, and crashing, and it is now dark-dark. The story is getting long, so I'll wrap it up. I tipped off the scope, went in after the wounded bear (Which was hit center behind the shoulder). I skillfully missed the badly wounded bear three times form 12 feet with iron sights. The bear was just thrashing around NOT coming at me. I eventually flipped the scope back up, and could clearly see the bear and finished it.
OK, This is what is educational. There were NO bear cubs. The first thing I encountered on entering the woods was a new born moose calf that had a bite in the small of the back and very alive but paralyzed. Next at about 10 feet was the wounded bear thrashing around, and a P!zzed'off cow that was about 12 feet away and lurching at the bear. The calf was crying, the cow was exhaling hard, and the bear was flopping around and crying also.
We figured that what happened is that we had not seen the cow and calf cross the road, only the bear right behind. And after the bear bit the calf in the small of the back, the cow charged the bear, and the bear retreating from the cow ran straight at Lance T. The bear was trapped between the truck and the cow.
So we were shooting porky-pines between Los Anchorage and lovely Hope, Alaska. It was about 11
M mid-May and the last, or nearly last light. We were on the rough "Dirt" road that was the Hope Road. Roughly mile 9'ish. We saw a large'ish Black Bear cross the road, and we pulled up and stopped at the spot.Now Lance and the other guy both had .22 LR pistols only, for executing Porky-pines. I had a Winchester model 100 in .308 Win. w/ a tip-off scope.
So we are all on the passenger's side of the truck, and we are listening to this God awful crying and thrashing just fifteen or twenty feet away. It went on and on, and we figured that it was a sow spanking and driving cubs up a tree.
It was almost dark, and we could hear the crashing coming to us, In one heart beat a bear busted out of the dark woods/alders/willows from about six or eight feet, coming straight a Lance T. With out thinking from the hip I shot the bear as it was with-in a foot or two of Lance, the muzzle about 6" from the bear.
The bear turned and went the way it had come, back into the dark woods.
Now all Hell broke-out 15 feet away, crying and thrashing, and crashing, and it is now dark-dark. The story is getting long, so I'll wrap it up. I tipped off the scope, went in after the wounded bear (Which was hit center behind the shoulder). I skillfully missed the badly wounded bear three times form 12 feet with iron sights. The bear was just thrashing around NOT coming at me. I eventually flipped the scope back up, and could clearly see the bear and finished it.
OK, This is what is educational. There were NO bear cubs. The first thing I encountered on entering the woods was a new born moose calf that had a bite in the small of the back and very alive but paralyzed. Next at about 10 feet was the wounded bear thrashing around, and a P!zzed'off cow that was about 12 feet away and lurching at the bear. The calf was crying, the cow was exhaling hard, and the bear was flopping around and crying also.
We figured that what happened is that we had not seen the cow and calf cross the road, only the bear right behind. And after the bear bit the calf in the small of the back, the cow charged the bear, and the bear retreating from the cow ran straight at Lance T. The bear was trapped between the truck and the cow.
