Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Bear Mauling victim interview

Wow. I'm very impressed by how calm this guy is and how he harbors no bad feelings towards the bear or fear of the woods.

He lucky

Yep indeed and he realizes it

Part of that luck is he and his pard seem to exhibit the right stuff

Had he been alone that interview would be not exist. Lucky guy with a great attitude and hunting partner.

Why would you have a fear of the bears or the woods or be mad at the bears.

Thats nature, its how it works, we are privileged to be allowed to play there, and we take risks of all kinds when we are out there.

When nature does what it does, sometimes we are where we are not supposed to be. Sometimes its ok, sometimes not, sometimes its deadly.

Can't think of a better place to have to meet the lord than in the woods myself.

I will grant you this, I think his attitude, while I think its what we all should have, is probably a bit rare.

Plan and think things out and prepare the best you can for what might happen and sometimes you still come up snake eyes. They did good in reality IMHO.

He didn't say anything about the bears breath. When bitten on the face or head, I've heard some survivors comment on how they smelled the bears breath.

A rifle strapped to your pack ain't too bright in bear country. Much less both of them. Might be they needed both hands to navigate in brush and/or steep, however.

I don't carry mine like that, or slung over my shoulder in said bear habitat.

Doesn't mean I won't someday get jumped and et by a bear tho. Those things are FAST1

Agreed. I hike many miles in bear country alaska every year and my gun stays in my hand or shoulder. Also its way more powerfull than any handgun and far more accurste. Dont fool yourself.

Rare incidents like this one and the treads they generate always tend to get the civilians heated up, but the facts and statistics about bears are not as scary as you imagine. Otherwise I wouldn't have raised my family in the middle of the densest population of brown bears in Alaska.

Incidents like this one I photographed may look scary but happen somewhere in Bristol Bay virtually every week. It is simply two critters fishing, four if you count the cubs in the background. No one was injured, or even threatned, they all remained aware of the others and they continued fishing in close contact all day.

In your pic, the bear is focused on the guy, while the guy is focused on his fishing. The bear is clearly paying him mind, but did the bear ever challenge him for the spot?

The bear was really after the fish between them but, like all good bears, was also keeping and eye on the other fisherman, immediately after I took the photo the bear jumped in the middle of a group of fish, caught one and took it back to it's cubs

I enjoyed fishing on the Buskin River (Kodiak) for a number of years; I never felt more alive than when there was a 3 year old fishing next to me, maybe 30 feet away.

When one would suddenly stick his head out of the brush even closer than that..... I didn't care a whole lot for that...

Were you a Coastie?

civilian, still working for CG in Norfolk now

I did a 3 year active duty hitch in Kodiak from 1996-99 working for MWR. I am retired now and working as a CG civilian in Houma LA. I loved Kodiak from May-October. I told a couple of Kodiak Bear Hunting stories in this thread:

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8521043/m/9411080422?r=6151070722#6151070722

You may enjoy reading them since you can relate to where I was hunting.

Thanks I will check them out, also thanks for your active duty service!

Thank you. I have had a hell of a lot of fun along the way.

Have you ever published your photos as a body of work? You have an eye to capture the moment, with such adventurous subject matter, and such splendorous scenery.

Looks like a charge to me