Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Big game guide attacked by bear

The Associated Press
ADMIRALTY ISLAND, Alaska � A hunting guide on a 10-day trip with a client was attacked by a bear near Pybus Bay on Admiralty Island in southeast Alaska.

Scott D. Newman, 39, of Petersburg was picked up from the island by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter and taken to Sitka for treatment of multiple broken bones, Alaska state troopers said.

Newman, a licensed guide, told troopers he and his client were on the last day of their trip Monday when they spotted the bear, which they stalked to until they could get a good shot.

The client fired at the bear twice, and hit it, and Newman also fired at the bear.

The bear ran into some brush, and Newman followed. The bear turned and charged, troopers said, and Newman fired again.

The bear bit Newman on the legs and arms and then turned away and lay down, giving Newman a chance to pull out his radio and call for the Coast Guard for help

bearhuntr:
Ok, the 1st one of the season involving a hunter or guide. Any info on the cal. of the rifles these guys used? How about the estimated distance that the client took his 1st shot? Just wondering about this. Bear in Fairbanks

Bear,
You know what I do...I've only seen this article. No other news has passed my way. I have the same questions as you pose, however. If I hear anything I'll relay back. Others with info. might also post...?
best,
bhtr

This is a good example of why a hunter should not count on being the only one to put holes in a bear. Ideally it's nice. Realistically it's the guide who has to go into the willows. As this points out well that is not a desirable option regardless the caliber of the guns involved. And even well hit bears can do some bad things.

Another thing, the 1000 pound bears of legend are not by any means common. I don't know how big this one was but I think I heard it was a sow possibly. That would likely mean it was somewhat smaller. In any case it didn't sound like the bear spent much time working the guy over and yet - 'crunch, crunch'- he's got a handful of broken bones. They obviously aren't something to trifle with.

Kliktarik,

AMEN! The outfit I worked for made it perfectly clear at least from the arrival at camp (and I can only hope that it was made clear from the time of initial client contact with the outfitter) that the guide will be firing if the bear does not come down like a ton of bricks upon the clients initial shot (providing the client hits the bear). Even with those rules in place I have gone in the thick stuff 4 times after a bear, thankfully 3 with a happy ending. One black bear (the rest were grizzly or brown) was never recovered and it still bothers me to this day although I was a mile away when the initial shots were fired, just went to help see if we could make recovery, but the way the bear was moving you could tell he wasn't hit good just hit <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />. Nothing to tune up your senses like going into the nasties after a wounded griz or brown bear! 1akhunter

Update on recent bear mauling.

http://www.adn.com/front/story/5013985p-4942009c.html

This goes to show that even those with many years of experience can run into trouble with these big bears.

Chip

4214chip, et al:
Point well taken. Yet just this last Dec., we had Bill Gentner from Wisc. bitching & moaning that he was screwed by an assistant BB guide on Kodiak after the guide shot at his bear. The pissin' contest went on for about 2 months. I'd really like to know if Bill has the kahunas to do what this guide did?
Anyway, I'm oughta here. Ya'll take care. Bear in Fairbanks

More and better detail here

Might be the first time I have heard of a problem with a real jam at a bad time... CRF???
art

Bear in Frbks,

I remember reading all the BG BS. I also remember him telling of large numbers of hunters that he knew that had canceled their AK hunts because of his alleged problems. I thought "WOW, maybe now I can find a canceled Brown bear hunt so I can afford to go on one." Of the few I found, the discounts didn't amount to much.

Later,

Chip

Had to be a Winchester (grin)!

The guy has salt, that's for sure! What a story!!!

Forget the part about chasing a wounded bear into dense cover... He has the nerve to say he made TWO mistakes... class!
art

Ditto. And the brains to know he did .

Second mauling in a week. The first was out of Ketchikan, also in SE Alaska. Some JD took his supper to bed to finish, and didn't. Found a 400 lb brown bear sitting on his feet a couple hours later. As I understand, he eased out of his bag, got to his feet, and took off running. The latter was a mistake (#2), maybe also getting to his feet. I'll specify, however, that I don't know how I would react. Might do the same (not the food part) Also, I sleep with a rifle beside the bag. Any bear sitting on my feet is getting a onehanded shot from 8 inches between the eyes, if I can manage it. Then the rest of the magazine just for luck. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

The head honcho praised the kid for pounding on the bears nose, his bravery, etc. Maybe so, but that head honcho ought to be canned for 1. Not teaching bear safety. 2. giving the the kid permission to take the food back to his tent with him.

How dumb can you get?

Gents,

Short stroking a Winny only pulls the cartridge out, and then back in the chamber (hmmm sounds like something a bit more risqu�.) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

For the sake of maintaining harmony among this crowd, I'll just have to assume it was a Savage. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Found out some more information over at Accurate Reloading. Check out this link...



bear mauling



Turns out it was not a SUCKS action, but a SAKO!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />



Flinch?!?!?!? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I wasnt there, (dont think any of us were either). The guide admits to making mistakes, he was using enough gun. sometimes [bleep] happens. lesson learned for all that hunt in big bear areas. Sucks that it happened but he will get better and life goes on.

Trouble was he was using a pushfeed jam o matic. Maybe there is smothing to a CRF, at least it wouldn't have jammed on a short stroke.

A pistol would have come in handy too it sounds like.

Don't know what ya'll learned from the disney channel, TV wasn't invented when I grew up in the Chilkat valley we were taught and told of examples where Kids camping out in a tent didn't need to have food to attract the Brownies. People in tents ARE FOOD to the bears. Bears make a living eating other critters, and even though we don't consider ourselves critters any more, to a bear we still smell and look like critters. They don't share our elevated view of our own importance in the scheme of things that we have of ourselves. We just represent a snack to a lot of bears. Food, or a threat, that's all we mean to bears. The kids odor, and breath most likely carried to the bear, long before the Rice a Roni did. The Guide only made one MISTAKE, that of not communicating to his client about when to fire, under no uncertain terms, thereby allowing him to blaze away at will, like he was blasting bunnies or something. The rest of his actions were an absolute and total lapse of judgement. He intentionally made a decision to go alone after a wounded brownie, into heavy cover, with fading light and put himself in a position where he didn't have adequate visibility of his surroundings and that allowed the bear to launch an attack from very close range. He didn't give himself any margin of safety in case of an error, like maybe missing the first shot or a gun jam. He may have been upset with the client for blazing away and wounding the bear, and perhaps this clouded his judgement. A better move would have been to get help from the other hunting camp to go after the bear, maybe at first light, instead of going in alone at first dark. That's what those handheld VHF radios are for.

Walex
I do not know when you grew up, but the brown bears of my childhood ('60s) are not the bears of today in the areas I know. Twenty years ago on Kodiak the unwritten rule was that bears are best scared off, with shots if needed. They seldom were. The bears avoided people at nearly all costs.

The ones that didn't were given fairly convincing lessons that people are bad. With the huge increase in the Kodiak bear population and the increase in the number of sows... those are the ones that train cubs to avoid or ignore people... the bears are not being scared off.

Everyone wants to see the bears up close. In the end the bears get much too comfortable around people and the relative incidence of bear trouble is increasing and I believe it will get much worse.

BTW calls to help locate a wounded bear ARE NOT WHAT THE RADIO IS FOR!!! Matter of fact it is illegal to transmit anything hunting related until the critter is tagged. Calling for a pickup at the end of the day is not hunting related, but calling for backup on the radio is absolutely against the law.
art

Grew up in Haines, '48 to mid 50's. You are right about the behavior changes in animals when they are not hunted, but wild animals, like people, don't always behave inside the norm. There's always the one who is predatory, contrary, unpredictable, or who don't react like he's supposed to. But no matter what the era, I think it's always been agreed that wounded bears are the most dangerous of all bears. I don't know about the radio law, but they are for emergencies. Can't think of a more fitting emergency than a wounded bear left in the woods, waiting for some pilgrim to blunder unsuspectedly into, and get mauled, or killed, because some guide was more worried about following the letter of some stupid regulation, than the safety of his fellow citizens. And whoever had such a regulation passed, ought to be taken out and horsewhipped. Besides the safety of the public should come way ahead of legally tagging a trophy. If a bear a guide and his client have wounded a bear and it got away, the least they should do is warn the public that might be in the vicinity of the potential danger. I would think other legal ramifications if their would be trophy chomped on a backpacker, birdwatching nature lover tree hugger, could be a lot more serious than some minor radio regulation. Those guides are there primarily for public safety reasons, and I would think that those responsibilities would outweigh regs that have more to do with fairchase issues. I may be wrong. In the old days in Alaska every one with a gun took a shot at every bear they seen, like cowboys blaze away at coyotes. i never did think much of that idea, when ever I thought about it. Mostly they had inadequate guns besides. I killed my first Brownie, an old gaunt scabby rotten toothed boar, that was just seconds away from making short work of a couple fishermen in a stream, when I was 17. September 1955, just a few days and a few miles away from where Forrest Young was mauled. His story was featured in the Larry Kaniut books. It might be a good proposal to make, to add a regulation to the guides and hunting rules that if one wounds a bear, and it gets out of sight, one would have to warn the public in the immediate vicinity of the problem, by VHF radio. Tagging the bear if and whenever the animal is recovered shouldn't even enter into the equation. It's really too bad the animal, and the guide, had to suffer, because of a clients irresponsible act of taking what seemed to be less than a sure shot. I was taught that it was wrong to take risky, and maybe crippling shots. And I believe that with bear, that's super important.

The guide's errors in judgment aside, does this incident say anything about the safest choice of action for a guide gun? You wouldn't need it unless you screwed up or were unlucky, or both, but it sure makes a big bore lever action look attractive??!!

I'm not so sure about a big bore revolver, either, despite its reliability, because with the recoil and heat of the moment, personally, I think I could miss an oncoming bus.

Regards, sse

P.S. DISCLAIMER: I'm thinking out loud, here. I have never been in this situation.