Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game If all you had was a spear.. could you stop a bear?

Ppppfff. Only girly men need spears. Over the last 10 years men around here have been known to kill a Grizz with nothing more than a Buck 110...

"Ian Bailey
Vancouver � From Thursday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Thursday, Sep. 17, 2009 04:06AM EDT

With a grizzly bear straddling him, so close he could smell its �musky, wet-dog smell,� Rory Chapple knew he had one shot at avoiding a mauling or death.
The veteran bow hunter, flat on his back after tripping, with the 270-kilogram sow looming over him, pulled an arrow from the quiver on his compound bow and plunged it into the bear's chin.
There had been no time to draw the arrow and shoot the bear. Mr. Chapple's only warning of what was to come was a �huff, huff, huff� sound behind him.
He turned and saw the bear coming �full charge� at him.
He tripped, was on his back, then the bear was on him.
But the aluminum-shaft arrow with a three-bladed stainless-steel point did its job.
�Those [arrows] are designed to have zero resistance,� said Mr. Chapple, 39, of Fort St. John.
�Just like a hot knife through butter, they're designed to penetrate and cut. It went in lickety-split.�
He was aiming for the bear's mouth, �but my aim was off,� which was no surprise, as the bear was atophim, although not positioned in a way that put all her crushing weight on him.
What happened when the arrow sank in is hard to forget, he said.
�Instantly her breathing changed,� he recalled.
�I knew I hit the windpipe because she was having a hard time breathing.
�I could hear her breathing pretty raspy and gurgly.�
The bear withdrew as three cubs looked on �like a little audience watching the whole thing.�
She turned and moved away, but her movements rammed the arrow in further before it slipped loose and fell to the ground. Her cubs followed her into the bush.
Mr. Chapple said he yelled out to friends in their camp about 300 metres away. They yelled back, stumbling out of their tents.
�As soon as I got close to them, I just collapsed on the spot. Tears were flowing. I was pretty much a ball of jelly.
�I was just thinking how close I was to dying. Had I not happened to stick that arrow in exactly the right spot, there's no doubt I would have been mauled pretty good for sure.�
He suffered a sore back and his pants were torn.
All of this happened on Sept. 8 at about 6:30 a.m. after Mr. Chapple left his tent ahead of four hunting buddies, hoping to get an early start on the day's hunting near the Kechika River, eight hours drive plus a three-hour boat ride from Fort St. John.
Mr. Chapple has been an archer since he was 14.
He has hunted throughout his life, largely using a rifle, but decided to turn to a bow and arrow for the challenge � you have to get closer to prey than when hunting with a firearm.
He has taken black bears before, shooting behind the front shoulder through the heart-lung area.
He had always hoped to get a grizzly.
Jeff Ginter, regional operations manager of the provincial conservation officers' service, said from Dawson Creek yesterday that his staff plan to interview Mr. Chapple for further details on the incident to gather information on attacks for their database and to help decide whether the grizzly should be tracked down.
Other hunters may be at risk from the animal, he said.
Mr. Chapple and his friends went looking for the grizzly after the incident, but found no sign of her.
Mr. Ginter said, on average, three British Columbians are injured by black bears each year, and three by grizzly bears.
In the past 23 years, there have been six fatal attacks by grizzlies and eight by black bears, he said.
Mr. Ginter said Mr. Chapple's experience is unique.
�This is the first I have heard of an arrow [being used] like that,� he said, although he said he has heard of people fending off bears with knives and shovels, among other tools.
Mr. Chapple, an auto-body repair technician and president of his local archery club, said a friend is making a glass case for the arrow in question, now bent and twisted."




"Sat, August 25, 2007
Bear buster had no choice
UPDATED: 2007-08-25 02:46:09 MST
Hunter kills mother grizzly bear with knife as she charged and attacked
By DEREK LOGAN, SUN MEDIA

GRANDE PRAIRIE -- A hunter who fought off and mortally wounded a charging grizzly bear last week said he had no chance to run and was forced to defend himself.
Chris McLellan, 32, was scouting locations for bow-hunting in a farmer's oat field about 25 km southwest of Grande Prairie Aug. 15 when he ran into the mother grizzly with three cubs.
McLellan said the bear had been partially concealed by a knoll in the field and he didn't see her until she stood up in front of him 60 yards away.
"I started to shake, man," McLellan told Sun Media as he continues to recover from his injuries at an Edmonton hospital.
"I had a camouflage mask on so I took that off so that she could see that I was a human, thinking that would scare her away. I started waving my arms and screaming and it never fazed her. She just dropped down to all fours and charged."
There was no room for choice, said McLellan, as the distance was too short and the bear would have run him down.
"She never slowed down," he said.

"She never made a turn. She was attacking. There was no bluffing. She just stared into my eyes the whole time and you could just hear her coming, huffing and puffing across that field."
McLellan had driven out to the field down Secondary Highway 666 before turning onto Range Road 73 and driving about four km.
He had only a digital camera and a hunting knife with 12-inch blade when he encountered the bear.
"I put my knife above my head and waited for her to hit me," he said. "She just mowed into me like a football check."
The grizzly rammed into his stomach and then grabbed his left arm with her jaws. As the two went down, McLellan plunged the knife into her back between the shoulder and neck.
The bear then bit him on his torso and his right arm but McLellan managed to stab her again twice in the neck.
The grizzly then turned and walked way, allowing McLellan to get up even though his left arm was now broken.
"I didn't even look at her at all," he said.
"I didn't even know I had killed it until the following day."
McLellan then met a farmer who called 911. "

or the sheriff??

Did he mention what kind of detergent he used to wash out his pants?

A spear is gonna way overpenetrate............

Could you/one?

Sure. Been done thousands of times through the ages.

Preferably?

Hell no.

Polska, you live in New York; likely NYC. You haven't a clue about "big bears", will likely never be near one or have the chance to do so.

You sit at home and mentally (won't even postulate over the other) masturbate over the most inane, ridiculous schit.

You claim to hunt "like a man", yet haven't a clue as to hunting, per your other posts. Cabela's video games don't count.

Go back to your D&D games, your World of Warcraft, and your making of chain maille for your SCA compatriots.

And if it's a TSX spear, will it just pencil through?

Yup. The Athabascans have done it several times in the early to mid 20th century.



It just so happens that those Athabascan bear spears are copper tipped. They have wings that prevent way over penetration.

Didn't adult film star John Holmes kill a bunch of bears with his spear? No wait, they were beavers

Groan..........but good.

Sure it could be done, but how often and how reliably is the question. Definately not by me

Just wait until it gets right on top of you then stick your hand down his throat, grab his tail and pull him inside out and then he'll be running AWAY from you.

in cincinnati they had on of these trained wrestling bears a 400 bear named caesar,, i took my chances with him,, he was so strong,, 1 arm was stronger than my entire body,, so no,, aside from a 44 mag to the brains ,,i would not feel safe,,

this bear would go as hard as you would go,, i read sometime this yr that bear killed his trainer,, i believe that to be true,, could have been another bear,, and trainer

MacGyver could bring one down with a wad of gum, a rubber band and a paper clip. That fella on the movie "Up" brought down an animal way bigger than a bear with nothing more than his shaving kit. I'd imagine that either of those guys would be taking down bears two at a time if they had a spear.

Best

There's a guy over here called Davy Hughes, maybe you should look him up. He's hunted big bears a lot and wants to try taking one with a spear, you could join him.

Or start.

When I get into a survival situation, I always carry my trusty 7 foot spear right next to my chainmaille. Flinch

Well I remember some 7 years ago, when a women was attacked by a 300-lb blackbear in a state park setting. She yelled and screamed and a man came to her rescue. He grabbed a tree limb laying on the ground and smacked the bear twice across it's backside.

The bear already having the women down turned his attention to the man with the tree limb. He took the tree limb away from the man and killed him on the spot. Now both people were killed and the womens son had run off to safety and watched from a walk bridge some 75 yards away. Other people came in yelling and the conservation man was there also trying to catch up to them with his handgun. The bear was trapped later and put down.

I was once told by a trained Zoologist that had been working with bears for some 15 years, that a 300-lb blackbear is worse than 2 of the biggest NFL linemen with baseball bats in there hands.

Pistol wise I would want at least a .44magnum with heavy loads. I would feel much better with my .375-Wby though. Bears are far stronger and faster than 95% of peole can immagine.

in short sprints they will whoop bout any race horse you can find.....given an adiquate head start the horse will always win cause a bear aint built for endurance running but they are faster than most critters off the starting line.....

When they actually had to depend on spears to stop bears, I suspect they either had a bunch of guys surround it and stab it many times (add fire too) or used an atlatal to smartly cast the spear from a good distance away (and probably more then one) or some poor sucker got trapped and got lucky (mostly victory for the bears on that last one)

Even if you managed to get the spear into a killing blow, the animal would reach out and kill you, or run up the spear and kill you or fall on you and kill you or (add your own method here). I know old time bear and boar spears had a crossbar so the animal would not run right up the shaft and gut you.

I'd like to video someone spearing a black bear.