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Bear attack while duck hunting

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alaskansteve

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A friend of mine emailed me this morning, I'm not the Steve in the story!!

 

 

Let me tell you I am very happy to be here to tell this story.

 

My friend Steve and I were duck hunting on Saturday (10/08/11) in Portage Valley (Alaska) and we were attacked by a brown bear. We are both OK but we killed the brown bear within 10 feet of our duck boat blind. This is one of those stories where you are just glad to be alive to tell it. I have lived and worked in Alaska for over 25 years and been around bears but never thought I would encounter one in my blind while duck hunting. I have provided a brief description of what happened below.

 

We had a small bull moose run about 10 feet behind our duck boat blind. About 30 seconds later, we heard some grass rustling and thought it was another moose, but then we see a brown bear following the trail of the moose. When the bear gets about 20 feet from our blind he looks up and sees us and heads right toward the front of the blind where I am sitting. I fired 3 rounds (3" #4 steel shot) into the bear at point blank range. My friend says I fired my last round when the bear was 2 feet away. He goes on to say that my head and the bears head were 2 feet apart at one point. After firing my third round, I dove away from the bear and out of the blind and my friend Steve fires 3 rounds (3.5" #4 steel shot) into his head that sends the bear to the front of the boat on the ground about 10 feet away. Steve reloads as the bear is doing the death spin. He puts 3 more rounds into the bear. I get up, reload, and fire 3 more rounds into the bear. The bear isn't moving at this point in time.

 

Neither of us was hurt (not a scratch). We were just scared ****less. We had 2 dogs with us. The older dog (Mynx) was out of the blind with hackles up about 20 feet away from the bear. The young (5 months) dog (Lulu) was hidden under one of the chairs in the boat, She was shaking and wouldn't come out for awhile. On a side note, we got one duck (a gadwall).

 

I have attached a few photos. You will see our boat blind is destroyed. That was from me diving out one side of the blind and the bear coming in the other. There is also a picture of blood on the blind to show how close the bear was when he got shot. We think the bear was a 7+ foot brown bear.

 

As a department employee, I thought I should send this to some select staff and the staff I work with. I did complete a defense of life and property report and turned in the completed report and the skinned bear to ADF&G staff here in Anchorage.

 

Regards,

 

Tim

 

[img=http://www.stripersonline.com/image/id/2343144/width/478/height/638][img=http://www.stripersonline.com/image/id/2343146/width/600/height/450][img=http://www.stripersonline.com/image/id/2343148/width/600/height/450][img=http://www.stripersonline.com/image/id/2343152/width/600/height/450]

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Steve glad your ok. As I mentioned in another post my sister lives in AK and ive spent alot of time up there and I know the dangers of bears. Did you shout out at the bear at all before shooting? Or was there no time for that? That bear was prob. in hunt mode, you said a small moose ran by you guys seconds before. Please dont take this the wrong way im not saying you shouldnt have shot the bear, I would have done exactly the same thing! One thing id really like to know is how did the bear react with the first, 2nd, and 3rd shot of #4? Where did those shots hit? Ive always wondered if a bear shot in the face with something like that would make it back off. Most of the time for bear protection its slugs or large magnum handguns. I normaly carry a shot gun with a mix of slugs and buckshot. The buck shot is my first load in the gun and I always planned on a face shot and figured that might send the bear running. But pending your feedback I might go all slugs! Theres alot of plces I fish in alaska that I just dont feel right going to with out a gun. Even in closer to town areas, or more heavily used areas I still think its smart to carry a gun. In fact ive had more close encounters in areas closer to town/population then out in the deep woods.

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Steve,I'm wicked glad you WEREN'T THERE!:D

Honestly,I think if I'm duck hunting in Grizzly country,I'm doing it without a plug in the shotgun.:shock:

It wouldn't pay you more to walk on water,than to wear a crown of thorns,

It wouldn't pay me more to bury you rich,than to bury you poor...

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