Polar bear!!

hoggie · #1 08/09/11, 09:52 AM

My apologies if this has already been seen or commented upon - I did search for it and couldn't find anything

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14439244

This is the story of a 16 year old neighbour of my uncle's. He was on an expedition with a group of other teenagers when they were attacked at night by a polar bear. Apparently they had trip wires rigged around the camp which failed. One boy was killed, and this 16 year old tried to fight off the bear with all he had - his bare hands!!!! Another teenager shot the bear but failed to kill him.

Eventually the bear was shot by one of the team leaders but both leaders were mauled in the process and the 16 year old was bitten in the head - he had to have bear's teeth removed from his skull - how in blazes did he survive that???

Just thought I'd share

PrincessFerf · #2 08/09/11, 09:56 AM

Amazing..... and SCARY.

How in the blazes did he survive that? Sometimes the only reason is that its just not his time to go.

puddlejumper007 · #3 08/09/11, 10:00 AM

wow thanks for the story. hoggie glad to see you are back . have not seen any of your post lately..God bless

soulsurvivor · #4 08/09/11, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrincessFerf

Amazing..... and SCARY.

How in the blazes did he survive that? Sometimes the only reason is that its just not his time to go.

Boy that's the truth. When my son was 3 he was mauled by a sow. She bit into his shoulder and threw him up in the air and then was going back to bite his head. But my son's great aunt managed to hit the sow on its back with a board that had a long nail sticking out. That diverted the sow's attention and gave the great aunt enough time to grab my son and throw him on the back of a wagon. This was back in the 70s and son is still alive and kicking. The sow was kept in quarantine to test for rabies but was then slaughtered.

Sorry to hear about the incident with the polar bear. It has to be so difficult for all their families to cope with this, especially as they took many precautions for something like this to not happen.

texican · #5 08/09/11, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soulsurvivor

Sorry to hear about the incident with the polar bear. It has to be so difficult for all their families to cope with this, especially as they took many precautions for something like this to not happen.

The only safe thing to do is to not be in polar bear country... you enter their realm, you risk being supper. The wilderness would be less without the bears...

I have camped in polar bear country... fortunately it was summer time, and the bears were out on the pack ice. Quite a few of the Natives had polar bear furs hanging on their porches...

hoggie · #6 08/09/11, 12:04 PM

Texican - I am inclined to agree with you on that. A local guy from here took part in one of the races to the North pole - he and his partner had to shoot and kill a polar bear after it raided their camp. It turned out that the place where they were was known as "polar bear pass" or something of that nature - it was well known for it's polar bears. So why on earth be there??

But I still find the fact that this kid survived incredible. The split second timing between the polar bear's teeth embedding in his skull and fracturing it, and death, doesn't bare thinking about.

mightybooboo · #7 08/09/11, 02:11 PM

Wonder what they shot him with and if a 357 mag woulda done it,I know it will drop a brown bear and a 44 mag makes instant drop on those.

I also know a fella killed a brown with ONE shot right between the eyes,with a 22! But then again this guy was one heck of a hunter/rifleman too.it was all he had when surprised.

Finally,where was the bear spray stuff?
These guys were sadly under prepped IMO.

A funny,BIL's car breaks down....he and his brother take a shortcut down thru a canyon to the town below,walk up on the gas station guy who says...."How did you get here,I didnt see you coming"

"We walked down the canyon..."

"You walked down RATTLESNAKE CANYON?????"

texican · #8 08/09/11, 09:50 PM

Inuits kill them with 22LR's... Steer the boat up to a swimming polar bear, stick the rifle in it's mouth, and pull the trigger... end of polar bear.

I wouldn't dream of carrying a .357 for a polar bear, unless it were to shoot myself. Not even a .44 mag. I'd have to carry something in the .500 range, probably from JDJ in the Thompson/Contender line.

Trouble with large bears..... if the bear is at 'peace', a well placed appropriate cartridge will kill it... but it might take 30 seconds to a few minutes to die. If it's not at peace, and wanting to chew on your nose, you 'kill it' and it doesn't die for a few minutes... more than enough time to remove important parts of your anatomy. There are numerous tales of 'dead bears' mauling and killing people. "Knowing" this little fact will make one modify their behavior, while in bear country......