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Having Been Charged
Posted by Moosenuts on Mar 04 2006
While on a moose hunt in unit 17B this past September I had the unfortunate experience of having to defend myself with my firearm from a Brown Bear charge. The sow came into my calling about 20 minutes before dark. When I stood to try and scare her off she immediately ran full bore directly at me. I shot at her with my .300 when she reached 15 yards (missing). The sow stopped at 7 feet while standing on top of my backpack and breathing very hard from the lightening quick 35 yards she had just covered. I am writing this to tell you two things from personal experience. First, when a bear is running directly at you and you are all alone, there is no such thing as a "bluff" charge, period. Second, it takes one hell of a composed marksman to stop a bear charge under real conditions with a gun. Pepper Spray is the proven weapon of choice. However, I had pepper spray on my hip and never remembered I had it until I was back in camp. The facts show that pepper spray outperforms firearms at deterring an attack. Refer to this past September's Alaska magazine for the statistics.
Anyone can tell you what they would do in the event of a bear charge, but believe me, a brown bear can cover ground faster than you can ever
imagine. My advice is to start shooting as a first resort and save enough time for one pepper spray blast. You only live once, don't screw up with a bear by not being prepared.
My bear, after stopping at 7 feet, took in some nice whiffs of my smelly backpack, figured out I wasn't a moose and headed for the hills.
I was lucky. I did nothing wrong to encourage the charge. Sometimes men and bears meet in awkward situations.
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