Alaska bear attack: A shot too late (Fairbanks, Hope: attorney, home)

[RedJacket]

Even as Scott Oberlitner squeezed the trigger on the .375-caliber H&H Magnum rifle and sent a massive slug flying toward the hulk of the charging Afognak Island grizzly bear, he sensed it was too late. This was like trying to stop a freight train with a bullet.

Alaska bear attack: A shot too late

Colorado man missing on Alaska's Afognak Island

Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Colorado man missing on Alaska s Afognak Island

According to the first story, there are plenty of mammoth Grizzly Bears on Afognak Island. Hopefully the man from Colorado is only lost and hasn't become a meal. Coastal bears are impressive animals. Very very impressive.

I have little doubt I'd drop dead of a heart attack tack tack tack if I ever came face-to-face with one in the wild.

[NomadicBear]

I don't honestly like my odds, either, if I came face to face with a giant grizzly. Not sure the old ticker would appreciate such a thing.

[writerwife]

Wow. What amazes me is, I didn't realize they could cover that much ground that fast.

[juneaubound]

They found him alive and well:
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Alaska searchers find missing hiker from Colorado

[starlite9]

All the Coastal Bears are bigger than the Interor bears, good food supply.

I would assume that the guy had to get "Outfitted" for a new set of "Fruit-of-the-Looms" when he got home...

[writerwife]

Originally Posted by starlite9

All the Coastal Bears are bigger than the Interor bears, good food supply.

I would assume that the guy had to get "Outfitted" for a new set of "Fruit-of-the-Looms" when he got home...

Since his derriere and hip are probably partially gone or misshapen....pampers is more like it.

[Mathguy]

I read an interesting excerpt from the Louis and Clark expedition about the Indians warning them not to mess with the grizzly bears. (And these are smaller than the ones you are talking about.)

Well, one of the expedition guys didn't listen and shot a bear. He got up a tree and managed to pump enough rounds into it to eventually kill it but it humbled them greatly that they lacked the firepower to take one down.

I've heard the bears were faster than a horse over 100yds. Something like 5 seconds or so where an olympic sprinter is closer to 10.

[SoCalCroozer]

It's the WILDERNESS........if you don't want to risk having an encounter with a grizzly don't go the frock out into those areas. It's stupid. That's their home and we have no business shooting a beautiful creature like that. As humans don't we have better things to do like shopping and watching sports eating potatoe chips?

[Sapperdoc]

Originally Posted by SoCalCroozer

It's the WILDERNESS........if you don't want to risk having an encounter with a grizzly don't go the frock out into those areas. It's stupid. That's their home and we have no business shooting a beautiful creature like that. As humans don't we have better things to do like shopping and watching sports eating potatoe chips?

... Or cruising in southern Cali. Yeah, that's much better than spending time out in the wilderness, taking part in that whole "circle of life" thing. Were you under the impression that your hamburger meat is born in neat little squares wrapped in styrofoam too?

Meat is meat. Sport hunting I am not a big fan of (to each his own), but if you're going to EAT it, that makes it meat. In the grand scheme of things, I'd say bear hunting for sustenance is WAY more karmically balanced than ordering a Carl's Thickburger smothered in chili. When is the last time you heard of a cow attempting to eat one of their processors in the slaughterhouse?

I think that would actually make a good bumper sticker.

"Sometimes you eat the bear. Sometimes the bear eats you."

[RedJacket]

Originally Posted by juneaubound

They found him alive and well:
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Alaska searchers find missing hiker from Colorado

Now that's some good news.

I'm not sure which would be more frightening to me, having Joe Miller as my divorce attorney, or being lost on an island with bears that attain weights of 1500 lbs and stand 10 feet tall.