What gun for a grizzly bear in a restaurant?
 

From the Anchorage Daily News (http://adn.com/news/alaska/story/6250979p-6128063c.html):

Men kill grizzly shacked up in Dalton Highway restaurant

Owner and two friends stare down their gun barrels at bear bedded in hallway

By TIM MOWRY
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Published: March 9th, 2005
Last Modified: March 9th, 2005 at 04:00 AM

FAIRBANKS -- An old grizzly bear that climbed into the window of a closed restaurant on the Dalton Highway to hibernate this winter was shot and killed Wednesday when it was found sleeping in a nest of blankets in a dark hallway.

"It was pretty intense," said Chad Conklin, the 30-year-old tour guide who shot the bear twice at close range with a .300-caliber Winchester Magnum rifle and once with a 12-gauge shotgun. "It was pretty nerve-wracking."

Fairbanks tour operator and restaurant owner Brett Carlson got a call last Tuesday from Alaska State Trooper Curt Bedingfield in Coldfoot telling him someone had seen a grizzly bear climbing into one of the restaurant's windows.

The restaurant, closed in the winter, is located off the Dalton Highway about 150 miles north of Fairbanks. Carlson bought the camp a year and a half ago as part of his business, Northern Alaska Tour Co.

Bedingfield told Carlson he might want to check the situation. He advised him not to go alone and to be prepared to encounter a hibernating bear. If they found the bear inside, Bedingfield told them to shoot it rather than risk getting cornered by a mad grizzly.

Early the next morning, Carlson rounded up Conklin, one of his tour guides, and Ed Colvin, a cook, and made the 120-mile drive. They arrived at 8:30 a.m., strapped on snowshoes and tromped the quarter mile to the restaurant. All three men were armed.

They were 100 yards from the restaurant when they spotted where the bear had gotten into the building. The window was ripped off and the snow in front of the window was covered with urine and feces, he said. The office was trashed but there was no sign of the bear.

"That's when we thought, 'It's going to be dark and he's in here,' " Conklin said. "That's when the heart started pumping."

The three entered the building and began a room-to-room search with Conklin in the lead. All three wore headlamps and Carlson had a spotlight.

The first thing they noticed was that all the merchandise in the gift shop had been pulled off the shelves. There was a nest of T-shirts, sweatshirts and fleece coats built near a door to a back storage area where the bear had obviously been sleeping.

"My thought was he was going to be right around the corner," said Conklin, the most experienced outdoorsman of the trio. "I had the safety off."

But the bear wasn't there. As they made their way to the kitchen and passed a hallway leading to rooms in the back of the building, Conklin noticed a large mound in the hallway. He told Carlson to shine the light down the hall.

"All of a sudden you could see the two eyes and I said, 'Whoa, he's down here,' " Conklin said. "He poked his head up and started looking at us."

The bear started to stand up and, with Carlson shining the light on it, Conklin fired the first of two shots with the rifle, hitting the bear in the chest. The bear dropped but was still moving, so Conklin fired again. He shot the bear in the heart with the shotgun.

"Everybody told us to keep shooting it until you know it's dead," Conklin said.

The bear probably did $10,000 to $50,000 in damage, depending on what needs to be replaced, Carlson said. The animal ripped out a wall to get into the freezer and tipped over ranges, refrigerators and glass cases.

"He basically demolished the place," he said.

The bear's hide squared at 7 feet, 3 inches, big but not huge for an Interior grizzly. The skull measured almost 26 inches.

"That's big for an Interior grizzly," Bedingfield said.

Carlson is planning to have the restaurant open for the tourist season. He's hoping clean up much of the mess before things thaw out.

"With all that bear feces and urine in there, it's going to reek if it thaws out first," he said.

Carlson said he probably should have boarded the windows up, but the thought of a grizzly bear taking up residence in the restaurant never occurred to him.

"It's like anything else in rural Alaska; you roll with the punches," Carlson said.

When I was up in the LOTMS, I had some friends who had some "weekend" cabins out in the bush north of Talkeetna. Had to ride the train to some mile marker, and then hike several miles from there.

They not only had shutters to put on the windows when not there, but the shutters had spikes driven through the edges from the in-side to deter a bear from trying to rip off the shutters from the wall. The door timbers also had permanent spikes driven out at an angle, IIRC. The cabin when boarded up looked like a porcupine ;)


Do you suppose the bear knew what they were shooting him for ...? :p :D

And some people get upset when they see a rat. :rolleyes:

Good advice :D

Hmmm, don't know about guns, but do they sell those sticky traps up there for bear? :D

Isn't this why Marlin made the guide gun? :D

You know, I am by no means a bunny hugger, but I think I might have opened the door and then tried to scare him/her out of the building (from safely outside and well armed just in case, of course).


But I suppose that now they will have a nice rug - along with a story - to hang in the restaurant ... ;)

doubt it. unless they had a bear tag, the hide, skull, and paws must be turned in to fish & game. i might be wrong, but i think this counts as a 'defensive' shooting. you cant keep any of the cool parts if you shoot a bear in defense.

Ya' know it was nice of Preacherman to find me that little S&W model 42 snubby, but I don't think I'd really want to depend on it here. Don't think I'd go for one of the new Ruger Alaskans' (2 1/2" .454 Redhawk) either. :evil: :neener: :D

I agree with Tallpine. Bears will generally leave if you give them a way out with their pride intact. Just because you can shoot it doesn't mean you have toor, for that matter, should.

I'm glad none of the folks got hurt, intense situation indeed. I hope things get back in order for them.

I imagine with the 'advertising' business will be brisk upon opening day. Admiring the rug as they wait for the Bear Roast, Steak, Burgers...

Alas, poor Yogi............

Bear vs human conflict isquite common in Alaska. Actually has increased here in Idaho withthe Griz restoration efforts.

holy thread title!!

a good tranquilizer gun!

Wow! :eek:

Y'all Alaskans take them "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" signs seriously up there... :what:

Whatever he wants..
 

I think a grizzly in a restaurant should be able to carry whatever gun he wants to....










Don't we all support the right to arm bears? :)


(Come on, someone had to say it)

Oh, that's lovely. Bear wakes up all groggy to find trigger happy yahoos punching holes in his hide.

A tranquilizer would have worked just fine.

yeah, chris.....all we is is trigger happy yahoos, just itching to kill us a bair.

:rolleyes:

lessee, your in virginia, and your experience around bears, would be what exactly?

someone saw the bear climb in... and they hiked in on snowshoes. It would be nice to live that far out.

I would guess that just chasing the bear out would not work because it would
probably just keep coming back and causing problems and possibly hurting/killing sombody and then the bear would be put down anyway AFTER the bear put however many people down.

I don't know about tranquilizing and moving it to another area, sounds nicer,
but probably not cost efective. :confused:

Spiff,

+1

;) :D

tranqs are not always the best answer. it isnt like they can ask the bear how much do you weigh? often times mis judgeing will either kill the bear from an over dose. that or if under dose isnt a good thing for the people near it and may really tick off the bear. that will require a second shot and back to the over dose again. many critters never wake up from a tranq shot or die soon after. if it was an open area that the bear was in where the people where safe from the bear sure tranq it. but in a enclosed area bullets are the quicker and more people safe option.

If the owners don't secure the building more strongly, another bear or bears will eventually break in.

See my previous post about the spiked shutters on cabins.

That'll teach them bears to ignore the "Closed" sign!

Bear + food + shelter = bear that will not go away no matter what you do. "A fed bear is a dead bear." We see it all the time up here. You can trap and transport but most of the time they will find their way back and become more bold until you are forced to put them down.

So he couldn't stand the idea of a third shot from the .300 WinMag and switched to the shotgun? Yeah, I think the muzzle blast was a bit intense! I sure hope they had good hearing protection. Wait, hasta be the electronic kind with amplification so they can hear the bear sneaking up on them.

Bart Noir
Eh! Whatid you say?

We don't have Grizzlies, we have black bear so not sure the same holds true but fish and game shoot anything that encroaches on human space.

Breaking into a restaurant is grounds for shooting. My understanding and from what I have seen of bears in my back yard is, once they feed or shelter in an area, they come back for YEARS to the same area.

Two first hand cases in point:

When we first came here an knew nothing of bears, we put our garbage cans outside. Long story short a bear got to them and we started storing them inside. Same bear came back for three years running looking for food that was no longer there . . . . we were on his circuit and it took years to get taken off the list.

Second: neighbor left smelly garbage in her garage with door open in the summer. Bear walked in and helped himself. Her dogs scared him off and fish and game told her to be real careful because he'd be back.

He came back when she was away; ripped their garage door off and helped himself. Dogs hurt themselves trying to get out of their crates and at the bear. Fish and game tracked and destroyed the bear (can't have bears killing humans, be good for the bear hunt sentiment which they don't want.)

So, long story short, my guess is shooting it was a good idea.

His. I'm leaving...

Same here. I guess a grizzly can have whatever gun he wants. I won't argue with him. Bear arms are a Constitutionally protected right, right? Given the lack of an opposable thumb and the close quarters in some parts of a restaurant, the realistic choices are rather limited.




Oh, you mean to use on the grizzly bear?!

What do you call a 7 foot Grizzly?
 

Sir! :neener:

My bear
 

and I go to restaurants all the time...nobody shoots at us...and we don't have to wait in line either...

Seriously...what a great thread...I'm still laughing :evil:

they should totally bring back Grizzly Adams. that guy was a real mans man. :D

Couldn't they just open a door & get a broom to shoo him away? Works with racoons. Are you trying to tell me that a 7' tall grouchy creature with large fangs & claws & capable of running almost as fast as a horse for short distances, who can snap your spine with one blow and who tore through a solid wall, is that much different than a racoon? Sheesh! You people. Scaredy cats! Why must you Alaskans be so pragmatic? Just 'cause you live in an environment that has the potential for death with one small miscalculation is no reason to not take a big chance every once in awhile! I'm sure they could have found any number of people who are used to dealing with large bruins who would have volunteered to wake that griz up & swat his backside with a broom. No problem. :rolleyes:

I don't get why they don't get to keep the parts. :confused:

I mean when I shot that Amway salesman that was on my porch, they let me keep a trophy.

Im certainly no bear expert, but when I went backpacking at Philmont, we were warned to place our food in the bear cannisters at night. Ranch Policy was if a bear got people food, it had to be shot, as it developed a taste for it and would keep coming back, getting more aggressive in its attempts to reach food.

This and other reasons(how exactly do you convince a grizzly bear to move on, shoo, go away please :). are probally why they thought shooting the bear was a good idea. I would have made the same call myself on finding a bear in my building.