Bear witness to whether this is the proverbial 'good shoot'?

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The only thing better would have been if it was a .45acp Hi-Point.
I wonder if the cops would have been Half as keen seizing that?
 
I think there is a big difference between carrying a gun that was expensive because its performance warrants the price, vs a gun that was expensive because the owner wanted exotic grips.

However, that's his choice.

What's the basis for assuming that a substantial part of the $1,800 is in the grips? Kimber's aren't cheap bone stock, and it looks like he at least had the front sight changed and maybe the hammer. Who knows what he had a gunsmith do (might well have needed $300 worth of 'smithing to make a officer-length 1911 run!)?

And those look like about $80 stocks to me. Not nothing, but is that really significant to this discussion?
 
I understand the idea of putting money into a gun to ensure reliability. I'm not sure I'd trust my life to a gun that needed several hundred dollars worth of work to be reliable but if someone else wants to that's on them. What I wouldn't do is dump money into bling for a carry gun.

I don't see the point of spending unnecessary money on a gun I fully expect to lose if I ever use it. I want my carry gun to look like what it is, a tool. I want it to be as plain as I can make it.
 
In my experience there is almost always more to the story. Especially when we are only hearing one side. I spend a lot of time in the Smoky mountains and around Gatlinburg. Bear are everywhere and while human/bear encounters are common, true attacks are quite rare. A common quote in bear country, usually said "tongue in cheek", but with some truth to it goes like this. "If you shoot a bear and claim self defense you'd better have claw marks to prove it."
 
Was the man really under attack, or was the bear fleeing the dog and the man was in the way? I suspect that if the man had taken one or two steps to the side, the bear would have dashed past him. Legally, it might have been a good shoot, but ethically, I have doubts.

"Excuse Mr Bear - Are you charging me or simply trying to get past me?"
A human finds himself being charged by a bear. The bear does not answer to YOGI or SMOKEY. Human has a few seconds - or less - to determine if the bear means to maul him , or is just in a hurry. What should human do in this scenario?

A) Give the bear the benefit of the doubt , step aside while shouting "Ole!" , and hope for the best.
B) Defend his tender flesh.

Should this be a poll?


And why the heck is the value of the shooter's (aka human's) gun a subject of contention in this discussion? What's that got to do with the good shoot/bad shoot analysis?
 
We have lots of bears here.
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Little ones like the above and bigger ones.

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We call this bear the peeping bear as it walks by the bedroom window at night.

I have a lot of trail camera pictures of bears, bobcats and mountain lions. Like it or not, they are our neighbors.

IME, raise arms and yell or if the Pitts bark and growl; bear beats feet. The bears seem to "fear" the dogs more than my yelling.

OTOH, we don't feed the bears and those who do create a dangerous situation.


 
"You have the right to bear arms. Not bear arms in defense against bears?"

I knew that something like this was coming...
Unbearable puns.
The commentary about the pun gets more likes than the pun itself...guy just can’t win.

I hope the guy gets his gun back, and I hope he sues anybody and everybody who had anything to do with making that bear lose its fear of humans.
 
We have lots of bears here.
View attachment 875880

Little ones like the above and bigger ones.

View attachment 875890
We call this bear the peeping bear as it walks by the bedroom window at night.

I have a lot of trail camera pictures of bears, bobcats and mountain lions. Like it or not, they are our neighbors.

IME, raise arms and yell or if the Pitts bark and growl; bear beats feet. The bears seem to "fear" the dogs more than my yelling.

OTOH, we don't feed the bears and those who do create a dangerous situation.

The thing to realize here is that this didn’t happen in the backcountry in the park where the human might have been an experienced backpacker with rudimentary knowledge of how to handle a bear encounter. This was in Gatlinburg where the human very possibly had never seen a wild bear in his life. In the park, if a bear shows signs of getting too comfortable around people it is relocated The bear in this case has been treating the area and even second floor walkways of at least two different motels as casually as a pathway miles from any road. Possibly the same bear was filmed strolling the sidewalks in the heart of Gatlinburg as calmly as any tourist. It was a situation that should never have been allowed to reach the point it did.
This sign is in the men’s john at Loft Mountain campground in Shenandoah National Park. Telling people not to put food in the trash is one way to solve the problem. Putting a latch on the door or making it so it pushes outward would solve it too, but that would be too obvious. Sometimes the powers that be don’t exercise the best judgement.
 

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Fred, is that you? A bow hunter in NJ some years back took a record 800lb black bear. Turns out it was a pretty tame bear named Fred, who was in the habit of coming every night to the backdoor of a Dunkin Donut store where they would overindulge him with the day's leftovers.

Poor bear was probably suffering from high cholesterol, diabetes, heart problems, and every other over eater problem known to man. Must have been some sweet meat though. lol
 
Imagine you are standing on the train tracks, and a train "charges" you. Should you stand on the tracks while you draw your Super Train Stopping Magnum, or should you step aside first? Maybe step aside as you draw, and see if the train goes by. I recognize that the train example is a bit absurd, but this whole story is absurd, so maybe the train example is not a bad analogy.
 
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Image you are standing on the train tracks, and a train "charges" you. Should you stand on the tracks while you draw your Super Train Stopping Magnum, or should you step aside first? Maybe step aside as you draw, and see if the train goes by. I recognize that the train example is a bit absurd, but this whole story is absurd, so maybe the train example is not a bad analogy.
Except the train can’t leave the tracks and still come after you when you step aside.
 
While I appreciate the pun I don't see enough information to make a judgment call one way or the other.

However – I am forced to give the shooter the benefit of the doubt. Simply because if I saw any animal weighing more than sixty pounds running towards me I would like as not empty the magazine myself. Especially assuming there is no way of knowing whether the animal is wild or tame. If I believe that the animal is a meat eater that would warrant a magazine reload.

Live and let live is only a fine philosophy when you are sure both parties embrace it.
 
I'm sure the value of said pistola is as told by his lawyer, based off MSRP, plus the add on stocks, the holster, the mag, the whole box of ammo, etc. Gotta pump those numbers up to make the case.

That said, I this looking at a filing against the ammo manufacturer might be next.....

It was the town bear, but it sounds like this guy is from out of town....I'd file as well to get the charges dropped, get the pistol back, and to try to get something for knowingly endangering his life by permitting the bear on the premises.
 
The thing to realize here is that this didn’t happen in the backcountry in the park where the human might have been an experienced backpacker with rudimentary knowledge of how to handle a bear encounter. This was in Gatlinburg where the human very possibly had never seen a wild bear in his life. In the park, if a bear shows signs of getting too comfortable around people it is relocated The bear in this case has been treating the area and even second floor walkways of at least two different motels as casually as a pathway miles from any road. Possibly the same bear was filmed strolling the sidewalks in the heart of Gatlinburg as calmly as any tourist. It was a situation that should never have been allowed to reach the point it did.
This sign is in the men’s john at Loft Mountain campground in Shenandoah National Park. Telling people not to put food in the trash is one way to solve the problem. Putting a latch on the door or making it so it pushes outward would solve it too, but that would be too obvious. Sometimes the powers that be don’t exercise the best judgement.


I can't say I disagree with you. We knew about the area having bears. What we didn't know was there are mountain lions too. Officially, GA DNR denies there are mountain lions here; OTOH, the local game warden has seen them.

Then again, here the bears are too comfortable about getting way, way too close to where people live. The nearest town to us has a bit less than 8,500 people. When friends at church see my trail cam pictures; some buy a camera. Although, they live inside city limits, one discovered they had bears raiding their bird feeders and garbage cans. They blamed raccoons. Personally, I doubted a raccoon could bend a 3/8" rod the feeder was hanging on. ;)
They also had pictures of coyotes..

My only disagreement with what you said is rarely if ever, the powers to be exercise the best judgement. At least until what they thought would never happen does happen.
 
Probably best to use gambling rules with defensive guns. If you’re going to run short on diapers and formula if you lose it, don’t bet it.

I would’ve been irritated had I lost a Wilson Combat in a shooting investigation when I used to carry it, but it wouldn’t have put me in a bind any more than my P365 or G19 would now. That level of expense wasn’t always true, I grew up really poor, but I also didn’t buy expensive consumables when I was poor.
 
I go to Gatlinburg often. I hate it but there is shopping which makes the family happy. It's a couple hours or so drive (and then an hour for the 2 miles in front of SMKW). I know people who live there and others who go weekly. There is no hotel where a bear just walks around grizzly Adam's style like a pet dog. Maybe it had been spotted on a few occasions but to say it was a pet bear and frequently roamed up and down the stairs is silly as I would have heard about it before now. Even in the rental cabin areas the bear are quite discouraged by the local game guys. Cades cove is a different story.
In a town near Gatlinburg a cop was fired for opening fire at a squirrel in dollar general. (Because the pepper spray pissed it off of course. Now you can use it on bear If you want but I know this one for a fact) I cant imagine that the bear shooting guy has any less case than that guy.

Also 1800 for a gun to a guy driving a Ferrari (which isnt uncommon in gatlinburg.) isnt all that much. That's half a python or nighthawk btw. I know people who pay nearly that for a phone for a 10 year old these days.....I carry a Glock and leave pricier stuff home but it depends on the situation. I went to a midnight new years champagne party at the Ripley aquarium years ago and I assure you that there is money around (and back then I was carrying my Glock 27) . Millions of dollars floats around there daily just between the typical tourist traps, Dollywood, the Titanic, Tanger outlets and buds gun and the dinner shows. It's not some hick town anymore like it was when I went as a kid. We wish it were
 
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I can't say I disagree with you. We knew about the area having bears. What we didn't know was there are mountain lions too. Officially, GA DNR denies there are mountain lions here; OTOH, the local game warden has seen them.

Then again, here the bears are too comfortable about getting way, way too close to where people live. The nearest town to us has a bit less than 8,500 people. When friends at church see my trail cam pictures; some buy a camera. Although, they live inside city limits, one discovered they had bears raiding their bird feeders and garbage cans. They blamed raccoons. Personally, I doubted a raccoon could bend a 3/8" rod the feeder was hanging on. ;)
They also had pictures of coyotes..

My only disagreement with what you said is rarely if ever, the powers to be exercise the best judgement. At least until what they thought would never happen does happen.
For what it’s worth, I didn’t say they often used poor judgement, I said they sometimes did.
The bottom line, is that someone who lives with bears as part of their day to day existence might take a short charge differently than somebody from Indianapolis or Omaha. For anybody, the experience of a charge that could be measured in feet as easily as yards would be unnerving. As others have pointed out, there isn’t a lot of room to dodge a bear on the walkway of a Motel 6.
When I hiked the AT in 75 (Hiawassee had one three aisle grocery at the time) the only place where bears were a concern was in Shenandoah NP. Today they are a concern for almost the entire length of the trail with the densest population being in NJ. Maybe the time has come for longer hunting seasons. At any extent, in a town where the entire economy is based on tourism, and at just about any day of the year out of towners will greatly outnumber locals, a bear being allowed free rein where it will inevitably encounter humans not expecting such a thing should not have been tolerated.
 
We have bears where I live. If one were to put me in danger I would defend myself no questions and not think twice.

I always have my EDC G26 on me with less than adequate JHPs loaded for something like a bear. But if on my property I also have a relatively easy to access 12g pump with slugs that I would feel fairly confident in.

Regardless, if a bear charges me it's getting shot with something whether I end up bear scatt or not.

Much like a standard SD situation I'd rather deal with the law than be dead.



If this town really is attracting the bear via food that's despicable and they should be held accountable.
 
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If this town really is attracting the bear via food that's despicable and they should be held accountable.

It's a multi million dollar tourist trap much like myrtle beach. It has tanger outlets, dollywood, medieval times, margeritaville, it has a half a Titanic beside the road (admittedly its pretty nice), ripley's aquarium, wonderworks, and a wax museum complete with 30 foot king Kong on top and a nascar speed park. When I was a kid it was just silver dollar city (later dollywood) and a few go cart parks. Now it often takes over an hour to get from smokey mountain knife works to the red light a mile away.... and that is the main 4- lane. It's a city now. They aren't going to bait bear or risk the liability of letting them walk the hotel halls.

There are bear proof lockers everywhere in the surrounding camping areas, RV parks and cabin rentals and warnings about feeding the bears. The story is greatly exaggerating the bear situation. It is flanked by the smokey mountains wonder works, a nature cove and there are black bear. Ive seen plenty. But they aren't walking up and down the grand staircase with Jack and Rose either.
 
Will have to wait for the bear's statement. He was probably doing his usual rounds as he's done for X years when this obnoxious dog begins making rude comments provoking him. He went to discuss this further when the human drew his pistol and discharged it striking him in several spots. Lawsuit coming. Now if this were the Active Self Protection channel, John would have said the bear should have kept his ego in check and not get drawn into these type of encounters. ;)

The hotel/motel likely has had similar encounters in which case they would have signage about the possibility of bears being on the property. Hotels we've been to that are within similar areas have signage and the desk staff also relay about wild animals that may wander onto the property at night.
 
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