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Sunday, September 6, 2009
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OUTDOORS
The ‘Jaws’ of the mountains
Since the area is all stirred up about Black Bears, I would like to regale you with a tale of a killer Grizzly Bear that is a testament to the brutal punishment that bears can endure, and their robust durability. Grizzly Bears do not inhabit our area, and we only come across the much smaller, less hostile Black Bear. In the late 1800s/early 1900s there was an infamous Grizzly Bear in the Territory of Wyoming Hanz that had been terrorizing the area. Gehrt The bear was such a menace that the Wyoming Territorial Government had offered a reward of $10,000 in gold to any hunter that could bring in the bear dead or alive. Many bold hunters attempted to retrieve the bountiful reward by killing the bear but they would never be seen again. Years after their departure people would find only a rusted rifle, knife, belt buckle and other remnants of their existence. Eventually a brave hunter would succeed in bringing down the man-eating grizzly of the Wyoming Territory. The bear was finally killed by a hunter and his pack of a dozen or so dogs. This lone man of the wilderness also had a customized .30-40 Krag-Jørgensen rifle built for the task of killing the beast. The KragJørgensen is a five shot bolt-action rifle that was cutting edge technology in its day. It was developed in Norway, and was used by the U.S. Army until it was replaced by the Springfield M1903. When the hunter encountered the man-eating beast, the hunter opened fire and the bear had begun killing the dogs as they attacked. While the dogs were attacking and dying, the valiant hunter continuously shot the bear with no resolve. The hunter emptied three magazines into the beast without missing any of his shots, which equates to 15 powerful gunshot wounds. After the bear had slain all twelve of the hunters dogs, he began approaching the hunter who, at this time, was out of ammo again. The hunter was out of time and loaded one last .30-40 round into his KragJørgensen rifle. He took aim one last time at the killer bear and fired his final shot at a carefully aimed spot between the bear’s ears. This last shot struck the bear in the brain and killed it as it put its massive paw on the hunter’s boot. The remarkable part of this story is what was dis-
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A grizzly bear in Alaska. AP photo.
covered when the bear was dissected. As the hunter dressed the bear, he found over a hundred large caliber rifle bullets in its body. Besides the 16 shots fired from the Krag-Jørgensen, the other bullets had all healed into the flesh indicating that they had been acquired over the years. Most impressive to this mountain man is the bullets found in the animals head. Men discovered five bullets lodged in the brain of the beast, presumable from revolvers that had been fired from victims of the bear’s hunger. The brain bullets were found on the underside of the brain indicating that they were fired upward from underneath the bear’s head. The fact that the brain held bullets of different calibers proves that the bear had been shot in the head as it killed men on more than one occasion. While the bear was eventually slain, the tale illustrates how people often underestimate nature, and nature wins. You are much better off to avoid the dangerous man-eating beast than to try to kill it. Be very cautious around bears are do not do anything to aggravate them should you come across them. Even though we rule the world, we are not the top of the food chain and nature will remind us of that from time to time.
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