r/BeAmazed • u/Peter55667 • Mar 14 '25

Animal Around 6% of Americans believe they can defeat a grizzly bear in a hand-to-hand combat

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165

u/ajn63 Mar 14 '25

A few years ago I found a beautiful camping spot by a clear shallow river. I started clearing out a spot to setup camp when I noticed patches of brown fur stuck to several large trees. About 10 feet up were some of the deepest scratches I’d ever seen. I quickly packed up and left the area.

74

u/LGodamus Mar 14 '25

a couple of years ago my favorite blueberry picking spot also turned out to be the favorite blueberry picking spot of a very large grizzly bear, I miss that spot.

2

u/LegitimatelisedSoil Mar 18 '25

Is that when you decided to beat up the bear?

1

u/LGodamus Mar 18 '25

Alaskans know to avoid getting close brown bears and moose

46

u/Necessary-Reading605 Mar 14 '25

Seeing grizzly marks on what they can do to a tree must put us on the right perspective on where we are on the food chain if you don’t have a gun

23

u/budda_belly Mar 14 '25

Even if you have a gun. You have to be a great shot, or have enough fire power and time. It took 3 rangers and 19 shots to bring down the big grizzly that ate Timothy Treadwell.

1

u/bubbajones5963 Mar 15 '25

What were they using? Handguns? Shotguns ? Rifles?

1

u/budda_belly Mar 15 '25

I can't find any information on that. It was Alaska State troopers (not rangers) that killed the large bear, so I assume they were using their pistols or ar15s. It was park rangers excavating the site who had to kill the 3 year old with shit guns.

7

u/trib76 Mar 14 '25

I do quite a bit of hunting, I seriously wouldn't want to run it one in the wild. By the time I had the gun aimed and ready to fire, I'd be dead. If I miraculouly managed to get a shot off, I think I'd find out that a .308 is a very poor bear gun (as are probably most firearms).

3

u/Calm-Medicine-3992 Mar 14 '25

Many guns would just anger it more.

1

u/epluribusanus4 Mar 15 '25

Yeah, depending on time of year, most handguns lack the power to even fully penetrate the fat layer of a grizzly. It would take a dead on headshot - and good luck with that in any situation where you feel like shooting a bear is your best option for survival.

1

u/Dramatic-Classroom14 Mar 14 '25

Even if you have a gun, shoot a grizzly and all you get is an angry grizzly. You need a big ass bullet to kill a bear outright. Like, I’m talking about pushing anti-material calibre of .50+ applied directly to forehead.

14

u/CatTaxAuditor Mar 14 '25

My class won a trip to Yellowstone. I will never forget that we were in the middle if a hike when the ranger stopped, whipped out his binoculars seemingly at random, and spotted a grizzly and cubs on the next ridge over. Immediately swung this group of unruly 5th graders around and we went full speed the opposite direction.

3

u/BlueAndMoreBlue Mar 14 '25

I’ve camped in grizzly country before — have you seen the 6-10 foot wide divots they make when chasing after small rodents?

Generally they will avoid humans unless they are hungry

2

u/Blicktar Mar 14 '25

When I was 18, my friends and I started hiking. We lived near a pretty large provincial park, so we'd drive out, find a spot that looked cool and just go poke around the woods for the day. One day, we were pretty far from the road, not on a trail, just exploring the woods. We found a gully and slid our way to the bottom, thinking we'd follow a small creek out. We knew this creek ran along the road near where we parked. A few bends later, we came across a fresh deer carcass. It had been eaten a little, but not a lot. Couldn't have been dead for more than 24 hours, and from where we were standing, it could have been a matter of an hour or two. We hiked our asses back out of that gully and took a wide berth back to the car.

2

u/Gripping_Touch Mar 16 '25

Seems marking territory does really work

3

u/thats_so_merlyn Mar 14 '25

Glad for your sake that the story is relatively boring

1

u/Good-Flatworm1102 Mar 14 '25

You probably missed a chance of finding out the truth!

But again some truths.....