I saw this on BF, Man kills bear with knife.

http://bearmatters.com/2007/08/18/cubs-still-not-found/

Not this one:

No, I imagine you feel very, very humbled.

This is a fluke, a one-in-a-million shot.

I've walked in the Canadian Rockies and come across Griz tracks that weren't there 45 minutes ago. That too is humbling, and sobering; the tracks are enormous, even along side my size 12 boot prints.

I'm glad the guy survived, but I'm sad the bear died. They're under pressure from every side. Humans, generally, are not in short supply (that's easy to say when you're not the one being charged by an angry, well-armed creature the size of a house).

I've never seen a Griz up close, only a mile off on alpine meadows through binoculars. I hope to keep it that way. These animals like their privacy; I propose to give them all they want.

"...machete-style hunting knife..."

Exactly what is that???

There was a show on tv about hunters in AK who were deer hunting on /around Kodiak Island. Two hunters in two separate areas were attacked by bears. It was a bad year for the bears' normal foods and while they usually sat down next to a hunter and simply waited to feed on the guts left behind, they were starving and wanted the deer. One hunter was dressing his deer when he was attacked and defended himself with his knife. He lived, the bear was found a day or so later- dead. IIRC the other hunter didn't make it.

I have heard if you meet a bear and he comes toward you one thing you can do is hold your arms up in front of you, like a boxer guarding his face and the bear will have difficulty biting because the bear can't open his jaws wider than the length of your arm. An older native man mentioned this during an interview where he was describing surviving a bear attack (not a charging attack). He said it was something taught to him by his elders. He used it and lived to tell. This makes sense if you look at the size of a bears' mouth and if a bear can't bite it may become confused and back off. I think this man was gathering firewood very near his home when he encountered the bear and didn't have a weapon. It's been awhile since I've seen this one but I think the mans actions gave his wife a chance to shoot at-or near-the bear

Having spent a few years growing up in AK I have read and heard told many bear stories and they can be driven off, or killed easier than it might appear.

Is that supposed to make us feel safer??? Last I knew, my arm was about 2–2½ feet long. A maw that size can swallow a person whole!

Feed him the firewood.

Sue

That's what I call MOTIVATED.

I'm beginning to think my 7 inch blade KABAR heeds an upgrade.

Craig.

So this doofus wanders between a bear and her cubs, something its so well known not to do its cliche, and has to kill the bear when it attacks him? Poor bear, lucky idiot.

The story said he was a surveyor and was working in the area, and that getting between the bear and her cubs was unintentional. But I agree: poor bear, and poor cubs.

Bears have been killed by simple punches to the face. A (in)famous 19th century man would travel to homesteads as a sort of hired gun to eradicate local bears. His modus being a large knife and getting in close, no different than the large european knives for the same purpose.That bears and other species are under pressure is obvious. I just chewed on a T.V. station for airing a shark hunting contest and read the bleak projections for Polar Bear populations in 50 years. But there is hope. A local trophy bride talking on her cellphone and drinking a latte took herself,SUV and a utility pole out last night. She fortuitously left no cubs. " In the next race war I'm siding with the bears.'- John Muir

Falcon, you beat me to the punch line! I was going to say that I thought the thread title had to do with an prop accident on the set of Man vs. Wild.

Reading this story makes me think of that scene from the movie Predator where the Seargent encounters that Lord God Humongous pig at night, and proceeds to perforate him 9 ways to sunday. Kinda amazing what a well trained and conditioned man with a 12" or longer bladed knife can do when provoked.

Still, I believe this fellow here got darned lucky. The sow's big mistake was in giving the surveryor enough time to deploy his weapon. Had she been more experienced, she would perhaps have jumped him more unaware, and then had her way with him. As it is, it sounds like she was tentative until he armed himself and appeared to be more of a threat than she first considered, then she had no choice but to respond ex post facto.

I'd have been scratching my thigh in search of my phantom 44 if it had been me there. A knife would've been an afterthought.