from the news:

Man Fights Off Bear Then Shoots Himself

A hunter who managed to fight off an attack by a 700-pound bear then almost killed himself when he tripped over his gun.
Marin Cogev, 55, was hunting in woods near Milkovica in Bulgaria when he was attacked by the bear from behind.
The bear tried to crush him with its arms but he managed to hit the animal on the head with the butt of his shotgun and then fired a shot in the air.
The bear released his grip and ran away. But when Cogev turned to go after the bear he slipped, tripped and fell and his gun went off. The bullet grazed his head and he passed out.
A fellow hunter who found him after the attack said: "If the bullet had gone a few millimetres the other way he would be dead.
"It's amazing he managed to fight off such a huge bear and then tripped over and nearly killed himself."
The bear was later caught and shot by a team of hunters.
Local media reported Cogev was recovering in hospital after an operation on a punctured lung and broken ribs sustained when he was crushed by the bear.

Oh, my.

Sue

Once again the animal was the real victim here <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Susan:

Adrenaline is a multi-edged sword. Sometimes it gives you the power to overcome and prevail, and other times it gives you tunnel vision and action by impulse instead of reason.

Considering this individuals state of mind after fending off a bear attack, I can understand him not watching where his feet stepped and almost doing himself in.

Back in my junior high school days, we used to play team elimination (Before anal retentive politically correct thinking!) during gym classes. You had two volleyballs and two man teams. To move when you had possesion of the ball you had to bounce it off a wall (Bouncing it on the floor did not allow movement by the rules and good basketball players of today couldn't handle the restrictions.) then move and keep doing that until you shot the ball at someone. In one game my teammate was knocked out and he could get back in the game if I knocked someone else out. I managed to come up behind one of the teammembers that was covering his partner, grab the ball out of his hand, hit him in the face with it, continue moving to his partner from the bounce off his face, and hit his partner in the back of the head. I now had one ball in my hand, and the other under my foot when I sensed a movement to my left rear. Using my cat like reflexes (I was younger and faster back then.), I whirled around and hit MY OWN PARTNER in the face out of reflex and blurred tunnel vision. I got him back in when I knocked out one of the other targets and we went on to win that game by eliminating the rest of the gym class. All because of adrenaline and the need to survive in a game let alone fighting for your life in the wild.

That junior high school experience served me in good stead many years later. I was locking up my fathers grocery store for the day at the back door with the cash box and an Astra Cadix .38 caliber revolver loaded with five hollow point bullets in my left hand as I locked the door with the keys in my right hand. I had just switched the keys to my left hand with the cash box and the revolver to my right hand when I heard an unfamiliar voice behiind me say; "Don't move, this is a stickup.". I was standing on the one step from the ground level, turned around rapidly and with my finger on the trigger ended up pointing right into the face of the voice standing behind me. It turned out to be my best friend who had disquised his voice and decided to try and scare me. He succeeded, but not for the reason he had intended, a fake robbery. There is nothing like staring into a snub nosed revolver loaded with bullets you can see just before the moment of death. I didn't shoot because I identified the target before firing, but I almost beat the crap out of him and almost suffered a heart attack in the process. Even thogh he knew I did defensive handgun tactics regularly, until that moment, he never knew how serious and how good at it I was. If it had been an unrecognizable face, I would have shot without looking to see if he was armed. Needless to say, he never did anthing like that again, and now almost 40 years after that happened, my hands shake as I write this.

That game of "Elimination" (Something anal retentive politically correct types think is anti-social.) made me realize the importance of identifying your target, and saved my best friends life years later.

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I've heard it said that In the same incident where Bill Hickock shot his good friend (by mistake), he also shot a passing dog.

Not a good man to startle.

Presumed Lost:

Read my edited post.

Bountyhunter

Bountyhunter, you're absolutely correct about adrenaline. Where I began to have trouble with his actions is where it said "... when Cogev turned to go after the bear ..."

When you go on the attack, you need to have all your mental ducks lined up in a row, and NOT be running in How Dare He Attack ME mode.

Sue

When you are in a situation where an immediate desicion is required, the only thing that can keep you from doing something stupid is proper conditioning. You must at least have mental excersises for that. Stoneage instincts paired with high-tech equippment often produce catastrophic results. Usually the action is completed before you regain your ability to think clearly and act in a sensible way. The resulting actions are often hard to understand in hindsight.

Well said. You couldn't be more correct. Many people have been killed from "How Dare He Attack ME mode" after already surviving the initial encounter.

In a word... yep. I dont know if it's the "only" thing but it's certainly the main thing. Training training training which is mostly repetition repetition repetition. As former martial arts instructor I can tell you that in most marital arts schools, even at the most advanced levels you are still required to practice very basic offensive and defensive moves over and over and over again even though you've been doing them for years. The reason for this is not because the instructor is afraid you'll forget how to perform basic movements but rather that because if you repeat the same reaction litterally thousands of times, then eventually if becomes almost automatic. Positive target identification (and a bazillion other things) can be trained in the same way.

Susan:

For crying out loud!!!!!!!!-------he's a guy, male of the species and pumped up besides; what does logical thought have to do with it? <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />