There is a local wildlife themed restaurant that has a Kodiak bear stuffed in the front entrance. I am 6 foot tall, and I come up to the middle of the belly of that monster. I would not be surprised to learn they may have stretched the skin of it when it was mounted. It is just very impressive.

And no the place is not Twin Peaks!

What amazed me is when the bigger bear bit in the side of the smaller bears neck/face.
At one point after that you could see tuft of fur or something sticking out...

There was serious power in that bite... Can you imagine what would happen to a person if a bear bit them like that?

Do you remember the movie "The Edge" (1997 - Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin)

There was a big ass Kodiak bear stalking them and they managed to kill it.

Great movie from memory.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1569357677.jpg

I have to think that if 2 regular dudes manage to kill a big grizzly with sticks, there's probably a fair amount of luck involved.

It's explained how they did it in the movie. They didn't just stab at the bear.

The bear lurched up and Anthony Hopkins manged to get a stake into its chest as it came back down. The bears weight drove the stake in.

It's all explained in the movie. I have no idea how realistic it is but according to the movie that's how the Indians would will them.
Anthony Hopkins character had a match box with a picture of an Indian on it fighting a bear.

Here's the ending...

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Yeah, no kidding - I can fully relate. My one "close encounter" was out on the Tagagawik river, east of Kotzebue Alaska. I was on a caribou hunt, having been dropped off with four other guys by two bush plane pilots. We weren't going to see them again for nine days, the thought of which really added a bit of spice to my encounter.

Anyone who has been in the river bottoms out on the open tundra will know that the alder thickets grow so dense that the animals rely on "tunnels" of a fashion that they have formed through the course of their travels. These tunnels are never tall enough for a man to stand up, so we have to crawl through them.

So, there I was, crawling on my hands and knees with my day pack tied to one ankle and placing my rifle in front of me and crawling up to it. Then, sure as hell, here comes a bear going the other way. We stopped about five feet apart and stared at each other for a couple of hours (actually about two seconds). Thankfully, he decided he would kind of like to make a new tunnel, and bolted off to the side, crashing through stuff I would never have been able to make it through.

I wish I had scanned or digitized copies of my old hunting partner's photos. We stumbled upon a mama black bear with two cubs in North Central Washington one day during deer season. She treed the cubs and ran. Bob got some great shots of the little guys up in the tree. So much for mamas and cubs, although I wouldn't count on this.

My other close encounter with a black bear and her cub happened one day when I was out with my then (I think) eight year old son. He was restless and cranky, my wife told me to get him out and burn off some steam, so I grabbed him, the dog, a shotgun, and a .22 revolver and headed for the wood to do some grouse "hunting".

Well, the dog found a little cub in the trail ahead of us. Fortunately, he was quite well trained, and "heeled" on command, in spite of the temptation. The trail was actually an old overgrown logging road, cut into a sidehill. I started looking for mama as soon as the dog was under control.

Once we were out in the woods, I had strapped the .22 on my son's hip, so he could feel like he was "participating". I started questioning the wisdom of that the minute we spotted the mama, directly above us on the uphill side of the cut. I heard my son un snap the retention strap on the holster, and when I looked, he was starting to draw the little .22. Holy crap - I immediately had visions of a dog/dad/bear fur ball rolling around on the ground, with my son valiantly shooting into it trying to "help". Jeezus... I told him to re-snap the strap and get behind me. And, once again, after what seemed like a several hour stare down, mama huffed, wheeled 180 degrees around, and ran off. Leaving her confused little cub with us.

Yup, that's it - "Bert". I heard he passed away some time ago. Too bad, he was a real ambassador for the species. A lot of fun to spend time with.

Yeah, as I get older, my taste for killing things has greatly diminished. I've killed a lot of animals. The excitement wore off a long time ago. These days, I might still go deer or elk hunting (oh, and bird hunting, but that is more about the dog), but I'm looking to fill the freezer, not for some "bragging" size animal.

And if I do go, it's strictly in my home state these days. No more traveling to do it with a hired guide or anything. That whole scene has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, and not for the better. People with lots of money but little time have ruined it. The guides have responded to their needs with all too easy "canned" hunts that virtually guarantee success in a minimum amount of time and effort. Problem is, the guides no longer discern (or even care about) the difference between someone who really wants to hunt and someone who just wants lots of pictures with dead animals to brag about. The guides cater to the latter, because they can churn them through quickly, and the former are left out in the cold.

Oh well... I guess I've digressed a bit here...

The guy taking the video should have done the right thing and tried to break up that fight! lol

I’m with you Jeff. We raise beef and I’d rather eat beef than wild game. That being said, I have a landowners tag that will allow me to take an elk this fall. The herd of about 40 comes through my 300 acres every fall. My neighbor got a nice bull elk at my place 2 years ago.

My dad used to be a big game guide after he retired (early). He guaranteed his clients a shot at a moose and always delivered. We were raised on wild game, beef was a treat as a kid. He shot a few grizzlies over the years on various hunts. One memorable trip was with clients from Montana, they had shot a moose the day before and were awoken by the cook shooting a grizzly right outside their cabin / tent. The grizzly was stealing a moose quarter.

I'd smile and ask him if he wanted some mustard to go ;)

Just like this guy
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acceleration and reflexes, for such big animals is beyond anything I've ever seen.
Probably second only to a Jaguar, but that's a much, much smaller animal

dafaq was he thinking, full grown marine slamming teenagers like that.

Cougars can be pretty bad too. One man against the cougar could be tough. Two men not so problematic. I am talking about the four legged ones....:)

Bart the bear was adopted and trained by Doug and Lynne Seus, of Utah.

He was 9'6" tall and weighed 1,500 pounds.

ah... Bart - thx for the correction

Dunno, 18 year old dude tackling what's probably a couple of 15, 16, 17 yo dudes.

I thought it was great how the larger bear amused him for a bit...then put his ass in place.

I ran into several bears working in the Sierras. I lived in a tent cabin when working in Lodgepole in Sequoia Natl. Park and we used a community shower. One night coming back to my cabin after showering just as I came about even with the door, a full grown bear came around the corner. We stood there looking at each other for a few seconds, & the bear turned around and bolted away. Another time I went up to check on a possible injured person at one of the lakes. I couldn't find anybody and came back down. I was walking along and heard a noise, looked up and saw two cubs in a nearby tree. My first reaction was to stop & look at how cute they were. My second reaction was "Oh Shyte, where's momma." I just moseyed on down the trail as quickly and calmly as I could.

Here's a screen shot from The Edge (1997)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1569478530.jpg

USMC recruiter at 18???