folding knife saves life - grizzly bear attack

I know a guy who was riding in bear country and got chased out of a thicket by a black bear. The thing was fast and he didn’t have time to get on his bike.

By lifting his bike over his head and turning to face the bear he got lucky and spooked it and the bear turned and ran.

Not sure if it would work against a grizzly though.
 
I got the impression he may have poked the bear with the ski pole while riding... this definitely seems a full on attack, I'm frankly surprized he didn't bleed out, or got his femoral artery injured, his leg was almost eaten right off from the looks of it
 
dirc said:
I got the impression he may have poked the bear with the ski pole while riding... this definitely seems a full on attack, I'm frankly surprized he didn't bleed out, or got his femoral artery injured, his leg was almost eaten right off from the looks of it
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Nah. Listen to it again. He was riding downhill when he encountered the bear walking toward him uphill. He stopped and stood there. The bear walked by a bit and circled up to him. He talked to it, trying to make it back off. He poked it with his hiking pole. Threw his bike at it and his backpack. This was not a full-on attack. A grizzly can run run down Usain Bolt. A grizzly can outrun a horse.

This was a very slow developing situation.
 
Twindog said:
Bear attacks are hard to figure. In a full-on attack, the bear would not have walked slowly up to him and allowed him to poke its head with a ski pole. Grizzly bears are unbelieveably strong and lightning fast. They can kill a person with one swipe. They have a bite force of 1,200 psi. Nothing in the human body is going to resist that.

I don't know what happened, but I doubt the knife saved his life. More likely, the bear was as curious as it was aggressive. Still a horrible experience for the biker.

I live in a remote area. No grizzly bears, but lots of cougars. A few years back, a guy claimed he out wrestled a cougar and walked away with just a couple scratches on his belly. Not the likely outcome in a fight with a cougar. But everyone was convinced that the wresting moves he practiced with his German shepherd dog were the key.
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Yes, wrestling with a dog is the best preparation for dealing with a cougar. Just like a small fixed blade on a horizontal sheath is good preparation for a grizzly attack. :rolleyes:

I'm amazed sometimes at how naive people are when it comes to wildlife. If that bear wanted him dead he'd be dead. Chances are it was an adolescent bear that was simply curious. Glad he survived either way.

No matter how you spin it, knives make shitty defensive tools. Especially in bear country. He got lucky. Carry bear spray, a large caliber pistol if you can and make a lot of noise.
 
Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica!
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just to be clear, I was making the point of how much a few seconds may have helped... I was not recommending the best bear defence. Totally agree with you
 
They always said don't Poke the bear for a reason I rekon. :D He is one lucky individual though.
 
Wow that's just a few hours away from me.. that is incredible he was able to bike that far with those wounds.
 
Bears are outside of my personal experience . Never encountered one in the wild and glad of that . :)

But I've heard from experienced hunters that "fully committed" attacking grizzly bears are sometimes very hard to stop , even with multiple hits from smaller caliber hunting rifles .

I would definitely NOT rely upon any weapon short of a large caliber , repeating rifle/shotgun that's proven to stop such critters .

This case is somewhat a miracle and/ or that bear wasn't very motivated , IMO . :confused:
 
4mer_FMF said:
Yowza!

I just moved to grizzly country. 2-3 years ago a biker lost his life to a grizzly in my area. As the story goes, it was also on a logging road.

Here’s part of my kit for every ride.



The Delica stays in my Camelbak.

The bear seasoning stays on my bike in a water bottle cage (via cut up water bottle).



Every few years there’s a shark attack where I used to surf (most recently at Beacons in Leucadia CA). I’ve kinda mentally accepted the situation as “equivalent risk.”

I’m really glad the guy in the sorry will be ok. He’s a total bad-ass if you ask me.
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I used to read about grizzly bear attacks on people armed with large calibre hand guns. The opinion back in those days was that a hand gun wouldn't t stop a determined grizzly attack. More recently I ve read that bear spray is better than a handgun in stopping a bear attack. With brown bears seen in my area, I carry bear spray on my bike. And a 4 inch folder IWB. And if there have been recent sightings in the neighborhood, occasionally a handgun. I m counting most on the bear spray.
 
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