Knife for bears

Bears on the Lewis and Clark Expedition
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/lewisandclark/aa_lewisandclark_bears_1.html

It was the largest bear they'd ever seen, a great grizzly bear that weighed an estimated 600 pounds. A "most tremendous looking animal, and extreemly hard to kill," wrote Lewis in his journal on May 5, 1805. Clark described the grizzly as "verry large and a turrible looking animal." Clark and another member of the expedition fired 10 shots at it before it died.

Several tribes of Native Americans had told Lewis and Clark about grizzly bears. The tribes would only attack these great bears if there were 6-10 people in their hunting party, and even then the bears would sometimes kill one of them. The first grizzlies Lewis saw during the expedition were two smaller bears. He and another hunter had easily killed one of them. That day Lewis wrote in his journal that although the Native Americans with their bows and arrows might have problems, the grizzlies were no match for skilled rifleman. He soon changed his mind.

Lewis was out scouting alone on June 15, 1805. He decided to make camp and shot a buffalo. As he was watching the buffalo fall, a grizzly bear came rushing towards him. Lewis raised his gun to shoot and then realized he had not reloaded his riffle. The bear was getting closer. There were no trees or bushes nearby, but there was a river. Lewis quickly ran into the water. The bear followed. When the bear saw Lewis in the water, for no apparent reason he stopped and ran in the other direction. Lewis was lucky. After that he thought that the Corps (Lewis and Clark's expedition party) should not go out alone. Even at camp, he thought they should sleep with their guns beside them in case of bear attacks.

The bears chased members of the Corps through the woods, into bushes, into the water. On July 15, 1806, Hugh McNeal was out alone on horseback. All of a sudden he saw a grizzly bear in the bushes. His horse bucked and threw McNeal near the bear. The bear raised itself up to attack. What could McNeal do at such close range? He hit the bear with his gun. The bear was temporarily stunned and fell down. McNeal quickly climbed up a nearby tree. Because of their large size and straight claws, grizzly bears aren't good tree climbers, so the bear waited at the base of the tree. And waited. And waited. Finally just before dark, the bear gave up and left. McNeal climbed down and got back to camp safely.

By the end of the expedition Lewis believed that the Corps had been very lucky to not lose anyone to a grizzly bear. He wrote that "the hand of providence has been most wonderfully in our favor."
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Lewis sits down one night to write in his journal, he says, “I find the curiosity of our men with respect to this animal is pretty much satisfied.”

:D
 
These threads suck. Why they are allowed to remain open for "discussion" is beyond me. Certainly doesn't seem to be W&SS related. Maybe toss it in the Hunting/Fishing section?

To the OP, just buy a KA-BAR
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And put on a happy face :)

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Brown bears (grizzlies), are "top of the food chain", type critters. If I pissed one off by sticking a knife in one, I think I'd just wind up being lunch.
 
This has been a fun read. For what it's worth, here's a picture from the Randall Museum in Orlando of an "authentic Ben Lilly knife." He was a guide for Teddy Roosevelt in the late 1800's, killed 27 bears with knives. Doesn't say how the bears were caught, only that they were killed with knives. Says he died 1947, does not say if cause of death was a bear finally came out on the winning end. That frame couldn't have been much bigger than about 10" x 12"

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Sounds like a good idea to bring a dog to distract him, and then ambush him from behind and go for the throat.

or try this
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The op started quite the thread here :)

I ve killed a lot of critters from bear to cape buffalo and I never thought of using a knife:)

I hunted the Yukon with Chris Widrig The year after he was caught between a sow grizzly and her cubs he was 2 or 3 days from a base camp and was mauled badly and surely would have died if here was not a doctor in the group and some very good horseman that rode hard and got him choppered out

He is still an outfitter and I do not think he would recommend a knife for bear protection

I have spent a lot of time in bear country sleeping in tents . My rifle and a Bowie are in th tent and I guess if a big bear drug me from the tent and I could not grab my rifle on the way out the door :) that big ol Bowie would be better than trying to scratch him to death :)

In that case I would want a big mean bowie like this one. But seriously buy a large bore revolver and learn to use it and hook it to your pack

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You'll want a knife that looks a lot like this. Just make sure you're very familiar with the proper use of this knife's long handle. :D
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Will find the time to read all the interesting answers soon and to give a more precise statement; in advance I´d like to say, doesn´t matter joking about his thread, as the reason is, that it´s indeed hard to kill a bear with a knife – or let´s say nearly impossible. And this would be the last what I like to do.
But I feel better with a knife, and as I have to carry it anyhow in the woods, it should be one, which could do the job, if you are lucky – nothing more. As I said, I know aiming for the heart is not the best idea, but I only like to know how long the blade must be in this case.
 
Forget about the heart man, there too much stuff (shoulder blade, fat, furr, ribs, front legs, head) in the way and a bear will usually come at you in a full frontal attack, putting you in the ground-and-pound position with all of its weight, like a wrestler (up to 700Kg). Eyes, throat, between neck and head are good piercing points, but extremely hard to do while you're getting mauled to death (extreme pain and shock). If I could, I'd at least carry one large bottle of bear spray on each hip, and learn to swing 'em like Lucky Luke.
 
in a worst case scenario where all you have is a blade and strong will to live, i would want one of these in my hand (from smallest you're willing to carry, to largest):

tanto -
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barong machete -
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katana -
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let me get this straight. You f'ed up and shot yourself with your bearspray. Now you are considering going into bear territory without it BECAUSE PEPPER SPRAY IS TOO DANGEROUS A WEAPON TO CARRY. Also- If I understand correctly- You want to carry something someone like you will find safer- like a large blade? Buddy- if you managed to gas yourself with bearspray I shudder to think what this guy would do walking around the woods with a large blade. Remove the thought that you could stand even a fraction of a chance vs a bear with whatever blade. Stick to the bearspray- alot of folks, Alaskans, park rangers etc... say it is the best thing short of an abrams tank vs bear- for most situations its probably even better than a gun.

not a pro- just someone from a part of the world with a TON of bears big and small and take them seriously
 
JParanee said:
In that case I would want a big mean bowie like this one. But seriously buy a large bore revolver and learn to use it and hook it to your pack

Alamo013.jpg
Click to expand...
As good advice as any in this thread. ^

Love your Bagwell, Joe !

Doug
 
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