Found this cool old photo... incredible. It looks like a fight to the death, mexican standoff style, both giving as good as they gave.

I dont think I've ever seen a single picture that shows the harsh "reality" of life than this one.


-DallanC

Scary,

Dimitri

Looks like a lever gun, perhaps a big Winchester or Marlin.
Ed

Caption:

Quote::

Shown is famous Kodiak brown bear guide Bill Pinell (Of Pinell & Talifson fame). This photo is from 1958 and depicts an epic battle between two well matched oponents.

-DallanC

Harsh reality

would be nice to get more info, as to what the rifle was...

mossbak,

Welcome to the forums

Dimitri

Makes you wonder how long the battle carried on........

Not much one can say. Picture pretty much sums it up. Great to see old pictures like this.--tr

Splendid picture of Bill Pinell. I was a backpacker for him in 1965 I believe it was. I worked on the Arctic hunt as they called it mostly on the north slope of the Brooks Range. We flew out of Bettles to Chandler lake and later to a small lake in the top of a mountain called 'Shebou Lake' for sheep hunting. I've only found one person who has ever heard of that lake and it was a old fellow who was an airplane mechanic for Wien at Bettles during that era. He of course knew Bill and Morris well.

Great experience for a kid fresh out of Illinois. The caribou migration in the Chander Lake area was the most incredible sight I've ever seen in my life. There were literally tens of thousands of them. At Shebou ( I think I'm spelling it right...never been able to find it on a map...it may be just a local term, a combination of sheep and caribou or something that P&T made up) there was an old wood shack that Bill and Morris claimed Jimmy Doolittle put together there at one time for shelter during his hunts. We hunted sheep from there.

Pinell and Talifson were quite a pair. Totally different personalities. Bill was the PR man, out going and and quite amiable and and Morris was the hunter and rather introverted. Bill could entertain the clients and Morris could find the game. I have to chuckle whenever I think of Talifson. I'm well into my 60's now but I've never met a grouchier man than Morris Talifson.

Anyhow, to whoever posted the picture of Bill, thanks. It brought back a lot of memories. I had a bunch of pictures from that hunt but somehow lost all but one of them. Irreplaceable but I should have been more careful.

Welcome to the HuntingNut wolfvorkian sit and stay a while
Joe

I would like to think that the guy got off his last fatal shot, however the bears fierce momentum landed him on the guy and pinned him, in total survival mode, the guy tried to eat his way out and died of boredom with no salt or pepper to liven up the meal.

I camp in the bear woods often and alone, no matter how heavy is my pack, I always find room to take my "Bear kit".

It consists of a perimeter alarm (with a trip cord and screaming siren) and an additional driveway alert gizmo (An infrared motion sensor that sound an alarm).
That is the "early warning part", for defense I have a Colt Anaconda 44. Magnum and a Borealis 1050 lumens flashlight.
The light will blind the bear (it is 1050 lumens) giving me enough time to shoot with precision.



Not to go groping around in the dark for my gun and light, I have a one AA LED light (about 5 lumens) going on the whole night hanging from the ceiling of my tent.

I have had some experiences with bears around my tent in the past, so I consider my precautions not too extreme.

Now, if I where to camp in Grizzly country I think I will be investing in a 500 magunum

All the best

Watchmaker

This is how a hunter in Canada recently did it:

Quote::

Grizzly attack Hunter who fought off bear considers himself lucky to be alive By DEREK LOGAN, SUN MEDIA GRANDE PRAIRIE — A hunter who fought off and mortally wounded a charging grizzly bear last week said he had no chance to run and was forced to defend himself. Chris McLellan, 32, was scouting locations for bow-hunting in a farmer’s oat field 12 km south of Grovedale around 9:30 p.m. Aug. 15 when he ran into the mother grizzly with three cubs. McLellan said the bear had been partially concealed by a knoll in the field and he didn’t see her until she stood up in front of him 60 yards away. “I started to shake, man,” McLellan told Sun Media, as he continues to recover from his injuries at an Edmonton hospital. “I had a camouflage mask on so I took that off so that she could see that I was a human, thinking that would scare her away. I started waving my arms and screaming and it never fazed her. She just dropped down to all fours and charged.” There was no room for choice, said McLellan, as the distance was too short and the bear would have run him down. “She never slowed down,” he said. “She never made a turn. She was attacking. There was no bluffing. She just stared into my eyes the whole time and you could just hear her coming, huffing and puffing across that field.” McLellan had driven out to the field down Secondary Highway 666 before turning onto Range Road 73 and driving about four kilometres. He had only a digital camera and a hunting knife with 12-inch blade when he encountered the bear. McLellan switched on the camera to nightshot and hoped its flash would be enough to deter her. When the flash wouldn’t go off, he pulled out his knife. “I put my knife above my head and waited for her to hit me,” he said. “She just mowed into me like a football check.” The grizzly rammed into his stomach and then grabbed his left arm with her jaws. As the two went down, McLellan plunged the knife into her back between the shoulder and neck. “I sunk it right to the end and instantly I could still see the blood spraying,” he said. “I must have hit an artery because I was covered head to toe with warmth instantly.” The bear then bit him on his torso and his right arm but McLellan managed to stab her again twice in the neck. The grizzly then turned and walked way, allowing McLellan to get up even though his left arm was now broken. “I didn’t even look at her at all,” he said. “I didn’t even know I had killed it until the following day.” McLellan then met a farmer who called 911. Grovedale Fire and Rescue transported him to hospital. The bones in McLellan’s left forearm were broken between the wrist and elbow, and a nerve located in his elbow was nearly severed by the bear’s teeth. Although his injuries required surgery, McLellan considers himself lucky. “I ran different scenarios over of not only how I could have ended up but what I could have done differently, that maybe would have turned out better,” he said. “I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.” Formerly from Parsporo, N.S., McLellan moved to the Grande Prairie area with his wife and young son Aug. 12. McLellan, a welder by trade, was looking forward to hunting here. “I never in my life have been able to go out prior to hunting season and scout out my area,” he said. And he’s determined to bow hunt again, bringing his right arm back to full strength after surgeons in Edmonton operate on it. Still, the emotional effects of the attack are just starting to sink in. “It wasn’t like a dream because I wasn’t scared when it happened. I was just calm. It hit me maybe a couple of days later just how lucky I was and that it shouldn’t have happened that way.”

Dimitri

Man Tough deal glad he made it. Thats something he will never forget, He will have nightmares for a while ........
Joe