I have enjoyed bear stories for many years. My Dad got me interested in reading about bears, especially big bears. Grizzly's, Browns, Kodiak. One story that stands out involved two friends that were in the military in Alaska. They were air-sea rescue or the like, and were obviously in extremely good shape, and in their late 20's or early 30's as I remember. They were experienced hunters that knew the terrain well, and were prepared with the proper gear for their hunt. Had they not been trained and conditioned the way they were, they would simply have died. They shot a sow who ended up ambushing them. She was on one of them, and it became necessary for one friend to shoot the bear while it was on his buddy. The bullet passed through the bear, and into his friend, his leg I think, who had already been "run over" by this wounded bear. They got out of there, having to traverse a fairly large lake in weather that had turned extremely bad, the one guy carrying the other. They went back by chopper and got the trophy, which was a record size bear with a neck that was 30" +. But the description of the bear, and it's power was what impressed me. They said that after their initial shot; and they had very serious rifles with silver tip ammo of some kind that was very thoroughly described, that the bear was relatively easy to track, because it went through a grove of smaller 4-6" trees, alders I think, just like a bulldozer! The wounded man was soon to be married, with his friend (who shot him) as his best man. The wedding went as scheduled, albeit with the groom in a wheel chair. The story was probably 10-20 years ago, but it was dramatic enough that it may still be around somewhere. Some of you all may remember it. My thought was that even with the guns and preparation these guys had, all they did was shoot a bulldozer and make it mad! The other extreme in bear encounters that I read involved two brothers who were hiking in Yellowstone, or somewhere like that-a national park (no guns at this point) when they were charged by Mr. Grizzly. They turned and rebuked it in the name of Jesus in unison, and the bear turned around and fled. So here is my order of response to large threatening creatures, bears especially: first, The name of Jesus, followed, if necessary, by bear spray, and finally, an M-60 machine gun with a 100 round belt. Flapjack.
