Bridger Teton Bear Attack

GHI

Adventurer
How terrible all the way around. What a sad story. I’m not a hunter and I certainly don’t want to start a gun vs bear spray debate, but why did the guide leave his firearm on/at his pack. Maybe it didn’t matter cause the bear was that quick for the initial attack.

Do you just get comfortable with your surroundings? I also wonder what happened with the Glock not being able to shoot later on by the hunter. No round in the chamber coupled with adrenaline dump stress of monster bear attacking your guide?
 

yfarm

Observer
Many questions that may never be answered. Glocks are designed to be carried with a round in the chamber always with no manual safeties. Can't imagine a backcountry elk guide carrying the Glock as his only firearm. There has been a trend in grizzly areas toward the G20 with hard cast bullets for bear defense.
 

Buliwyf

Viking with a Hammer
Glocks' no safeties operation requires one serious key item for safe carry and operation. A kydex holster that properly covers the trigger and securely holds the pistol. Mine is always in a Raven's OWB, or Crossbreed IWB.

Many hikers and hunter get lazy and carry the pistol in a pouch or pocket. It's not safe there, and has to be carried without a round in the chamber that way. Really, Glocks are for on person carry only. On the belt, in a holster. Never purse, suitcase, pouch. There is now way I could charge and use a pistol under stress, in 2 seconds. I'll bet that was part of his problem.

Even though I carry, I go to my bear sray first. I don't want to blast a bear for a simple bluff charge, and the spray is more likely to have a positive effect. Noone is going to laugh at you for having bear spray on you backpacks hip belt.
 
Curious as to why the Glock didn’t fire and what model it was. I always thought a pistol of standard calibers would be pretty useless in stopping a bear attack. I would think you would want to carry a shotgun with rifled slugs.
 

yfarm

Observer
The Alaska Outdoors forum in the hunting section has a thread on this tragedy. In that thread there is a link to a BYU study on bear attacks in Alaska and the use of firearms. Several of the posters have been involved in grizzly attacks. The Alaska grizzly population is cited as 30,000 making the likelihood of a interaction much higher compared with the lower 48. Lots of discussion about handgun vs long gun. The biologists and wardens at the scene in Wyoming were armed with shotguns loaded with alternating oo Buck and slugs reportedly. The same firearm type carried by NPS rangers for bear events. A North Slope construction company revised their policies about bear protection after their mandatory firearms training showed that a worker could not deploy and accurately fire in the time estimated for a bear to close a 20 yd distance if they were engaged in a work task. They now have guards in attendance of the workers whose only role at the site is bear interdiction. Also armed in the same manner. Having a dog(s) apparently is also beneficial as an early warning device and some will also harass the bear away from the human.
 

DieselRanger

Well-known member
Curious as to why the Glock didn’t fire and what model it was. I always thought a pistol of standard calibers would be pretty useless in stopping a bear attack. I would think you would want to carry a shotgun with rifled slugs.
No telling, but I have had fail to fire on my G23 with crappy ammo where the primer was seated poorly in 4 out of 10 rounds...could have been good ammo, but that one in 10,000 rounds where the primer wasn't seated properly and he had a light strike. ******** happens, as they say.
 

Dalko43

Explorer
I've heard a lot of western hunters comment on how hunting, especially elk hunting using calls, has become very risky with the resurgent grizzly population. There is only so much landscape out there where bears can roam without getting into trouble with ranchers and townfolk; hunters I suppose will assume that they're in the bear zone the minute they step onto the trailhead, and I suppose most are already doing that.

Personally, I wouldn't be fooling around in bear country without a good, well-trained dog (Shepherd, Nordic hunting dog, Malamute). A common theme I see with these bear attacks is that one of the parties (bear, humans) was caught off guard. A wilderness-savy dog would be good for providing warning of those kinds of scenarios.
 
Chubon's (survivor) report is "Chubon was able to run to his pack a few yards away and retrieve a pistol but was unable to safely fire a shot at the bear that had pounced upon Uptain."

Means he didn't take the shot most likely because he was worried of striking his buddy (Uptain) since the bear was on top of him. There are multiple news stories that say the same thing! I do not believe he took the initial shot due to the close proximity and then he was attacked as well without getting a shot off.

I'm not trying to armchair quarterback this tragic event, sounds like he did what he thought was right at the time and the situation compounded immediately after where he no longer had a vote on the outcome.

Tragic!
 

waveslider

Outdoorsman
Not being able to fire and not being able to fire safely are dramatically different scenarios indeed. Bummer.
 
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robert

Expedition Leader
Glocks' no safeties operation requires one serious key item for safe carry and operation. A kydex holster that properly covers the trigger and securely holds the pistol. Mine is always in a Raven's OWB, or Crossbreed IWB.

Many hikers and hunter get lazy and carry the pistol in a pouch or pocket. It's not safe there, and has to be carried without a round in the chamber that way. Really, Glocks are for on person carry only. On the belt, in a holster. Never purse, suitcase, pouch. There is now way I could charge and use a pistol under stress, in 2 seconds. I'll bet that was part of his problem.

Even though I carry, I go to my bear sray first. I don't want to blast a bear for a simple bluff charge, and the spray is more likely to have a positive effect. Noone is going to laugh at you for having bear spray on you backpacks hip belt.


Kind of, not really though- a Glock or other striker fired gun can be safely carried in a pouch with a Kydex trigger guard holster* and many folks do carry that way in Hill People chest packs for example. Not saying it's the fastest draw, but it is safe and I would have no fears carrying a Glock 26 in a fanny pack while hiking. Most holsters will not fit on a pack belt and many places still require the firearm to be concealed leaving pouches of some sort as one of the viable options.

* Ex. https://hillpeoplegear.com/Products/CategoryID/8/ProductID/35
 

Buliwyf

Viking with a Hammer
Yeah, I'd never do that. A Jframe is better for pouch carry.

If you're going to put a Glock somewhere that takes a minute to get to, minus as well leave it with an empty chamber. It's just too floppy, soft sides, somewhat uncovered trigger. I'd be OK if they bolted a kydex holster inside that pouch. It only takes me a half hour to mold one up nice. (I have the kydex press and drills from knifekits.com)
 

waveslider

Outdoorsman
Most holsters will not fit on a pack belt and many places still require the firearm to be concealed leaving pouches of some sort as one of the viable options.

I should probably post this on the "backpack thread" also, but one of the benefits to my Outdoorsmans Pack is that the hip belt has a nice spot for a holster. Since a lot of my hunting involves putting on and taking off my pack several times a day, I use G-Code holsters that allow you to have a quick-detach"baseplate" on your waist belt and also on your pack belt so that you can simply unlock the holster from your belt and then snap it into your pack hip belt.

Its a pretty good system for that reason. If I'm going to be walking all day - which means I won't be far from my pack all day - I wont wear the one on my pants belt to reduce bulk and will just keep the holster on my pack.

https://www.tacticalholsters.com/product/gca37-rti-belt-slide/ This gives you an idea of the QD system.

GCA37_MAIN.jpg
 

waveslider

Outdoorsman
Also, in regards to the need for a trigger cover for a Glock, I'm a big fan of the MIC holster. one of the simplest and easiest things going. If you carry in a pouch, you can anchor the string and just pull the cover off as you remove the pistol. Easy Peasy.
 

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