२३ ऑक्टोबर, २०२२

"When he saw the [grizzly] bear mauling his friend, [Kendell] Cummings first tried shouting to scare it away. Then he threw stones and rocks in the grizzly’s direction."

"The scare tactics were not enough. That is when the young wrestler acted on instinct. He leaped in and grabbed the bear, distracting it enough to free Lowry, Cummings said. Then the bear charged Cummings, twice.... Cummings had previously read about what to do in a bear attack, but none of that information had been about grizzly bears. 'In any case, there wasn’t time to think,' he said. Cummings played dead. 'I remember curling up,' he said. According to the National Park Service, it’s best to play dead during a grizzly bear attack, covering your head and neck with your hands and arms, remaining quiet, and lying flat on your stomach. What felt like moments later, Cummings watched the bear walk away....'Before this attack, I had thought that I could take on a bear easily,' Cummings said. 'Now I know that a bear is pretty legit. They are tougher, stronger and bigger than I thought. It’s not so easy.'"

From "A college wrestler fought a bear to save his teammate — and won" (WaPo).

A bear is pretty legit... It's not so easy.... very funny. Nice survival by the wrestler.

७८ टिप्पण्या:

Temujin म्हणाले...

”According to the National Park Service, it’s best to play dead during a grizzly bear attack, covering your head and neck with your hands and arms, remaining quiet, and lying flat on your stomach.”

Every night, in our bedroom, as my wife approaches.

Wilbur म्हणाले...

He's lucky he didn't have to fight Dick Butkus.

Although he might have a chance. The Bear legend will be 80 in 6 weeks.

Wince म्हणाले...

A bear is pretty legit... It's not so easy.... very funny.

Grin and bear it?

Iman म्हणाले...

Lucky guys.

Leland म्हणाले...

Play dead for brown/grizzly bears. Do what he did first for black bears. Black bears scare easily. Best to know the difference in facial features than fur color. Better to just stay downwind and away from them. He got lucky.

Caroline म्हणाले...

It bears mentioning that a woman wrestler’s instinct would have taken things in a different direction.

J Severs म्हणाले...

Bears can do everything you can do - run, swim, climb trees - only better.

Political Junkie म्हणाले...

Too legit to quit?

Lurker21 म्हणाले...

Don't try this at home, kids.

The Drill SGT म्हणाले...

lucky is good

Eric the Fruit Bat म्हणाले...

Sometimes a whizzer works on a bear.

Sometimes it doesn't.

Big Mike म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Big Mike म्हणाले...

Courageous. And lucky to be alive. There was a case of a teenaged girl in Siberia who was mauled by a Siberian brown bear, was able to call her mother on her cell phone. But the bear came back and began to eat the girl alive as her horrified mother listened.

If you step outside without bear spray, you need at least a .357 magnum or 10mm — .44 magnum or .460 S&W preferred,

The Vault Dweller म्हणाले...

The thought that one could take a bear if that person had to fight one seems spot on for a wrestler.

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

There are two types of people who played dead in a grizzly bear attack. Those who survived and those who became bear shit and never got to tell their story.

Bring a very, very large gun with you, and bear spray.

Eleanor म्हणाले...

He was on Tucker Carlson. A very modest young man.

Rusty म्हणाले...

Very lucky guys.

Michael K म्हणाले...

That kid is courageous. We could use him in the US military. Oh, wait. He is white.

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

A bear is pretty legit

ha ha ha

Men are always talking shit and sometimes reality hits us like a freight train.

I've seen movies or TV shows where somebody pulls a gun and all the kids run away as fast as they can.

And I'm like, "ha ha, look at them run."

In real life I'd probably get my ass shot standing there eye-balling the guy.

Mike म्हणाले...

Wrestler goes up a weight class or two and lives to tell about it.

B. म्हणाले...

People in the West know how to be tough. If this happened on the East Coast, they would have tried to call a supervisor.

Lem Vibe Bandit म्हणाले...

Norm clip - Nothing Good Ever Happens In The Woods

L Day म्हणाले...

Right off the top of my head I can recall four people I've met who've been attacked by grizzly bears. In one of those cases the guy was really "just" charged. But the sow and cub got close enough to step on and break one of his trekking poles. He managed to turn the sow with his pepper spray and the cub followed her. The other three guys suffered terrible maulings. The guy I know best had much of his face ripped off and large parts of it lost. He's gone through many, many reconstructive surgeries and probably has many more to go. He was attacked during the course of an elk hunt. One of the other guys was attacked while hiking in Glacier. He accidentally came upon a grizzly that was guarding the kill it had stashed just off the trail. I met the last guy when he came into the fly shop where I worked many years ago. I believe he worked for Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks at the time but he made beautiful knives as a side (now his full time work) and was quite an expert outdoorsman. In case you haven't seen his cell phone video, here's a link.https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-iTYDdmp_i4

L Day म्हणाले...

Oh, the wrestler who took on the grizzly to save his friend, what a brave young man. We still raise them like that here in the mountain west. He got lucky, for sure, but you can't hold a guy like that back. Guys like that do or die trying.

Owen म्हणाले...

Best way to fight a grizzly is from 50 yards or more with something unequivocally and quickly lethal. A rifle in a caliber that starts with “4” is advisable. I wouldn’t want to fuss about shot placement under pressure, so my personal pick would be a flamethrower.

Iman म्हणाले...

“Every night, in our bedroom, as my wife approaches.”

Dat’s an exit, not an entrance, Temujin !

Kevin म्हणाले...

It’s tough to wrestle outside your weight class.

JAORE म्हणाले...

That bear decided NOT to kill these guys.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

I've seen the photos...that kid is a fucking stud.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent म्हणाले...

“..'Before this attack, I had thought that I could take on a bear easily,' Cummings said. '”

Hubris this extreme usually inspires gales of laughter and a round of Darwin Awards.

But, shit, once you’ve actually done it….

boatbuilder म्हणाले...

I took a flyfishing/camping trip to Katmai, Alaska about 25 years ago. Lots of grizzlies. I was fishing the Brooks River and my buddy, who was a few hundred yards downriver, shouted to me about a bear. I turned and there was a momma grizzly about 15 feet away on the bank, apparently trying to persuade her cub to get into the water to catch fish, instead of just reaching from the bank.

The water was shallow. I was in waders. I was terrified, of course. Momma Grizzly, whose head appeared to be at least 3 feet in diameter, looked at me with an expression like--"Can you believe this kid?" I waded slowly across to the other side of the river. She took the cub and left.

I had seen lots of grizzlies move during that trip--from a safe distance. If that grizzly wanted to get me I would almost certainly have been got. I was very, very fortunate.

I quit fishing for the day, with a very bad case of nerves. As I walked the lonely trail back to the main camp, I startled a partridge beside the trail. I jumped at least 3 feet in the air.


Rory म्हणाले...

It seems Cummings wrestles at 141 pounds, which maybe explains things. The bear couldn't find him.

Mr. Majestyk म्हणाले...

He thought he could take on a bear? Easily? Even if you're ignorant enough to think that before a bear encounter, it's amazing he still thought that when he first encountered a grizzly.

Anne-I-Am म्हणाले...

This gave me a chuckle. A friend and I have a long-standing joke/argument over how many unarmed men would be needed to take down a grizzly bear. He always maintained there was no number large enough. Heh. Just sent him this link.

Quaestor म्हणाले...

It's very simple. Don't wrestle a grizz -- no conditionals, no technique -- just don't. If that's all you take away from your university (and you'll be fortunate to learn anything true in the Age of Biden) you're better off than anyone who does try an overhook on U. arctos horribilis.

Playing dead may save your life. Or not. If he eats you then at least you're free of those inevitable medical bills. Far better yet, when in bear country carry a six-shot revolver in .454 Casull, preferably one you've made yourself an expert on. The Casull cartridge was developed specifically for anti-Alaskan Brown Bear defense. Another good choice is a Dan Wesson "Bruin" 10mm. It's a grand more than the popular Ruger Super Redhawk in .454, but you've got 10+1 on tap versus six. At $2400.00 the Bruin is expensive for a pistol but far cheaper than that first suture at the Emergency Room.

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

He could think Cool to counter while under attack. A real wrestler but in the wrong weight class. He needed a semi automatic rifle. Hopefully our Dem masters don’t confiscate them.

n.n म्हणाले...

Choice and viability. Demos-cracy is aborted at the twilight fringe under an ethical religion.

Bruce Hayden म्हणाले...

1. Bear mace
2. 10 mm G20 with G9 Woodsman (or Buffalo Bore HEAVY 10MM OUTDOORSMAN) ammunition
3. 44 mag (45-70 would be better) lever gun with Buffalo Bore DANGEROUS GAME HEAVY 44 MAGNUM ammunition
4. 300 Win Mag hunting rifle.

Good friend caries a titanium framed 44 Mag as his bear gun. It’s a bit much for me, almost knocking me on my ass. I figured I had one chance with a gun like that. That’s why I went with a semiautomatic handgun. Best selling semiautomatic bear handgun in NW MT and neighboring area (i.e. near Grizzly country) is the 10mm Glock 20. Not surprisingly, maybe, the best bear ammunition comes from around there too. Both G9 and Buffalo Bore are manufactured next door in N.ID (G9 in Post Falls or so, Buffalo Bore in Salmon). I built up to shooting the G20 by alternating magazines with my 9 mm G17, initially shooting 40 S&W in the G20, then moving to full power 10 mm (be careful of doing this in other 10 mm handguns). Instead of 1 44 Mag from a light framed wheel gun, I can probably put 15+1 10 mm rounds where I want them. And sometimes, it take most of that - a couple years ago, a guy in S CO took almost his complete G20 magazine of self defense ammo to stop a large black bear.

Quaestor म्हणाले...

Best to know the difference in facial features than fur color.

Coat color is not a reliable identification trait, particularly regarding black bears (U. americanus), the further west the more variable their coat color, ranging from black to every shade of brown to a distinctly rust-red. There have even been a few idiots who have reported polar bears in California (fugitives from AGW, no doubt) when if act they have seen the very rare "spirit bear" (U. americanus kermodei) an albinistic subspecies of the common black bear.

Marc in Eugene म्हणाले...

The Powell Tribune article on which the WaPo is based is much more readable, more lively, written for real people rather than the WaPo's usual audience. I'll have to find a way to introduce 'shed hunting' into my lexicon.

Heartless Aztec म्हणाले...

I know a guy that punched out a shark while sitting on his surfboard. The shark hauled ass.

Rocketeer म्हणाले...

“Bears can do everything you can do - run, swim, climb trees - only better.”

Thankfully, humans still hold the upper hand in the gunsmithing and opposable thumbs department.

Paul म्हणाले...

On gun boards we have all kinds of 'which bear gun would you take' or 'this .vs. that bear gun/ammo'.

Now pepper spray, bear pepper spray I should say, has it's place but... studies show guns work 95% or more in various situations (including when bears attack someone else at a distance.) Wind won't bother a .44 magnum, it will bear spray.

Now I don't care of you carry a .357 Magnum, 10mm .44, .454, .500 etc... or a good 12 gauge shotgun, or even a .458 Winchester Magnum rifle.. but do carry it and become skilled.

These guys went into bear country with NOTHING.. and paid the price.

BTW, I have .44 Magnum, .45 Long Colt, 10mm and other very capable bear guns. But I live in Texas and our little black bears are not that tough (plus $25,000 fine if you kill one!)

If you are going to go into a dangerous environment, arm your self accordingly... or pay the consequences if things go south.

Lurker21 म्हणाले...

Is there a lesson in there for our leaders about "not poking the bear"?

He was on Tucker Carlson. A very modest young man.

I'm waiting to hear the bear's side of the story before making up my mind.

Quaestor म्हणाले...

"I'll have to find a way to introduce 'shed hunting' into my lexicon."

There's some money to be made there. Unfortunately, shed antlers decompose very rapidly. You need to find them before the autumn frost penetrates too deeply. Just a few freeze-thaw cycles and they're ruined for things like knife handles and 1911 grip scales. ($280 a pair, very popular for Texas barbeque attire.) The points can be made into attractive buttons.

People often call the material staghorn, but there's no horn involved. Antlers are bone.

veni vidi vici म्हणाले...

Wasn't this dude a guest on Carlson's show last week?

Now we know where the WaPo looks for its stories. Day late, dollar short... as usual.

Gusty Winds म्हणाले...

Toxic masculinity.

Rusty म्हणाले...

Bruce. IOnce asked an Alaskan guide if you could kill a brown bear with a 357 magnum. His answers was; Sure. Once you're inside it.
A Remington 870 with a rifle barrel loaded with sabboted rounds seems to a guides weapon of choice.

RigelDog म्हणाले...

I thought the comments at the WaPo might be interesting so I dove in. Got all the way to comment number three before they twisted the conversation around to making a dig at Trump by comparing the bravado of the young wrestler with Trump's comment about nuking a hurricane.

Amazingly, it was only a few comments later that a separate commenter made the same comparison to Trump. And then yet another followed immediately.

How can you have a sane conversation with people who can read the astounding tale of wrestling a grizzly bear to save your friend---and surviving!---and their first thought are about how stupid Donald Trump is.

RigelDog म्हणाले...

Temujin said: "Every night, in our bedroom, as my wife approaches."

Got an actual guffaw out of me with that one, Tem! Love the visual.

planetgeo म्हणाले...

Democrats and the MSM keep trying MAGA Spray, but seriously, "Trump is pretty legit... It's not so easy..."

BUMBLE BEE म्हणाले...

Fellow I knew Had a Fetish for true stories of the old west. One of his favorites told of matches between fighting bulls and grizzlies. Lots of bulls died. One in particular died of a broken neck from a swat by a griz. Those boys are lucky.

William म्हणाले...

"Acted on instinct". Damned straight. Wrestling a grizzly bear is not a decision you come to after prolonged deliberation and weighing of the pros and cons.

walter म्हणाले...

Learn by doing.

Aggie म्हणाले...

I could be wrong, but I think this kid might be ready for the varsity team.

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

Before this attack, I had thought that I could take on a bear easily

ha ha

that still cracks me up

I think it's the "easily"

"That guy from Iowa State is a beast, but I'm pretty sure I could take down a bear. Put him in a headlock, he'd tap out. There are no refs with a bear, you know? I'd win all my matches if I could do illegal martial arts shit."

Match with a real bear begins. Wrestler plays like he's dead.

"I won with my mind, motherfucker! 1-0 versus the bear. Did you see that shit? He ran away. I got skills. I told you. Easy! I mean, he's legit, but I got tactics, you know? It's called university, motherfucker."

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

Rogan's got several podcasts about bear attacks. Pretty funny, he does sound effects. And you find out stuff.

Black bear = Golden Retriever
Grizzly bear = Wolf

Black bears are vegetarians. (And delicious).

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

Joe Rogan says polar bears are the worst.

Imagine going to the North Pole and meeting this fucker!

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

Same North Pole fucker

surrounded by 13 polar bears.

"This is potentially very dangerous."

Are you armed with cameras? Wow.

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

You know you want a Polar Bear Pal

Quaestor म्हणाले...

Saint Croix writes, "Black bears are vegetarians. (And delicious)."

There used to be a restaurant in Montreal called Les Tribus du Nord that served game dishes provisioned by various First Nations and Inuit corporations that are licensed to hunt and sell game meats, fish, whale products, etc. that whites generally aren't allowed to hunt or sell.

One of the menu items I had was a game meat sampler that consisted of small portions of things like roast ptarmigan, medallions of caribou, smoked arctic char, and black bear steak, which is remarkably like beef. I was told Black bear is tastiest when killed in the last summer/early autumn when they are fattening up on wild berries by the ton.

There was also prairie dog paté and Fraser River caviar, which were both excellent. I was quite surprised by the prairie dog because it is basically a large rat. Someone told me that Les Tribus never served beaver because it's just nasty.

Quaestor म्हणाले...

Caroline writes, "It bears mentioning that a woman wrestler’s instinct would have taken things in a different direction."

Yes, like finding the bear's current girlfriend and beating her over the head with a folding chair.

The Godfather म्हणाले...

OK, so far nobody's told this one, so here it is:

A tenderfoot is planning to go out into the Alaskan wilderness to study the flora. When he gets to Alaska the old-timers tell him he's got to worry about the Kodiak Bears. Well, if one of them attacks me, what do I do, he asks. What you've got to do, when the Kodiak Bear gets you in a bear hug, is reach back and grab the bear's tail, and give it a real tug. The bear will let you go.

Nobody told him that a Kodiak Bear doesn't HAVE a tail!

So the tenderfoot is out in the Alaskan wilderness, and and a Kodiak Bear comes up behind him and grabs him in a bear hug. So the tenderfoot remembers what he was told, so he reaches back for the bear's tale, and pulls it as hard as he can, again and again.

And the bear lets him loose. So the tenderfoot runs away as fast as he can. And he then turns around and looks at the Kodiak Bear.

And the Bear is standing on the ridge waiving for the tenderfoot to come back to "pull his tail".

Bruce Hayden म्हणाले...

“Bruce. IOnce asked an Alaskan guide if you could kill a brown bear with a 357 magnum. His answers was; Sure. Once you're inside it.”
“A Remington 870 with a rifle barrel loaded with sabboted rounds seems to a guides weapon of choice.”

I would agree - given the opportunity. But if you aren’t a guide in AK, you probably aren’t carrying that 870. I carry the G 20 mostly walking the dog, and mostly there for black bear. We have brown bear on the north ridge, and wolves on the south, with black bear in the valley floor between. Haven’t seen a brown bear down in the valley for a decade, or at least the FS is telling us that. Last summer I came within maybe 10 foot of very probably a black bear. They were huffing on the other side of a big bush.

The guy who runs Buffalo Bore regularly hunts black and brown bear with a handgun, apparently a G40, the G20s big brother. They aren’t the coastal AK behemoths, more likely the 500 lb ones you find in MT.

Narayanan म्हणाले...

Michael K said...
That kid is courageous. We could use him in the US military. Oh, wait. He is white.
============
why the military? why not in the voting booth fighting for honest elections?

dishonest elections get you into wars where honest people are cannon fodder!

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

ha ha

I got to stop saying "fucker"

The "fucker" at 8:35 is the bear who is trying to eat a guy.

The "fucker" at 8:42, who I say is the "Same North Pole fucker," is not the same bear. Totally different bears. But it's the same fucking guy, who managed to get himself into another polar bear conflict and is now surrounded by 13 bears. And he's happy about it!

Eric म्हणाले...

"I had thought that I could take on a bear easily" is a nice break from the sort of stuff that people delude themselves about lately.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

@Saint Croix, all bears are omnivores. I don’t know who gave you the misinformation but believing that person could have cost you your life in the wrong set of circumstances. In 2014, near West Milford, NJ, a 22 year old man named Darsh Patel found out the hard way that black bears, like their grizzly/brown bear cousins, have humans on the menu. It was the last thing he learned. The following is excerpted from the Wikipedia summary:

Patel was about to begin hiking with four friends in Apshawa Preserve when they met a man and a woman at the entrance who told them there was a bear nearby and advised them to turn around. They continued on, found the bear, and Patel and another hiker took photos. They turned and began walking away, but the bear followed them. The hikers ran in different directions, and found that Patel was missing when they regrouped. Authorities found Patel's body after searching for two hours. A black bear found in the vicinity was killed and a necropsy revealed human remains in its digestive tract.

What's emanating from your penumbra म्हणाले...

Already said but bears repeating. Toxic masculinity.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

Oops. My mistake. Polar bears may well be pure carnivores. Their habitat doesn’t support much in the way of plant life. The Canadian town of Churchill, on the south end of Hudson’s Bay, is regularly infested with polar bears that try to break into houses and otherwise put humans at risk. Trick or treating in Churchill includes adults armed with high powered rifles to protect the kids from polar bears.

Bitter Clinger म्हणाले...

Grizzly and black bear attacks are very different. Grizzly attacks tend to be defensive in nature (i.e., you startle the bear) and the advice is to play dead. Black bear attacks are much less common, but they are often predatory. Typically a young bear that hasn't become very good at hunting and foraging that sees an slow moving meal. You should defend yourself against a black bear and play dead for a grizzly.

Bitter Clinger म्हणाले...

Quaestor said..."Someone told me that Les Tribus never served beaver because it's just nasty."
That person gave you bad information. It actually tastes like dark meat turkey. Quite good.

Rusty म्हणाले...

Bruce. Just don't get et.
A couple of years ago the average black bear harvested was 90 pounds.

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

Saint Croix, all bears are omnivores. I don't know who gave you that information...

You're right, I was exaggerating for comic effect. Black bears are mostly vegetarian. They eat berries and honey, also fish. We're not really on the menu of a black bear. I don't hang out with black bears, but this lady does.

What I learned (from Joe Rogan) is that grizzly bears are way worse than black bears. Also, polar bears are the absolute worst. They're really hungry and they haven't seen any berries or honey in a while. You're definitely on the menu if it's a polar bear.

Polar bears are carnivores because the only thing to eat at the North Pole are seals and nature photographers.

Saint Croix म्हणाले...

You should defend yourself against a black bear and play dead for a grizzly.

I have committed that shit to memory!

I would add, if it's a polar bear, run like a motherfucker. Guns are helpful, and anything with an engine. Or a steel cage, that seems to work.

If it's a polar bear in a swimming pool, I think I'd sell my house.

Those crazy house pets remind me of that Far Side cartoon.

Anthony म्हणाले...

I'd call that a draw.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

FWIW, I’ve had a black bear up on my deck. I knew that bears in the autumn (fattening up for winter hibernation) or spring (emerging very hungry from hibernation) will raid bird feeders, but one April I made the mistake of assuming that my feeders, attached to my railing of a deck with a strong dusk-to-dawn light, would be safe. Oops.

Two of the three feeders were damaged but repairable. I only ever found small pieces of the third. I assume that it was a bear because a found a 3/8 inch stainless steel bolt bent into a 90 degree angle as the feeder’s steel pole was ripped off the deck. It had to be a black bear because Virginia is too far east for grizzly bears and way too far south for polar bears. Or it could have been a Sasquatch.

Except I don’t believe in Sasquatch.

Big Mike म्हणाले...

Why do park rangers tell hikers in bear country to carry bells?

To scare away the bears.

Why do park rangers carefully examine bear scat?

So they can resell the bells.