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Post by brobear on Mar 18, 2017 11:07:56 GMT -5
The grizzly is legendary for being hard to kill. How much truth is in the legend?
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 8:31:35 GMT -5
The Grizzly Book by Jack Samson - The Big Ones Die Hard by William Marshall Rush.
The vitality of the grizzly was never demonstrated more clearly to me than in these two incidents. The first bear took a bullet wound under the left shoulder that almost tore his leg off. Another bullet went through his lungs, above the heart and a .405 slug into his open mouth, shattering one whole side of his head ( not touching the brain however ). Yet he still had to be shot in the neck to finish him.
The second grizzly had two rifle wounds, either of which would have caused his death, probably, within less than an hour. He had fallen and tumbled three or four hundred feet, some of the falls being vertical drops of twenty or thirty feet, yet he had life enough left in him to crawl twenty feet over large, slippery boulders in a last frantic effort to escape.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 8:32:06 GMT -5
California Grizzly by Tracy I. Storer and Lloyd P. Tevis, Jr.
The tenacity of life in grizzlies that had received a multitude of rifle balls -or one in a particularly vital spot - was remarked by many contemporary writers. The power of early day muskets was appreciably less than that of later rifles with grooved barrels, cylindrical bullets, and more powerful charges of powder. The ball from a muzzle-loader, fired at some distance, often had only enough to pierce the heavy skin and lodge in the thick body fat outside the muscles; such wounds were merely aggravating. Adams ( Hittell, 1860 : 161 ) said of one bear, "several balls had struck her in the sides, but had not gone through the fat."
"The grizzly is very tenacious of life, and he is seldom immediately killed by a single bullet. His thick, wiry hair, tough skin, heavy coats of fat when in good condition, and large bones, go far to protect his vital organs; but he often seems to preserve all his strength and activity for an hour or more after having been shot through the lungs and liver with large rifle-balls." ( J.S. Hittell, 1863 : 109 ) Near Livermore in 1854 one lived half an hour after a ball from a 5-inch Colt revolver had passed completely through the heart ( N 27 ). Another reportedly "turned and showed fight" after his skull was split with an axe, "scattering his brains on the ground" ( N 43 ).
In the somewhat lurid tale of "How Old Pinto Died," Allen Kelley ( 1903: 171 - 191 ) wrote that the bear was finally killed by a 45-70-450 bullet entering at the "butt" of the ear and passing through the base of the brain. The previous evening one shot "had nearly destroyed a lung." In all there were eleven bullet holes, but only two or three bullets had lodged, "the others having passed through, making large, ragged wounds and tearing organs all to pieces." Of another bear, which had been fired at repeatedly by members of a party, Vachell ( 1901 : 251 - 252 ) stated that "when we skinned him, we found that he had been shot through the heart, through the lungs, through the head, and through the loins!"
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 8:32:38 GMT -5
Man Meets Grizzly by Young and Beyers. All accounts agree, however, that a wounded grizzly is a horror in fur and claws. He can be ravaged with bullets and still plunge forward attacking again and again, as in the case of the Wyoming bear that was riddled by fifty-four shots before dying. Yet, W.H. Wright thinks the vitality of grizzlies has been considerably overstated and the bear lore maintaining that a wounded grizzly is unstoppable, that he cannot bleed to death, and that a shot must penetrate a vital organ, preferably the brain, in order to kill is untrue. Many stories attest to the indomitable fury of the wounded bear, but all bullets that hit take their effect, though perhaps not soon enough or to a sufficient degree for some hunters' needs. For instance, while on the Powder River Expedition of 1865, Captain H.E. Palmer reported the destruction of a monstrous grizzly on the eastern slope of the Big Horn Mountains. This bear had taken shelter in a little plume patch. The trainmaster, a daring man, baited the bear by riding up to within a few rods of the patch. When the bear rushed out after him, the man would turn his mule so quickly the bear could not catch him. The men of the camp then poured a volley from their Sharp's rifles into the bear. The bear withdrew into the plum patch, was teased into the open again, and again was fired upon by the men. When the grizzly was finally downed they found his hide perforated with twenty-three balls. They estimated he weighed about 1,800 pounds.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 8:33:20 GMT -5
Man Meets Grizzly by Young and Beyers. One cannot always predict what a bear will do, any more than one knows just what to expect from a man. Experience has proven that the grizzly mother can be a savage engine of destruction when she feels her cubs are threatened. We know too, that surprising a grizzly of either sex is usually dangerous, as many good bear stories testify. And a hunter should always be wary in approaching his downed prey, for though the strength of a grizzly may have been overestimated, on occasion he is formidable and dangerous even when presumed dead. The downed bear is not always a dead one, as many men have discovered to their grief. Some of the most harrowing encounters, in fact, have occurred when the hunter, sure of his kill and excited, neglects to reload his gun and approaches the fallen animal too closely. The bear may still have energy and fury enough to close on the man. I knew a rancher up near Henry's Lake, in Idaho, who had gone after a grizzly he noticed eating at the carcass of a long-dead cow. He fired, at a good shooting distance, and the bear keeled over but was quickly up and running away. The rancher, a good shot, fired his .30 - .40 five more times and made that many hits. On the fifth shot the bear went down and stayed there. Supposing the bear to be done for, the rancher went up to it. When he poked it with his gun, the bear, to his surprise, sprang to its feet and attacked him. He placed one more shot. The bear, bleeding and red-eyed, gnashed him with her teeth and struck with her powerful arm, tearing him with her claws. Having thrown the man to the ground and satisfied herself that her antagonist was dead, the bear moved away. After walking about fifty yards she lay down, and later she was found dead there. The rancher was fearfully torn and lacerated and spent many months recovering.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 8:34:04 GMT -5
The Grizzly by Enos A. Mills.
A grizzly with three feet managed to maintain himself in a territory near my home, and I twice heard of his outwitting hunters and their hounds. The territory was occasionally invaded by trappers but he avoided their snares. Hunters with dogs finally drove him off his domain. Where he went, what struggles he had, what masterly retreats he made, what troubles he had in making a living, and what final tragic end, I do not know. That he survived so long with one foot gone indicates that he was a bear of powers, a bear with a career, whose biography or autobiography would be full of action and adventure.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 8:34:23 GMT -5
The Beast That Walks Like Man by Harold McCracken. George Bird Grinnell, one of the most respected authorities on the western Indians, whose knowledge of these people was founded on long and intimate personal association with them, has the following to sayin his two-volume work, 'The Cheyenne Indians': "Stories are told of man-eating grizzly bears, that habitually preyed on the people, lying in wait for and capturing them, and even driving large camps away from favorite camping places. Such stories go back to a time before the coming of the whites, for the acquisition of horses and iron-pointed arrows tended to put the Indian more nearly on an equality with his brute enemy, than he was when the red man traveled afoot and his weapons were of stone. In primitive times every advantage was with the bear. It was swift of foot, enduring, and hard to kill. Its tough muscles, heavy fur, strong hide, and thick coating of fat were hardly to be pierced by the primitive arrow.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 8:34:59 GMT -5
The Grizzly Bear... His Vitality... Another long-asserted and long-allowed claim made for the grizzly relates to his marvellous vitality. The literature of this subject bristles with statements in regard to his tenacity of life, his ability to disregard awful wounds, and the amount of lead with which he will get away. Lewis and Clark hardly ever mentioned killing one of these animals without dwelling on the ability of the species to take punishment; and it is made clearly evident that this, as much as any other fact, contributed to the awe with which they regarded them. "The wonderful power of life which these animals posses," says the journal, "renders them dreadful, their very track in the mud or sand... is alrming, and we had rather encounter two Indians than meet a single brown bear."
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 8:35:28 GMT -5
The Grizzly Bear... Next, I want to note if the grizzly really had, in the early days, exceeded all the other animals of his habitat in his resistance to wounds and in his ability to withstand the shock of them, this difference between him and them should have become more marked, not less so, as these shocks became greater and these wounds more grievious. Yet, I have killed well over a hundred grizzlies without finding them any more tenacious of life than many other wild animals. They cannot stand any more punishment than the deer or the elk, and they cannot begin to stand up under the rain of bullets that an old Rocky Mountain goat will survive.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 8:35:56 GMT -5
The Grizzly Bear... Finally, I would suggest that it is only human nature ( especially when badly armed ) to be more impressed with the vitality of an animal which, when wounded, takes the offensive, than with the vitality of one that, when similarly wounded, invariably runs away. Of course, the question of armament is not one to be lost sight of in reviewing the testimony of the early hunters. Their rifles were mostly smooth-bores of small calibre, not larger than the present .32, carring bullets in many cases seventy to the pound, and all of them were muzzle-loaders with no definite charges of powder. Their penetration, variable under such circumstances, was always slight as compared with the present perfected weapons, and it was impossible for them to drive a ball through the shouders of a tough old grizzly or even a young one. Armed with such a weapon it was necessary to approach very near to one's quarry, the chances of killing a large animal with one shot were small, and it took time to reload. *And the wounded grizzly was a fighter.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 8:36:20 GMT -5
Man Meets Grizzly by Young and Beyers. Sunday, May 5, 1805. Captain Clark and Drewyer killed the largest brown bear this evening which we have yet seen. It was a most tremendous looking animal, and extremely hard to kill not-withstanding he had five balls through his lungs and five others in various parts; he swam more than half the distance across the river to a sandbar, and it was at least twenty minutes before he died; he did not attempt to attack, but fled and made the most tremendous roaring from the moment he was shot. We had no means of weighing this monster; Captain Clark thought he would weigh 500 pounds. For my own part I think the estimate too small by 100 pounds. He measured 8 feet 7.5 inches from the most to the extremity of the hind feet, 5 feet 10.5 inches around the breast, 1 foot 11 inches around the middle of the arm, and 3 feet 11 inches around the neck; his talons, which were five in number on each foot, were 4.75 inches in length.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 8:36:46 GMT -5
Cowboys, Mountain Men & Grizzly Bears by Matthew P. Mayo. In his line of work as Yellowstone's superintendent ( 1877-1882 ), Philetus W. Norris routinely faced massive grizzlies. One unstoppable brute almost got the better of him. Norris held his pose, rifle to his shoulder, and touched the trigger one last time. It clicked on nothing. Slowly he pulled his face from the stock and let out the breath he'd been holding since the bear rose and charged. He stood from his kneeling position and finally lowered the rifle, but kept a firm grip on it. He knew the bear was dead, of course. It had to be - he'd pumped in more than a dozen regular shells and two exploding dynamite shells. But any creature that could rise again and again after being shot - in the shoulder, the lungs, and the spine - deserved nothing but caution. Later, Norris and one of his employees, Stephens, loaded up their pack animals with as much of the elk and bear as they could carry and trudged twenty miles back to their base at Mammoth Hot Springs, at the park's northern end. Two men spread the bear's hide flat and found it to measure nearly nine feet from snout tip to tail base, and six feet seven inches wide. "This has to be a record, Phil," said Stephens, measuring for a third time and shaking his head.
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Post by brobear on Mar 20, 2017 8:37:12 GMT -5
Man Meets Grizzly - Gathered by F.M.Young - 1980. The hunters, both white and red men, consider this the most heroic game. They prefer to hunt him on horseback and will venture so near as sometimes to singe his hair with the flash of the rifle. The hunter of the grizzly bear, however, must be an experienced hand and know where to aim at a vital part; for of all quadrupeds he is the most difficult to kill. He will receive repeated wounds without flinching, and rarely is a shot mortal unless through the head or heart.
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Post by brobear on Mar 24, 2017 12:17:02 GMT -5
Grizzly.
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Post by brobear on Apr 12, 2017 17:54:23 GMT -5
franceshunter.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/lewis-clark-and-the-american-bison/
Lewis & Clark and the American Bison April 28, 2011 by Frances Hunter
For many people, the Lewis and Clark Expedition is forever linked with the American bison as a symbol of the great, unspoiled American west. Lewis and Clark encountered numerous herds of buffalo on their travels, some of which numbered thousands of animals. Yet it is surprising to realize that when the Corps of Discovery set out from St. Louis in 1804, the buffalo was already a species in retreat.
The American plains bison (or buffalo) originally had a range that encompassed most of the continental United States, from the Rocky Mountains in the west to the Appalachian Mountains in the east. In his book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, author Charles C. Mann theorized that early Native Americans in the east not only lived off the bison, but kept the herds regulated. Mann suggested that decades of heavier-than average rainfall, and the devastation of Native populations by the arrival of European diseases, enabled the bison herds to flourish in artificially large numbers.
However, this didn’t last long. As European populations got established on the East Coast and hunters and frontiersmen pushed west over the Appalachian mountains, they drove the buffalo before them. By the time Lewis and Clark were born, buffalo had already disappeared from western Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas. William Clark, who grew up in Kentucky and served in the militia in the Ohio River Valley, had no doubt seen and perhaps hunted buffalo as a youth. But the animals had all but disappeared from these places by the 1790’s. By the time the Corps of Discovery set out from St. Louis in 1804, a buffalo sighting east of the Mississippi River was an increasingly rare sight.
Still, Lewis and Clark knew that vast herds were out there to the west, and were on the lookout. On June 6, 1804, Clark noted in his journal, “Some buffalow Sign to day.” The first buffalo were spotted by the Corps’ hunters at the Kansas River on June 28.
August 23, 1804, was a red-letter day for the Corps. Joseph Fields shot and killed a large buffalo bull. It took Lewis and about a dozen men to butcher and carry the buffalo meat to a bend in the river so it could be picked up by the Corps’ boats. The Corps salted two barrels of buffalo meat that day. Sergeant John Ordway, a native of New Hampshire, was in Lewis’s party and was especially excited because he had never seen a buffalo before. Ordway wrote in his journal, “I walked about 1 mile & ½ in it when I went for the abo. ment. Buffelow, I Saw the beds & Signs of a great many more Buffelow But this was the first I ever Saw & as great a curiousity to me.”
As the Corps pushed up the Missouri through Nebraska and into present-day South Dakota, the herds grew in number. In early September, Clark noted a herd which numbered about 500; a couple of weeks later, Lewis observed a herd which he estimated at 3000.
Lewis and Clark had their share of close encounters with buffalo, including a buffalo bull that charged Lewis and another that rampaged through their camp, coming precariously close to stepping on the heads of sleeping men. On April 22, 1805, Lewis recorded probably his most charming encounter with a buffalo:
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Post by brobear on Apr 12, 2017 17:55:10 GMT -5
Above post tells us that those old muzzle-loader black powder rifles which were adequate for shooting black bear and even the huge bison were less than adequate for shooting and killing a grizzly. I have read no reports of those long rifles, the same as prized by men such as Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, ever having failed to drop a bull bison.
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Post by brobear on Apr 23, 2017 6:24:01 GMT -5
Notorious Grizzly Bears by H.P. Hubbard - 1960 - The Grizzly Bears - Early History. The explorers, trappers, ans settlers, with their long-barreled, smoothbore guns, presented something new to the grizzly - the experience of being injured from a long distance. Regardless of the smoothbore guns, the bears continued to charge when injured, surprised, or attacked. To this day, under similar circumstances, they will charge against our modern, high powered rifles. As time went on and more pioneers invaded their domain, and as their encounters with men became more frequent, they became wary. With the continuous flow of settlers, who were equipped with more effective rifled barreled guns, their respect for man increased to the point of hesitant caution.
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Post by brobear on Apr 25, 2017 7:21:26 GMT -5
Notorious Grizzly Bears by H.P. Hubbard - 1960 - Stamina. Weapons against the Grizzly. The early day smoothbore gun was a poor weapon against the grizzly. This convinces me that much of the talk about the grizzly being able to withstand terrible punishment has been inaccurately handed down through the years. I have found that they cannot stand any more punishment than deer or elk. W.H. Wright, a renowned, old-time big-game hunter, claims they cannot withstand as much shock or lead as a mountain goat, and in his time he killed more than one hundred grizzlies. ...The grizzly is just as easily killed with the modern rifle as any other wild game. ( In my own words )... As for the modern rifle, you can safely go on a T-rex hunt with it. As for the old-school smooth-bore longrifle, keep in mind that it was adequate not only for the black bear and elk but even for a 1-ton bull bison. Therefore ( imo ) the grizzly does indeed deserve some small amount of credit for his obviously exaggerated fame.
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 3, 2018 7:50:50 GMT -5
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Post by brobear on Nov 3, 2018 8:03:07 GMT -5
Nice video comparisons. The grizzly is indeed a tough tenacious beast. With the old-school black powder guns, only a very brave or foolish hunter would go it alone against a grizzly. Only a perfect heart or brain shot, with those soft round rifle balls, could stop the massively-muscled boss of the woods. But with a modern high caliber rifle loaded with modern ammunition, a child can put-down a big boar grizzly, a mammoth, or a T-rex easily.
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