Man Vs. Bear

J

James Y

Joined
Feb 18, 1999
Messages
6,504
In the new December 2000 Knives Illustrated is a story about a man (Gene Moe) who had to fight and kill a 750-pound Alaskan brown bear on Kodiak, while armed only with a Buck 110 lockback. Moe would have liked to have avoided the confrontation altogether, but the bear had come up behind him.

It's an amazing story of survival and determination. I must also say this 69-year-old gentleman must have one HELL of a punch. Read the story.

Story also includes photos of the knife and of the scene of the battle.
Jim
 
I actaully just finished reading that same article. That's crazy stuff that someone actually defended himself against a bear! I guess it's true...the best knife is the one you have in your hand when you need it.

~Mitch

------------------
My Hobby Page
 
The bears were unusally aggressive last year due to a poor berry crop and slow salmon run. The bear was after Mr. Moe's deer that he was dressing out. The next day another bear fatally attacked and killed a man for his deer....the first recorded fatality in a bear confrontation in over 65 years.

A co-worker of mine (when I was in the Coast Guard) was attacked by a sow (momma bear) when he accidentally ran into her cubs during a deer hunt in November 98. She moved so fast that he couldn't even raise his rifle. Luckily another coworker was 40 yards behind and was able to shoot the bear off of him. He won the Coast Guard Meritorious service medal for saving him.

Usually the bears are non confrontational with humans but they were fighting an internal time clock since they were getting close to hibernation. In living here over 4 years I have only seen a Kodiak twice and there are over 3000 of them here.

Mr. Moe's feat was truly exceptional.

------------------
~Greg Mete~
Kodiak Alaska
JKM-Chai
 
The more we regulate hunting, the more bears there will be, the less food there will be, and more man v. bear confrontations will pop up.

In NJ, they have a black bear problem now, where there is too little food to let them survive, so they are moving into towns, eating out of school dumpsters, with kids around.

What would YOU do? Hell, the only gun I have now that I would feel safe with in hand would be my 12 gauge! Forget about a little knife!

I once heard of a man forcing a brown bear to come down on him and empale itself on a make-shift spear he had made with his bowies knife!

OUCH!!!

Steve
 
A bear in the streets of our town
Just had police running around;
In attempting to catch him,
They found they can’t match him
For dodging, and running to ground.

We had one show up during the last drought, looking for a nice, wet, swimming pool to drink from. The police chased him through the woods and through the streets, and finally lost him before they could get him upset enough to hurt someone.

We don't need a bear hunt in New Jersey to keep the numbers down, because hunting won't keep the numbers down. Predation tends to make a population healthier. On the other hand, the hunt would be a perfectly legal, legitimate, and valuable activity for our hunters, and the governor only decided to oppose it to pander to a few "green" voters.

She should have listened to the real wildlife experts.
 
Damn it. My money was on the bear. I was sure he'd win.

Oh well. Lost that bet.

I figure the outcome would have been different if the bear also had a knife.

I wonder what a bear would use? Something bold and brash, like a Recon Tanto.
 
Thrashing that bear - that guy musta been a helluva lucky man!
wink.gif


Sam

------------------
have spydies
will travel...
AKTI Member #A001148
 
When I was a kid, my buddie and I who lived down the road from me, would get off the school bus in the evening and hurry to my house or his so we could watch Daniel Boone on TV. Seemed like he was always fighting bears with his knife.

Then when the show was over I would go get my Dad's old fixed blade boy scout knife, (kabar?)and we would go out and throw it at trees pretending the tree was a bear. (trees are the closest things to bears that we have in kansas.)Sometimes it would stick, much to our delight, and sometimes it would bounce back at our feet and we would have to jump out of the way. Of coarse we were always careful to get it back in the house before Dad got home from work!
 
KNZN,
Did you know according to legend the name KA-BARcame from a testimonial letter that was written by an old trapper whose life had allegedly been saved in a bear fight by a Union Cutlery Co. knife which was the original name of this company. According to the book I read that the man had misspelled Killing a bear to "kil a bar" and it was shortened to KA-BAR.

How is that for useless trivia on a Sunday.
smile.gif


------------------
~Greg Mete~
Kodiak Alaska
JKM-Chai
 
Originally posted by Kodiak PA:
A co-worker of mine (when I was in the Coast Guard) was attacked by a sow (momma bear) when he accidentally ran into her cubs during a deer hunt in November 98. She moved so fast that he couldn't even raise his rifle. Luckily another coworker was 40 yards behind and was able to shoot the bear off of him. He won the Coast Guard Meritorious service medal for saving him.
Click to expand...

Does this guy have a webpage about being attacked by the bear? One guy does and the scenario you described matches his pretty well.

Chris
 
750 pound bear and a little Buck knife.

And he won? hmmmmmmm

Dat man had big balls!
smile.gif




------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GigOne
"Livin' Life - Full Throttle"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Happiness is a belt-fed weapon & a Walter Brend Model 2!"
 
Chris,
He does....not sure if I have it though (will look for it). His name is Keith Rogan. Sound familar? Guy who saved him is Chuck Garwood.

Another note regarding Mr. Moe. He didn't kill the bear with the knife, he stabbed it until it retreated which gave him time to grab his rifle and shoot it. None-the-less, pretty amazing for a 69 year old guy. This was investigated here pretty thoroughly and there is no fabrication on Mr. Moe's part at all. The Alaska state troopers, Fish and Game, the taxidermist and the doctors all verified this. My co-worker actually told me he got pissed off while getting chomped and started to punch his bear in the face....funny what people can remember.

------------------
~Greg Mete~
Kodiak Alaska
JKM-Chai
 
BuckKnives.com used to have something on this. Not sure if they still do... I couldn't find the story when I looked again today.

------------------
Chang the Asian Janitorial Apparatus
 
According to Mr. Moe, after stabbing the bear several times, it made one final charge, and he punched it as hard as he could right on the nose. He states it fell and died at that point, but he retrieved his rifle and fired two shots into it to be sure.

That's a punch even Mike Tyson wished he had!
Jim
 
One thing that Keith and Chuck told me that is not on the site is that after Chuck shot the sow....she got very angry and turned towards chuck and charged at him. He backed up chambering a round and was able to fire point blank at her as she just about reached him. As he fell over his tangled feet backwards she rolled down the hill.

The biologist tell us she is still alive to this day. Interestingly the Coast Guard rescue medic pictured on the site was another co-worker since we all worked in the same clinic. Talk about an erry feeling.

------------------
~Greg Mete~
Kodiak Alaska
JKM-Chai
 
Wow, there's more different versions of this story than the Mona and Bill story.
wink.gif


------------------
Hoodoo

I get some pleasure from finding a relentlessly peaceful use for a combative looking knife.
JKM
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top