What knife would you use to kill a bear?

I just want to go through this again. What (non-firearm) weapon would you use?

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So quick and fun question ;)

Do you have a higher chance in the USA/Canada of

A.Defeating a Bear in melee by either killing it or driving it off
OR
B.Getting a job in your chosen degree if you graduated in the last 10 years.(51% chance you wont)


Or to put it another way...

Which is the dumbest thing you could INTENTIONALLY choose to do?

Hint:
Its not fighting the bear :p

My source was going though all known bear attacks/deaths.
I suggest anyone that thinks fighting back against a bear is pointless actually does the same. Most deaths are also caused by male black bears hunting for food and playing dead doesn't actually help.

PS-this was meant for a little fun and put things in perspective, I don't take into account disfigurement and disability caused by the bears. So the bear is obviously the worse option... Then higher education now includes safe places with crayons and play-doh so the bear maybe a better option after all.
 
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The chance of killing a bear with a knife if the bear wants to kill you is small. If it's a grizzly or a polar bear, you should have had a gun with you. Usually a double barrel shotgun with the first round a banger to scare and the second to kill, If it came to just a knife I'd want a sword, waki, spear or biggest bowie or fighter I could find. Some bears can break the back of a moose with one swipe and getting through the fat to a vital organ takes a big knife, because they will kill you once injured. I see bears a lot and would hate to have to kill one but it's better than being mauled. But the point, unless you are hunting, and for good reason, is to avoid such a confrontation in the frst place. Bears are beautiful animals that should be left alone and if you are attacked, YOU screwed up 95% of the time.
 
HJK said:
The chance of killing a bear with a knife if the bear wants to kill you is small. .... But the point, unless you are hunting, and for good reason, is to avoid such a confrontation in the first place. Bears are beautiful animals that should be left alone and if you are attacked, YOU screwed up 95% of the time.
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Maybe, but it is all shades of grey in terms of what constitutes a "screw up". I would hate to have to try to defend myself against an aggressive black bear, even a yearling that weighs around 100 lbs would be a huge handful. Yes, to the young hungry males attacking humans... The problem in the Eastern half of the US is there are getting to be so many black bears that seeing one is not so special anymore.
 
22-rimfire said:
Maybe, but it is all shades of grey in terms of what constitutes a "screw up". I would hate to have to try to defend myself against an aggressive black bear, even a yearling that weighs around 100 lbs would be a huge handful. Yes, to the young hungry males attacking humans... The problem in the Eastern half of the US is there are getting to be so many black bears that seeing one is not so special anymore.
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You're quite right about black bears. They tend to be more problematic than the big bears ( these can get pretty big too) because there are more of them that come into contact with people. Just walking in the forest too quietly can be a "screwup", and I seem to screw up a great deal myself, but so far I've been lucky. Stupid too because I don't fear bears enough.
 
The truth of the matter for me is that I always try to be quiet in the woods and sometimes I get a bit too close to black bears. So far no problems other than one false charge in WV up in the mountains. I was alone and that black bear scared the crap out of me. I was focused on taking pictures and it hadn't seen me until it got about 30 yds away. At that point it stood up to look me over, then dropped down and charged. It got about 25-30 feet from me and stopped. This is VERY close. The charge took seconds. I backed away and he/it did not pursue.

It was close enough that I was filling the entire frame with a 200mm lens with just the head. This is close. This was also the very first bear I had seen that didn't turn out to be just a black blob in the distance in the woods. Not very interested in taking pictures of them in fields.

I spent a lot of time (multiple trips) to Cades Cove (Smoky Mt NP) in May and saw a number of mother bears with tiny cubs. There were two mother bears with four cubs each in the Cove. Until that point, I had never seen 4 cubs with one bear. I was pretty excited about that opportunity. Those were primarily park visits hoping to take a few good pictures of black bears. I got some (I think). (Deer are mostly my "thing".) Most opportunities were duds for good photos. It's hard to tell a bear to move over a few feet so that you could get a clear view or move out from behind a bush or other distracting debris. ;) Outside of the park it is almost pure luck to see one at all (usually moving away from you in the woods) and then get the opportunity to take a reasonable picture of a black bear. Have to say that I really enjoyed those park visits. Probably will start my deer trips in about a month and continue on until December.
 
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22-rimfire said:
The truth of the matter for me is that I always try to be quiet in the woods and sometimes I get a bit too close to black bears. So far no problems other than one false charge in WV up in the mountains. I was alone and that black bear scared the crap out of me. I was focused on taking pictures and it hadn't seen me until it got about 30 yds away. At that point it stood up to look me over, then dropped down and charged. It got about 25-30 feet from me and stopped. This is VERY close. The charge took seconds. I backed away and he/it did not pursue.

It was close enough that I was filling the entire frame with a 200mm lens with just the head. This is close. This was also the very first bear I had seen that didn't turn out to be just a black blob in the distance in the woods. Not very interested in taking pictures of them in fields.
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Love to see that picture!
 
The WV bear was back in the 35mm days (around 1986). I was working up in the mountains there for a couple months and often seeing bears daily, usually on the way out just about dark driving. So that is a non event other than "keeping score". I honestly have no idea where that slide is. Haven't looked at any of my old slides in years. I have thousands of slides in boxes. Been thinking about upgrading my membership again to Gold so I can just insert pictures directly. I am a hobbyist photographer by the way. Last fall I made biweekly trips to Cades Cove (Smoky Mt NP) trying for good deer pictures mostly. I watched the seasons change there which was kind of cool. There is no better place to take whitetail deer pictures than there and I'm fortunate enough that I can make the trip for the day if I don't have any jobs lined up. If the day turns out to be non-productive, it is just wasted time and gas. Don't go much in the summer months... too many people. However, I am generally lacking any good bucks in velvet pictures and I'd like to attempt to correct that. And who knows, I'll probably see a few black bears depending on the day.

Digital makes it a lot easier as you can crop if you want to or in many cases lighten up the picture a little with black bears. Hard to take a good picture of them even in a national park. Opportunities present themselves and you just start taking pictures (digital) and in my case I stop thinking too much about exposure shot to shot although last year I made a bigger effort to "pay attention". Started taking pictures almost exclusively using a tripod other than the occasional hand held "there's a bear or there's a deer shot".

Added 8/6/17: Been watching the cable TV show "I was Prey" on the Animal Planet channel. I would suggest watching. Watched a couple shows this evening; one involved a grizzly attack with two hunters and the other a polar bear attack in Churchill AK. The other two incidents were Bull Shark encounters; one in FL and the other in AL. Certainly a knife would help, but I have serious doubts that you could defend yourself very well.
 
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Well I reckon I'd want the biggest, longest, sturdiest knife they make and I ain't sure what that is.
Very very thankful to not live in a region where bear roam.
 
Victoria Snell said:
Well I reckon I'd want the biggest, longest, sturdiest knife they make and I ain't sure what that is.
Very very thankful to not live in a region where bear roam.
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Black bears are cool as long as they aren't visiting YOUR yard frequently. They can become a real pest issue. As far as the knife goes, just remember you have to carry that knife and have it "ready" should the one in a million attack happen with a black bear. You can't have the beastly knife tucked inside a back pack; perhaps strapped onto the pack but it would take a fair amount of time to reach around to grab a knife on a back pack if you can do it at all without taking off the pack. Guns work better, but they can be inconvenient at times.

Been visiting Cades Cove a fair amount this Spring (2018) with the target being black bears. Have gotten a few interesting pictures. I have seen a lot of bears. On one day, I saw 32 black bears including cubs. That is a record for me for a day. That was after screening out duplicate sightings which I didn't count for the day's tally.

This year has been a little different in that some people posted pictures of "photographers" being way too close to bears in Cades Cove. As a result, I have seen the local news station there several times and the park people are more aggressive about policing their closeness policy. The rule is 50 yds, but it is not absolute and if the bears are nervous such as a mother with new cubs, it is more like 100 yds which makes for really boring pictures.

Have gotten a few pictures of whitetail bucks in velvet. But want more of those. Like everything else, some days are good and some days you hardly see a deer or a couple does. They are still wild animals.
 
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2009 boys. 2009.

I guess anyone's best bet would be Dan Keffeler's Super Assassin slightly thinned out and with a modified tip (only chance is a straight stab to the heart considering the fraction of a second you have to pull off a bear-knife kill), but I'd also guarantee 'Anyone' would be dead. :D

Probably time to put this one to rest. Of course, many things have entertainment value. ;)
 
Phixt said:
2009 boys. 2009.

I guess anyone's best bet would be Dan Keffeler's Super Assassin slightly thinned out and with a modified tip (only chance is a straight stab to the heart considering the fraction of a second you have to pull off a bear-knife kill), but I'd also guarantee 'Anyone' would be dead. :D

Probably time to put this one to rest. Of course, many things have entertainment value. ;)
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In my testing, 420J was superior for black bear, 8CR13MoV works best for grizzlies.:thumbsup:
 
This is the perfect knife to kill a bear, it features a near full serrated blade for optimal slicing capabilities yet is small enough to be an EDC knife, perfect in my opinion.

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