This July, a 72-year-old man was picking huckleberries in Flathead National Forest by himself when he was . He managed to access his handgun, shooting and killing the bear and surviving the encounter with serious injuries. After a summer that brought several high-profile grizzly bear attacks – a veteran who was and a Canadian trail runner who says she was – some are asking if guns should be as ubiquitous as and when it comes to recreating in bear country.
The idea of using a firearm against bears is something bear biologist and Tooth and Claw podcast host tells us he hears a lot, but it’s not what he recommends. “There are people out there that would say, ‘oh, I'd trust my gun much more than I would trust bear spray,’ but the thing about a gun is, you're shooting one projectile. It has one path.
And if you miss, you know you're in trouble.” When a grizzly bear is sprinting towards you at 30 miles per hour and you’re panicking, the chances of squeezing off a perfect shot seem unlikely, and even if you get lucky, the problem of a defensive bear that wants to kill you won’t necessarily be solved. “If you hit the bear and you don't kill it, you're in a lot more trouble than you would have been otherwise because now that bear's probably gonna be enraged.
" It’s understandable that you would try to use a gun against a bear if you happen to be carrying one when it charges you, but wildlife experts are insistent that a firearm really doesn’t need to become one .