This morning I received an e mail from Steve (Roy) Rogers of Cornell, Wisconsin. Steve is a long time good friend and my fishing buddy. He is also an incredibly talented hunter - (I think his experience as a Special Forces non com in Viet Nam contributes to his innate ability to stealthily track down his prey.at any rate, Steve sent me these pictures of a man up in Alaska who had quite an encounter. the story follows:
This guy lives just outside of Soldotna , Alaska .
He is carrying a Ruger .454 Casull (and some "hot" 350 grain solids). (ammunition)
Friends,
Have I got a story for you guys!
King (salmon) season is over, and since I had a day off before silvers (salmon) start, I thought I would go for a walk! This occurred at 11:16 am this morning (Sunday), just 2/10 of a mile from my house.
ON OUR ROAD while walking my dogs (ironically trying to get in shape for hunting season!) for the record, this is in a residential area-not back in the woods . . . No bow hunting . . . No stealth occurring . . . I heard a twig snap . . . And looked back . . . Full on charge-a huge brownie, ears back, head low and motorin' full speed! Came with zero warning; no Woof, no popping of the teeth, no standing up, nothing like what you think or see on TV! It charged from less than 20 yards and was on me in about one-second! Totally surreal . . . I just started shooting in the general direction . . . And praise God that my second shot (or was it my third?) rolled him at 5 feet and he skidded to a stop 10 feet BEYOND where I was shooting from . . . I actually sidestepped him and fell over backwards on the last shot . . . And his momentum carried him to a stop past where I fired my first shot!
It was a prehistoric old bear .. . . No teeth . . . No fat . . . Weighed between 900-1000 Lbs and took five men to DRAG it onto a tilt-bed trailer! Big bear .. . . Its Paw measured out at about a 9 1/2 footer!
Never-ever-thought ‘it’ would happen to me! It's always some other smuck . . . Right?
Well, no bull .. . . I am still high on adrenaline .. . . With my gut in a knot (felt like I did 10000 crunches without stopping)! Almost puked for an hour after . . . Had the burps and couldn't even stand up as the troopers conducted their investigation! Totally wiped me out . . . can’t even put that feeling into words . . . By far the most emotion I have ever felt at once!
No doubt that God was with me, as I brought my Ruger .454 Casull (and some "hot" 350 grain solids) just for the heck of it . . . And managed to draw and snap shoot (pointed, never even aimed!) from the hip! Total luck shot!
All I can say is Praise God for my safety and for choosing to leave the wife and kids at home on this walk!
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Look at the size of those paws and the length of those damn claws!! I don't know about you, but these pictures make me really glad that I live in Wisconsin where (so far) I don't have to carry a gun when I walk from the house to the bungalow or down to the mail box - although with the latest reports of cougar sightings in the nearby territory of the Mississippi River, it might be wise to start packing a very large revolver, similar to the one pictured.Now if we could just get lucky enough to have one of these huge suckers eat Sarah Palin - what a wonderful world this would be.
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