Man attacked by Grizzly

[Ikeepitcold]

This is on FB.

This guy is so lucky to be alive.

https://www.facebook.com/todd.orr/posts/10210413769369912

https://www.facebook.com/todd.orr/posts/10210413732648994

Grizzly 10/1/16

Hello everyone.
Thought I should share yesterday morning's Grizzly incident.

I took an early morning hike in the Madison valley to scout for elk. Knowing that bears are common throughout southwest Montana, I hollered out "hey bear" about every 30 seconds so as to not surprise any bears along the trail.

About three miles in, I stepped out into an open meadow and hollered again. A few more steps and I spotted a sow Grizzly bear with cubs on the trail at the upper end of the meadow. The sow saw me right away and they ran a short distance up the trail. But suddenly she turned and charged straight my way. I yelled a number of times so she knew I was human and would hopefully turn back. No such luck. Within a couple seconds, she was nearly on me. I gave her a full charge of bear spray at about 25 feet. Her momentum carried her right through the orange mist and on me.

I went to my face in the dirt and wrapped my arms around the back of my neck for protection. She was on top of me biting my arms, shoulders and backpack. The force of each bite was like a sledge hammer with teeth. She would stop for a few seconds and then bite again. Over and over. After a couple minutes, but what seemed an eternity, she disappeared.

Stunned, I carefully picked myself up. I was alive and able to walk so I headed back down the trail towards the truck 3 miles below. As I half hiked and jogged down the trail, I glanced at my injuries. I had numerous bleeding puncture wounds on my arms and shoulder but I knew I would survive and thanked god for getting me through this. I hoped the bleeding wasn't too significant. I really didn't want to stop to dress the wounds. I wanted to keep moving and put distance between us.

About five or ten minutes down the trail, I heard a sound and turned to find the Griz bearing down at 30 feet. She either followed me back down the trail or cut through the trees and randomly came out on the trail right behind me. Whatever the case, she was instantly on me again. I couldn't believe this was happening a second time! Why me? I was so lucky the first attack, but now I questioned if I would survive the second.

Again I protected the back of my neck with my arms, and kept tight against the ground to protect my face and eyes. She slammed down on top of me and bit my shoulder and arms again. One bite on my forearm went through to the bone and I heard a crunch. My hand instantly went numb and wrist and fingers were limp and unusable. The sudden pain made me flinch and gasp for breath. The sound triggered a frenzy of bites to my shoulder and upper back. I knew I couldn't move or make a sound again so I huddled motionless. Another couple bites to my head and a gash opened above my ear, nearly scalping me. The blood gushed over my face and into my eyes. I didn't move. I thought this was the end. She would eventually hit an artery in my neck and I would bleed out in the trail... But I knew that moving would trigger more bites so a laid motionless hoping it would end.

She suddenly stopped and just stood on top of me. I will never forgot that brief moment. Dead silence except for the sound of her heavy breathing and sniffing. I could feel and her breath on the back of my neck, just inches away. I could feel her front claws digging into my lower back below my backpack where she stood. I could smell the terrible pungent odor she emitted. For thirty seconds she stood there crushing me. My chest was smashed into the ground and forehead in the dirt. When would the next onslaught of biting began. I didn't move.
And then she was gone.

I tried to peek out without moving but my eyes were full of blood and I couldn't see. I thought that if she came back a third time I would be dead, so I had to do something. Staying in position on the ground, I slowly reached under my chest to grab at the pistol I was unable to get to earlier. I felt I needed something to save my life. The pistol wasn't there. I groped around again but nothing. I wiped the blood from one eye and looked around.
No bear.

The pistol and holster were lying five feet to my left. The bear's ferocious bites and pulling had ripped the straps from the pack and the holster attached to it. Now trashed, that backpack may have helped prevent many more serious bites on my back and spine.
I picked everything up and moved down the trail again. I couldn't believe I had survived two attacks. Double lucky!
Blood was still dripping off my head and both elbows and my shirt was soaked to the waist and into my pants. But a quick assessment told me I could make it another 45 minutes to the truck without losing too much blood.
I continued the jog just wanting to put more distance between that sow and I.

At the trailhead was one other vehicle. I really hoped that person didn't run into the same bear.
I snapped a couple quick photos and a video of my wounds, laid some jackets over the truck seat and headed for town. I stopped a rancher along the way and asked him to make a call to the hospital. When I got into cell service, I made a quick call to my girlfriend to ask how her morning was going, before freaking her out and asking her to bring me a change of clean clothes to the hospital.
Another call to 911 and I gave the operator a quick run down of my injuries and asked her to call the hospital and give them a heads up that I was ten minutes out.
Moments later I was met at the front door by the doctor, nurse and an officer. I had to ask the officer to open the door, put my truck in park, and unbuckle my seat belt. My left arm was useless. He was impressed I had taken the effort to buckle.
Once inside, the x-rays revealed only a chip out of the ulna bone in my forearm. Following was eight hours of stitching to put me back together. Most were arm and shoulder punctures and tears. A 5" gash along the side of my head will leave a nasty scar, but I'm hoping my balding doesn't come on too quickly and leave that one exposed.
And finally, this morning, numerous deep bruises and scrapes are showing up from the bites that didn't quite break the skin. Dark bruising in the shape of claws, line across my lower back and butt where the bear stood on me. Also a few more chest bruises and facial abrasions from being smashed and slammed into the ground.

Not my best day, but I'm alive.
So thankful I'm here to share with all of you.
In a couple weeks I will have to clean out the truck a little better. My girlfriend says it looks like I had gutted an elk in the drivers seat.

Todd Orr

 

[jjenness]

I saw this also. What a heck of a day, God had his back for sure!

 

[mntnguide]

Like I have said on this forum before...From my many encounters with Griz and having a friend who has had to kill one. I will not trust my life to a 16oz can...If a grizzly wants to get you, they are coming no matter what comes out the end of that can. He is one tough SOB! Glad to see he made it out...really shows how determined a bear is, when she tracked him down and attacked him again a while after the initial attack

 

[sneakypete]

Wow, you're a very lucky man! Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[Matthoek21]

That's why I only fish the Madison Valley. Too many of them buggers over there. Talked to too many people who've had encounters. Glad he made it out alive.

 

[hoshour]

That is a horrifying story. At first, I thought he waited a little long to spray, but then I looked up the spray distance on Counter Attack, the spray I carry, and saw that it is a max of 30-32 feet, so his spraying at 25 feet was not too far off.

He did things right by keeping his backpack on, covering his neck with his hands, laying face down and playing dead by trying to be motionless and silent.

On the other hand, I think he did the wrong thing by yelling at a charging bear. It would have been better to lower his head, look off to the side and slowly move diagonally backwards while continuing to face the bear's direction.

While studies shows that a black bear charge is best countered with yelling and waving arms, the opposite is true with grizzlies. Signs of submission like I mentioned above are the better tactic. I'm not saying it is a certainty they would have worked and I am very glad to hear he made it back, but I write that to inform other hunters that might be faced with a similar challenge.

For those who think he should have used the pistol instead of the spray, it is hard to hit a charging bear in the right spot and a shot to the forehead is likely to bounce off a grizzly, plus those shots, contrary to the movies, usually take a while to be lethal. Bear spray does work in most cases, but with our advantage of knowing the outcome and not having to think on our feet while emotions were sky high, it may have been better for him to shoot first and spray later. Maybe he hoped the bear would break off the charge and he hesitated to shoot early at a sow with cubs.

Contrary to this incident and to common knowledge, studies shows that the vast majority of grizzly attacks are lone bears surprised by lone hikers. The more in the group of humans, the less likely the bear is to attack. Many of us either hunt alone or split up to go to our stands or to glass a different area, but it may be better when hunting in grizzly country to try and stick together as much as possible.

 

[Horsenhike]

Well, looks like I need to reconsider bear spray/handgun options.

 

[ivorytip]

oh my hell

 

[Hilltop]

We need Grizzly seasons back open...

 

[hoshour]

Agreed.

Politicians (and judges that act like politicians ) running wildlife management is like politicians running a war. Or, come to think of it, like politicians running anything.

 

[Daubs]

Many of us either hunt alone or split up to go to our stands or to glass a different area, but it may be better when hunting in grizzly country to try and stick together as much as possible.

Agreed. We did a fly-in / drop caribou hunt in Alaska a few years back. Four in the hunting party...we hunted in pairs. One carried rifle, the other carried 44 MAG handgun. Luck to not see any Griz on that trip...but we did see scat and tracks over the course of that week.

I like the idea of shoot first, spray later. Then play dead. And hope the end result is not being dead.

 

[Vikingload]

Crazy story and just confirms why I carry spray and a pistol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JimP]

I like the idea of shoot first, spray later. Then play dead. And hope the end result is not being dead.

This is a bad idea. If you shoot first and then go to the spray all you are going to do is to add a condiment for the bear when he gets to you. You might as well as not even pack the spray. While the spray is effective it might not work too well on a very pissed off bear which he or she will be after you shoot it.

 

[hoshour]

This is a bad idea. If you shoot first and then go to the spray all you are going to do is to add a condiment for the bear when he gets to you. You might as well as not even pack the spray. While the spray is effective it might not work too well on a very pissed off bear which he or she will be after you shoot it.

That's a tough one. If you shoot, you probably won't kill it in time. If you spray, you may end up like the guy in the story, or worse.

So, what is your strategy? Shoot or act submissive and then spray?

This might help:

The question is not one of marksmanship or clear thinking in the face of a growling bear, for even a skilled
marksman with steady nerves may have a slim chance of deterring a bear attack with a gun. Law
enforcement agents for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have experience that supports this reality --
based on their investigations of human-bear encounters since 1992, persons encountering grizzlies and
defending themselves with firearms suffer injury about 50% of the time. During the same period, persons
defending themselves with pepper spray escaped injury most of the time, and those that were injured
experienced shorter duration attacks and less severe injuries. Canadian bear biologist Dr. Stephen Herrero
reached similar conclusions based on his own research -- a person’s chance of incurring serious injury from
a charging grizzly doubles when bullets are fired versus when bear spray is used.https://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/mammals/grizzly/bear%20spray.pdf

 

[JimP]

I would spray. I have seen studies that have been done along with trials where they have used bear spray to deter the bear and have seen that it does work. Where if you shoot at a bear you are going to have to hit it in a vital spot to stop it and even then it will depend on how pissed off the bear is. Now with the spray you only have to point it in the general direction to get a very large amount of coverage where the bear will come into it. I am not sure of the percentages but the spray works a lot better than trying to kill something that is intent on doing damage to you.

But I liked what my guide told me on my grizzly hunt in British Colombia when I asked him about his 44 magnum that he had strapped to his chest. He told me that he was going to shove the barrel into the bears mouth and pull the trigger 6 times.

 

[Fink]

Good lord.... I can't believe the bear came after him a second time.

I carry both a pistol and spray, I'm more apt to use the pistol, if nothing else, I'd prefer to die 'with my boots on', so to speak. I think I'd have a hard time living with my deadness, if I only used to spray to stop an attack.

 

[Hilltop]

Easy to guess what we would have done but hard to say exactly how anyone will respond in this kind of scary situation. I would think after the first attack I would have gone for the gun on the second one but who knows how clearly anyone would be thinking after getting mauled like that.

I'm in the shoot first crowd. Nothing deters like dead imo.

 

[wa-hunter]

wow that is cray!! read the story then saw the name at the bottom and i know this guys folks!!!!! crazy to find out something like that on a forum! glad he mad it!!!!

 

[Daubs]

But I liked what my guide told me on my grizzly hunt in British Colombia when I asked him about his 44 magnum that he had strapped to his chest. He told me that he was going to shove the barrel into the bears mouth and pull the trigger 6 times.

This thread gets my heart racing every-time I read a post. Scary shit right there!

I like your guide's theory.

Back to the original post: Wondering if his "running" from the first attack led to the second attack(?). Always easy to second-guess situations like this....

 

[tim]

one tough sob that is for sure.