BEAR AND BIRDSHOT
It had been an unusual summer for us and the bears.  We had had a late frost in the spring causing the loss of the wild berry crop and also a poor salmon run in the river and creeks.  The bears depend on these food sources to fatten up for the long winter here in Southeast Alaska.  We have a large bear population here and they were hungry.  Because they were hungry they started expanding their search area, which brought them to our homes.  Anyone leaving food outside or failing to properly dispose of garbage became a target.  Overnight the word was out among the bears and here they came. We were seeing more bears in our yards than in recent memory.  Trouble and conflict were on the way.
Since August my grandchildren had been restricted to the house unless an armed adult was with them outside.  On August 26 I had to kill a bear that had chased a neighbor and his daughter into their house, then charged me when I came over and tried to run it off.  Some pets had been attacked as well. I had begun to see bears on my property almost daily. It seemed the whole community was having problems.
It isn’t unusual to see bears in the yard.  It happens every year.  Normally they just pass through and run as soon as they see you.  I don’t molest them and they don’t molest me or my property.  That year was different.  Hunger had caused them to lose their natural fear of humans.  That’s a bad situation for them and us.
It was about 9pm when I heard the shot.  It was close.  The next morning I checked with my neighbors and one had fired the shot.  A bear had climbed into his daughter's car to get some snack food damaging it.  I asked if he killed the bear?  No, he hadn’t killed it.  Unfortunately, he had shot it with birdshot.  The word was spread to all the neighbors we had a wounded bear on our hands.
Birdshot or even an air rifle causes festering sores and infection that can lead to a slow death.  An injured bear is a dangerous critter.  If a person can’t chase a dangerous bear away with noise or spray, then it’s better and more humane to kill it.
Over the next few days, bears broke into two other freezers, destroying the people's winter meat supply, and ripped the back wall out of a storage shed.  People were going to their outhouses armed.  The situation was becoming difficult.
Late one evening I got a call.  Another neighbor had come home and found a bear in his garage.  As he grabbed his 300 Winchester Magnum from behind his pickup seat the bear took off.  My neighbor fired a quick shot just as the bear entered the tree line.  He was certain he had hit the bear and wanted me to come over and help him look for it before it got dark.
I picked up my .458 loaded with 400gr. Barnes-x bullets and went next door to get my son and his dog to help track the bear.  We followed it into a dense spruce thicket.  By then we had to use our flashlights.  I picked up the bears eyes no more than twenty-five feet away.  Putting my crosshairs on him I snapped off a one-handed shot.  It was difficult, but it connected, putting the poor fellow out of his misery.
When we examined him we found birdshot in his shoulder and neck.  They must have been causing a lot of pain.  The 300 win mag had caused a nasty flesh wound.  My 400gr. Bullet had killed it instantly.  Some may think the .458 an overkill, but under those conditions I wanted to inflict maximum damage and the .458 Winchester Magnum did just that.
Since then we had a sow and her two cubs pay us a visit.  Our dog treed the cubs and sparred with the sow until my son called off the dog.  That gave the sow enough of a scare that she didn’t return.  I still saw bear signs around and wondered how many would survive the coming winter.
If we choose to live in the bush and share our lives with the animals we must be responsible neighbors to them.  Don’t attract them with citified practices.  Proper trash disposal is imperative.  Keep freezers in your house.  Don’t leave food in cars or hang suet bird feeders on your porch.  Burning food in a burn pit is like sending up smoke signals saying “Food!”  And above all don’t try and scare a bear away by injuring it.  The best way to get rid of a pesky bear is to remove all enticements.  Of course you can dump dog food on your neighbors property.  That always works.

Marshall Warren