Bear Attack on Elk Hunters, 29 September, 2021, Wyoming, 10mm, .45

 

 

Tyler Barnard bear defensive shooting positions. Far person is where bear was at first shot, middle person is where Tyler ended at last shot. The person taking the picture is where the son-hunter was during the attack.

On September 27, 2021, Tyler Barnard was guiding a father-son pair of elk hunters in Wyoming, near Cody, near the Two Oceans pass in the Teton Wilderness. It is part of the Bidger-Teton National Forest, a few miles from the southern border of Yellowstone Park.  Rifle season started on September 20th. The temperature in Cody was near 85 degrees, well above average. They had shot a bull elk, and had followed the blood trail for a mile before it dwindled and was lost as the sun dropped below the horizon. They looked again on the 28th. On the morning of the 29th, they had given up. It was a very nice bull.

A little before 8 a.m., they were on a game trail in the area. 

Then they smelled it.  A hint of dead elk.

They could not see the animal, but it was likely the bull they had shot. By law they were required to take possession. They left their rifles on the horses and decided to look over the curve of the ridge. The direction indicated was over a slope with plenty of blowdowns and young pines. Because of the terrain and the trees, the visibility was from 20 to 25 yards. The plan was to pin it with their Garmin GPS, place their tag on the elk, then return to base camp and send the recovery team in to salvage the carcass.  

Elk which was eventually recovered.

Tyler had a 10 mm Glock model 20 loaded with Buffalo Bore 190 grain hard cast bullets. The son-hunter had a .45 with a red dot sight, 15 round magazines, and hollowpoint +P self-defense ammunition. The father-hunter had bear spray, with "assault" in the name. 

The hunters and Tyler had separated by about 10-15 yards to maximize their chance of finding the elk quickly.  Tyler had just crossed over a large deadfall. The top of the log was about three feet off the ground.  He heard the son-hunter say, calmly and distinctly:

"Hey! There's a bear!"

The son-hunter had seen the bear from about 20 yards out. 

Tyler looked back. He  saw a bear in full charge at the hunters from about 15 yards, and immediately said "Shoot it!".  

Many things happened in the next few seconds. People back at the base camp said the sequence of shots took about 15 seconds. To the participants, it seemed much longer.

The son-hunter fired the first shot. Tyler believes it hit the bear between the eyes, about an inch high. The eyes on a bear tend to be about the level of the top of the brain case. Later, Tyler poked his finger into the hole. He could feel the skull below it. The bullet never touched the skull. There is hide and hair, meat and fat above the eyes, but no brain case (depending on the angle). If the nose of the bear is pointed at you, a shot above the line between the eyes will miss the brain. An  inch and a half, or two inches lower, and the charge would have been stopped with this shot. One of the best ways to reach the brain on a bear is to shoot it up the nose. The nose channel guides the bullet directly into the brain. People tend to shoot high on charging bears.

The bear kept coming, but was slightly slowed. The father-hunter had deployed his bear spray. The bear blasted through the cloud with no visible effect. An eddy in the  breeze swirled and brought some of the spray back into the eyes of the three men. Fortunately, it was not enough to disable Tyler and the son-hunter from shooting. 

Tyler had immediately hopped back over the big deadfall and started to run toward the hunters. His path was roughly parallel to the bear's path, separated by about 10 yards.

The son-hunter had continued shooting. Tyler believes the son-hunter had fired about 6 shots by the time Tyler reached a little opening in the young trees. The bear's charge had been retarded by the shots. The bear was about 10 yards from the clients and closing fast. It was about 10 yards from Tyler, who was off to the side. Tyler was able to shoot through the opening in the trees and hit the bear three times through the rib cage. The bear was mortally hit, but did not realize it yet. It takes from seconds to minutes for lung shots to kill a bear.

Tachypsychia had set in. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. Tyler remembers seeing the slide on his Glock come back with every shot. He saw the brass ejecting. He did not hear his own shots, but he heard the shots of the son-hunter. Tyler was focused on the sights. They were very clear. Tyler was probably thinking, moving, and shooting faster than he ever had before. 

Tyler reported the son-hunter remembered seeing the red dot of his pistol sight on the bear for every shot.

The bear continued to advance, slowed down by Tyler and the son-hunter's shots. Tyler  advanced to  a position a few feet to the side of the son-hunter, shooting a couple of more times on the run. The bear was continuing the charge toward them. It had been slowed by multiple hits. 

Tyler remembers he and the son-hunter shot, and shot, and shot. The pair fired a total of 31 shots.  Numerous hours at the range paid off for the son-hunter. He finished one magazine and completed a speed reload while Tyler was still shooting. 

There are a few cases where a person being attacked by a bear is able to reload. This is the first one I have encountered, where the reload was accomplished while the bear was charging.

As the bear got within 10 feet, its speed had slowed considerably.  Tyler was concentrating on chest shots. Tyler believes he broke one or both shoulders. The bear veered hard right into a tree. Tyler took a step forward and shot the bear in the side of the skull, through the brain, twice.  The Buffalo Bore bullets penetrated through the brain and  lodged in the skull on the other side. The distance was five feet. The deadly fight was over.

No shots had hit the spine. The bear had a thick layer of fat, which acted as armor of a sort. Two of the +P .45 hollow point bullets were recovered under the hide, in the fat. Several hits were in the top and side  of the neck going down toward the shoulders. Tyler believes the .45 bullets had not penetrated into the chest cavity, but most of the bullet paths were not followed to see which came from which caliber.  They knew the side shots had been from Tyler's 10 mm. The frontal shots could have been from either shooter. The shot above the eyes had to be from the .45, because the angle would have been different as the bear closed and Tyler joined the son-hunter, shooting at the advancing bear. The bear had been hit so many times, the investigator gave up after counting 16 holes. All of the shots were in the front half of the bear. The bear had a number tattooed on its lip. It had been handled before. It was a grizzly boar, about 500 - 600 lbs, according to the investigator and biologist.

Tyler believes his shots with the Buffalo Bore bullets were the only effective shots. 

This correspondent is not so certain. If the son-hunter had not shot, it seems unlikely Tyler would have been able to put shots into the bear before it reached the hunters. Both parties played critical parts. The incident shows the advantage of deep penetrating bullets.  

We do not know the dynamics of each shot, because a complete necropsy was not necessary. Some of the son-hunter's shots might have penetrated to the chest cavity. We do not know. Penetration of 11-13 inches is common with aggressive, self-defense hollow-points in a .45. A bullet into the side of the neck, from the front, angling down toward the chest, could have to travel through many inches of fat to reach the chest cavity.

Healthy bears can move much faster through rough terrain than humans can. It is unlikely Tyler would have been able to reach the hunters before the bear, unless the bear was slowed down by the shots which hit it during its charge.

The clients were understandably concerned and scared of possible legal actions after being forced to shoot a grizzly in self defense. They knew they needed to contact the authorities right away. There was no cell phone coverage.

Tyler was able to borrow a satellite phone. They were not able to contact the outfitter, but they were able to contact the owner of the ranch, who agreed to contact Game and Fish. The hunters and Tyler were assured the investigators were on the way.  Tyler and the hunters were at the camp, resting, when people in red shirts appeared. Red shirts are part of the uniform for Wyoming Game and Fish personnel.  Tyler assumed they were the investigators.  They were not. They were Game and Fish personnel who happened to be in the area and visiting the camp, only a few hours after the bear attack. When Tyler told them what had happened, they made contact with the federal Fish & Game, who gave the Red Shirts permission to do the investigation. 

The investigators interviewed the participants. They returned to the site of the attack. They re-enacted the attack. Pictures were taken, a field examination of the bear carcass was done. It became obvious the attack had been real, had been reported, and the response in defense of self and others was justified.  The elk was found. It had been partially covered by the bear. 

When the hunters and guide returned to the trail head, a federal agent was there to confirm what the Wyoming Game and Fish personnel had already learned. He interviewed the hunters and Tyler. 

It is unlikely there will be a prosecution. The humans were doing what humans do. They were ethically and legally hunting elk. The bear did what some bears do, aggressively attack anything which comes within a large radius of where they are. Most grizzly bears avoid humans. Grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have been conditioned to believe humans are not a threat, for at least 50 years. Those which are especially bold are more likely to attack humans than those in areas where grizzly bears are actively hunted. Their natural aggressiveness and natural armament make them a deadly threat to any human which inadvertently crosses an invisible line. 

 

Tyler reported a Game and Fish biologist said it was likely the noise the hunters and Tyler were making which triggered the charge. Many others have been given advice to make noise to prevent charges.

The problem of an overabundance of aggressive grizzly bears has been known for some time. In an interview two years ago, Brian Nesvik, head of Wyoming Game and Fish, noted the departments' hands have been tied.  From trib.com:

Lastly, grizzly bears continue to be an important issue for the state. There’s very little disagreement that grizzly bears in Greater Yellowstone are recovered, but we still don’t have state management and so work towards figuring out how to accomplish that is a priority for the department and a priority for the state.

Most of the problem comes from groups outside the state which have large financial resources, and no skin in the game in Wyoming.

Tyler Barnard knew this. It is a major reason he decided to go public with this event, rather than avoid risk and remain anonymous. It took courage and resolve to place himself in the cross hairs of the big money groups. From his post on facebook: 

I have been considering whether or not to post this issue we deal with as outdoorsman. I have decided to tell my experience and go over a few ways we can deal with the situation at the political level. Many of you know, I have been guiding in Wyoming for the last 6 years. This year, we have had more issues with grizzlies than any other year I've been in the back country. It's looking like many others are dealing with more grizzly issues as well in surrounding states like Montana and Idaho.

(snip)

Do to the pressure on our politicians by hunters, ranchers, and farmers, we were able to open a season on the over population of wolves. We need to stand up against these people and groups funding the protection of grizzlies and put a stop to it. If you have had a negative bear experience, write a story on it. Get a hold of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Sportsmans Alliance, Mule Deer Foundation, and any other foundation that's fights for our rights and safety in the outdoors, along with your local representatives. They do work for you. Tell them your story. The more people that reach out to share their experience, the more serious this issue is going to be taken. Contact you local and state legislation and give them your story along with your ideas about how we can go about this.

Grizzly bears moved into most of North America thousands of years after humans had colonized the continent. The competition for the spot of apex predator was settled when European humans brought their advanced technology to the continent. Humans become the dominant species, without any rivals.

With dominance comes responsibility. Fortunately, humans have the potential to be responsible, unlike all other species on the planet. It is up to humans to manage the earth. Grizzly bear populations have to be managed. Hunting is the best way to accomplish that end.

 

©2021 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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