Minnesota hunter chewed up by wounded black bear

[bassnbuck]

:11 PM
Created: 09/27/2014 2:49 PM KSTP.com
By: McKenzie Gernes In the early morning hours on Saturday, a man was attacked by a black bear northeast of the Village of Duxbury in Pine County.
The attack happened over a mile into dense wild-land.
The Pine County Sheriff's Office received the 911 call at 3:32 a.m., and dispatched an ambulance, EMS, and Duxbury Fire to the scene.
Responders had to ride on the 911 callers ATV to reach the scene where the man was attacked.
The victim was found with severe lacerations and bites to his chest, arms and legs. The victim told Deputies he was tracking the wounded bear when it charged out of the dark, knocking him to the ground.
It then proceeded to claw and bite him, the victim said he tried to fight the bear off with a hunting knife.
The victim was transported by air ambulance to North Memorial Hospital, and is listed in stable condition.
According to the Pine County Sheriff's Office, the bear fled the area and has not been located. The Minnesota DNR was notified and is investigating along with the Pine County Sheriff's office.


[*=center] http://kstp.com/kstpImages/repositoryThumbs/2014-09/woods-wikkimedia.JPG (http://kstp.com/kstpImages/repository/2014-09/woods-wikkimedia.JPG)

Photo: Wikkimedia










http://kstp.com/2014/template/images/base/print.png (http://hbispace.com/printStory/kstp/index.cfm?id=3573176)
http://kstp.com/2014/template/images/base/email.png

[bassnbuck]

Could not edit title, wounded not wounder.

[pmer]

I'm a first time bear hunter in next county to the south of there. Praying that guy is going to be okay. One thing I noticed is that I get out of the tree a little sooner compared to deer hunting. I don't want to shoot at a dark object in low light and have a poorly hit bear. That and being stuck there in the dark waiting for it to leave too.

[waksupi]

117708
Meanwhile, in downtown Whitefish, Mt.......

[KYCaster]

117708
Meanwhile, in downtown Whitefish, Mt.......


That's a pretty impressive stand you have there Ric. Good visibility all around, and you can drive right up to it. :drinks:

Jerry

[MtGun44]

Mr Rouark said it best: "use enough gun" and
many others have said - "shot placement is everything"

Ya'll be careful out there. Having a powerful sidearm when hunting
is a good thing. A cylinder full of .44 Mags or even .357 Mags beats the
heck out of your hunting knife.

Bill

[pmer]

I'm using a marlin 45-70 with a 1500 fps 400 grain boolit of air cooled 50/50. Scoped with a short range zero. And a 44 flat top Ruger with mihec 503s.

[white eagle]

Mr Rouark said it best: "use enough gun" and
many others have said - "shot placement is everything"

Ya'll be careful out there. Having a powerful sidearm when hunting
is a good thing. A cylinder full of .44 Mags or even .357 Mags beats the
heck out of your hunting knife.

Bill
That is what I was thinking as well

[HarryT]

It wouldn't be exciting if it weren't dangerous.

[pmer]

I checked a couple articles and didn't see what he had for a weapon. Archery deer and bear seasons are both going at the moment. But I don't know if that is what he was doing.

[fishhawk]

Well also consider this, here in Wis if your tracking after dark you better not be carrying much other than a knife the wardens here will ticket you for hunting after hours. Not sure how the wardens are in MN. but if like others they pretty much interpret the laws as they see fit.

[bassnbuck]

The hunter is in stable condition. No info if he was bow or gun hunting when he wounded the bear. Unless he had a permit to carry, tracking at night with a gun would have been illegal. Tracking at night without a gun = about as dangerous as voting for Obozo, twice. IMO.

[waksupi]

That's a pretty impressive stand you have there Ric. Good visibility all around, and you can drive right up to it. :drinks:

Jerry

Not only that, the building in the background is a brewery!

[pmer]

Well here is some more info on what happened out there. It was archery and there were 3 guys tracking the bear. It looks to be quite a story. 525 lb blackie finished off with a knife the guy survives and walks a half mile with two broken arms and countless other injuries.

KARE 11 news story:
That's how a hunter narrowly escaping a 525 pound black bear described the horror when a wounded bear attacked his friend in a dense swamp area near Duxbury, Minnesota early Saturday morning.


"You go into the woods, not thinking this will ever happen, legally and humanely go after a bear you shot, and it turned bad," said Craig Lindstrom, of Wyoming, Minnesota.


Lindstrom said he and several longtime hunting buddies shot a black bear with a bow and arrow Friday evening, and then waited four hours to track it several miles from their hunting camp. Because of the warm temperatures, Lindstrom and two others decided to find the bear around 11:30 p.m., worrying the meat would spoil overnight. They began to follow a blood trail in the darkness and within a half hour, they found the bear laying on the ground. It suddenly charged.


"And that's when they yelled it's big and it's coming your way. All of the sudden I heard him screaming -- felt like 10 minutes, but was probably two minutes -- literally screaming, screaming and you knew he was being mauled," said Lindstrom.


Lindstrom began to pray aloud, and soon realized his friend was still alive with a knife in his hand.


"He made that thing die because he stabbed it about 20 times while it was chewing on his arm. He kept stabbing it and stabbing it and stabbing it and it was pounding on him, a quarter of a ton -- a 525 pound bear pounding on him," said Lindstrom. "And I'm telling you, he walked out. He walked out."


The victim was able to walk out due to the quick thinking of Lindstrom, a Chisago City firefighter, who is trained in emergency response. He had a backpack full of rope and bungee cords.


"I had two tourniquets on both of his arms. I have a strap, I strapped it around his arms to hold his arms, I put his hands in his pockets and we had a belt and we led him with the belt," said Lindstrom. "I was very emotional all day because I've never been a part of anything like this. I cut people out of cars. I've hauled people out of bad car accidents on Highway 8. This is just the worst it was. But at the same time, the best there was – because of him."


Lindstrom said it took more than three hours to lead his friend a half mile out of the swamp area towards help where they were finally able to place a 911 call to the Pine County Sheriff's Office.


"His will to keep going forward, I thought he was dead 10 to 15 times. He would fall down and he told us about telling his parents, his fiancée, his kids -- tell them I love them," said Lindstrom.


The victim was flown to North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale. Lindstrom said he suffered two broken arms, wounds on his face, jaw, stomach and legs and will undergo more surgery, but is in stable condition.


The bear died about 50 yards from where it was stabbed. Lindstrom says it took ten men five hours to drag it back to camp. Lindstrom says looking back, the group should have backed off on finding the bear, or forgot about the possibility of the rotting meat, but the story of survival has them all looking forward.


"We are going to mount that thing," said Lindstrom. "So this will be another story. It just happens to be the biggest one."


Lindstrom said his group is licensed to hunt bear and registers baiting stations with the Minnesota DNR. He added that his friend should heal in time for deer hunting season and the group won't hesitate to head back out again.

"Oh absolutely, this is his life. We hunt every weekend from September to December. Every weekend. That's what we do. We live for this. We live for, not necessarily shooting anything, the camaraderie, the being in the woods but doing it the right away and having fun," said Lindstrom


This should be video of one of the guys in the party:

http://www.kare11.com/story/news/local/2014/09/29/hunter-fights-off-525-pound-bear-with-knife/16411473/

Back out at deer camp in 2 weeks? The only place he'll be in 2 weeks from now is therapy..:veryconfu

[kbstenberg]

The guy that was attacked is engaged to my cousins daughter. I only found out about my connection to him a couple of days ago. We both were at another family members wedding 2 weeks ago.

[pmer]

The guy that was attacked is engaged to my cousins daughter. I only found out about my connection to him a couple of days ago. We both were at another family members wedding 2 weeks ago.

The only thing I can think of is that God still has a plan for him among us. Hoping for the best for him and your families.

[Moonie]

"You skin Griz?"

[cbrick]

117708
Meanwhile, in downtown Whitefish, Mt.......


That's a pretty impressive stand you have there Ric. Good visibility all around, and you can drive right up to it. :drinks: Jerry


Not only that, the building in the background is a brewery!

Well yeah . . . Where do you suppose that bear was going? :mrgreen:

Rick

[BruMatt]

My brother lived not far from there 35 years ago. He had a cabin two miles back in the woods that he built over the river. A couple of hunters wounded a big black bear and he had to track it down. The bear ended up treeing him when he came up on it coming towards him around a bend in the trail. He kept it from climbing up with a knife and his boot. He had dropped his rifle in the tussle. Happy ending though. The bear ended up as a rug on his floor.