Hi all,
A few years back there was couple that were camping up north I am not sure if it was in the boundry waters area or not. Any ways a black bear came into there camping area and the wife was attacked. The hubby came or tried to come to her rescue but all he had was a SAK. He attemped to stab the bear while the bear was still attacking his wife. After the bear recieved some stab wounds it did stop its attack and left the area, the hubby was able to get to his wife and started to leave the area and try to get help. The wife did die while the hubby was trying to get her to medical help.
After that situation happened there was a fellow who heard about that situation. He spent time in the woods and decided that he was going to get and carry a bigger knife than his pocket knife. He chose a knife with a 6" blade and I think it was a Buck 119. Anyways about a year later he is out in the woods and gets attacked by a black bear and I think it started attacking his dog first and he went to help his dog. anyways he killed that bear with his knife.
Killing a bear with a knife can be done YIKES if you have to do. But when you or a loved one is being attacked you will do what you have too. some will run away and some will go and help.
If I was in your shoes. Well actully I do not head into the woods with a knife that has at least 7" for the blade but I use mine for mainly trail clearing. But if I was attacked by something I know I feel better with my longer knife than just a SAK.
I want to say also, I have noticed here lately that when people ask questions there are some real smart assed comments being giving. Think about this every day there is someone in the world starting out in learning about survival and wilderness skills. They have questions and they are basic questions. So instead of giving smart assed comments you EXPERTS out there. HELP teach instead.
Rant over.
This a great forum and a great place to Learn and share wilderness skills let keep it that way.
Bryan
Just to fill in a few pertinent details, the guy that killed a bear with only a Buck 119 is also a regular on a canoe tripping forum I frequent and reluctantly detailed the entire story. It is a sort of divine irony that he was attacked, because earlier in the year he started a th'd on a good budget "bear knife". A topic that quickly devolved into......well a close copy of this th'd.
It was an older, sick, starving bear that had been stalking him on a portage for twenty minutes, it was undoubtedly a premeditated attack by a desperately hungry bear, a scenario that is becoming frighteningly frequent in N.Ontario. Bells, noise, spray, all the avoidance techniques can't help in that case. Thankfully he didn't heed all the "advice" he was given, used his gut and picked up a stainless 119 that turned out to have saved his life. This season a wildlife worker was attacked in almost the same manner, and the bear was driven off after being mortally wounded by a Buck 119 and the provincial employee survived with relatively minor injuries. That's the third bear attack in Ontario this year.
BTW: Almost all his strikes were to the neck and the bear weakened immediately after the 1st strike, and was dead in less than 2mins. I wouldn't bother with hits to the center mass or head, aim for the neck and all the vital blood passages, windpipe and spinal cord.
So in a nutshell for those keeping score, that's Buck 119 -- 2 Bears -- 0 SAK -- -1
Unless you are willing to pack an extra 10lbs of shotty & ammo everytime you go into the bush, it is not out of line to look for a large fixed blade as a last ditch "just in case" weapon against a predatory bear.