In the scenario you described, you were lucky. Do you think that in a replay, you would have had the presence of mind to draw your Schofield and place the shot without risk to your Dad? Just asking. You were the man on the scene and I'm curious.
Absolutely, no question at all. I was thinking and unusually calm the entire time, knowing that if I messed up, Dad might not make it. It would have been easier and quicker to simply draw, shove the muzzle to almost contact the side of the head where its brain is and pull the trigger. I would have had no difficulty doing that whatsoever. I had shot cattle before in the brain and knew exactly where to put that bullet ..... but I did not have a bullet to deliver.
I was icy cool as I've been nose to nose with bears a few times and I knew that if I blew that shot ...
I have experienced the same icy coolness on my close encounters with a bear, but it was not due to previous experience in having close encounters with bears. I need to thank my grandmother for training me as a pre-schooler to never run from a bear or wolf nor make a fast move. They lived right against the north boundary of the Riding Mountain National Park and I spent a lot of time playing outdoors in the summer on their farm as a little kid. There were a lot of bear around. It takes self control and a fellow needs to be able to think, even a pre-schooler like I was at the time, if he isn't going to simply do what the adrenaline tells him to do. So, many years later I was deer hunting on my father's farm. The sun set, and a half hour after sunset, when legal hunting time was over, I started the half mile hike through the bush back to the farm yard. In the advancing darkness, I came across a spot in the bush where it looked like someone had been raking leaves into a few piles. I was mystified, it was a long way from the nearest road. Then I noticed a big hole under an Aspen tree and like a moron, knelt down to try and see in the hole. It was too dark, so I pulled out my little Mag light, focused the beam on the ground beside where I was kneeling and then swung the beam into the hole. By gum, there was a huge black face looking at me about 18 inches away .... a big Black Bear just inside his den. Totally unexpected! Instant adrenaline rush, but my grandmother's training complete with visions of her shaking her finger in my face to emphasize the point, cut in within a fraction of a second. My Marlin 45-70 was in my right hand and I cocked the hammer, pointed the muzzle in the bear's face and smoothly stood up and stepped back. I would say that took from one to two seconds .... smooth and as fast as I thought I could stand up and step back without the bear thinking that it was a fast move and reacting. I was in complete control of myself the whole time, but my nice leather glove was also in my left hand with the Mag light, and it had accidentally dropped out of my hand when I pointed the Mag light into the bear's face about 18. Staring the bear in the eye, keeping my muzzle pointed right between those two eyes, in as smooth and reassuring motion as I figured the bear would like, I bent my legs and stretched my arm out just enough to reach the glove and retrieved it. Since the big fellow wasn't causing any harm and behaved himself, I left him alone and continued my hike home.
The time I ran into a bear with a stringer of Jackfish, I was about a half mile from the road and in the Riding Mountain National Park. A friend of mine was right behind me when I rounded a bend in the path and there was a full grown Black Bear standing on his hind legs right in front of me, just staring at me and my stringer of Northern Pike. I heard a sound behind me of my friend sprinting back down the path toward the Bead Lakes and I would have to admit that the sound of my friend's feet leaving the starting blocks made my muscles snap into sprint readiness, but grandmother's strict instructions cut in and I resisted the urge to flee. Instead, I began to step slowly backward, with the plan that if the bear decided to advance toward me, I would lay the stringer on the path, but not unless I had to. If that failed, I was already unsnapping my fillet knife with the idea of using it as my backup plan. Running back was not an option because my wife was back there somewhere. Again, I had experienced a blast of adrenaline when I looked up and saw that big boy standing on his hind feet right in front of me, but I was icy calm the whole time. From what I read of a lot of people in emergency situations, some just soil their drawers, but most seem to become perfectly calm and level headed. That is what I experienced. Would I have had the presence of mind to draw a 45 Schofield on my belt if I had had one? I instinctively reached for my fillet knife and unsnapped it calmly without really having to think much about it and I have never practiced fast drawing my fillet knife, so there would have been no difference if I had a 45 Schofield on my belt except I have practiced quite a bit with that.
I was charged by what I could only conclude was an insane Black Bear once. I was swathing hay on our farm on a beautiful summer day, almost a quarter mile from any bush when I saw a Black Bear coming toward me dead ahead. I was driving a Versatile swather with no cab; the platform was about four feet off the ground. To my disbelief, the Black Bear looked at me from about 75 yards away and then flat out charged. I could not believe it was happening since the swather is a lot bigger than a bear and makes a lot of noise. He was closing the distance at about the speed of an Olympic sprinter and I was thinking real hard about what to do, but at least this time given our two closing speeds, I had about four seconds to come up with a solution before he was on the platform helping me off my seat. In my mind, only a bear possessed would charge a fellow on a swather and I figured it was frothing ready to leap onto my platform and rip me to ribbons. I thought of the hammer back in the tool box but there was no time to get it, and there was no way I could outrun a bear with that old swather, so I raised the cutting table to meet the bear about where his legs joined his body, and raised the reel so that he would be forced to leap under it rather than try to jump over it, and I pushed the lever full speed ahead. Those last few yards were covered pretty fast and just before impact, the bear lost its nerve and broke away and jogged off across the hayfield. Personally, I think the bear must have been a mental case to do something like that and I shudder to think of what might have happened if I had been on foot as I often was in that area. Still, I was clear headed, thinking through options, and reached the best decision I think I could have reached under the circumstances and the whole event probably didn't last much more than five seconds. Like I say, some people may pee their pants, but from what I read, a lot of people are able to command icy calmness in the face of an emergency and pumping adrenaline.
Few people who have contributed to this dialogue have had the experience of a bear encounter and fewer yet those who have experienced an actual charge by an enraged animal. The rest are living an armchair wilderness fantasy. Nothing wrong with that until you have to put it on the line.
Well, I think you are right again. Nevertheless, I think there is a lot of merit in imagining a situation, asking yourself what you would do in that situation, and then rehearsing your plan so that if it ever actually happens, one at least has mentally trained oneself to respond accordingly. I totally agree that fake scenarios do not produce the adrenaline explosion, but my grandmother's training to me as a preschooler sure shouted loud and clear within a fraction of a second of my very first bear encounter. As far as boastful talking by armchair folks, there is a nice Bible quote that I have always thought was cool, 'Let not he who puts on his armour boast like he who takes it off' (1 Kings chapter 20 verse 11). Still, when the chips are down, I think some of us will experience that icy calm you spoke of. I really do like the idea of something on my belt in the bush that will send a 250 grain slug out the barrel at 850 fps. At least it is better than my fillet knife.
