Dear DD4life,
Well I was certainly HOPING you were just putting me on. I first became interested in bears, when I saw a short film on TV, about Black Bears. I believe it was filmed in Pennsylvania, but am not sure. In one shot of this bear, climbing a tree, the bear must have decided to rest his legs, for he clamped his jaws onto a branch that was jutting out from the trunk of the tree, and let go with all four feet, and just hung there by his jaws for about a minuite and a half! The guy who was speaking the blurb in the background, said he reckoned the bear was about a 600 pounder! Just imagine the strength of those Jaws!Then in another part of the same video, he showed a TV Show that had gone sadly wrong! Apparently bears can be really turned on, (Or off!) by certain smells. On this show, they had a supposedly tame bear, very friendly and docile. The female host of the show appeared, and sat down on a chair about two feet from the bear. It seems that ladies perfumes are made from some very peculiar substances! Like the scent (Stink?) glands of a civet Cat for example. They didn't say what perfume the woman was wearing, and I don't know if they ever did find out what it was that set the bear off, but as soon as the woman sat down, he attacked here Tooth and Nail! Three guys jumped on the bear and tried to pull the animal off her, but they might as well have been Mosquitos for all the good they did, Finally one shot some kind of chemical spray into the bear's nose and eyes, which distracted him enough for them to get the woman to safety! The bear looked quite a stout animal! They never did say what the extent of the poor woman's Injuries were, but at one point, the bear seemed to have most of her head in his mouth!.
Then I joined up with this local Wild West Group, who put on a show at Glendale's (AZ.) Annual Frontier/wild West Days Do! A regular guest of Honor is Dan Haggerty, who used to play the lead role of "Grizzly Adams!" I never knew until I got talking to him, but the man has been training Wild Animals since he was a pre-teen! He's trained over twenty Lions and several of the other Big Cats, Tigers included! I told him that I was VERY WARY of bears, and that when I saw these tourist films, showing crowds of people in very close proximity to bears, my blood ran cold, and I was in continual suspense as to when one of them would get Pissed off, and EAT someone! Dan said that my attitude was a very healthy one! He was telling me about the Huge Bear that acted(?) with him on the Show. He said he had owned her since she was a tiny orphan cub, about ten inches long. He'd bottle fed her, and knew her very well, and was very adept at recognising her moods. He said there had been times when although a shoot had been scheduled at a certain time, he sensed that it would have been unwise to ask her to perform that day, and the show had to wait! I told him about a tale I had been told by a guy in Wyoming in 1974. Bus Badger, who my then wife and I stayed with for a week, when we had a vacation in the USA, just a few months before we went to Australia, told me of how he and his wife, Maureen, had been taking a trip through Wyoming, and had come to a scenic overlook of some kind! They got out of the car, and noticed a crowd of people, clustered around one of the other cars. They went to get a closer look at what was going on, and Bus suddenly shouldered his way to the hood of the car, (Maureen telling the tale at this point!) This Idiot Tourist Woman, had somehow seen this very young bear cub, had gone over to it, picked it up, and had sat it on the hood of her car, then put her infant son next to it, and was having a photo session!!! Bus apparently shouldered people out of the way, grabbed the bear cub, and pitched it over the guard rail, where it rolled down the slope aways, then shouted with great urgency to EVERYONE, "Get back into your cars NOW! Shut all windows and doors, and get the HELL OUTA HERE!" Maureen who was no fool, was already running for their car, and she and bus were NOT the last car to leave that Scenic Overlook! Bus said, that the carnage that might have occurred, had Momma Bear suddenly noticed that her baby was not around, and had come looking for it, did not bear thinking about! (Pun unintended!!!)
I have been watching on Netflix, some of the episodes of the series on, "The Alaskan State Troopers." Those guys are Wonderful Drivers! I don't know if they speed the driving sequences up at all, but those Troopers drive on snow covered roads at speeds I wouldn't ATTEMPT! And I drove professionally for YEARS! I guess if they were brought up to it..............?
They sometimes get much too close to the big bears than I am happy with, but I do know that a skilled camera man can make things look a whole lot different than they actually are! So maybe the Cops are a lot safer than they look on the Screen! Sure hope so! Like I said before, being eaten by a Grizzly Bear must be a Horrible Way To End one's Life!
I watched that movie, "Grizzly Man." I thought it was a Crock of Excement! The young man was nothing bt a fowl-mouthed Hippie! The Twit could not open his mouth without the "F" word spilling out many times. In fact the ONLY part of the film I DID like, was the shots where he had made friends with some Red Foxes. The foxes showed no fear of him, and one even lay on it's back and permitted him to stroke it's belly! I once caught a tiny fox cub when I was in England. I picked it up and cuddled it, and wanted to keep it, but we had a dog at home, and I didn't want to see the poor thing bitten by the dog, or have my Mom make me set it free in a place where it would not be able to survive, so I carried it back to the last place I had seen it running fee, and gave it a last cuddle, before setting it down! Then years later, I saw a woman in Coventry, in a store, and the Fox Fur she was wearing suddenly Moved! I was with my first wife , and she saw it too and squealed with delight! The lady who was wearing the fox, laughed and told us she had found him apparently abandoned, and had made a pet of him Adele and I both stroked him gently, and he seem to appreciate the attention. Adele asked the lady if any of her neighbors kept Chickens, and the lady laughed and said,"Not as far as she knew!" He was a really magnificent animal, well fed, in fact a trifle plump, had a beautiful glossy red coat, and his brush, was nothing short of Magnificent!
Thanks for the Balls, Patches, etc. I really appreciate the Little Elk skin Pouch! Thank you very much also for the TOTALLY unexpected Conicals, and the R.E.A.L. bullets. I shall have fun (When I can afford the GAS!!!) trying those out, and making notes on where they group in relation to their points of aim! I assume the conicals do NOT need a Patch? (BUT what if I am wrong?) Best wishes, Johnnie Roper,Alias:Gunslinger9378.
