Bear Knocks Gun Out of Hunter’s Hand, Leaves Him With 16-Inch Gash
When hunters are armed to the teeth with crossbows, guns, and knives, the odds are stacked pretty heavily against the animals they’re after. So when an animal who only wanted to be left in peace is able to turn the tables, give a hunter a Mayweather-worthy smackdown, and escape with his life, it’s hard not to feel a sense of justice. And a grizzly bear in Montana just gave a bowhunter a lashing that might make even Floyd Mayweather cringe.
Bowhunter Tom Sommer was tracking an elk through the forest in southwestern Montana when he and his hunting partner came within 30 feet of a bear eating from an elk carcass. The bear, seemingly sensing the danger, chose fight over flight and charged at Sommer. His partner let loose with bear spray while Sommer ran around a tree, dropping his own. Sommer grabbed his pistol and turned to shoot, but the bear was having none of it. He smacked Sommer’s arm down, bit his thigh, clawed his wrist, and put a 16-inch gash in his head that it later took 90 stitches to close.
His hunting partner unleashed another can of bear spray, and the animal took off, escaping before either man could shoot him.
It’s, of course, good for Sommer and his friends and family that he survived. But it’s hard not to root for the bear to win the fight and get away. After all, he was only trying to save his own life from a hunter who likely would have taken it for entertainment.
Hunting has no place in the 21st century. Terrorizing an animal who wants to live and trying to justify that by calling it a “sport” can only end violently, regardless of which individual bears the consequences.
