This guy lives about 6 miles from me. I'll add a few additional details and thoughts of my own.
His revolver jammed after his 4th and final shot, which happened to hit the CNS in the neck, just forward of the bears shoulders. The double action revolver couldn't fire the 5th or 6th rounds in the cylinder because one of the remaining bullets in the rounds remaining in the cylinder jumped the crimp and extended out past the face of the cylinder, preventing the cylinder from rotating for the 5th and 6th rounds - normally available in the Ruger Alaskan 454 Casull revolver. Mr. Brush has since switched do a different brand of ammo in the effort to prevent another jam due to bullets jumping their crimp.
I've lived in the area for 31 years. We have more brown bears showing up in residential areas then ever. Brown bear hunting seasons were eliminated and/or largely restricted about 10 years ago. Ever since then, more and more bears learn that they can hang out in residential areas and feed on goats, chickens, pigs, and other human placed food sources without consequence until they get shot in defense of life or property. I'm a firm believer that hunting keeps wild bears wild, and the cessation of hunting results in the development of "problem bears" and problematic human/bear encounters. When sows rear their cubs in the close proximity of human habitation, those cubs are essentially trained by their mother that humans do not need to be avoided. Quite to the contrary, they are trained that there is some pretty good eating to be had in the close proximity to people. Bad training for the cubs and a recipe for increased bear killings in defense of life or property. The most common age of a brown bear killed in residential areas in defense of life & property around here is ~ 3-year olds - when they are out on their own for their first summer season. They've learned to feed in the proximity of people and their developed properties, and not learned to run like heck at the first sight or smell of humans.
I think F&G understands this as they are now issuing a few brown bear hunting permits in this area, and encouraging permit holders to hunt and kill problematic bears in residentially or otherwise developed areas. 12 years ago, a bear that made a nuisance of itself probably wouldn't survive the annual spring and/or fall hunting seasons. Now they do.
Two springs ago a brown bear came into my back yard, ransacked my pheasant coupe and runs and killed two adult tom wild turkeys, 13 ringneck pheasants, and 7 chukar. This spring I was troubleshooting the cruise control in my Ford Explorer in my driveway. I was in the vehicle - doors closed - using a volt-ohm meter on the circuitry/wiring. I opened the driver's door at midnight and the door buzzer sounded. Next I heard the sound of hooves or paws or whatever on the go. I looked up and saw a brown bear taking off from 21 feet away, adjacent to my garage. Bear ran the other way. I don't know if he was watching me in the vehicle or if it was just poor timing that he happened to be walking by when I opened the car door. For those that don't know, it's still light out at 12:00 midnight where I live at the end of May, so I was able to see this bear and watch it trot off down the driveway. Too many brown bears for comfort.
Another tid-bit. There was a brown bear mauling in the same neighborhood that Mr. Brush lives in the prior spring. A sow charged and mauled a local resident that was out jogging down a trail. It had cubs with it. There was another brown bear mauling in this same area a couple of years prior to that. So brown bear maulings are also occuring with more frequency, and not everyone carries fire power with them. In fact, brown bears have been attacking joggers and even bicyclist on a much more common basis in the southcentral area of Alaska the past 5-10 years.
Of all of the bear attacks and maulings I've read about, this attack by an adult boar in a residentially developed area is fairly unique. Adult boars don't survive as many years as this one did by hanging out around people. Sows attacking in defense of their cubs are by far the most common bear maulings/attacks in residentially developed or high human-use areas. And the sows usually abandon the attack once their victim has been disabled. The older boars can live up to 30 years in the wild, and these boars do generally learn over time to avoid humans. Otherwise they don't grow old. If you look at this photo, you'll notice this bear's rib bones are visibly raising ridges on the side of the bear's chest. This bear charged and was killed on August 2nd, and the bear should have been well fattened up by the first part of August. You won't see rib-ridges on a healthy adult brown bear at this time of the year. This old boar's teeth were largely broken and worn away. He was in very poor physical condition for the time of year, and obviously not consuming enough food to survive the winter's hibernation. It's entirely plausible that this bear attacked because it was starving to death. F&G and Mr. Brush both believe this to be the most likely explanation for this charge.
Raises the hairs on the back of my neck when I think about it. This bear, whether or not he mis-identified his prey, was probably charging to kill and consume this man. Again, this is a rather rare cause of brown bear attacks in residential areas in my experience. Good thing too. Since most Alaskans don't pack firepower when walking their dogs through their subdivisions.
But one more Alaskan is now packing firepower in the aftermath of Mr. Brush's bear charge incident. Me. I too now own a Ruger Alaskan 454 Casull and a handy holster. It's a very packable firearm, yet still packs a pretty good punch. First thing I did was load up some maximum-load 335 grain hard cast lead bullets and measure the overall length of six rounds placed in the cylinder. After each shot, I unloaded and measured the remaining rounds for bullet jump. I put a heavy crimp on these bullets. None of them jumped more than 0.011". Think I'm good to go with respect to bullet jump caused jams.
memtb
Glad alls well
