Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- Some of the confusion and fog surrounding the fatal bear attack and failure of bear spray in Wyoming has cleared. The investigators have done their job, and much was learned from the evidence on the ground. The attack occurred on Friday afternoon, the 14th of September, in the Teton Wilderness in Wyoming, near Terrace Mountain.
The hunter, Corey Chubon, and Mark Uptain, the guide, had almost finished processing the 4×4 elk. Mark Uptain, the guide, was attacked first, as he was cutting off the elk’s head. The 250-pound sow grizzly gave no warning. She was first seen in an all-out charge downhill. As the bear mauled Uptain, Corey Chubon, the client, accessed a pistol at their packs, a few yards uphill from the elk.
The pistol involved did not belong to Chubon, the bowhunter who had shot the 4×4 elk. It belonged to Mark Uptain. Corey accessed the pistol, but could not get it to fire. As he was attacked, he tried to throw the pistol to Mark Uptain.
The pistol never reached Mark. The pistol was a Glock, most likely a Glock 10mm, which is becoming a popular choice for bear protection. From trib.com:
As the bear first hit Uptain, who carried bear spray in a hip-slung holster, Chubon went for a Glock that his guide had left with their gear a few yards uphill. For some reason, he could not get the handgun to fire. When the female grizzly diverted her attention away from Uptain and toward the Floridian, he tossed the pistol to his guide. Evidently, it didn’t make it to Uptain, who was a lifelong elk hunter, small-business owner and family man.
Within moments, the bear turned back toward Uptain. Chubon, whose leg, chest and arms were lacerated by the bruin, ran for his life. His last view of Uptain, which he relayed to investigators, was of the guide on his feet trying to fight off the sow.
Was a round chambered in the Glock? Many guides insist on carrying pistols, or firearms generally, without a round in the chamber. This can work if you diligently practice chambering a round when you draw the pistol.
If you are unfamiliar with semi-automatic pistols, you may not know how to chamber a cartridge, especially while being mauled by a grizzly.
In 45 years experience of pistol instruction, I have found it common for inexperienced people to lack basic knowledge about how to load pistols.
Throwing a pistol you are unfamiliar with, to the owner who knows how to use it, is reasonable if you cannot make the pistol fire.
In a similar situation 12 years ago, use of a pistol to defend against a grizzly was almost thwarted because the client could not figure out how to extract the pistol from the guide’s holster. Once he extracted it, he killed the charging grizzly at a distance of 10 feet. The bear fell three feet from him.
In the attack in Wyoming, Corey Chubon escaped the attacking grizzly and ran to the horses, which were tied uphill. He mounted a horse and rode to the top of the nearest ridge, where he was able to make a cell phone connection and direct rescuers to the scene. They arrived that afternoon in a helicopter. Corey’s father said it took two hours.
At some point, Mark Uptain emptied the bear spray he had in a holster on his thigh at the attacking grizzly. The investigators could smell the bear spray on the attacking grizzly’s head a day later when she had charged them and they had killed her.
Mark’s body was found about 50 yards uphill from the remains of the elk carcass. It appears he had walked the 50 yards. The bears had attacked him again in that location and had killed him with bites to the head.
The rescuers had found the elk carcass following directions from Corey Chubon, by 7 pm on Friday evening. We may never know if Mark Uptain was still alive at that point. He was probably in the timber, 50 yards away uphill. The Glock was later found a few yards uphill from the elk. The rescuers made the decision to return to base in the helicopter, without a team searching the site of the elk carcass.
There was less than an hour of daylight left. It has not been reported if any of the rescue team in the helicopter at 7 pm were armed.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
I have read many articles and posts to articles about an empty chamber being best for carry. This just showed how stupid that is.
What I don’t get, is why the ” Experts ” keep saying, that they’ll never know why this bear attacked? What the hell ? Because they’re bears… Grizzly bears ! That’s what they do when you’ve got something they want, like a tasty Elk… and sometimes for no reason at all ! It just bothers me the way these people think they know what these bears are going to do and how they’re supposed to act . There’s a reason so many of them were killed years ago, because, they are easily agitated, and fierce enough to take on multiple… Read more »
Carrying a modern semi-auto in Condition 3 is suicidal! Under the stress of combat, one’s hands are transformed into sweaty, ten-thumbed paddles. When I went trough the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Posse gun phase, I was advised to load a round [d in the chamber, , close the action and then insert a fully loaded magazine into the grip. It is IMPOSSIBLE to experience a NEGLIGENT* discharge with a Glock, unless the trigger is fully cycled in that safe action pistol.
Durabo
* The only ACCIDENTAL discharge I ever experienced was the first time I had sex
I do not trust bear spray. It only works 50% of the time. The reason I say 50% of the time is because half the time the wind will be in the wrong direction. I do a lot of bear hunting and could go forever but notice, the people that really push bear spray care more about the bears not being killed than about me living.
I commented last week on the other thread regarding this bear attack; I am the hiker/horseback rider who frequents Turpin Meadows trailhead and knows exactly where the incident occurred. I mentioned I carry 2 firearms (one being the Glock 20 which is most likely the type of firearm that the guide had), and 2- 3 canisters of spray (each person) readily accessible and I’m a hiker – not kneeling over a carcass. Anyway…I had some suggestions in that comment that could start being implemented in the field. What is now bothering me is the attitude of WY Game & Fish… Read more »
Very sad. May God heal this family from their great loss. Sincere condolences to all involved.
When we went out hunting in the tundra, always had an armed guy with his head on a swivel guarding the guy dressing. 12 guage with 1.5 oz slugs and everybody carried a 44 magnum. We knew we were in their backyard, albeit a million acres of it. When you see pad prints the size of a correll dinner plate, see a smaller grizzley stretch 9.5 ft, and ccaws over 4 inches, you gain that knowledge you are not top of the food chain, but definately on the menu. The guy dressing had his gun within reach. Where I lived,… Read more »
Spray does not work when the animal and or the man is relied up. Their senses are overpowered by anger, fear or what ever. Sad situation all around. What ever actually happened will not be known but it appears something was not planned correctly. God Bless Mark Uptain and his family.
I wonder why there isn’t Lion spray in Africa or Tiger spray in India? Grizzly bears are the largest land predators in the world. Do you think the folks in Africa and India realize something that we in the USA are missing?
I believe this was an archery hunt so no long gun. Bear spray studies in Alaska show the spray is more effective at deterence than hand guns. On elk hunts in Wy and Mt the guides carried neither spray or handguns. I ALWAYS had bear spray on my belt. However never saw a bear neither did any of the other hunters in camp. Sad story.