Armed 11-Year-Old Rescues Family by Shooting Charging Brown Bear
OutdoorHub Reporters 10.22.19
Some quick thinking by an 11-year-old boy saved multiple members of his family when a charging brown bear attacked them during a fishing trip in Hoonah, Alaska.
Local news outlets indicate Elliot Clark, 11, was hiking across Chichagof Island with three family members to a fishing hole they had heard was holding fish. According to the reports, Elliot was walking behind his uncle Craig, his grandfather, a cousin and three dogs.
Craig and Elliot were the only ones in the group carrying firearms when an aggressive brown bear exploded out of the brush, knocking Craig and his grandfather to the dirt.
“There was four of them in a line. My son was third,” Elliot’s father Lucas Clark told the Juneau Empire. “The bear came down the trail at them, fella in the front, who was his uncle, the bear was on him so quickly that he didn’t have time to take his rifle off his shoulder.”
Instead, it was Elliot with the fast reaction. He raised his shotgun to his shoulder and unloaded a blast of birdshot at the bear.
“His first shot was a light load of birdshot,” Lucas Clark explained. “That first shot hit him in the shoulder and did absolutely nothing. The next shot hit him in the nose and traveled down through the neck.”
Elliot was able to fire three shots on the bear, with his third shot coming from so close it left powder burns on the bear’s snout. With the bear down, Elliot’s uncle hit the bear one last time to ensure the bear was dead.
Lucas later claimed the fact Elliot wasn’t carrying his shotgun with a sling might be the reason they are still alive.
“He was carrying it in his hands rather than on his shoulder,” he said. “That was the problem with the other ones, when the bear came at his uncle, he had his rifle on his shoulder and the bear was already very close.”
Watch the video below for more details:
