OT: Targan out for a swim

[Schone23666]

Originally Posted by weswood

I have a fear of bears. A friend of mine claims the best way to hunt them is with a bow (thinks the broadhead will wiggle around in the body and slice them up). I keep telling him the best way to hunt bears is from the inside of a Bradley with a 25mm chain gun.

Alligators here in the South can get fairly large, but not normaly as big as crocs. I've seen photos of on the was caught not too far from my house (5-7 miles) that was in the 12-15' range.

Is your friend an experienced bowhunter? Because as someone who's actually hunted with bows, I can tell you the only real way you get a kill, after nailing them in a vital spot with a broadhead (better make sure those broadheads are RAZOR sharp, btw), is from excessive blood loss, which can take anywhere from several minutes or even longer depending on how much blood and andrenaline is kicking into the creature once it's hit. If it's a deer, it's galloping away like crazy and you have to track it for a least a mile if not longer before it dies from blood loss. If it's a bear on the other hand....uhhh, better have some high caliber rifle or handgun loaded with magnum rounds ready at hand, because that bear's going to be likely charging at YOU, and he's gonna be pissed. God forbid if you actually shot a mama bear with said arrow and her cubs happen to be nearby...

Anyway, I think that's why a lot of the larger caliber rifles and magnum loads are popular up in Alaska, due to the occasional polar bears that can maul you if you're not careful, among other things.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Schone23666

If it's a bear on the other hand....uhhh, better have some high caliber rifle or handgun loaded with magnum rounds ready at hand, because that bear's going to be likely charging at YOU, and he's gonna be pissed. God forbid if you actually shot a mama bear with said arrow and her cubs happen to be nearby...

This is exactly why I like my combat rules nice and crunchy. In my last Harnmaster game a young heavy horse mercenary decided to leave the rest of the party late one afternoon and go out hunting. He'd bow hunted before and he was a big, strong dude but he'd never hunted bear and he hadn't taken any advice on how best to do so (boar spears are pretty popular in the wilderness of Harn).

Anyhoo, he wasn't particularly looking for bear but that was the first decent sized-creature he tracked and found. He wanted to drill it good and proper so he snuck in upwind until he was pretty close before taking his shot with his bow. Thing is, neither the player nor the character knew much about bears. His first arrow didn't kill the bear and it was turning to look at him when he let fly. He was taken completely by surprise at how fast bears can run when they're pissed off. He ended up ditching the bow and going for a big knife at his belt (blade almost as long as a gladius).

The bear made a big mess of him. He killed it, but if the rest of the party hadn't come looking for him he wouldn't have survived the night. And he was the biggest, meanest, most combat-capable party member. It wasn't even a maximum-sized bear.