Come and take it.
New member
12 or 10 guage with slugs or 000 buckshot.
I have no idea which caliber, nor which model I'd choose, except that I'd steer clear of a semi-auto: this is the Arctic.
It is quite cold...
Things seize in the cold...
Describing the incident, Sir David explained how the bear had approached through the north-western side of the trip-wire system but none of the warning mines had exploded.
It then ripped open the tent on Horatio's side and dragged him out, causing potentially fatal head wounds.
The rest of the camp woke up to screaming and shouts of 'bear!'.
Horatio appeared to try and sit up and stand but the bear reared up and slammed into him, pushing him to the ground. He was not seen to move again, the report says.
There was then a shambolic scramble for guns, but no one in the team could work the rifles.
'In the meantime,' he writes, '[one of the leaders] had got hold of the rifle. He operated the bolt to seek to load and cock the rifle but it failed to fire.
He operated the bolt on three or four more occasions without causing the rifle to fire. On each occasion a bullet was ejected on to the ground leaving the rifle empty.
'The bear then turned on [the leader] and mauled him about the head. He dropped the gun. [The other leader] had previously emerged from the rear of the leaders' tent.
'He was unable to pick up the gun as the bear was over it.
'He realised that, having seen the attempts to shoot the bear fail, he needed the spare bullets but was not immediately conscious of where they were and shouted for help in finding them.'
Unable to load a pen flare, he started throwing stones at the bear - which turned on him and mauled him too.
The bear continued to move between the bodies of Horatio and the two leaders, while attacking other members of the group as they tried to flee.
Sir David described how some members of the camp had managed to escape to about 20 metres from the scene.
He continued: '[The first leader] now managed to find one of the bullets that had been ejected, went back into the front of the tent to retrieve the rifle, loaded the rifle and, as the bear came back close to him, shot it dead.'
Polar bear rifle - what would you use?