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Originally Posted by 44 AMP
I'll agree with that, but there is "charge" and then there is charge. Bears like many other mammals will sometimes advance rapidly, sometimes pause making threat display and advance again well below the speed of a full out "charge". Often even aggressive animals with predator instinct won't go into a full out charge /pounce if the "prey" isn't running away.
Most people (myself included) haven't acquired the skill to judge if its a full out charge or just a fast attack, or a bluff. When its a scary beast with big nasty teeth and claws or a couple tons crushing mass we tend to take the prudent course and assume the worst and act on it. And sometimes the people who have been through it enough to have the skill to make a sound judgement, sometimes, they're wrong.
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I had presumed that a guide by profession would know the difference between a mock charge and a full charge, but then again, maybe he was more self-aware of his choice in that moment than anybody is giving him credit for and he just didn't want to chance it while armed only with 9mm.
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Consider this, something I did back before my misspent youth took its toll.
9 shots .357 Magnum, 4.37 seconds, 7 bowling pins cleared off the table.
Aimed shots and two were at the base of a fallen pin facing me.
A personal best for me, and, I didn't even place 3rd that day.
Other people are faster than I was, and of course a rapidly approaching bear adds a degree of inspiration... 8 shots 9mm at a bear beginning at what distance? and was the bear at full speed or just fast enough to make it vital to shoot?? I don't know.
Difficult, sure, impossible? clearly not for that fellow that day.
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Granted, but those bowling pins were stationary targets, not a high-speed moving target such as the bear was. If the bear were at the same distance as those bowling pins and advancing towards you, how much time do you estimate that you would have had before it reached you?
Furthermore, we can't be sure how proficient Shoemaker was with the firearm/load he was carrying, but I'm going to presume that he didn't put anywhere near as much of that expensive Buffalo Bore ammo downrange prior to his encounter with the bear, as you had before you set your personal best record speed-shooting at those bowling pins.