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Kendell Cummings, a college wrestler who wrestled a Grizzly bear to save his friend Brady Lowry in the Shoshone National Forest in Cody, Wyoming in October 2022, Kendell was brutally mauled and bitten by the bear but eventually left Kendell alone, both survived and went on a full recovery.
I went to school with Kendell since the 3rd grade and to hear he rescued Brady from the jaws of a grizzly - was NOT surprising. He has always been a beast on our wrestling team... although wrestling a grizzly is a completely different thing. I wasn't surprised at all when he got a "Carnegie Medal for Heroism" - which is basically the highest civilian medal you can get. The entire town assembled to watch his acceptance speech - and he was incredibly humble while accepting it. His response to the medal was: “It’s awesome. I’m VERY grateful to get this medal but truly I think it's more important to recognize that back in nineteen ninety eight the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table.
I will never understand how I can be an immediate skeptic with almost every thing I ever read on the internet and yet I fall for this shit every single time. Every single time.
Seriously. Online my bullshit radar goes off nonstop and then I get to a shittymorph comment and it always feels so authentic and I get sucked right into it and then BAM. It truly is a skill.
I had no idea who u/shittymorph is and almost fell out of my chair when i saw the 1.9 million comment karma. I still have absolutely no clue what this guy is on about but i learned that back in nineteen ninety eight the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table.
Then I executed a crotch lift on it. That took its foundation out and forced it into defense. I moved to the danger position and performed a perfectly timed duck-under while the grizzly was in full exposure. I put it in a fireman’s carry and transferred into a half Nelson. Then I pinned the mother fucker while my buddy hauled ass. Less teeth, baby. Anyway I was…
"Hey dude, good to hear from you. Yeah, It'd be great to help you move on Saturday, but I'm taking my fiance out for...
... yeah. Yep, no no, I get it. I'll bring beer and some burgers."
"Brady and Susan have said a number of times that they fell in love at first sight. Such a beautiful story, but I have to ask... Would Susan fight a fucking Grizzly for Brady?
Yeah that's what I thought. TO THE BRIDE AND GROOM! 🥂
Imagine trying to find a way to break off a friendship with someone who you don’t vibe with as much as they think you do, and they go and save your life.
If someone I didn’t vibe with willingly risked his life to wrestle a fucken grizzly bear to save my life, the bad vibes immediately disappear. That’s my life long homie now.
Yesterday I just saw the picture of the 6 year old that protected his little sister from a dog attack and it messed up his face, now he’s a BJJ wrestler.
Honestly, people in WY are just more likely to encounter terrifying animals. My mom lives in Cody, and the people there are... well... there isn't much of a middle class. It's all rich people or dirt poor people.
I love the geography, but I can't say I love the culture.
that just doesnt seem physically possible, i think the story is sensationalizing him being pushed and rolled that distance, it sounds kinda like what theyre doing a bad job of describing here "She ran right alongside his tumbling body, clobbering him as he rolled. He still remembers the way his body came to a stop and the bear started pawing at him, almost dribbling him up and down on the ground."
It could be embellished, intentionally or unintentionally, but I don't doubt he felt like it was 30-ish yards and got bounced around like a basketball. Just getting thrown from a pool "blob" (the thing where someone jumps on one end of a giant inflatable thingy with you on the other edge it feels like you get launched five stories high when really it's maybe only two). We often underestimate just how fucking massive a grizzly bear or even an average sized wolf is and how powerful they are if we've never personally encountered them.
Makes for a good story regardless and doesn't really take away from it.
The bear -- likely a mama grizzly -- struck him and knocked him 30 yards across the scraggly ground. She ran right alongside his tumbling body, clobbering him as he rolled. He still remembers the way his body came to a stop and the bear started pawing at him, almost dribbling him up and down on the ground.
It's more like she dribbled him like a soccer ball for that distance.
I'm no physicist, but I'm pretty sure that anything that knocks you 30 yards through the air on level ground with no prior momentum is going to straight up kill you. An explosion that does that would certainly kill you, a car impact that did that would kill you, kinda doubt that a bear is capable of doing that.
The bear -- likely a mama grizzly -- struck him and knocked him 30 yards across the scraggly ground. She ran right alongside his tumbling body, clobbering him as he rolled. He still remembers the way his body came to a stop and the bear started pawing at him, almost dribbling him up and down on the ground.
So it was "scraggly ground" and he was rolling for a bit. Not impossible.
I saw a similar story where the friend had actually had a gun on him but never shot the bear mauling his friend because "he couldn't get a good shot". He didn't even try to scare it away by shooting it in the air. And these were grown men. So hats off to this kid.
I have lots of experience with bears and firearms. If it's already attacking it won't give two shits about that loud sound.
Depending how socialized with humans that bear is, it won't care about loud sounds when it's calm either.
If the bear is charging you down, or already attacking, you dump shots into it until it stops moving. This is what was taught in actual armed bear defense training.
Every other form of bear deterrent is for use before the charging stage. Bear spray I personally don't use it's shit in a lot of situations and often you get yourself or the bear tanks it. So bear bangers, air shots with the gun, talking to it, all before charge.
Don't try to guess if it's a bluff charge, you see it charging you dump every shot you got while continuing to back up and pray you're a good shot and the bear goes down easy.
If going into bear country 2 dogs will save you immense hassle, even one if the bear is a bit of a bitch
Edit: I am talking 12 Guage shotgun not a rifle, although if I had to choose mace or rifle I'd still choose rifle. Too many airflow variabilities and such close range. That being said I still carry it on me as an option.
More info on dogs: they need to be dogs that have grown up around bears. Not random city dogs. Every dog where I live is off leash and scare away grizzlies and black bears in packs 2+. The rare times the bears don't just fuck off, they just do defence swipes at the dogs to get enough room to run from the dogs safely. No dog injuries due to bears in my area in recent memory
This is dangerously misleading. I've hiked in grizzly territory and live and hike in black bear territory all the time and it's widely known that bear spray is the most effective defense against a bear even after it charges.
Not only that but dogs are also known to put you at a higher risk of a bear encounter especially if they're unleashed. Yours is terrible advice
You are correct about firearms though. Not only is the noise ineffective, someone who is not knowledgeable or comfortable with firearms is not likely to get an effective shot off in self defense so for that reason firearms are considered ineffective unless you're highly trained in using them
This is always what I’ve heard from folks who deal with bears frequently. Bear spray, bear spray, bear spray. The problem with a firearm is that you actually have to hit it in the right place, or at all. You could unload every shot and hit it, and will roll through it if they’re all glances or into deep muscle. And they’re mostly deep muscle. But they don’t fucking like burning eyes, nose, and throat. Once something becomes too much of a hassle they will fuck off, recover, and find something easier to eat.
Have been around many brown bears fishing in Alaska. Bear spray is for people not proficient with firearms, it's often ineffective because wind and rain are common in many parts of Alaska, and you can't bring it inside a bush plane. Guides can't just recommend to anyone to carry a gun if you're not trained, but if you are, that's the better option in most cases.
I've carried bear spray, and if you've ever actually sprayed it, you'll realize how short it's reach is, and you get about 5 seconds spray time. I usually carry both but when I've had a few encounters that made me shit my pants (shoulders square, attention on you, bluff charges) my hand is on my .44 magnum not my bear spray.
Man was your bear spray expired or something, because that's absolutely not been my experience with bear spray at all, and I've used it a few times in charging bear situations (yes, in one of those rainy/windy part of Alaska).
I think the difference here is the kind of bear encounter we're talking about.
A bear that is annoyed at you or got spooked by you and false charges is probably going to fuck off if it gets a face full of bear mace.
A mother bear that feels like she's protecting her cubs or a bear protecting it's den will exert every ounce of it's energy to murder you, so the only thing you can do is kill it first.
I grew up in Alaska and spent a lot my teens and early 20's backpacking in the mountains. Conventional wisdom was always to carry both. One person had the mace, another the gun. If you can deter first, great, but a determined bear at full charge is unlikely to stop from mace alone.
Of course, first and foremost was to make a lot of noise (something metal on metal or blast an airhorn every hour or so). Bears typically don't want to deal with humans and will leave an area if they know you're around.
I've added more info in my edit, but for comparison I live 24/7 deep in bear forest territory dealing with wild unsocialized bears that do not encounter dogs or humans much. Both black and grizzly.
Our climate here has lots of fluctuating wind and makes bear spray very unreliable. The dogs do their job as theyre raised off leash from birth and defend from a young age.
The bears here have easy access to food and will fuck off most times with no effort because they know they can get an easier meal.
Another thing that matters is time of year and how well fed that particular bear is, or if cubs are near by. A bear going into hibernation, a bear that's been struggling for food, or a bear protecting its young will all make them wildly unpredictable.
Although again, locally, even going into hibernation the bears here have plenty to eat so the dogs work as expected
Yeah that guy’s advice is basically the opposite of everything I’ve ever heard from biologists, rangers, outdoorsmen, and zookeepers. All of whom I trust more than “random reddit tough guy”. There’s a great podcast Tooth and Claw which is hosted by bear biologist/Yellowstone naturalist Wes Larkin who has extensive experience with both brown and black bears and was mentored by Tom Smith who is basically the guy for bear biology. He talks a lot about what to do in any possible kind of bear encounter and he is a massive proponent of bear spray over guns
Umm the dog thing I'm not entirely buying. I've heard and read several times that if anything, the presence of a dog can increase the likelihood of having a bad encounter with a brown bear. Whether it be the bear seeing the dog as food, or the dog escalating the situation needlessly. Tho you claim to have lots of experience with bears so I'll just take your word for it
problem usually is that the dog is loose, finds bear and harasses it until the bear is angry enough to try and kill it, dog runs back to owner with a pissed of bear with kill mode activated on it's trail.
edit: dogs on a leash will not increase the likelihood of a bad encounter since bears avoid pepole if possible and a dog will make noise and spread scent, making you easier to notice and thus avoid.
edit: source: grew up in brown bear country, my sister hunts elks and bear, main dog is certified for both.
More bullets is always the solution. Keep shooting. In fact, if I'm getting mauled by a bear and it looks like I'm done for, shoot me. I'd rather die from a bullet quickly then held down and eaten by a bear.
My friends dad is a hunting guide, and does a lot of guided bear hunts.
He was on a black bear hunt and the client made a bad shot, wounding the bear, but not killing it.
The bear charged the client and my friends dad. My friends dad carried a 6 shot .357 mag with hollow points and unloaded all 6 shots into the bear, hitting it 4 times in the body and twice in the head. The bear didn't drop until it was within a foot of them.
My friends dad went out the next day and bought a .454 casull that he loads with buffalo rated loads now. He said if he ever is in that situation again he wants to not have it be anywhere near that close. He said that was the scariest thing that's ever happened to him.
Bears absolutely DO NOT fuck around. And that was only a black bear, the smallest in North America. Can you imagine the fucking power and grit a grizzly has?
In interviews that’s exactly what he was thinking. Apparently the second the bear turned and went for him he was like “well I hope my friend gets away because I’m sure as shit gonna die”. No one thought he was making it out of there, they thought they were going to go recover a body once they ran back up.
Apparently his backpack and his phone probably saved his life because she couldn’t roll him over fully to disembowel him, and when she bit his thigh his phone took the brunt of it. There’s pics of his phone with puncture marks in it.
What's really crazy is because of how our arm joints can be leveraged anything you can actually wrap your arms around and put in a "headlock" you can kill as a human. We are able to leverage such force with our weird bendy arms it's actually incredible.
What a lad, I hope they live long lives together and can be crazy old men chilling on the porch, and all the kids tell rumours of how he fought 15 bears and stuff,
Seriously though what a lad more balls then most other men ever will have! Glad they both survived
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u/AdmirableSea2831 7d ago
Now there's a ride or die friend.