I know nothing about hunting, and the scenario I’m referencing here is fictional. But I’d like a real-world answer, insofar as it’s possible, from someone who knows about hunting.
Toward the end of Jurassic Park there’s a scene with Laura Dern and the game warden. The velociraptors have gotten loose, and he’s armed with a shotgun. He tells her they can’t both run to safety because they’re being stalked by a raptor in the jungle just in front of them. He tells her to run rearward to safety while he advances forward to deal with the raptor. Seems a good plan, but he falls victim to another raptor he didn’t know was there. So…
You’re an experienced hunter in a similar tactical position:
Dangerous, predatory animal laying in wait a close distance in front of you
You’re armed and experienced with a weapon that can bring down the animal
You’re attempting to protect an unarmed and inexperienced person behind you, and ultimately ensure their retreat to the rear
You’d like to live through this encounter and perhaps, but not necessarily, kill the animal
Let’s further assume there is no second predator, and feel free to substitute an actual animal into the scenario
What are your chances here? What variables would an experienced hunter be thinking about? What choices of action are available to you?
Well, part of me would want to bag the raptors, but the other part of me would be kicking myself if I didn’t leave myself open to the opportunity of spouting of, “Clever girl,” thus ensuring my lasting legacy in YTMND.com forever.
I don’t really see much point in sending a non-combatant off by herself in that scenario. If the raptor doesn’t get her, something else probably will.
Also wouldn’t be running.
I’d get us both moving the same direction, together to the closest safety/defensible position. If the raptor attacks, I’ll fight it until I’m dead or it is. If the non-combatant appears somewhat willing to fight, I might give her my sidearm or a big stick or something, so if something happens to me, she can at least die fighting.
Another possible option would be to build a big ass fire. Most animals are afraid of fire, and it may keep them at bay. The downside there is, when I run out of fuel for the fire, we’re still no closer to safety.
An option for her might be to climb a tree while Dino eats me. I don’t know if raptors can climb trees or not. If they can’t, she can maybe wait until it goes away, or buy time to form another plan.
The scenario with the raptor is completely different than the scenario with pretty much any existing predatory animal. Animals attack because they’re hungry or because they feel threatened. Very few animals will attack simply because they want to kill you. Jurassic Park made the raptors seem as if they hunted and attacked purely out of sport. Only humans do that (although perhaps dinosaurs did that as well?).
So in this particular scenario, faced with a large animal of some kind that is capable of killing me, I would most certainly not direct the other person to “run” to safety. I would put a little distance between the two of us and then we would both move slowly and carefully away. Predatory animals have a very strong chase instinct. Running away forces some primitive instinct to kick in and they have no choice but to chase you. This is why they tell you that the best thing to do when facing an aggressive dog is to stand still or back away very slowly. If the animal came at us, at that point I would try to make myself seem as big and loud as possible, or defend myself with the weapon if necessary. At no time would I direct the other person to start running. That might cause the animal to take his attention off of me and chase her.
That’s what I’d do. Slow and careful. Sounds like an exciting, action-packed scene, doesn’t it?
First of all, nobody knows how velociraptors actually behaved or hunted. We’ve got some fossils, that is all, like everything else in the movie, is because it is a movie.
Running defines you as a prey animal, you should never run when confronted by a predator, like a bear, cougar, lion, tiger, take your pick. If you run it will trigger an instinctual response in the predator that will probably cause it to charge you and take you down.
You should try to be large and noisy, wave your arms and yell, and back away out of the area in an attempt to defuse the situation. If this doesn’t work and the predator charges you, you should fight back. “Play dead” is one of the worst pieces of common advice for dealing with a bear I have ever heard. I hope whoever came up with that advice got eaten.
In the OP scenario, the armed hunter should slowly withdraw from the area. Advancing to kill this dangerous animal, while alone and with someone else you are in charge of protecting, is just nuts. But then we wouldn’t have much of a movie.
And the shotgun was a bad idea. They are up close and personal weapons, even if they are loaded with slugs as I assume those would have been in the movie.
A high powered rifle with scope would be my choice. Works near and far. Oh look, the velociraptor is crossing the field 100 yards away, I’ll just put a couple rounds through him, doesn’t movie well either.
I don’t think the shotguns were loaded with slugs in the movie. They had a shot with few, but large pellets. This was shown during a scene where the camera zooms dramatically in on a window with a few holes in it and a shotgun on the floor or something.
What was the terrain and available cover? If it was dense jungle, I could maybe see using a shotgun on the theory that clean shots beyond killing range would be rare anyway, but I think I’d still rather have a rifle for better range and higher magazine capacity. I mentioned in another thread, I’m a big fan of having a long gun and a side arm that use the same round. Wonder if .357 magnum is big enough for Dino?
There’s always the option of staking the other person out in an open field as bait and doing your own ambush.
The most important rule I recall hearing about escaping from a dangerous animal is that you don’t have to be the fastest person running away – second slowest should be good enough.
These .600 Nitro Express cartridges are megga expensive and sell from about $40 onwards each ! So it would cost $200 every time you loaded the Zeliska.
