# Will a regular person with a chainsaw kill a charging Grizzly bear? Who wins and dies? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 23, 2023, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524 "2023-03-23T00:40:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/101 "2023-03-24T18:28:36Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I would think an enraged griz would snap any spear stuck into it, mortally wounded or not. That may be true, but humans have managed to kill grizzlies (and much larger animals) with spears for far longer than chainsaws (or chains, or saws) have been around. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/102 "2023-03-24T19:43:24Z")
I’d probably rather have the .45, because there’s a decent chance that just firing it will scare the bear away. That’s about all it would be good for, though. It would work okay if the bear was coming at you with a banana, though. That’s a standard defense against a banana-wielding opponent. Especially if you haven’t prepared the 2-ton weight to drop on him. However, you would be in big trouble if the bear came at you with a pointed stick. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/103 "2023-03-24T19:49:06Z")
Or a .45! ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/104 "2023-03-24T19:49:32Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > However, you would be in big trouble if the bear came at you with a pointed stick. Then, just offer _him_ a banana, and put on a sad face. Or, better still, bring along a friend who doesn’t run as fast as you. And spray your friend with Bear Spray to slow him down even more. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/105 "2023-03-24T19:57:32Z")
> [@JoePockets](#): > > What a horrible thought, let them have there space why would anyone what to kill or maim a majestic animal like that? I was brought to eat what you kill when you go hunting as most do. I do my hunting in the supermarket now & leave the deer and Pheasants alone. Well some of us like to do our bear hunting in Home Depot. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/106 "2023-03-24T20:00:15Z")
I knew a guy who claimed he hunted kodiaks with a small group of hunters using 8’ spears. I understand each of them took along a .45 just in case. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/107 "2023-03-24T20:03:10Z")
I’m guessing the group was even _smaller_, at the end of the hunt. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/108 "2023-03-24T20:03:40Z")
All I can say is at least he returned. Sans bear. Perhaps it’s just as well. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/109 "2023-03-24T20:13:23Z")
I’d slip on the banana peel.☺ ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/110 "2023-03-24T20:14:57Z")
Divert his attention by making him laugh—genius! ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/111 "2023-03-24T20:28:50Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > If you had a hot saw and knew how to use it you might get in a killing blow in before the bear ripped your head off. Wow, there really is a tv show about everything. Oh yeah, money goes on the bear. Even if it didn’t snort a bunch of cocaine. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > If the bear attacks you with a banana you’d be okay though, because there are known techniques for disarming something that’s coming at you with a banana. I don’t know about that. The _Left Behind_ guy said the banana was God’s perfect creation. Kinda hard to top that. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/112 "2023-03-24T20:30:22Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > The _Left Behind_ guy said the banana was God’s perfect creation. Kinda hard to top that. Sidetrack, but given the way the thread is going - what was his reasoning? Considering what wild bananas look like compared to domesticated ones, I’d say bananas are a marvelous feat of human engineering. [https://t3.ftcdn.net/jpg/00/62/88/92/360\_F\_62889232\_5EpYcsG8DXg0PZwu7bnPIvMQ8xm4L10H.jpg](https://t3.ftcdn.net/jpg/00/62/88/92/360_F_62889232_5EpYcsG8DXg0PZwu7bnPIvMQ8xm4L10H.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/113 "2023-03-24T20:36:11Z")
I’ll let you see for yourself. Video is bad quality, just over a minute long. Unassailable logic. > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-OLG0KyR4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-OLG0KyR4) ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/114 "2023-03-24T20:51:07Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > Unassailable logic. I see, so he really has never seen a wild banana, then. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/115 "2023-03-24T20:52:00Z")
Oh, great! I’ve been stalked by a bear for 3 or 4 years now. For real. One lives on the place. He gets plenty to eat. Feral piglets, fox grapes. Wild turnips. Every bug you can imagine. And the pond is full of food a bear would eat. So I’m sure he’s not wanting my skinny ass for food. I carry all manner of gear when we walk. My trusty Win. Bear spray. I wear bells. We’re loud. I have a handgun, as well. I’ve been warned that’s not the weapon to choose, tho’. And 4 chicken-livered dogs. My CNA is always with me. She has bear spray as well. I’m a jangly crazy lady clomping around in the woods. Now I gotta tote a chainsaw? I think I’d rather be bear chow. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/116 "2023-03-24T21:02:33Z")
I was half expecting [hoping?] a Kodiak bear to appear on screen, maul the two idiots, and eat the banana. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/117 "2023-03-24T21:13:26Z")
Not only would that have improved that video, it would have saved us from the horror of Kirk Cameron acting again. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/118 "2023-03-24T21:21:55Z")
Indeed, _Growing Pains_ was not intelligently designed by casting Cameron on that show (not that is was intelligently designed in other respects, either). ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/119 "2023-03-24T21:32:22Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > Or a .45! what about an LP? Wouldn’t a whole album be more effective against the bear than just singles? Especially if it was like [OddJob’s hat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL9kNvtdrNM)? > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I carry all manner of gear when we walk. My trusty Win. Bear spray. I wear bells., You’re no ding-a-ling! ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2023, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524/120 "2023-03-24T21:51:37Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I carry all manner of gear when we walk. My trusty Win. Bear spray. I wear bells. We’re loud. You know how they say you can tell apart a black bear and a grizzly bear? The grizzly has bells stuck in its teeth and its mouth smells like bear spray… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-a-regular-person-with-a-chainsaw-kill-a-charging-grizzly-bear-who-wins-and-dies/981524.md?page=7)