The Wyoming Occupational Safety and Health Administration has recommended that a big game outfitting company “evaluate its training policy on bear spray use” after a grizzly bear killed one of its hunting guides.
OSHA also said in a “fatal alert” following the death of Martin Outfitters’ guide Mark Uptain, that the company should “evaluate its operating procedures for bear country.” OSHA is investigating Uptain’s death following an attack by a grizzly and her cub that also injured bow-hunting client Corey Chubon.
During a brief but deadly melee on the slopes of Terrace Mountain, six air miles from the trailhead in the Teton Wilderness of the Bridger-Teton National Forest, a mother grizzly charged the pair as they field dressed a bull elk, according to information from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and OSHA.
Uptain’s 10mm Glock semi-automatic pistol was with a pack and shirt a short distance away, and Chubon’s bear spray was in a pack, the state agencies said. The guide was carrying his bear spray and used it before he died — but not, investigators believe, before sustaining mortal injuries — Game and Fish Regional Wildlife Supervisor Brad Hovinga said in an interview with WyoFile.
Chubon, whom the bear also mauled, grabbed Uptain’s Glock but couldn’t get it to fire, Hovinga said.
A related investigation by the Teton County Sheriff’s office resolved a key question; whether Uptain’s Glock was in good working order.
Game and Fish turned the weapon over to the department, which gave it to its firearms expert, Lieutenant Matt Carr told WyoFile. “It was a fully functional Glock,” said Carr, the sheriff-elect of Teton County.
Neither Game and Fish nor OSHA have completed or released their investigations. While investigators begin to resolve some outstanding questions in the case and issue recommendations, other aspects remain unclear. Two timelines — one developed by Game and Fish, the other by Teton County Coroner Brent Blue — differ. The probes so far leave a foggy understanding of the sequence of events including the infliction of injuries to Uptain, his use of the bear spray, and when he died.
A fast, brief and deadly attack
Game and Fish and OSHA gave the following account of the incident. Chubon arrowed the elk in the evening of Sept. 13, Hovinga said. But the two couldn’t immediately find the mortally wounded animal. The next day, they discovered the elk carcass at the end of what Hovinga said was “a pretty good blood trail.”
There was no evidence, he said, that a bear had yet been to the elk carcass. Nevertheless, “I’m certain it was coming to the scent,” at the time of the attack, Hovinga said.
Before the two began field dressing the elk, “the guide removed an automatic pistol that he carried in a chest holster as well as his shirt and left them with the two men’s packs a short distance up the hill from the carcass…” OSHA wrote in its fatal alert.
“They had removed the intestines and all the guts and were quartering it up,” Hovinga said, Uptain was sawing off the elk’s antlers when the two heard rocks rolling “and turned and discovered the bear coming,” Hovinga said. “It just came to them immediately … at full speed,” over rolling terrain across which there was only a broken line of sight.
The bear hit Uptain as Chubon went for the pistol. “He said he had [the Glock],” Hovinga told WyoFile. “He had a hard time trying to find a clear shot.”
Chubon tried to shoot the bear, Hovinga said. “He grabbed [the pistol], was unable to make it fire,” Hovinga said. “There was not a round in the chamber, so the gun was empty. He couldn’t make the gun work.”
After hitting Uptain, the grizzly quickly turned and bit Chubon in the ankle.
“He swung me around in the air,” Chubon told WKMG Television in Orlando, Florida, near where he lives. That’s when Chubon threw the pistol toward Uptain.
It was “a matter of seconds” during which the bear attacked Uptain, turned on Chubon and then returned to further maul Uptain, Hovinga said.
But the Glock, “it didn’t make to Mark [Uptain],” Hovinga said. “The hunter fled.”
Chubon mounted a horse and rode to where he had cell service and called for help.
Operating the 10mm Glock
Searchers and Game and Fish personnel flew into the Teton Wilderness, found the site, discovered Uptain dead and ultimately killed both bears in a sequence of events documented by the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
Investigators found the Glock and its magazine in different locations, Hovinga told WyoFile. The evidence raised speculation that Chubon might have pushed the magazine release button below the trigger guard thinking it was a safety switch.
“In the process of trying to manipulate [it], we think he dropped the magazine, or it wasn’t engaged and it fell out when he picked [the pistol] up,” Hovinga said.
The Glock 10mm semi-automatic pistol has three safety features designed to prevent accidental discharge, according to web descriptions of the weapon, but none is an external “on-off switch” typical of many firearms. For safety reasons, many semi-automatic pistols are carried without a round in the chamber — essentially un-cocked.
To arm a semi-automatic pistol like the Glock, one must rack, or pull back, the slide, which is the top plate of the weapon. This moves a bullet from the magazine into the firing chamber and arms the firing pin. The operation is the equivalent of cocking a revolver, but less intuitive than the six-shooter action one typically sees in Hollywood Westerns. Once so armed, the Glock is ready to fire by only pulling the trigger.
(Glock lists the firearm as a “10mm auto”, however fully automatic varieties — continuous fire with the trigger depressed — are available only to privileged parties such as law enforcement. Civilian firearms are semi-automatic firing only one round per trigger pull)
WyoFile was unable to contact Chubon.
An uncertain chain of events
When the bear returned to attack Uptain the second time, Chubon retreated. The News&Guide first reported and Hovinga confirmed that Chubon told investigators his last view of Uptain was of the guide on his feet attempting to fend off the attack.
Investigators found Uptain’s body 50 yards uphill from the attack site. They found a canister of bear spray about five feet from his body, a canister that had been discharged and emptied.
“We believe the fatal injuries occurred prior to him deploying bear spray,” Hovinga said. “We feel like he got to the location where he died on his own. All evidence [is] he made it there under his own power.
“There was no evidence the bear had been to where the victim died,” Hovinga said. “We don’t know where the bear spray was sprayed, deployed. [Uptain] hadn’t deployed it before the hunter fled.”
Coroner Blue outlined the nature of the fatal injury.
(CAUTION: Graphic content follows.)
“He had an incisor piercing his brain that we feel is the fatal injury,” Blue told WyoFile. “We’re fairly confident the injury to his brain was the terminal event.
“Could he have staggered after that?” Blue asked. “I really don’t think so. I just don’t see him as having any ability to move after that. I can’t comment beyond that.”
The coroner said he also could not comment about how and when bear spray was deployed because neither he nor deputy coroner Dave Hodges, a sheriff’s office detective, was able to visit the site.
“We never got a chance to investigate the scene,” Blue said. Deputy coroner Hodges was at the helicopter base but “he did not go to the site when they were searching. When somebody dies, we’re supposed to own the scene,” he said, and nothing should be moved or changed before his office says so.
In a county with vast tracts of remote country and body recoveries sometimes occurring in mountainous terrain, however, that doesn’t always happen. “Many times we don’t get to the site,” Blue said.
He said he expects to meet with all county law enforcement to review protocol that gives the corner authority at death sites.
Despite seeming inconsistencies between Game and Fish and coroner’s outline of the events, Hovinga said he does not dispute any element of the coroner’s findings. “We support the coroner’s report,” he said.
OSHA weighs in
Hovinga said the encounter was unusual and “a really unique action” for several reasons. “What we typically see from grizzly bears is if they come in to somebody they typically try to posture and scare people away,” he said. That apparently didn’t happen in this instance.
“When people typically get hurt, it’s an aggressive defense behavior — food guarding, defense of young,” he said. “This showed no defense of young,” and there’s no sign the bears had discovered the elk carcass before the hunters and were trying to guard it.
Conflicts between bears and humans also occur during a surprise encounter when a hunter or hiker stumbles upon a bear. “There was no evidence this was a surprise,” Hovinga said.
“It really doesn’t fit,” the pattern of most grizzly encounters, he said. “It was purely aggressive behavior. It was toward these people for the elk. That’s not typically what we see from a family group of grizzly bears.”
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Grizzly bears enter a state of hyperphagia in the fall, a condition that provokes gluttony in preparation for winter hibernation. They routinely feed on the gut piles of hunter-killed elk and, along with their cousins Alaska brown bears, are known to try to claim carcasses from hunters.
When OSHA investigates a workplace fatality, a category that includes Uptain’s death, it sometimes issues a fatal alert before concluding its investigation.
“Fatal alerts are one of the methods we use to make employers and employees throughout the State aware that a fatal incident has occurred and the circumstances surrounding the incident,” the agency’s website reads. “They are a brief summary of the information gathered by our office and contain a summary of the incident, causes, contributing factors, and recommendations to prevent recurrence from our point of view.”
OSHA listed several significant factors in the incident including the location of the Glock, the location of the two bear spray canisters over the course of the incident, and the fact a bear had not claimed the carcass before Uptain and Chubon discovered it. In addition, “The Outfitter was following the required ratio of one guide to two hunters per the rules set forth by the Wyoming Outfitters and [G]uides board.”
It then recommended “The employer should evaluate its operating procedures for bear country,” and that “[t]he employer should evaluate its training policy on bear spray use.”
WyoFile did not receive a response from Martin Outfitters to two requests for comment on Monday.
This is at least the second time the Wyoming agency has investigated a worker killed by a bear. In 2014 investigators determined that a bear or bears killed field worker Adam Stewart in the Teton Wilderness, and fined his employer Nature’s Capital $13,120 for infractions of workplace safety requirements.
Yellowstone National Park says “group size should be 3 or more,” for safe travel in grizzly country.
Much has been published on precautions to take in bear country and the efficacy of bear spray and firearms in bear encounters. In a 2003 bulletin titled “Tips for Elk Hunters in Grizzly Country,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommends carrying pepper spray and knowing how to use it. It recommends removing the carcass from the area “as soon as possible” and to “immediately field dress the animal and move the gut pile at least 100 yards from the carcass.”
“Carry a defense readily accessible,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department advises. “The knowledge of how to use your defense should be automatic.”
“It is critical to remain vigilant,” when field dressing a game animal, the agency says in a video. “Both you and your partner should have a defense ready”
Other advice, including from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, says that once attacked, victims should lie face down with hands interlaced behind the neck and not move until a bear is satisfied it has neutralized the threat and leaves. The exception would be in the case of a predacious attack, such as when a bear stalks a sleeping person while looking for a meal.
Bear spray has been effective, according to a study of 83 encounters from 1985 and 2006 that was published in the Journal of Wildlife Management. “Of all persons carrying sprays, 98% were uninjured by bears in close-range encounters,” the review states.
A study of 269 incidents involving firearms and bears in Alaska between 1883 and 2009 showed that bears were killed in 61 percent of the incidents. “Although firearms have failed to protect some users, they are the only deterrent that can lethally stop an aggressive bear, reads the article “Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska” that the Journal of Wildlife Management also published.
“Our findings suggest that only those proficient in firearms use should rely on them for protection in bear country,” the authors wrote.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service compared the two methods of defense in a paper “Bear Spray vs. Bullets. Which offers better protection?” that is undated. “Based on [USFWS law enforcement] investigations of human-bear encounters since 1992, persons encountering grizzlies and defending themselves with firearms suffer injury about 50 [percent] of the time,” the report reads. “During the same period, persons defending themselves with pepper spray escaped injury most of the time, and those that were injured experienced shorter duration attacks and less severe injuries.”
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says carrying a sidearm is “another option that can be effective, but only if the bearer is highly proficient with the weapon.” It also recommends trying to reduce exposure to predators while field dressing a game animal, writing “if possible, avoid opening the gut cavity until after you have salvaged all other edible meat.”
The “gutless method,” of field dressing may be one way to minimize scent during the quartering of a game animal. Many tutorial videos on gutless field dressing can be found online.
In Uptain’s death, the role bear spray played remains uncertain. “We know the bear was sprayed,” Hovinga said, because investigators detected spray on the mother after they killed it. “The can was empty,” Hovinga said. “The injuries likely occurred before he was able to deploy bear spray. It could have worked perfectly.”
“[Uptain’s] maneuvers yelling at the bears, trying to get them away from us … [without that]… I probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to escape,” Chubon told the television station. He offered advice. “Make sure you have the right ammunition, the right firearm, make sure you have bear spray.”
A GoFundMe campaign to aid Uptain’s widow Sarah and their five children has raised $207,526 in the two months since his death.
This was a very unfortunate but preventable accident.
1 Bear country-Bear protection.
I read an articale where one guied only packs a 9mm and says he does so for the managable recoil allowing him to lad more rounds. 4 or 5 landed rounds are still better than 6 or 7 misses from a 10mm. So i say pack as big of a caliber with the most stopping power that you are proficiant with.
2. You must wear protection to make it work. A gun or spray several feet away in a pack is like having a condom in your wallet thats in your pants piled on the floor. Just doesnt work.
3 Bear country guide echos 12 gauge semi auto slug, triple OT buck shot, alternating 9 round capacity all day long. To acompany his side arm. And binos.
4 second day recovery of an animal in Bear country does require at least one guard. Period
Terrible, preventable accident. My deepest sympathy for the family.
Its
Not the dark we are affraid of. Its whats IN the dark that scares us. Be prepared.
Seems to me it would be quiet infrequent for a bear to charge so dramatically. Even if they were shooting and spraying, with a grizzly it depends on how determined the bear is, or aggressive. Some bears are hard to stop. Also if I where there I would stand at a tactical distance of 20 yards from the kill with a rifle slug open sight 12 . That bear would have had a very hard time getting the man at work. So sorry for this family. A snake bite can do it to any of us. Always say your prayers as they are important. God has his day for all men. We can’t hide when he comes for us. And that my friends we can always be prepared. With or without a glock..
Mistake after mistake cost him his life. You don’t leave your side arm 50 feet away. Also, have one person working to field dress the animal while the other stands guard. How how to operate the fire arm. Don’t wait until you need the gun to try and figure it out.
Sold my S&W 460 magnum….will purchase another even though ammo is $60 a box. That’s still only $ 3.00 to save a life…… This was a terrible wakeup call. Thanks for the article.
I spend 6 months at a time in northern BC an southeast Alaska traveling by boat and alone. When hiking I carry a 12 guage pump shotgun with alternating double po buckshot an slugs. I also have a zip lock bag of ammonia on a strap hanging from my neck, this is the last line of defense.
When there bears near my camp I have put a pan of ammonia outside my tent and bears stay away. Previous to this I had a bear stick his head into my tent but was able to shoot him in the ear from the side death was immediate. So now I am very careful an prepared
I live in Alaska 20 + years 10mm is perfect bear gun. You will have 3 seconds or less to draw and fire. No time for unloaded {safe} guns. A short semi auto shotgun is best with 00 buck. A 500 smith or a 44 mag ruger are slow unless you practice alot. Many here carry the glock. very common. Guides seldom carry a pistol at all. not too effective at stopping a bear. Kill yes stop no.
Im guessing this was a bow hunt and that’s why they couldnt find the animal until the next day. Large animals like moose, elk, ext shouldn’t be hunted with a bow it’s inhumane.
The right combination of distance and broadhead coupled with a heart or double lung shot is very effective. When carrying a firearm for protection from either animals or humans, always, ALWAYS, ALWAYSSS!!!! keep a round in the chamber and “hot”. If someone isn’t comfortable carrying a loaded “chambered” weapon then they shouldn’t be given the responsibility of carrying it.
This was one error after another, after another…….
1) The GUN MUST ALWAYS be on the individual. If it is uncomfortable to carry on the chest, then carry it on an external side holster. More so when you are dealing with a dead animal. Geez, sorry for the dead guide, his widow and 5 children, but HOW COULD HE HAD BEEN THIS IRRESPONSIBLE on something he should have known better? Sorry if you are offended but there is simply NO EXCUSE.
2) No Round in the Chamber? Another FATAL mistake. The Glock does not need any safety as you have at least one built into the trigger mechanism…..just take it out of the holster and shoot!
3) Last but not least, a 10mm is definitely not appropriate for a charging Grizzly, this is akin to a 357 magnum, might as well put that gun in your mouth and pull the trigger. You need at least a 44 magnum with the most powerful ammo you can get for it if you have any hope of a 1 shot stop (or 2 maybe) as that bear is on top of you a couple of seconds after your reaction time, if you get that lucky.
4) In hindsight, the bow hunter should have packed a side arm as well and be proficient with it.
Are you serious?? a 10MM is most certainly powerful enough for a grizzly attack! There are many incidents where a 10MM stopped a charging grizzly and I haven’t seen any where a 10MM failed to stop one.
I have never heard of a fully automatic 10mm assigned to any agency, nor know of Glock offering any such equipment. I am in Law Enforcement and own a few of Glock’s pistols, including the G20 – 10mm auto. Where did you get this information? I think you may be mistaken. Other than that, great story! Thanks!
I agree …….ACP – Stands for Automatic Colt Pistol as in 25 ACP,32 ACP, 45 ACP …… Many semiautomatic are called Autos because they are auto loading..
But in this case the name of the 10×25 is actually the 10 mm Auto.- made for automatic pistols (Auto loading not automatic firing )
Although that does not mean there are not sub-machine guns using this round.
It also makes one hell of a fine revolver nowadays …………..
I think you just jumped the gun on this one …….
WHO HUNTS IN BEAR COUNTRY AND DOES NOT CARRY THEIR PROTECTION WITH A ROUND IN THE CHAMBER. OH DAM A GRIZZLY IS CHARGING LET ME RACK A ROUND INTO MY BIG GOOFY HEAVY 10mm REAL QUICK.
who types in all caps? You must either be too young or too old to understand how rude and annoying it is to type a comment in all caps.
Thank you for the very detailed and comprehensive article. What happened is very sad. In retrospect, perhaps the guide could have shown the hunter how to operate his handgun which apparently wasn’t the case. The appraisal of the situation and series of events as depicted in the article, both seem very plausible.
I don’t know how I would have reacted, it’s difficult to be prepared for these situations but I would have kept my chest holster on me with the 10 mm. Cleaning and quartering game is the most dangerous moment in hunting. The fact they had to return the next day allowed the smell to reach the bears, it’s quite possible this wouldn’t have happened had they been able to find it right after shooting it. Horrible to lose anyone in this manner and more so a man doing his job of guiding. Very sad.
Just another reason to always have a round chambered – for safety…
Having been charged, full on, by a very angry grizzly, from 125 feet, I can tell you that there is no way to convey the unbelievable speed with which it happens! I am very proficient with pistol and rifle, but in all honesty I seriously doubt I could have made an accurate shot with either. There just isn’t enough time. I carry bear spray, IN HAND, whenever I’m in bear country since then. Trust me,between the shock, and the adrenaline, it’s all you can do just to slide the safety off the trigger of the bear spray.
It just happens to damn fast!
Thanks for the quality piece of writing. Definitely a good reminder of the importance of making sure every member of the party is familiar with the basic function of every firearm present. Hindsight is always 20/20, but hopefully this will help prevent similar tragedies in the future.
Corey Chubon said in the interview that I saw that he tried to throw the gun to the guide but it fell short of him, but as you said, it was empty and would have been useless in defending himself ! Unless there would have been a sentry watching with a rifle, this attack would have been hard to avoid, but a guide should always have a loaded sidearm on his person in such a situation ! The Chubon family are personal friends of ours, I have hunted and fished with Frank, Corey’s father, before Corey was old enough to hunt!
Handguns are either safe in a secure holster that covers the trigger, or out ready to fire. Remember what you do in an emergency is all muscle memory. Keep the muscle memory short. (Keep it simple.) It makes it is easier to teach and faster to learn. It takes a thousand repetitions to learn muscle memory on the range. There should be no time wasted on thoughts or actions that distract or waste time.. Two examples are “Did I take off the external safety” or “Did I rack a round into the firing chamber”? Remove them from your training and thoughts.
This bear scenario is very unique. I am generalizing above and not addressing every valid point some of you guys will respond with. So go easy on me, just my .02 worth!
If you are a handgun newbie and you bought a gun with an external safety…You can train enough years to overcome it. There are still many law enforcement agencies left that do just that. Otherwise, my advice to you would be go trade that sucker. And never carry a semi auto pistol without a round in the chamber. (Unless you are with the Israeli Special Forces of course. They train intensely over years and make it work.). And chambering a round when you have only one hand available… Nearly impossible to do safely and quickly; also something best left to the Israeli Special Forces…
But if you are trained and carry a gun, anything could happen to incapacitate you or render one limb useless. If you pair off with someone like in this bear case, tell your hunter that your gun is ready to fire when it comes out of the holster. And show the person the mag drop button and tell him not to hit that button by mistake. And tell him why. Obviously I have the benefit of hindsight here. But it is still worth mentioning here.
I’m not a bear Hunter , never have received training for hunting Elj or bear.
Never had training in defense against a bear.
What stands out to me , there was a
Fire ARM present that was of sufficient caliber to put down the bear.
What also stands out that both the guide and hunter where careless during the most dangerous part of the hunt . They did not have the gun at the ready ( loaded ,round chambered , in a on body holster or even within arms reach. The hunter apparently had NO knowledge of that firearm.
If I was in that type land – terrain and one of the biggest and most aggressive bears was in the area , All persons involved would be trained with ALL the ” Weapons ” along in the hunt.
I also would have had a revolver in Extremely large caliber along and carried .
Again the people on this hunt where careless and not properly trained ,and where not armed properly.
Thank you Angus. Wow.
Well done factual story. There are few things to learn from this unfortunate incident, After reading this I feel it should be standard protocol for Outfitters to familiarize Clients with Bear Spray, proper safety precautions and defense while out in Grizzly country. The fact there was Bear Spray in a backpack a short distance away is troubling. I know things can happen fast out there with a Bear encounter, hopefully being in a defensive mode and prepared to protect will be something instilled into clients by guide services. My heart goes out to Uptains family.
This article highlights the overall success rate of bear spray, but a 1998 study on the Field Use Of Capsicum Spray As A Bear Deterrent said, “One caution regarding generalizing our results is that in the 1 instance where capsicum spray was known to have been used on an adult grizzly bear with cubs that charged from a nearby ungulate carcass, injury to the sprayer resulted. For certain individual brown bears, the spray may not be effective if the bear is encountered at close range and near a carcass.” A subsequent study–Efficacy of Bear Deterrent Spray in Alaska (2008) did not provide additional data on bear spray vs. a sow grizzly with cubs near a carcass. This article also omits the results of a 1999 study on guns vs. bears in Alaska that shows guns are very effective: Characteristics Of Nonsport Mortalities To Brown And Black Bears And Human Injuries From Bears In Alaska found that of 1,038 bears killed with firearms in “defense of life or property” from 1985-96, just 1.25% of the people who shot bears were injured.
People shot and killed 677 brown bears, and 361 black bears. The study’s authors reported that, “Most of the persons shooting brown bears or black bears in DLP [defense of life or property] circumstances indicated that no human injury occurred (98.5% for brown bears and 99.2% for black bears.)”
So, brown bears injured 10 people, and black bears injured 3 people. Overall, just 1.25% of the people who shot bears in defense of life or property were injured.
Carry an appropriate caliber and power double action revolver. More fool-proof than any auto-loader, even with fewer rounds available.
Well done Mr Thuermer
I’ve been waiting to hear these previously unpublished details. Thanks for a deeper look into what happened Angus. What a horrible series of misfortunes.