Just a Shot In the Dark

We've had a little excitement up here for the last few days.  Yesterday, the local S.W.A.T. team and sheriffs department were searching the nearby national forest for an "armed and dangerous" drug dealer that had run away from his clandestine "plantation" up in the forest.  Okay, it's like 10 miles from us across very rugged terrain, but that's right next door for these parts.  I got a call from a radio station in Denver looking for leads, but I only knew what my mother-in-law had told me from what she saw on TV.  Not much help to them.

Last night about 10:30 we heard a shot.  It sounded like it was from across the street at the livery.  Juanita said "That sounded like a 30-06!" and she called the stables while I went up to get my 12 gauge.  I got back downstairs and she told me that the gal that answered at the livery had been asleep, and hadn't heard anything.  I went out, bang stick in hand to see if our horses were okay.  Another neighbor was already cruising the area looking for what had happened.  Horses were alert, but fine.  Went home and called the non-emergency number for the sherrif's dept. just to let them know.

Ten minutes or so later, a sherrif's department cruiser pulled into the livery and went down the hill.  After a moment, another shot rang out.  DAMN.  I went out and down the hill (no shotgun this time, but wearing a lopsided heavy coat) flashlight blazing, to see what was up.

The deputy was talking to Compass, the gal that runs the livery this year.  Turns out a bear was digging through her dumpster and she had fired a round into the ground near it to run it off (a 30-06... lucky guess Juanita?).  The bear came back just as the deputy pulled up, so he unloaded a 12 gauge "bean bag" into it's ribs. This time it didn't come back.

The Deputy found this on the ground next to the dumpster

That is about an ounce and a half of bird shot in a bag, that gets fired out of a shotgun.  Ouch.


We all cussed and discussed the local bears and talked of  the measures to keep them out of town like bear-canisters  .  We talked about previous attacks at the livery.  We tied the dumpster shut with one of my come-alongs, set a cinder block on it to act as a noise maker, and went back to bed.

Compass was kind of bent herself, at what the bear did to the lid.

Drug dealers take note- we only scared the bear off, cause we LIKE bears...

Bill