It was overcast and a little cloudy on a cool autumn day when two fathers and their sons decided to go on a deer hunt to celebrate one boy’s 13th birthday.

The hunting party didn’t get a deer, but they walked away from what could have ended in a bloody maul or even death after confronting a sow bear attempting to protect her cubs. The bear was shot dead.

By all accounts, the bear was from six to 10 feet to the closest human before she finally fell to the ground.

The hunting party arrived Sept. 2 on Labor Day Saturday at Izhut Bay on Afognak Island by way of John Burnett’s seiner, the F/V Otter. The evening air was brisk as they hiked the old logging trails.

The hunters were only about 30 minutes away from the boat when they spotted salmon guts on the trail. They thought an eagle had been dining.

Caleb Burnett, the 13-year-old whose birthday was being celebrated, was trailing a little behind the other three when he heard a crackling sound and saw movement in the brush.

“Dad,” he said guardedly, without yelling so as not to spook whatever was in the brush. Then he pointed toward the brush trying to alert the group.

Caleb, however, seemed to know it was a bear and not a deer in the bushes, said his father and manager of GCI in Kodiak, John Burnett.

“We had talked before about bears. I told him about how bears sometimes make a crackling sound with their jaws. I had heard that sound before.”

What happened next occurred within only about 10 to 15 seconds.

“The bear came out of the bushes covering ground at an amazing speed, like a race horse,” John said. “He was charging at us at full run, at that moment about 20 feet away.

“She was grunting. “I concluded she was going to get us. Pat, my friend, began backstepping. The bear seemed to be lined up on him. He fell to the ground cutting his hand,” John said.

Pat McCarty had gotten off a warning shot firing at the bear’s feet.

“The whole thing was happening fast, 15 seconds,” Pat said.

It was 17-year-old Andy who stood his ground, the bear still coming. All the hunters said they were amazed at Andy’s composure, his coolness. He got off the first shot that hit the charging bear, plugging her in the chest with a 30-06 rifle in which he had to put a shell in just before firing.

The bear was about 8 feet standing, weighing about 400 pounds.

Afterwards, John said, the group found a casing on the ground six feet away from where the bear finally fell. Pat was able to get off a shot, John hit the bear, and Andy hit her again in the shoulders before she finally gave up, puffing into the dirt in one last gasp before the threat was finally over. Caleb was standing back, never having to shoot.

“Andy probably saved my life,” Pat said later.

“At the very least, we could have gotten mauled from the outstretched claws coming at us,” he said.

When it was all over, none described the fight as if terror-stricken or scared enough not to be able to put up a defense.

“The adrenalin was flowing. But it is not what I thought it would be like if I ever saw a bear.

“We didn’t panic. We weren’t trembling,” Pat said. “We didn’t have time to be scared.”

“Strangely, I had had nightmares about bears, bears chasing after me in my dreams. My wife would have to wake me from sleep,” Pat said.

“I have no regrets, but I feel sad, a little. I would rather she would have moved when I fired the warning shot,” said Pat, who is retired from the Coast Guard but still works as a civilian in electronics maintenance.

“But it’s simple. The bear was defending herself. We were defending ourselves, bear and man,” he said.

Larry VanDaele, Kodiak wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, who arrived on the scene shortly after the kill, said the sow had been taking fish to her cubs from a nearby stream,” he said.

“She was probably being harassed by other bears before the hunters even arrived.”

“She wasn’t out to kill. She was just threatened and wanted to defend her cubs,” VanDaele said, adding the sow was probably about 7 years old.

“It wasn’t bear attacks man,” he said.

“Bears are intelligent, but just like people they too have tempers. They don’t have a lot of tolerance, particularly when being harassed.

“She was just having a bad day, no doubt,” VanDaele said.

VanDaele said in general humans and bears are getting along with each other.

“When you think about it, bears are actually giving humans space.

“Bears give us their daytime, having to become nocturnal. They are not designed for nighttime activity, but that is when most are hunting and foraging,” he said.

“Bears will adapt to humans although they perceive the world differently,” VanDaele said.

“They are willing to live with people,” said Rudy Deboc, who is from Belgium and visited VanDaele in his office recently. Deboc studies wildlife management and works with the Save a Cub Foundation.

VanDaele said he originally thought the two cubs were eaten by a boar after their mother was killed, but reports came in that the two cubs were spotted.

VanDale said he intended to round the cubs up to send to a zoo, but now thinks they may be adopted by another bear family.

“That would be the best thing that could happen,” he said.

“I never want to get that close again,” said Andy, a senior at Kodiak High School who plans to join the Merchant Marines.

“We are all lucky, lucky to be alive,” he said.

Mirror writer Bryan Martin can be reached via e-mail at bmartin@kodiakdailymirror.com.