Competitive Shooter Responds to Bear Break-in with Shotguns
OutdoorHub Reporters 07.14.14
Rose Hill of Park County, Colorado has a new nickname after an encounter with a bear in her home last week. According to KDVR, 15-year-old “Grizzly Rose” Hill grabbed not one but two shotguns when she heard loud noises come from her garage. She arrived on the scene just in time to witness her dogs chase a bear out through a large hole it had made in the garage door, presumably to rummage through the house for food. Using the skills she learned as a competitive shooter, Hill shot the bear a total of six times—three shells from each gun—before the bruin fell over and died.
Hill’s mother, Jana Hill, said she was very proud of her daughter in protecting herself from a potentially dangerous predator, but she also admitted that the encounter could have taken a turn for the worse if the teenager had not been armed.
“This could’ve been a very bad situation if she wasn’t trained and very comfortable with guns,” Hill’s mother said. “I’m happy it turned out the way it did.”
Hill herself simply remarked that it was scary, and that she was grateful that she had her shotguns when she met the bear face-to-face. Local law enforcement also added that the teenager did the right thing, especially given that she was dealing with an unpredictable animal. It is not common for bears to intentionally break into houses in search of food. Experts say that these kinds of behaviors surface when bears become habituated to scavenging human food, usually from unsecured garbage.
