5 year old shoots bear

[Bergie]

5-year-old descendant of Davy Crockett kills bear.

ESPN.com ^ | 12/11/2007 | Heather Crawford

A 5-year-old Arkansas County boy killed a black bear Sunday weighing more than 400 pounds.

Tre Merritt, a descendant of Davy Crockett, was hunting with his grandfather Mike Merritt when a black bear happened upon their stand.

"His 10th great-grandfather was Davy Crockett," Mike Merritt said. "And Davy supposedly killed him a bear when he was three. And Tre is five and really killed a bear. I really doubt if Davy killed one when he was three."

Mike Merritt was in the stand at the time but said Tre did it all by himself.

"He came in about 40 to 50 yards," Mike Merritt said of the black bear, "and when he got in the open, I whistled at him and he stopped and I said, 'Shoot Tre.'"

Tre confirmed his grandfather's account.

"I was up in the stand and I seen the bear," Tre Merritt said. "It came from the thicket and it was beside the road and I shot it."

At first, Mike Merritt didn't think Tre had hit the bear with his youth rifle.

"I said, 'Tre, you missed the bear,' " Mike Merritt said. "He said, 'Paw-paw I squeezed the trigger and I didn't close my eyes. I killed him."'

The bear turned out to be 445 pounds — 12 times the weight of Tre. Mike Merritt said tears rolled down his cheeks when he found out his grandson killed the enormous bear.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1...9/posts?page=61

[GentlemanJim]

Thats cute

The boy will remember it forever

Jim

[North]

Good stuff.

[G-ManBart]

Does anyone else think that this might have been a little irresponsible?

I've been shooting since I was about 5 and there was no way I could have shot anything remotely powerful enough to kill a 400+lb bear with anything but a lucky/perfect shot. I have visions of a bear running away with a minor wound that would get infected and kill him a month later.

Is it even legal for a 5yr old to be hunting? I don't know about all states but many require juniors to be a heck of a lot older than 5 to hunt with an adult present.

[Flexmoney]

It sounds to me like the young man was well trained and grounded in solid marksmanship. The success of the hunt would tend to "bear" that out.

This seems a lot more responsible than some of the other crap that goes on in the woods in the name of hunting.

[GentlemanJim]

5 YEARS old is pretty darn young..

But with his grandfather in the stand with him and at 40 or 50 yards....and depending on the boys disipline....

Its very possible....My grand daughters could shoot pretty good at 5...but were not shooting high power.

I was hunting deer at age 8... and my wife who teaches hunter ed has some very young students from time to time that show pretty darn good judgment.

Jim

[G-ManBart]

It sounds to me like the young man was well trained and grounded in solid marksmanship. The success of the hunt would tend to "bear" that out.

This seems a lot more responsible than some of the other crap that goes on in the woods in the name of hunting.

I'm not doubting the results. You can kill deer all day long with a .22lr, but that doesn't make it responsible. Really, what's the minimum size rifle that people would consider suitable for a 400lb bear at close range? .243 Win or something like that? I just haven't seen many 5yr old boys that could shoot a rifle that size or larger.

[GentlemanJim]

243 is way too small.. 100 gr is about max for it in factory ammo.

My grandfather killed bears with 3030 win. and thats easy to shoot.

Myself...I would choose 338winmag...and that would be pretty rough on a youngster..(and us old guys too)

Jim

[Flexmoney]

I'm not doubting the results. You can kill deer all day long with a .22lr, but that doesn't make it responsible.

Doesn't make it illresponsible either, right? Your are talking about power, and I am talking about marksmanship and shot placement. We could go round-n-round.

You asked.

[Miranda]

G-manbart,

Your question is both reasonable and give me cause to consider.

I have to assume grandpa trained Tre.

As he did that well, I have to assume he was ready with his own weapon.

Since Tre was confident the bear was mortally wounded, the older hunter did not act.

To the more generic part of the question,

I think 5 year olds should be taught how to hunt.

Rabbits and phesant are good. The Adults should tackle 'surprises' like bears.

I think Grandpa felt they were safe and to futher aide the young one's hunting lessons

gave him first shot.

The short answer is yes.

To shoot a bear with what we assume is a light weapon is not crisp, good responsibility.

I can only point out there are a lot of details we do not know about that kill.

Man! I think I would have loved to go hunting when I was five.

'course I don't think I would have known how much danger I was in

if a bear had showed up....

miranda

[el pres]

C'mon, he's a desendent of Davy Crockett!!!

[G-ManBart]

I'm not doubting the results. You can kill deer all day long with a .22lr, but that doesn't make it responsible.

Doesn't make it illresponsible either, right? Your are talking about power, and I am talking about marksmanship and shot placement. We could go round-n-round.

You asked.

I asked because we don't know what sort of gun the boy used to shoot the bear with. I'm willing to bet that it turns out he was using a very small centerfire gun like a .223. I don't care how great a shot you are, that isn't enough. I say that because I have never seen a 5yr old that was big enough and strong enough to shoot a gun that was even remotely powerful enough to kill a 400+lb bear consistently with anything less than a lucky/perfect shot. How many 5yr old kids could shoot say a .270 Win? Most ethical hunters would consider a .270 Win to be too light for that size bear.

Marksmanship and shot placement are important, but so is choosing a weapon that's suited for the task when things don't go 100% perfectly. Hey, you can stop a bad guy with a .25acp but that doesn't mean any responsible person would chose that with the expectation that it would get used (as in a hunting scenario).

The size of the gun you choose to hunt a particular animal should be dictated primarily by how big and tough that animal is, not the size of the hunter.

[clown]

none of us know what caliber he used. with that in mind, i say congrats to the little hunter.

Edited December 14, 2007 by clown

[boo radley]

C'mon, he's a desendent of Davy Crockett!!!

Apparently Davy was this kids "10th great grandfather," or "10th great Paw Paw" in Arkanese. 13 generations back? The mind boggles if you do the math. 'Course Paw Paw is really only 28, himself. <grin>

I'm sorry -- little noble about this story, IMO. My guess is, if details emerge it will be more like "Monster Pig!" (Remember *that* charming tale?). Paw Paw couldn't even tell Tre hit the animal, so I'm guessing it wasn't the "one-shot, one-kill" scenario some would like to believe. 5 years old seems wicked young. I understand it's a tradition at an early age; evidently hunting is learned before English! <grin>

How do you pronounce "Tre", out of curiosity? Is the 'e' long like tree? Or does it rhyme with, uh....gre.

(I find this story tough to bear).

eta: Here's a link with the video from the KATV, and pictures of the youth rifle, interview the kindergarnter and his family. Heh. >Bear video< Tree better put on a helmet, when he rides that ATV, or he might become a stump!

[schmitz]

The boy will remember it forever

Jim

The bear will not.

[el pres]

C'mon, he's a desendent of Davy Crockett!!!

Apparently Davy was this kids "10th great grandfather," or "10th great Paw Paw" in Arkanese. 13 generations back? The mind boggles if you do the math. 'Course Paw Paw is really only 28, himself. <grin>

I'm sorry -- little noble about this story, IMO. My guess is, if details emerge it will be more like "Monster Pig!" (Remember *that* charming tale?). Paw Paw couldn't even tell Tre hit the animal, so I'm guessing it wasn't the "one-shot, one-kill" scenario some would like to believe. 5 years old seems wicked young. I understand it's a tradition at an early age; evidently hunting is learned before English! <grin>

How do you pronounce "Tre", out of curiosity? Is the 'e' long like tree? Or does it rhyme with, uh....gre.

(I find this story tough to bear).

eta: Here's a link with the video from the KATV, and pictures of the youth rifle, interview the kindergarnter and his family. Heh. Tree better put on a helmet, when he rides that ATV, or he might become a stump!

+1 On all of that!!!

We just keep talking about it cause we all want to know

the caliber!!!!

Arkansas huh, could be like a 7mm mag and the

5 yr old is like 5' 10"!!!

Just kidding, someone needs to find out that caliber!!!

We wont rest!!!

[boo radley]

We just keep talking about it cause we all want to know

the caliber!!!!

Arkansas huh, could be like a 7mm mag and the

5 yr old is like 5' 10"!!!

DC -- no, remember it was his youth rifle. Not his *first* rifle.

[EricW]

The boy will remember it forever

Jim

The bear will not.

Don't worry, we've still got a lot more left for you to come over and shoot.

Bear is tasty stuff. Wish I had the patience to do big game hunting...

[Chriss Grube]

Yeah and the kids supposedly shot 2 or 3 deer when he was 2.5 years old. I call BS. I have 5 year old twins and they are not going to shoot anything big enough for a bear. .22 no problem, maybe the JP AR and that would be off a rest and lots of help.

[boz1911]

Caliber, smaliber. I say give the kid a pat on the back and a Corona!

[Larry White]

Interview on Fox today. .243, not a lot of gun for a big black bear.----------------Larry

Edited December 16, 2007 by Larry White

[Jasonub]

it was a fully automatic airsoft put about 20 on the bear with a full burst. hit the bear on the jewels and made the bear run full tilt over the cliff and died!