Haven’t tried rocks on bison! Only against a very aggressive dog and a bear that was far too comfortable raiding trash cans.
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I understand wildlife can be wild.
But, after almost seven years of spoiling a labrabull that came to my life when she was six weeks old, I no longer fear dogs like I used to—I was bit twice when I was younger so had some kind of phobia.
Also, one time I was watching a bear hunt on tv. When the camera focused on the face of the unlucky bear, my heart sank because it looked almost like my labrabull. 
The vast majority of my interactions with dogs have ended positively. But I have run into a few that were severely mistreated, trained to attack, or semi/fully feral. I was able to reason with most of those as well but I have had a couple that were intent on attacking me and required more aggressive persuasion than calm words or aggressive yelling could provide. I used the minimum force necessary and they mostly only suffered from wounded pride.
The only issues I have ever had with bears were with ones habituated to humans due to being fed. They can be a lot more unpredictable and aggressive than their truly wild relatives.
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I had a neighbor shoot one of my dogs with a pellet gun for no good reason. Fortunately, it only hit him in the rear thigh and barely penetrated. Oh, no, my dog escaped our yard and was wandering around the neighborhood before we could retrieve him.
One of our neighbors has a dog that keeps getting loose and damaging our fence and garden so she can bury bones in it. Haven’t been tempted to reach for the pellet gun though have thought about grabbing my son’s super soaker. Aside from the dog he is a great neighbor so I keep resisting the urge to spray him for not keeping his dog under control;)
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I’ve often thought about the best way to shoot at a charging dog or other animal (assuming that I would be trying to altogether eliminate that threat), and I’m thinking from down on one knee to its level. With that, the target is not moving (except directly straight-on toward me) and the sight picture doesn’t change (other than for the target to grow larger). If you remain standing, you have to continually lower your aim and time your shot with the animal’s movement toward you.
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I suspect that might make the targeting easier and certainly would make for a more stable shooting position but I see a couple potential problems.
You likely wouldn’t want to drop to your knee before the animal starts charging because it would make you a smaller target and might increase the chance the animal decides to charge. So unless the animal starts it’s charge from a fairly good distance away you could end up waisting a significant chunk of the precious second you might have to make a hit by trying to get into a kneeling position.
Then if you do miss or your hits fail to stop I would think that being on a knee would limit your ability to maneuver and increase the odds the animal can attack your neck or head.
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There are no potential problems in what I wrote.
I literally and specifically wrote, “I’ve often thought about the best way to shoot at a charging dog or other animal …” In the scenario I laid out, the dog or other animal is already charging. So then, there is no way, as you wrote, that I might “increase the chance the animal decides to charge.” The animal is already charging.
There is also no disadvantage to getting down on one knee. That doesn’t take any more time than that I would waste trying from a standing position to hit a target that is changing it’s location relative to my sights as it moves toward me. If I am on essentially the same level as the animal, what I am looking at is a constant target that is getting larger by the second. My best chance of survival is to be shooting at a constant target.
Now if it’s a grizzly bear, especially a big one that is tall while charging on all fours, then I would remain standing and start shooting as quickly as I could do so accurately. Besides, if it is such a bear, the only reason to kneel would be to pray and to kiss my own hind-end good bye.
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Don’t shoot the dog, not even with a pellet gun. You’ll go to jail for that.
The only time I would ever consider shooting a dog or any other animal (outside of a legal hunting situation) is if it was imminently threatening to seriously harm me or someone else. In which case I wouldn’t be using a pellet gun.
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Around here a dog is considered property. If you were to shoot and injure/kill someone’s dog you would be in trouble for damaging their property.
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Most wildlife charging scenarios I have seen start at fairly close range. The only cases of charges I have faced that started from a long enough distance that I actually had more than a second or two to react involved dogs. In all but two of those cases the dogs didn’t end up physically attacking and I was able to convince them to leave me alone without resorting to violence. In all of those cases I wouldn’t have wanted to drop to one knee since the vast majority of charging dogs are all bark and no bite and it is hard to determine the threat level until they are really close.
Next time I get to the range I’ll have to try my timer and see how much time it takes to drop to a knee while maintaining a sight picture. I suspect it would be a half second or so. A four legged animal can cover a lot of ground in half a second. In my prime I could fire 2 fairly well aimed shots in half a second. I personally would rather be engaging the target at distance than potentially dealing with it at point blank range. Not to mention that even if I miss the shots may scare the animal away.
With some practice I might be able to maintain a decent rate of aimed fire while dropping to my knee for a potentially better aimed followup shot. I’ll have to give that a try but still think even if I had the time to think about dropping to my knee I might rather stay on my feet so I could better move if needed. Mountain lions preferred attack is to go for the neck. I’d at least want to make them work a little harder to get to mine.
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That person waited far longer to shoot than I would have…
I picked up a new pistol meant for when im out and about, primarily in the areas of bigger wildlife…
So the 10mm, Glock 40, optioned with a green dot and light…
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I think a 10mm with the right ammo is an excellent choice for mid to large size bear protection or against an angry moose. Against a mountain lion or dogs I would prefer a full size 9mm loaded with quality standard pressure HP ammo because it will penetrate more than enough and allows for faster followup shots which will likely be needed against a smaller fast charging target.
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My work exposes me to the same threats on a regular basis. In another thread here somewhere I shared my face to face encounter with 3 angry pitbull/mastiffs. That was not the most fun few minutes of my life though it fortunately ended peacefully.
I mostly shoot from a slightly angled fighting stance because that is my natural response to a potential self defense encounter. I do bend my knees a little for a more stable and ready to move platform and I do lean forward. My lean is probably not as exaggerated as some of the videos you are talking about but I find it helps me absorb the recoil a little better for faster followup shots.
Thank you, now i have someone to back me up when my wife asks why I need the Glock 40 and my Full Size 9mm, 1 on each side of my hip…
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Happy to have your back on that one:)
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I’m 76; dropping to my knee might not be a problem but getting back up sure is!
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There was a case where a man had to shoot an attacking dog. Then the owner attacked him with a baseball bat and he had to shoot him too.
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How about catnip spray instead of pepper spray?
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