Later on another trip the same guy threw the .44 magnum away because his sledge was too heavy. He regretted that when he saw a polar bear in the distance but kept away from it and lives today.

LONDON 1982 -- Two British explorers attempting to circle the globe by way of the North and South poles wounded and drove off a 'very determined' 1,000-pound polar bear on an Arctic ice floe, a spokesman for the Transglobe expedition says.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, 38, and Charles Burton, 40, encountered the bear on the ice floe that has served as their base camp for several weeks as they make their way to a July rendezvous with a support ship off the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen.

'They discovered a 1,000-pound polar bear outside their camp and set about banging saucepans to frighten it off, but it still came forward,' the spokesman said Sunday.

'They fired off two signal flares to startle him, but he was a very determined polar bear and capable of charging quickly.'

Fiennes pulled out his revolver and fired two warning shots that still did not dissuade the advancing animal, the spokesman said.

'The bear was coming on them and before he broke into a gallop, Sir Ranulph fired his .44 revolver, winged the bear and that did the trick,' he said.

'He didn't kill the bear,' the spokesman said. 'He didn't want to, because they are beautiful animals. It was a question of hitting the bear in the arm or leg and scaring it off.'

The spokesman said neither man was injured in the incident, during which Burton covered Fiennes with a loaded rifle.

'They've had dangerous situations before, but this is the nastiest so far,' he said.

'As they move further south there is an increasing risk of encountering polar bears,' he said. 'We airlifted more bullets to them last week from the base at Spitzbergen.'