Well I live in Alaska, and have hunted bear for about 5 years now. I have a 7'2" Blackie with a 19 15/16" skull and have taken a few 6' 6" blackie's. I've never taken a Griz because I haven't really felt like taking one yet! But Wednesday night I ended up taking one in Defense Of My life. Here's the story!
My Dad and Brother-in-law came into town to go moose hunting. We went out and spent several days in the bush not seeing any moose. We went to a nearby lodge on the way out and met Jeff Corwin form the TV show Jeff Corwin's Experience. Apparently he's doing a show in Alaska... Anyway we caught some lake trout, grayling, and shot some Spruce Hen's before returning home. Dad really wanted a moose so on the way home I brought him to my "Honey Hole" near the Alaska road system! We spotted a 50" bull and went after it but ran out of daylight.
The next day my brother-in-law says he wants a black bear rug for his house so we went to some nearby mountains to glass the berry patches! He spots a nice blackie within 20 minutes and we were off like a herd of turtles. When we reach the area we think the blackie is in we hear something in the alders heading toward us. All of a sudden I see a big brown head appear. Then she spots me lower's her head and charges from 20 yards. When she was 10 yards away I hit the Griz in the left eye. she roles and my Brother-in-law hits her in the side then I hit her in the shoulder as she flew by.
She went into the thick brush and stopped moving. So we waited about 20 minutes and approached from up mountain. I located her and pronounced her Dead! The mountain was so steep that we rolled her all the way to the bottom and cleaned her on the ground near the road. The only bad thing about this situation was they had recently closed brown bear hunting in the area so I had to call te Trooper's and hand over the hide and skull. She went an honest 8 1/2 foot and was missing all of her toes on her left front foot. She was a pretty old and cranky bear.
My first shot turned her skull into jello and probably killed her instantly my second shot broke her right leg. He got the guts.... I was shooting a Weatherby in .300 Wtby Mag with 200 gr. Nosler Partition hand loads. My Brother-in-law has the exact same set up!
All the way down the mountain he kept telling me that he was never gonna do anything this stupid again. But back in the truck it all changed to when can we go again. I guess I made another bear hunter!
- Clint
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