Told a friend of mine that I would post this here for him here is his story...

Shot a Grizzly

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I was out prospecting for 3 weeks with my son in Northern British Columbia, Canada I knew I would be working in this area so applied and won a limited entry draw for spring grizzly figured if I had to shoot one in defense I may as well get to keep it.

Late on the evening of Sunday June 1 we were out prospecting/hunting on a very steep mountain hill side when we spotted way down below us a fairly big bear we at first thought that it was a big chocolate colour phaze black bear but after watching it for a while saw that it was a grizzly.

The wind was perfect for a stock so we decided to get a closer look...

When we were about what we thought to be 125 to 150 yards I decided that that was a close as we were going to go towards it but it was an awesome looking bear so I decided I would take a shot.

I was packing my Rem 700 LSS 375RUM with 300gr Nosler Partitions loaded to 2750fps my son had the same rifle but chambered in 300RUM with 200gr Swift A-Frames @ 3200fps.

The bears butt was facing directly towards me so I waited for it to turn and when it gave me a quartering shot thru the right lung and into the left shoulder I fired.

My son was watching thru the scope and told me my shot was perfect the bear was knocked almost off it's feet as it spun biting the spot that the bullet impacted.

It then took off into thick bush that you couldn't see more than 20 yards at the best.

It was getting late so after we went about 20 yards into the thick bush after the bear we decided to back out and come back in the morning.

12 hours later loaded with range finder and my Marlin 1895GS loaded with 525gr Beartooth WLNGC's and my son carrying his Dlask 8.5" barreled Rem 870 12 gauge with Brenneke slugs we went in after the bear.

Amazingly after only 75 yards my son spotted the bear laying on it's back which was a total relief for us.

When we walked up to it we were amazed at how big it was I had never in my life seen a grizzly this big so I dug out my range finder went back to where the bear was stnading when I took the shot and saw that the shot was actually much further than we thought it had been about 230 to 250 yards not the 150 max that we thought.

I guess the bear was so big that we underestimated the distance.

After skinning the bear and getting the hide buried in some snow I phoned my buddy on a satt phone and got him to bring in 10lbs of salt which turned out to be not enough.

There is a guide outfitter that has been working this area for over 35 years and when he saw the bear he told us he has never seen one so big and stated that it maybe one of the top 5 mountain grizzlies ever shot in BC and could be in the top 90 in the Boone & Crockett... I'm thinking it is a little smaller than he does though...

As a reference to size I am 6'3" 220 lbs and my son is 5'9" 220 lbs we figured that the bear is at least 4 times heavier than us and the outfitter/guide est it at 1000 lbs and "guesstemated" that it would have weighed as much as 1200lbs in the fall and would stand 11 1/2' tall...

After we got back to camp I noticed that we had dropped a knife sheath so after 5 days of wondering if we should go back in after it we decided to give it a try...

As we slowly/cautiously/noisly walked into the site once again carrying my 45-70 and my son carrying his shotgun we found the sheath about 25 yards into the thick bush but now curiousity had the better of us and we decided to advance to the spot that the carcass was about 20 yards from the site I was able to see into were the carcass should have been but that 800lbs body was completely gone...

I glanced over to my son staating "the bodies gone lets get out of here" to which we turned tail and made the fastest retreat that we could.

When we were a couple of hundred yards away from the thick bush my son and I stopped and regrouped it was only then that he asked me did you here that noise just as you were saying lets get out of here?

I'm almost completely deaf and hadn't heard a thing he then continued to explain the noise was like a huge body rubbing up against a bush or a tree...

I was wondering why his retreat was faster than mine...

Later I started thinking that only another huge grizzly could have moved that carcass so guys there is another huge bear in the area...

If your interested in a guided grizzly hunt pm me for the outfitter's info and I will pass it on as a favor to him.

Here are some pic's...








This last one is a pic of his son with the bear.

Wow!! Congrats to your friend! A "bison" of a bear!

great bear. Congratulations