A few mornings ago a friend and I were working in on a bull,we were getting close as he continued to reply to our bugles.We felt we were in a good position and about to get a look.My buddy taps me and says a cow is coming in from the opposite side of us.I look up to see 2 grizzlies at 35yards.I say “bear”, to which my bud doesn’t even flinch figuring it’s a black bear just moseying up the hill.Realizing he doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation I say “grizzly, grizzly, grizzly!”That got his attention!
I instinctively put the gun to my shoulder, safety off just in case.The cub looked like it was going to head up hill and my buddy said don’t shoot.I wasn’t going to but was uneasy with the situation.In the blink on an eye the sow locked in on us and charged.At 11 yards she was still charging hard and showed no indication that this was a bluff.She passed what I considered to be too close and pulled the trigger and half a second later my buddy did the same and dropped her.
We radioed another guy with us to head to cell range to call the CO and let us know what they wanted us to do.We flagged the brass and documented the scene with our phones.The CO interviewed us and assured us we did 100% the right thing and said we were lucky not to be hurt.
Yesterday another EK hunter was mauled by a sow, sounds like a very similar situation to my own.
Be careful out there, these things happen so fast you wouldn't believe it.