So i had my buddy over for dinner last night and he walks in and throws 2 pics down on the table with him beside a big grizz. I'm like what the #%^&*( you don't have a grizz tag????? he's like nope and proceeded to tell me what happened to him thursday morning.
2 weeks earlier i was standing on the exact spot it happened elk hunting with him and we were "huffed" at in the creek bed but never saw anything so this story really hit home knowing the spot and being there not too long ago!!
Him and his dad were down at the creek the night before elk calling with lots of cow calls and had some answers and seen some cows cross the creek. So the next morning they scented up "cow scent" and were down calling again, they had some action, some bulls came close but would not show themselves, so after awhile they decided to move up the mountain. Half a km down my buddy realized he left some gear back at the creek so he went back for it and his dad went ahead. So he gets his gear turns around and retraces his steps up to the old washed out bridge and sees big brown movement out of the corner of his eye down to his right and as he turns he sees a grizz huffing and lunging up the the small incline (actually spinning out) 20' away (no lie!!) he pulls his gun up (luckly he doesn't use a sling so his gun was in his hand) he sees head 10' away and pulls the trigger, SAFETY ON!! all he has time for is as he is pushing the safety off he pushed the gun forward at the bear and pulled the trigger as she was a gun length away, he hits her, she misses a step and her legs gives out and she falls slightly to her right as he steps to his left and she just squeezes buy him!! he jacks a shell ready to hit her again and again sees movement to his right, 2 CUBS!!! 1 1/2 year olds, they follow mom thankfully!! He hears them in the bush her thrashing around!! then they come flying out across the road into the bush!!
Now my buddy is a very seasoned and expirenced bush man, so he wants to track her to see if she is dead, tracks her about 250 yards, the blood dries up and he thinks good, i didn't hit her hard and she will live.
He calls the C.O's and they go out the next morning and find her dead 100yards past were they stopped. He had hit her in the top of the shoulder and exited the elbow completely shattering the front leg (the reason she missed a step and fell to the right thankfully) she died of blood loss. She is a silver tip too, C.O's said he probably can have the hide as it was a legit shooting, she is just over 6' but has a huge head 22".
Crazy close call, he said if his gun was shouldered he was dead, if he didn't have a shell in he was dead, if he had hit her in the chest rather than the leg causing her to fall and change direction she would have been on him probably killing him before she died!! all in all his balls of steel and his crazy fast reaction and his lucky shoulder shot saved his life!! he doesn't blame the bear, they surprised each other and she did what a bear does, protected her cubs. The C.O's were really good about it too, as after they went out and saw his spent cartridge and boot marks 3 feet from her spin out marks up the hill there was no doubt about his story!! Pretty cool he is getting the hide too as like he said this bear means more and has more memories behind it than anything he has shot or probably ever will shoot.
This happened down the bowron FSR 100km from PG!! Like i said this story made the hair stand up on my neck as i was in that exact spot 2 weeks earlier!!! crazy story, you just never know!!
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