Big Bear
6/22/06, 10:27 PM
#1
Team Mustang Source
Thread Starter
Big Bear
A US Forestry worker had to put it down due to self defence He's a huge one.
He was out deer hunting last week when a large grizzly bear charged him from about 50 yards away. The guy emptied his 7 mm Magnum semi-automatic rifle into the bear and it dropped a few feet from him. The big bear was still alive so he reloaded and shot it several times in the head.
The bear was just over one thousand six hundred pounds. It stood 12' 6" high at the shoulder, 14' to the top of his head. It's the largest grizzly bear ever recorded in the world.
Of course, the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Commission did not let him keep it as a trophy, but the bear will be stuffed and mounted, and placed on display at the Anchorage airport to remind tourists of the risks involved when in the wild.
Based on the contents of the bears stomach, the Fish and Wildlife Commission established the bear had killed at least two humans in the past 72 hours including a missing hiker.
The US Forest Service, backtracking from where the bear had originated, found the hiker's 38-caliber pistol emptied. Not far from the pistol was the remains of the hiker. The other body has not been found.
Although the hiker fired six shots and managed to hit the grizzly with four shots (the Service ultimately found four 38 caliber slugs along with twelve 7 mm slugs inside the bear's dead body), it only wounded the bear and probably angered it immensely.
The bear killed the hiker an estimated two days prior to the bear's own death by the gun of the Forest Service worker.
Think about this :
If you are an average size man; You would be level with the bear's navel when he stood upright. The bear would look you in the eye when it walked on all fours! To give additional perspective, consider that this particular bear, standing on its hind legs, could walk up to an average single story house and look over the roof, or walk up to a two story house and look in the bedroom windows.
He was out deer hunting last week when a large grizzly bear charged him from about 50 yards away. The guy emptied his 7 mm Magnum semi-automatic rifle into the bear and it dropped a few feet from him. The big bear was still alive so he reloaded and shot it several times in the head.
The bear was just over one thousand six hundred pounds. It stood 12' 6" high at the shoulder, 14' to the top of his head. It's the largest grizzly bear ever recorded in the world.
Of course, the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Commission did not let him keep it as a trophy, but the bear will be stuffed and mounted, and placed on display at the Anchorage airport to remind tourists of the risks involved when in the wild.
Based on the contents of the bears stomach, the Fish and Wildlife Commission established the bear had killed at least two humans in the past 72 hours including a missing hiker.
The US Forest Service, backtracking from where the bear had originated, found the hiker's 38-caliber pistol emptied. Not far from the pistol was the remains of the hiker. The other body has not been found.
Although the hiker fired six shots and managed to hit the grizzly with four shots (the Service ultimately found four 38 caliber slugs along with twelve 7 mm slugs inside the bear's dead body), it only wounded the bear and probably angered it immensely.
The bear killed the hiker an estimated two days prior to the bear's own death by the gun of the Forest Service worker.
Think about this :
If you are an average size man; You would be level with the bear's navel when he stood upright. The bear would look you in the eye when it walked on all fours! To give additional perspective, consider that this particular bear, standing on its hind legs, could walk up to an average single story house and look over the roof, or walk up to a two story house and look in the bedroom windows.
6/23/06, 01:35 AM
#3
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I hope they leave the blood on the snout and paws when they stuff it. Really remind the visitors to be extra careful. Just a side note, I knew someone who was killed by a Griz when she went home to Alaska. She was killed and her son was mauled while they wer camping with a group. One of the other campers shot and killed the bear before it could kill her son.
6/23/06, 07:54 AM
#4
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That is going to be an awesome story to tell the grandkids when he gets older. Too bad he can't keep it though. Maybe if he gets a bunch of pictures and the measurements of the bear he can get a reproduction of it made?
6/23/06, 09:38 AM
#7
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Impressive photos, but the story isn't exactly right. Here's the real deal:
The slain bear shown in these images was shot to death in October 2001 by 22-year-old airman Ted Winnen stationed at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska. His encounter with the enormous ursine took place while he was deer hunting on Hinchinbrook Island in Prince William Sound, as he described to an Anchorage Daily News reported in December 2001:
As this account demonstrates, some of the details in the text that now accompanies these photographs is incorrect:
The slain bear shown in these images was shot to death in October 2001 by 22-year-old airman Ted Winnen stationed at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska. His encounter with the enormous ursine took place while he was deer hunting on Hinchinbrook Island in Prince William Sound, as he described to an Anchorage Daily News reported in December 2001:
Winnen and three hunting buddies were dropped off on Hinchinbrook Island in the heart of Prince William Sound by an air taxi on a cool, rainy Oct. 14 morning.
Hinchinbrook is a 165-square-mile island near Cordova with an estimated population of about 100 brown bears, giving it the distinction of harboring the highest density of bears of any island in the Sound, according to Dave Crowley, Cordova area wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Four to six bears are killed by hunters on the island every year, though rarely one of more than 400 pounds.
Winnen wasn't there to hunt bear. Instead, he and his hunting buddies packed for a week of hunting for Sitka blacktail deer on the remote, wooded island. Winnen did, however, pick up a permit to shoot a bear just in case.
On day two of the group's hunt, the skies cleared at 8:30 a.m. Winnen and Eielson Staff Sgt. Jim Urban set out to follow a creek bed upstream looking for deer. Urban was carrying a .300-caliber Winchester Magnum. Winnen was carrying his significantly more powerful .338-caliber Winchester Magnum in case a bear crossed their path.
In the creek, they spotted a deep pool with 20 salmon circling.
''By this time, the ... run was over and the salmon were looking pretty nasty,'' Winnen said. ''We started thinking that we were looking at a bear's dinner plate.''
That got Winnen in what he calls ''bear mode.''
The two men continued following the creek upstream until they came to a small island ringed with thick brush. Some end-of-season blueberries clung to the surrounding brush. In the middle of the island was a spruce tree larger than what Winnen could fit his arms around. At the base of the tree were signs that an animal had tried to dig a hole.
About 9:30 a.m., Winnen glanced upstream.
Forty yards away was a big brown bear with all four paws in the creek, flipping over logs looking for salmon.
"He's a shooter," Urban said under his breath.
"So I started getting in the zone," Winnen said. "When I am going to take an animal, I am really concentrating. We racked shells into our guns and took off our packs and left them by the tree."
The hunters moved a few feet upstream. About halfway between them and the bear was a large fallen tree.
"I said, 'When the bear crawls over that log, he will present his vital areas and we'll take him,'" Winnen recalled. "I brought the rifle up to take a shot, but the bear moved over the log like it wasn't there.
"I thought, 'Oh crap.' I didn't have a chance to get a shot off."
As the bear kept coming along the creek, the two hunters momentarily lost sight of him in a thicket, so they retreated back to the big spruce.
"We were sitting there concentrating when, a few seconds later, he pops up right in front of us, about 10 yards away and he was coming toward us," Winnen said. "I don't know if the wind was in our favor or what. We were dressed in camouflage. He might not have seen us."
"I put the scope on him. I wanted to hit him in the chest, but all I seen was nothing but head.
"My partner said, 'Shoot! Shoot!'" Winnen said. "I aimed for his left eye, but the bullet takes an arc and I hit about two inches low in the side of his muzzle and into his brain.
"He buckled backwards and raised his head like he was going to howl at the moon, but nothing came out,'' Winnen said. ''I put two more rounds in the vital area, then three more after that. Six total."
"It was amazing"
"We watched for a few minutes, I reloaded and Jim brought his gun up on him," Winnen said. "I approached from the rear and poked him in the butt to see if he was going to jump, but he didn't move. He was dead."
"It was amazing when I got close to him," Winnen said.
"I picked up the paw and it was like, 'good God.' The thing was as wide as my chest."
After the kill, Winnen and Urban spent six hours skinning the bear — and trying to drag its hide and skull back to the Forest Service cabin they had rented.
Hinchinbrook is a 165-square-mile island near Cordova with an estimated population of about 100 brown bears, giving it the distinction of harboring the highest density of bears of any island in the Sound, according to Dave Crowley, Cordova area wildlife biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Four to six bears are killed by hunters on the island every year, though rarely one of more than 400 pounds.
Winnen wasn't there to hunt bear. Instead, he and his hunting buddies packed for a week of hunting for Sitka blacktail deer on the remote, wooded island. Winnen did, however, pick up a permit to shoot a bear just in case.
On day two of the group's hunt, the skies cleared at 8:30 a.m. Winnen and Eielson Staff Sgt. Jim Urban set out to follow a creek bed upstream looking for deer. Urban was carrying a .300-caliber Winchester Magnum. Winnen was carrying his significantly more powerful .338-caliber Winchester Magnum in case a bear crossed their path.
In the creek, they spotted a deep pool with 20 salmon circling.
''By this time, the ... run was over and the salmon were looking pretty nasty,'' Winnen said. ''We started thinking that we were looking at a bear's dinner plate.''
That got Winnen in what he calls ''bear mode.''
The two men continued following the creek upstream until they came to a small island ringed with thick brush. Some end-of-season blueberries clung to the surrounding brush. In the middle of the island was a spruce tree larger than what Winnen could fit his arms around. At the base of the tree were signs that an animal had tried to dig a hole.
About 9:30 a.m., Winnen glanced upstream.
Forty yards away was a big brown bear with all four paws in the creek, flipping over logs looking for salmon.
"He's a shooter," Urban said under his breath.
"So I started getting in the zone," Winnen said. "When I am going to take an animal, I am really concentrating. We racked shells into our guns and took off our packs and left them by the tree."
The hunters moved a few feet upstream. About halfway between them and the bear was a large fallen tree.
"I said, 'When the bear crawls over that log, he will present his vital areas and we'll take him,'" Winnen recalled. "I brought the rifle up to take a shot, but the bear moved over the log like it wasn't there.
"I thought, 'Oh crap.' I didn't have a chance to get a shot off."
As the bear kept coming along the creek, the two hunters momentarily lost sight of him in a thicket, so they retreated back to the big spruce.
"We were sitting there concentrating when, a few seconds later, he pops up right in front of us, about 10 yards away and he was coming toward us," Winnen said. "I don't know if the wind was in our favor or what. We were dressed in camouflage. He might not have seen us."
"I put the scope on him. I wanted to hit him in the chest, but all I seen was nothing but head.
"My partner said, 'Shoot! Shoot!'" Winnen said. "I aimed for his left eye, but the bullet takes an arc and I hit about two inches low in the side of his muzzle and into his brain.
"He buckled backwards and raised his head like he was going to howl at the moon, but nothing came out,'' Winnen said. ''I put two more rounds in the vital area, then three more after that. Six total."
"It was amazing"
"We watched for a few minutes, I reloaded and Jim brought his gun up on him," Winnen said. "I approached from the rear and poked him in the butt to see if he was going to jump, but he didn't move. He was dead."
"It was amazing when I got close to him," Winnen said.
"I picked up the paw and it was like, 'good God.' The thing was as wide as my chest."
After the kill, Winnen and Urban spent six hours skinning the bear — and trying to drag its hide and skull back to the Forest Service cabin they had rented.
- Ted Winnen, who shot the bear, was an airman with the U.S. Air Force, not a Forest Service employee.
- The bear was large, but not a "world record 12 feet 6 inches high at the shoulder" and weighing "over one thousand six hundred pounds." The ursine bagged by Mr. Winnen measured 10 feet, 6 inches from nose to tail and its weight was estimated at between 1,000 to 1,200 pounds — an extraordinarily large bear for the Prince William Sound area (about double the average size), but not a world record.
- The bear was coming towards Winnen and his hunting partner from about 10 yards away, but nobody knows for sure whether it was "charging them." According to the two hunters, the bear may not even have been aware of their presence.
- Winnen bagged the bear with a .338-caliber Winchester Magnum, not a "7mm Mag Semi-auto."
6/23/06, 03:39 PM
#8
Team Mustang Source
Thread Starter
Thanks Brad I though my inlaw was to be reliable enough that it was good but, I failed to do my homework Thanks for the real story !
Long in short don't leave the little ones alone while camping ! take the time to go see what it is not I'll be there in a minute kinda thing. Keep them safe !
Long in short don't leave the little ones alone while camping ! take the time to go see what it is not I'll be there in a minute kinda thing. Keep them safe !
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