Now that is one big bear

greeneyedlady

Duchess of Comedy
Jul 4, 2002
173
0
0
MD, USA
These pictures are of a man who works for the US Forest Service in Alaska, and his trophy bear.

He was deer hunting last week when the large grizzly charged him from about 50 yards away. The guy emptied his 7mm Magnum semi-automatic rifle into the bear and it dropped a few feet from him. The big bear was still alive so the hunter 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 is the largest grizzly bear ever recorded in the world.

The Alaska Fish and Wildlife Commission did not let him keep it as a trophy, of course; but the bear will be stuffed and mounted, and placed on display at the Anchorage airport to remind tourists of the risks involved in the wild.

Analyzing 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 hiker missing two days prior to the bear's own death.

Backtracking from where the bear had originated, the US Forest Service found the hiker's emptied 38-caliber pistol. 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 (that the Service ultimately retrieved, along with twelve 7mm slugs, inside the bear's body), it only wounded the bear and probably angered it immensely.!

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, this bear, standing on its hind legs, could walk up to an average single story house and look over the roof; or stand aside a two story house and look in the upper bedroom windows.

ShowLetter2.jpg
 
Now I don't feel stupid for "picking up speed" and passing the entire group after hearing a bear while backpacking with friends. Poor hiker, there's not a thing he could have done to save himself from a bear that size. I wonder what turned the bear aggressive to humans? Bears don't usually seek out humans(I think), except with reason, like for open or smelly food, or they might smell a woman at "that time of the month". :confused:
 
Most, if not all hikers in that area should know about bearproof containers and also about keeping them 50 yards or better from your tent. But, someone screwed up and the bear obviously began to associate people with food and then people as food. That's one amazing story. For anyone that doesn't know, the 7mm mag is pretty much king of the common hunting rounds and the fact that this thing took 12 of them is frightening. Scary indeed.
 
Ah, not that makes more sense. I was wondering just why a half dozen 7mm mag shells wouldn't do the trick. Thanks Rasko and SNopes.com
 
Wow.. i remember this being posted on this site about 4 years ago. I remember because I got into this huge argument with a poster because he kept on insisting that since the shooter provoked the bear, the shooter "deserved" to get badly injured... All in all, he was rooting for the bear to rip the shooter';s head off...

Anyway, just something that popped in my head. . . Now what was his name? ? ?

Sinner? or something along those lines.. Anyway, that was a long time ago . .
 
I remember this topic as well, cheech. It's an oldie.
 
Well I have to say, I too have trouble feeling bad for hunters when something goes wrong. But then I'm a bit of an animal extremist, this I know. :P Hikers however, are innocent.

And for shooting a huge bear that's charging you, the shooter doesn't really deserve to be eating, self defense is allowed I suppose. :P

Just my two cents.
 
Harlock said:
Ah, not that makes more sense. I was wondering just why a half dozen 7mm mag shells wouldn't do the trick. Thanks Rasko and SNopes.com

Actually, the story states that the 7mm slugs are what killed the bear. The .38 slugs just pissed it off. Not that it really matters, though...being a fictitious story and all.
 
Last edited:
I appreciate the updated real story - you might want to warn people not to scroll down past the picture of two men posing with the bear, unless you are accustomed to extremely gruesome pictures. I wasn't quite prepared to see a mangled human corpse. 'shiver' That kind of thing gives me nightmares. No CSI for me thank you. :o :eek:
 
AquariaCentral.com