Funny BEAR experiences #2 (The dead Grizzly Bear.....well MAYBE)

[Sourdough]

The dead Grizzly Bear.......well MAYBE.....?

Don't know if Curly Warren is still using that nice Grizzly Photo for his advertising. But an Italian Hunter and I had been storm bound in the bomb shelter for two days when the sky turned blue.

Step out of the tent and stretch and glass a bit. I spotted a porcupine and pointed at it, he thought it was a grizzly bear. I said, No Porcupine. He want to take a photo, and we needed a stretch and as it was mid afternoon we walked over there.

So it was not a porcupine but a nice Grizzly. We were about 45 yards away. I pointed behind my shoulder, and gave the thumbs-up sign. The bear was in a clearing with tall willows on three sides. The bear was broadside, and looking straight at us.

I had my cross hairs in front of the bear as I expected it to run straight ahead if hit. Boom his custom goes off. the Bear disappears from my scope. But I had a faint memory of the bear being sucked straight down to the earth faster than I would have thought a bear could drop. But there it was when I lower the scope in a pile.

An hour of Photos and it is time to go to work. Now I had been moving the bear for photos several times and had not consdered if it was dead. But I wanted to check if the bullet exited so it did not get lost if it was just inside the skin. Well it had not only not exited, it had NOT ENTERED. I jumped back about 12' feet in two jumps. Then very carefully examined every part of that bear, there was NO Hole in that bear, None.

Now I am not the brightest pumpkin in the pumpkin patch. But I figure either the bear is not dead or I am having a bad nightmare. I check the eyes, nothing. Check the nose nothing. Look down the mouth nothing. I stick my little finger down each nostril and one has blood. None was on the face when we did the photo shoot.

There was a stiff wind when he shot, anyway the bullet went right up the nostril perfect center. And did not exit the back of the skull. Very pretty bear.

 

[Caribou]

Too funny! A friend of mine drilled a moose in the ear once. We couldn't find that for a while until we grabbed the antler and it was loose.

 

[SheepDog]

A friend of mine and a good friend of my gunsmith (same guy) was a guide in Alaska for most of his life but left after a "funny" bear incident. His hunter fired on a grizzly and messed up. The bear charged and he raised his rifle and fired. The bear hit like a ton of bricks like they do when you put a big bullet through their eye. (he was well known for making that shot all the time) He pulled out his knife and walked up to the bear and slit its throat. That's when ne noticed the skid mark of a bullet that hit above the eye and traveled along the top of the head. The bear had been knocked unconscious but wasn't dead until its throat was cut. He figured that he had used up every bit of luck he had and moved to Renton where he opened a gunshop. My gunsmith moved into the shop and they worked together.
By the way, he was wrong about his luck. I was in the store one day and there was another customer too when a guy came in and was looking at the guns in the case. I was busy looking at bullets, powder and manuals when I hear a commotion. As I looked up the customer had fired a shot into the mans head after he had grabbed the owner and demanded the cash while holding a knife. Bud already had his gun out but the customer, a city cop, was just a bit faster. That was the day I decided to get some training. If I had been as aware as that cop I would have known what was going on. It was in the local paper how this reject from the brain factory tried to hold up a gunstore with a knife. That cop helped me find a good trainer locally and I got my first weekend of training the following month.