i must ask permission first...

[vash]

do you guys want to see pictures of the killer bear, and a pic of one of the mauled hikers? i guess the bear pic is ok. it is huge!

[Shuie]

Every time I read posts on the gun forums from backpackers debating bear defense handguns I think of that pic.



Ive heard numerous versions of the story behind these pics over the last few years. Whats the truth behind this one?

[vash]

this is a cut and paste of the story circulating amonst my bro's law enforcement and game warden friends.

The following (first two) pictures are of a guy who works for the US Forest Service in Alaska and his trophy bear. He was out deer hunting last week when a large grizzly bear charged him from about 50 yards away. The guy unloaded his 7 mm Mag 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 tourist's 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. His last meal was! the unlucky nature buff in the third picture below. 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 (they ultimately found four 38 caliber slugs along with twelve 7mm slugs inside the bear's dead body) it only wounded the bear - and probably angered it. 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 belly button 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.

the mauled hiker is a sobering picture.

[white87911]

Is this a new story? I have seen these picture 2+ years ago.

[nostatic]

the people were tresspassing in the *bear's* home, and he gets shot? That sucks...

[MBAtarga]

Note: It's not all quite true - especially the eating humans part....
snopes is your friend.

[vash]

nice job guys!

[M.D. Holloway]

alls well that ends well?

[Rikao4]

Had seen these pictures / I root for the Bear, lots of humans...fewer and fewer big bears...like getting tag with radar...I didn't know you were playing....Hunting, lets make it fair...Bow's,clubs,knives
Rika

[bryanthompson]

since when do midgets go bear hunting?

[tabs]

I vote for carrying a 375 HH or 416 Rigby...

[dd74]

It seems as if there was a single-man bear wrecking crew in Alaska at one time. IIRC in the Anchorage airport, there is a grizzly and polar bear on display, both killed by the same person - a dentist, no less.

It's pathetic how some guys deal with their having very small dicks.

[arcsine]

Nothing like depleting the gene pool of the biggest and strongest specimens just to say "Look what I killed. Am I not a manly man?"

I will never understand this mentality.

[RickM]

Here's another biggun....



and another....

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally posted by tabs
I vote for carrying a 375 HH or 416 Rigby...

I prefer my .458 Winchester Magnum. As an old African PH used to say "I like the way it makes 'em go all loose...".

[Jims5543]

I was rooting for the lion in this one.

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/huntlion.html

[kach22i]

Originally posted by MM83targa
Note: It's not all quite true - especially the eating humans part....
snopes is your friend.

As this account demonstrates, some of the details in the text that now accompanies these photographs is incorrect:

* 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."

[Superman]

There is a stuffed (or "mounted," I guess I should say) bear in a shop in Jackson Wyoming. I can only imagine it is a Kodiak bear (they are the largest breed). That thing is COLOSSAL. It's statistics would be roughly about the same as the inflated figures above. Or bigger. It is gargantuan.

Jackson Wyoming is a good place to have a beer. Trust me.

[dd74]

Originally posted by Superman


Jackson Wyoming is a good place to have a beer. Trust me.

...a beer with a bear, no doubt.

[Jeff Higgins]

I "met" the bear that starred in the TV series Grizzly Adams, or the one that was in the Disney movie about the bear years ago. I can't remember for the life of me which bear it was; for all I know it was the same one in both. He was out at a private zoo and exotic wildlife breeder in Sequim, on the upper part of the Olympic Peninsula (really sad place if you love animals by the way). This little feller had an advertised weight of 1800-2000 lbs, depending on which account you believe. The top of his head, with him on all fours, came to about mid-chest on me and I'm an honset six feet tall. His hump was about even with my eyes. These things get far bigger than most folks can imagine. At that size, they will still out sprint a horse.

I saw a grizzly one time on the Tagagawick River (just inside the Arctic Circle, east of Kotzebue) chase a ground squirrel. He caught it after matching it move for move; he was every bit as agile and quick. Granted he was a true open tundra griz, and a very good one goes maybe 600 lbs, but still pretty impressive. He would have caught me no problem. That's why I hunt caribou with a .375 H&H when I'm up there.