Spoof or Truth? Record Alaskan Bear?

[Guns_and_Labs]

A story was forwarded to me, along with poor pictures. It sounds questionable for a lot of reasons, but I thought I'd throw it out there and see if anyone can verify or refute:

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 rif le 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 leas t 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.

 

[Tomekeuro85]

If that is real, then WOW thats one huge animal. I would see it and immediately need a diaper.

 

[Car Knocker]

Only sorta kinda true:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/bearhunt.asp

 

[Guns_and_Labs]

Thought so. Thanks, Car Knocker.

 

[sturmruger]

How do these urban legends ever start??

 

[duckslayer]

How do these urban legends ever start??

I don't know...but I once killed a snapping turtle that was bigger than a volkswagen...in fact, it had eaten a volkswagen...with a family inside it and...

 

[c_yeager]

How do these urban legends ever start??

Usually they have pretty innocent beginnings. Someone posts the pics with the story. Someone else looks at the pics, doesnt read or understand the story, crossposts them with the "short version" which is invariably more interesting than the original story, so it grown much longer legs than the original.

 

[Schleprok62]

Not hunting bear???

Not that it's a bad thing...

Didn't intend to hunt bear... hmmm... let's see... .338 Win Mag, a bit overkill for blacktail deer, don't ya think??? He just happened to buy the bear permit?? "just in case"

I'd say they went looking for bear and maybe got a lot more than they were expecting...

 

[H&Hhunter]

Not that it's a bad thing...

Didn't intend to hunt bear... hmmm... let's see... .338 Win Mag, a bit overkill for blacktail deer, don't ya think??? He just happened to buy the bear permit?? "just in case"

I'd say they went looking for bear and maybe got a lot more than they were expecting...

There is a reason people use .338's and .375's to hunt deer in AK. I think it's pretty self explanatory really.

 

[c_yeager]

Not that it's a bad thing...

Didn't intend to hunt bear... hmmm... let's see... .338 Win Mag, a bit overkill for blacktail deer, don't ya think??? He just happened to buy the bear permit?? "just in case"

I'd say they went looking for bear and maybe got a lot more than they were expecting...

Hm, there is a lot of game in Alaska that can be hunted with hefty calibers. I *think* that an Alaska hunting permit includes a bear permit, but you do generally have to buy a tag. This could be way outdated, but it used to be that shooting a bear while hunting someone else wasnt a big deal since you did have a license to do so, even if you were hunting rabbits.

 

[H&Hhunter]

You have to buy a brown bear tag seperatly. But I always carried one when I was a resident in AK. You never know when the hunting gods are going to smile upon you. And I also always hunted with a .375H&H or a .338win for everything.

It may come in handy and it makes a fine caribou, moose, wolf, black bear, brown bear, blacktail gun as well as a fine close range thumper and a long range reacher. It is the perfect mixed bag rifle.

 

[sumpnz]

The guy emptied his 7mm Magnum semi-automatic rif le into the bear

That is about the only really truthful part of the story. My neighbor when I lived in Tucson had served with the guy that shot the bear. He was on a deer hunt and him and his buddy had apparently decided that if one saw a griz they'd take it, since they had the appropriate tag. He saw the bear, fired, and then emptied the rifle basically as insurance. If he reloaded he didn't fire any of those rounds. It was a big bear, but not as big as the story claims. The bear also had no human remains, and no half eaten hiker was found nearby. The guy that shot the bear was apparently rather pissed when he found out what the story had morphed into, especially since his face is clearly visable in the photos.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Except that the "guy" was shooting a bolt action .338 win mag not an auto loader 7MM.

 

[Schleprok62]

Like I said... "not that it's a bad thing..."

I wasn't complaining, or knocking... he had the appropriate license and tags... all's good to me... and after thinking about it, I guess in Alaska, there's a more likely chance at running into a bear than down here in the contiguous 48...

What other good round would be good for Alaska? 300 mags (all)???

 

[H&Hhunter]

Like I said... "not that it's a bad thing..."

I wasn't complaining, or knocking... he had the appropriate license and tags... all's good to me... and after thinking about it, I guess in Alaska, there's a more likely chance at running into a bear than down here in the contiguous 48...

What other good round would be good for Alaska? 300 mags (all)???

Schelprok,

It's all about personal prefrence. .30-06 .300 whatever you like makes a great AK round. I'm always looking for an excuse to use my .375H&H.

And sorry I didn't mean to insult you in any way. Sometimes a post comes across that way but it wasn't my intention.

Greg

 

[Geno]

Psych!

'at thars a pretty "tall" tail!

Couldn't "bear" to hear many more like it!

Guess that really got his "fur" up!

O'kay--and, that's enough!



Doc2005

 

[sumpnz]

Except that the "guy" was shooting a bolt action .338 win mag not an auto loader 7MM.

I could be wrong, but I thought my neighbor said is was a 7mm Rem Mag autoloader.

 

[birddog]

Actually, the pictures and story are authentic.

I know a guy who knows a guy who is the brother of a guy who is the friend's sister's cousin of the guy who is best friends with the photographer's uncle.

Really.