Grizzly encounters while elk hunting

[Will_m]

Anybody had a run in with a grizzly while elk hunting? Where/when? What happened?

I think this would be an interesting thread topic if enough people have had substantive run ins.

 

[hartigjosh]

Outside Yellowstone, up the North Fork Shoshone River during archery elk....
We had just walked down game trails for 30 mins and then back to the horses, seen a sow and cubs half a mile away. Saw tracks on the trail. But never did I feel like we were on the verge of seeing one close. it was the first day of our back country wilderness hunt.
Upon arriving to the horses we heard a random bugle from the hill top to our left. We quickly assembled our stuff. I walked across a clearing that was call it 100 yards long to get to the edge while the guy behind me called. I was just over 10 yards from the edge when a head peeked through the trees and then a big dark burst. Grizzly coming straight at me. I had just stepped over a log with my right foot as I had been slowly making my approach to setup for the bull. I pulled back my right foot, reached for gun, didnt even get it out of the holster and yelled bear as it was now 10 feet from me and it paused. It looked at me for a moment and then slowly went away.
Guy behind me was running in as he witnessed it and provided back up.
I was lucky. I assume it thought I was a cow and then when it realized I wasnt it paused. Or the commotion of me flailing my bow in one hand and yelling was enough to make it pause, I dont know. But it paused and I am thankful. Also fortunate to have had a bad ass watching my back. I have no doubt that if I had been mauled the bear would have been eating some lead from his .44 vaquero. I would never travel solo in that country or with someone i didnt trust to have my back.

 

[150plusB&C]

Had a griz kill a moo cow about 200 yards from us. Didn’t see anything but the sounds didn’t leave much to the imagination. I’ve watched enough National Geographic to get the visual. I didn’t know that moo cows could scream in terror. When the cow started bellowing, every other cow in the mountains started out. It sounded like a a stampede coming out. Absolutely nuts. After the kill, apparently another griz came in then a God awful fight incurred. We didn’t know whether to run or sit tight. It was one of the most terrifying things and one of the most awesome experiences I’ve ever had.


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[FLAK]

Not an Elk hunt but a Brown Bear hunt. Had one wake me up In the middle of the
night sniffing my face through the tent. Must've heard me snoring. Didn't sleep much
for the rest of that hunt.

 

[Will_m]

Not an Elk hunt but a Brown Bear hunt. Had one wake me up In the middle of the
night sniffing my face through the tent. Must've heard me snoring. Didn't sleep much
for the rest of that hunt.

no electric fence, I take it?

 

[FLAK]

no electric fence, I take it?

You would be correct.

 

[nowen22]

Mid september in 2016 in the Thorofare wilderness on an archery elk hunt. First morning of hunting we get up on a ridge and start glassing up a canyon. Spotted some elk a couple miles away so we made our way down the ridge and towards them. We were cliffed out and had to drop down to the bottom of a ravine through some thick deadfall to get to the other side of the canyon where the elk were. We get to the bottom and cross a small creek and start up the other side. As we are walking back up the other side my brother turns around to say something to me and his eyes are bugging out of his head. I turn around and there is a massive Grizz 30 yards behind us sniffing the air and following us. We stop and start shouting at this thing with our bear spray at the ready. Luckily he didn't want anything to do with us, stood up and then wheeled around and went the other way.

 

[Salmonchaser]

I’ve witnessed grizz killing moose a couple of times, the sounds are bone chilling. One was about 200 yards the other about 50 yards, we were in my boat.
gives me shudders.
Never run into one elk hunting.

 

[Will_m]

Does anybody avoid traveling before/after daylight in known grizzly country?

 

[Theringworm]

Does anybody avoid traveling before/after daylight in known grizzly country?

On my Coastal Alaskan moose/black bear hunt last year, we never left camp before there was some visible light and we always were back to camp before dark. I never asked my guide why he did what he did but assumed it was for the simple reason of being able to see your surroundings and know/be aware of impending approaching Brown bears. We had a young boar come into our extraction point while we waited with the moose meat I had shot the day before, for the Super Cub to arrive. This was my first experience w/ a Brown Bear. It took a lot of convincing on our part (myself, guide and packer) to turn him away. He gave us one false charge that was essentially from a standing position, jaws snapping and then lunged one step forward. That’s was 30 yds out. I thought for sure lead was about to fly but luckily we convinced him otherwise and he moveD on. Never encountered one elk hunting as I have not hunted elk in Grizzly territory. When I do however, I will not be alone. I like company when I am not at the top of the food chain.

 

[MTElk1987]

The few encounters I've had in the MT wilderness areas have ended with the bear running away after they have smelt me. Both times I kicked lone bears out of their day beds (maybe 50-60 yards away). They jumped up startled and then started circled me like an elk trying to get my wind. I did have a bear come into camp one night. I forgot to turn off my pasture fence and the bear ran into it. It made quite a commotion when he expectantly got hit with 8,000 volts!

Does anybody avoid traveling before/after daylight in known grizzly country?

I can't say that I've ever avoided areas in the dark due to grizzly activity. However, with that said, my nerves are on high and I have my headlamp on the highest beam. Also, I spend alot of time in the dark on horseback and it is amazing what a horse can tell you as long as you're paying attention. I've found that a good mountain or ranch horse doesn't tense up for no reason.

 

[alexanderg23]

We encountered 2 in Montana 2 seasons ago. One had buried the remains of an elk we killed. It saw us and moved on. The other caught our scent and moved on. I wouldn’t worry about them too much.

 

[mntnguide]

To many encounters to count.. western Wyoming. Had a grizzly walk less than 2ft from my head in the dark while i was in a wall tent.. didn't get the electric fence set up that night, had it up first thing the next morning. I was sweating bullets as i heard him breathing and walking, and my .44 was by my feet.. have had them follow me all day long on hunts especially once snow was on the ground. Have had a couple friends through the years who had worse encounters resulting in shots fired at a charging bear. I prefer horses in the elk woods around my country for that reason especially

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[Beendare]

2 years ago we had a posse on horseback track us in the snow and kick us out of the area we were in about 17 miles from Yellowstone. It seems a bow hunter shot a G bear the night before in the next canyon over. The bear was wounded and they hadn't found it yet.

I've bumped a couple of Brown Bears in Alaska and had them in camp at night.......but never a a close encounter with a G bear on an elk hunt.

IMO, The assumption that they want anything to do with us is way over done.

_____

 

[Cornhusker]

In 2009 I hunted with Rick Sundeen , we left the Jack Fork's creek trailhead west of Meeteetse Wyoming. About 4 hours in on horseback. We had the electric fencing around the tents and the bear proof box for food, all were needed as we saw multiple bears each day. The first evening we got instructions on how to stay as safe as possible around bears as we would see bears. We all had bear spray and were prepared on how to use it. Rick told us if at all possible to avoid shooting a bear as if we did it would be a long and difficult investigation with the Feds as they had shot one previously which drug on for years.

The first day out from camp a couple hours by horse we found a couple of bulls in the 330 range. As we attempted to get closer to the elk we spotted a light colored grizzly also stalking the elk. My guide who had been hunting that basin since he was 18, it was his 55 and final year said we needed to back out immediately. We backed out and watched the grizzly get within a hundred yards or so of the bulls when they bolted, he chased after them until they went out of sight over the mountain. Later in the afternoon we put a stalk on a smaller bull 6x6 but probably a stretch to make 300 I'm not sure I would have taken the bull but we got within shooting distance around 300 yards and were trying to decide to shoot or not when we heard a woof behind us tuning we saw a dark grizzly at about 80 yards heading right at us probably going for the elk. No decision to make on shooting the elk we pulled our bear spray both hollering, making a lot of noise the bear circled and grudgingly backed away. We road to camp in the dark with some really nervous horses.

The second day was more of the same but no close contact as the day before but every elk we found was too far or in two cases had a bear that was in the vicinity of where they were located which made a stalk risky. On the third day at the end of the day we spotted a herd of elk fairly late and the guide stated that the elk was the biggest he had seen in this basin in his 55 years hunting it just too bad we couldn't get to him in time. When I asked why not, his response was that we couldn't get there with horses and it was physically too difficult to get to them before dark. I said I could get there before the end of shooting time. It involved going about a mile down the mountain and then back up a half mile though some black timber to get above the herd and get approximately a 200 yard shot. I knew I was going to have to run some because of the time factor so I stripped off to a wool shirt and took off the bear spray to allow for speed in travel. The guide also Rick because of his age and fitness level would stay up top and give me directions on if the elk moved. In retrospect we should have went over hand signals a little better.

I was in great shape at this time for 50 years old and was running a lot including an occasional marathon. I got most of the way down the mountain before I put the binoculars up and the guide was going nuts. I assumed his jumping around was just his excitement as he was pretty wound up about this elk. I later found out that he was so excited because a bear was following me just out of my sight but not his. I knew nothing of this until I started going back up into the black timber, which was really thick. About a 100 yards into the timber I heard sticks breaking behind me I turned and about 50 yards behind me was a grizzly coming right up through the timber toward me. I reached for the bear canister now missing from my belt, I got big as instructed and squeezed my best friend that 300 wsm close but remembered not to shoot unless I had proof I was attacked. The bear was really agitated snapping his jaws and got to probably 30 yards from me I threw my gloves at the bear and hollered at him. The bear finally dropped down and went to my right, I was scared but still determined to get that elk. I made it probably another 600 yards up the mountain until the bear was back this time not quite as close but still chomping and growling and swinging his head side to side. This time I didn't yell as I was getting close to where I needed to be to get a shot. The bear dropped down the mountain I thought. I made the final 200 yards to the top and looked down into the basin that held the elk. I got into a prone position for a 200 yard shot and the bear was close behind me I jumped up got big again almost shot him this time at 30 yards but he was close enough I wasn't sure I would get him stopped before he got to me. He went back a bit I turned and shot the elk from a standing position he rolled dead quickly and I then realized as the big elk took off I'd shot the wrong one.

The shot had sent the bear back into the deeper timber. My guide had started down the mountain with the horses as soon as he had seen the bear following me. He had seen the big elk take off and he hollered did you shoot the bear and did you killing him. I assured him I had shot the wrong elk and the bear was still in the area so be careful. It was dark by the time the guide got to me and the bear was still in the area. The elk had rolled 50 yards down the mountain into a deep hole. Rick told me we should probably gut the elk although he was sure the bear would take it as soon as we left. I went down into the hole where it rolled and gutted the elk while Rick held my gun at ready. When we got back to the horses they were so wild with the smell of the bear we could not mount them and it was really dark probably 8:00. We decided to walk the horses down the mountain. The horses usually knew the trail down the mountain but us leading them got us lost as they just followed us. We finally figured out which way to go sometime around 11:00 or so. We met a couple of guides coming up the mountain from camp looking for us around 1:00 in the morning and got back to camp around 2:00. I was pretty upset with myself for not even getting a shot at the elk of a lifetime my mistake not the guides. Sundeen told me his exact words "Hell anybody can shoot a big elk but a story like yours is much better." I told him no one would believe the whole story he said contact him if they didn't believe it. The next day we took 2 additional camp guys and to .45-70 to retrieve what we anticipated would be a bear ruined elk it was untouched . But across the basin another guy in the camp had killed and elk late and had been unable to pack it out his elk had been partially eaten drug 400 yards up the mountain and pissed and bear on as well as buried. My elk was a decent 5 point but the elk that I had been stalking and thought I shot was killed by another hunter in camp the next day it scored 408 and was the lead article in Eastmans as well as the cover photo.

Finally if you bothered to read this whole thing Sundeen was wrong give me the 408 elk and I'd forget the bear story. In retrospect it was interesting but darn scary. On the way out on horses we met some locals who had rode horses in without a bear fence and they hadn't slept in 2 nights because of bear noise around there camp most of the night.

 

[nettereo16]

Never ran into one elk hunting but was doing a DIY flyfishing trip in AK a few years ago and had a medium size brown bear wake us up in the tent. I picked up the 870 and chambered a slug quietly. We slept with the tent fly open and I saw him walk by at about 10 yards. Thankfully he didn't want in the tent... I was definitely very scared & had the gun up. He wandered off and we could hear him fishing a 100 yards away. We slowly got out of the tent, made a big ass fire, and once dawn broke we got after the silvers, there was no going back to sleep with all the adrenaline!

 

[The10%]

Great story cornhusker! I had a lot of experience in AK with Grizzly's, sounds like they were just as thick where you were in Wyoming. It changes the whole way you think when you have to assume there is one around you at all times. Personally I cant stand them, and wish Seattle wasn't bringing them back to WA.

 

[TxxAgg]

I am loving this thread

 

[CAElkhunter]

Great thread...starting to rethink my 13 WY Elk points I have been accumulating to hunt the good Elk units that have high populations of Grizzlies. It violates my I don't hunt something that might kill me policy......

Have never seen a Grizzly in my 25 yrs of MT Elk hunting. Went Moose hunting in Upper BC. Guide was happy I showed up with a 338 Win Mag. I asked him why. He said we were in Griz country and he hates it when clients show up with small caliber rifles. We only saw one a few hundred yds away and none when I shot my moose.

 

[GRbowman]

Archery hunted in Western WY just outside of Yellowstone in 2018. My son, a friend, and I were about 3 miles in on a trail and has seen lots of grizzly sign along the way. We were calling every 100 yards or so on the way in when I was just think as my son was in front he is too far ahead, he was only about 5 yards ahead of me. I looked up and past him and right in the middle of the trail was a big grizzly! I yelled to him to get back here as he had not seen the bear yet, he said he looked up and saw the bear and it was like a lightning bolt went through his body starting at his feet and out the top of his head. He went left and back towards us, by friend came up beside me and I pulled my pistol and they both pulled their bear spray. We slowly started backing up while talking to the bear (don't remember the conversation, but I am sure it was something about how bad we tasted!) We had a 10-15 second stare down then the bear turned and left. We also headed back to the truck and kept looking over our shoulders the entire way out. Never had a another encounter, but did see lots of sign and we killed two bulls. I am ready to go back, my son is not quite sure if he wants to hunt in grizzly county anymore : ) Also on the same trip, we went to hike in a trail the ranger was there posting signs because a hiker got mauled the day before.