Braxton Taylor
An elk hunter is lucky to be alive today after he was forced to use his own hunting rifle to defend himself from an adult grizzly in a remote portion of eastern Idaho.
“Based on the hunter’s statements, the bear came at him and he defended himself with his hunting rifle, which he was holding, by shooting at the charging bear two times,” according to an Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) incident report obtained by MeatEater. “The hunter immediately left the area and contacted the authorities to report the incident.”
The encounter took place around 3:00pm on Saturday, October 26, north of Kilgore near Mule Meadows on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. The hunter was looking for elk in a heavily timbered area with significant deadfall when he came face-to-face with a young female grizzly bear.
Only about five yards separated the bear from the hunter, which only gave him enough time to raise his rifle chambered in 7mm-08 Remington. The bear approached within a single yard before he fired, striking the bear just below the bear’s right eye.
The hunter saw the bear fall and roll around on the ground, and he fired again, this time hitting the animal behind the bear’s right shoulder.
He didn’t stick around to find out if the shots had done their work. He left the area immediately, according to the incident report, and called IDFG within 35 minutes of the incident occurring.
The man told officials that he did not smell any carcasses or see any other bears in the area. He also mentioned that while he was carrying bear spray, he did not have time to deploy it before the bear reached him.
The next day a team of biologists and law enforcement officers with the U.S. Forest Service and IDFG walked up to the scene. IDFG SCO Chris Johnson noted, “The area surrounding the incident location was heavily timbered with significant deadfall. Visibility, notably at ground level, was poor.”
IDFG District Conservation Officer Andrew Sorensen made a similar observation and added that he did not see any animal carcasses, gut piles, or other bear attractants in the area. However, they did find several possible bear daybeds close by, which appeared to confirm the hunter’s account.
“The hunter’s encounter with the grizzly bear occurred at a very close distance in very thick timber/deadfall timber cover, leading investigators to believe it to be a surprise encounter,” Sorensen wrote in his report. IDFG investigators removed the bear’s head and claws for further examination.
MeatEater contacted the hunter involved in the incident but did not receive a response by time of publication.
Grizzly bears remain a federally protected species throughout the United States. Any time a grizz is killed, federal and state officials conduct a thorough investigation to ensure the killing was justified.
Hunters kill grizzly bears every year in the course of defending themselves, and a 2015 report listed the average number of bears killed by hunter gunfire at 10.2. This year, hunters have killed several Ursus arctos horribilis, including one incident in western Montana in which the hunter shot and killed a bear with a handgun.
This latest incident is the third since June in which a bear has been killed in this area of Idaho in what officials later determined was self-defense. Bear removals due to livestock depredation remain the leading cause of human-related grizzly mortality, according to a database that tracks grizzly deaths.
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