“Grizzly Guns”
by H. V. Stent
If you are planning a
grizzly hunt or only dreaming of one, a big question is which rifle
to use.
On that fascinating
subject, I’ve been amassing information for some 40 years of
living as a teacher, fruit grower and hunter in that bear paradise,
British Columbia, where stories of encounters with grizzlies and
brown bears are enjoyed where ever sportsmen gather and are often
headlined in newspapers and television newscasts.
Such meetings sometimes
result in a mauled man or shot bear, or both. A recent one ended with
both man and bear dead.
Rolf Voss of Surrey,
British Columbia, had shot a caribou near Fort Nelson, in the
north-central part of the province, and was carrying parts of the
carcass back to his camp in wooded mountain country when a grizzly,
perhaps smelling the meat, attacked him. Voss got off two shots with
his .270 that proved fatal to the bear, but the grizzly bit Voss
about the head – they usually go for the head – and killed
him. The two bodies were found side by side.
This is no reflection on
the .270. That cartridge has killed many grizzlies and browns. In
1985, a fine 27-incher (total skull measurement) fell to a .270 in
the hands of Roger Pentecost of Peachland, BC. In 1986, another
record-class grizzly was killed by Alvars Barkis of Sinking Spring,
Pennsylvania, with a .300 Magnum; and a medium-size one, about 500
pounds, was killed by 12-year-old Gary H. Holmes of Kimberly, BC,
with a .25/06. Back in 1965, the world-record grizzly fell to one
.30/30 bullet fired by Jack Turner. And before that, the world-record
grizzly succumbed to a .22 Rimfire!
Bella Twin, an Indian girl,
and her friend Dave Auger were hunting grouse near Lesser Slave Lake
in northern Alberta. The only gun they had was Bella’s
single-shot bolt-action .22 Rimfire rifle. They were walking a
cutline that had been made for oil exploration when they saw a large
grizzly following the same survey line toward them. If they ran, the
bear would probably notice them and might chase, so they quietly sat
down on a brush pile and hoped that the bear would pass by without
trouble. But the bear came much too close, and when the big boar was
only a few yards away, Bella Twin shot him in the side of the head
with a .22 Long cartridge. The bear dropped, kicked and then lay
still. Taking no chances, Bella went up close and fired all of the
cartridges she had, seven or eight .22 Longs, into the bear’s
head. That bear, killed in 1953, was the world-record grizzly for
several years and is still high in the records today. Which only goes
to show that in an emergency, strange things are possible, but who
wants that kind of emergency?
