Two local brothers are hunting guides in the area. They have three clients out on an elk hunt. One client shoots a large bull elk late one evening. Since it’s late the guide decides to leave the elk & pick it up the next morning. Riding in the next day with two pack horses, the guide gets into a thick brushy area and decides to tie the horses up & go on foot to scout a trail to the downed elk. The guide was carrying a 25-20 rifle, a small caliber for this area, but in his younger day he’d fired 30-06’s & 7mm mags & the recoil caused him to flinch, causing him to miss the target. He decided carrying a smaller caliber that was more accurate was the way to go for him. Arriving at the spot the elk was shot, the guide only finds parts & pieces of the elk, and a trail where the carcass had been drug off. To say the least he was upset at the Black Bear that drug off his clients’ elk. He decided to track the bear down & kill it. The 700 pound elk carcass was drug uphill through some tough terrain. He began to wonder if this could really be accomplished by a black bear. Coming upon a clump of spruce trees, the guide went down on one knee to see if he could spot the bear. Looking closely, he spots an ear…a big ear….that’s not a black bear, it’s a Grizzly! The next thing he sees is an eye….looking right at him! He quickly backs away & comes up with a plan. He’s still mad that this bear took the elk he’d worked so hard to get for his client, so he decides to shoot the Grizzly!

He drops down hill and circles around the bear, downwind. Now uphill & downwind of the spruce grove, he drops on one knee again to see if he can spot the bear, thinking one well placed shot in the ear will drop the bear. He hears a noise and turns. Twenty feet behind him is the bear, up on it’s hind legs, growling & snapping its teeth. He knows that if he shoots the bear with his light caliber gun, it’ll mall him to death before it realizes it’s even hurt. Between the guide & the bear is a tree that looks climbable. He figures his only chance at survival is to charge the bear, yelling and screaming and climb the tree as fast as possible while the bear is still startled…… hopefully.

He charges the bear, yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs. The bear is taken back by his unorthodox actions, giving him time to hit the tree climbing, dropping his gun in the process. Within seconds the bear realizes he’s been duped and charges the tree full force. After a half-hour the bear returns to the elk carcass, laying on it while watching the guide in the tree. Several attempts to come down the tree to retrieve his gun are met with full force charges by the bear. Finally, with a stick, the guide manages to retrieve his gun. He’s now been in the tree for more than 8 hours. He considers shooting the bear, but knows that he’s been gone long enough that his brother and the hunters will likely be coming out to search for him. If he shoots and wounds the bear, they will be facing a wounded Grizzly, a very bad proposition.

The guide decides to try to come down and make it to another tree, further away from the bear. The bear is 90 feet away; the next tree is 30 feet away. Several attempts to come down the tree are met with fierce charges. Finally the guide drops to the ground running, and makes it up the next tree just before the bear hits the tree!

Now 120 feet from the bear, he decides to repeat the process with a tree even further away. Again, he makes it to the third tree just in time.

This time when he descends the tree, the bear has lost interest in this game & the guide returns to his horses, riding back to camp.

Telling his story at camp draws "bear story" laughs from all at first, but he finally convinces them the story is true.

They decide to go after the bear the next morning. The plan is to position the 3 hunters on the ridge above the bear, then drive him out of the spruce grove. Moving up on the ridge, the hunters had just taken their position, when they found that there would be no need to drive the bear from his lair. He was charging up hill at them full speed. Nine well placed shots from high caliber rifles failed to stop the bear! The guide’s brother takes a well-aimed shot at the bears’ ear. A direct hit drops the bear in it’s tracks….50 feet from the hunters!