My friend Butch Blalock and I had a Brown Bear charge while trying to sneak up on some geese at Power Creek in Cordova. I had spotted the Geese earlier in the day and waited for Butch to get of duty to and try to get some. We went back out about 3 with both of us carrying shotguns and .44 mags. Butch carried A over and under and a 4 inch Smith with 180 gr.Super Vel. That I had hand loaded on his right hip and I carried a 870 Rem. And a Ruger with 240 gr.Speer with 21gr.of 2400 on my left hip butt forward.
We made our approach up along a small creek with scattered Alders to a large stand of alders,we got to about 20 feet of the stand and started to skirt them,there was a small gully I just stepped across when the Sow commenced her charge, she came at me and turned toward butch ,I hollered Bear,Butch hollered Brown,boom,boom,he shot first and I shot second,his shot went went the top of the nose and came out the side of her mouth and my broke her neck.The sow dropped dead at his feet,I took 3 steps and poked her with my Shotgun.
I'll never forget the look and sound durning her charge,her hackles were up,her ears were flat and she was huffing like a Boar Hog.Her 2 cubs came out of the Alders briefly but didn't press a charge and went back into the alders.
We went back to town and reported it to Fish and Game to see if they wanted to investigate,they told us to go back and skin her out,at which time we switched from shotguns to .338. It was getting dusk by this time and dark went we completed the skinning ,the cubs stayed in Alders but were thrusting around,this was the most stressful,we wondered all through the skinning process if we could stop both Cubs if they charged as they were both about the sows size.
We went back to town,took some pictures and turned the hide in.I often wondered if they auctioned off the hide and if the person who purchased it wondered about the hole in the nose.
As a side note my bullet took out half the neck bone and lodged in hide on the off side.
