Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska 11 ft brown bear down

One big brown rat .......

.....

Jesus that’s a huge mother…

More photos please. Great looking bear.

I need to go back.

No ground shrinkage on that one !! OMG

WOW!

Good lord. My buddy shot a 10'8" last fall and I thought that was huge......do they get much bigger then 11'?

Big mo fo, bet the ground shook when he walked by

Yes......hundred years ago.
There was an 11'-3" taken on Karluk Lake in spring of 81' We watched him the fall of 1980 he came up out of Ulga Bay and crossed the outlet of O'Malley Lake and straight up and over to Karluk Valley, and he was pushing four feet of snow. We thought he would roll back down the mountain.

AAA Guides and Outfitters has a small pocket of private/corporate land they pay a lot of money to guide a very few hunters on. Lots of huge bears there, but not open to public hunting. It will therefore continue to produce super high quality bears for decades.

Holy Moly, that's a BFB.

That's a huge bear, I wonder what he weighed

That photo along with a few more are posted here

https://m.facebook.com/pg/Kitchels-...p;tab=album&album_id=904227436314271

The description states they were uploaded mobile on Monday.

In the spring he'd be down several hundred pounds from his fall/hibernation weight. As a guess, a boar that size could weigh 1500-1700 pounds in his prime just before denning up. So maybe 1100# in the photo? In any event, that's a LOT of bear.

Wonder what caliber was used?

Magnificent animal.

.300 Win Mag, one shot .... not sure what bullet though

Bear was shot 11 years ago, I thought it was more recent than that. Still doesn't take away the fact that this is one beast of a bear.

The post above indicates that Goliath was shot May 2022. Regardless of when it was shot it’s a beast and something that I dream of someday hunting. 👍

Goliath was taken in May of 2022 ....

the bear pic on their Facebook cover is from 2011, two different bears

Wonder what caliber handgun he was carrying.

I wonder how old the bear was?

Why would anyone carry a handgun on a guided hunt.....??? Having a handgun in the tent is nice, but that is rare on a guided hunt.

It might be handy to finish off yourself if the bear gotcha.

Well crap, my bad. That outfit kills some big fuggin bears by the looks of it.

Son of a buck😳

I have similar sentiments, but you got there first Aces.

6.5 creedmoor of course

WOW
Glad they are up there and not down here.
Imagine if they walked around Yellowstone like the buffalo, and the loony bunny huggers tried to go hug one ?
Thanks for the pics

That would be a good way to get rid of them!

"Big" is an understatement.

That bear dwarfs big bears!

WTF is wrong with carrying a handgun ? I'd never pay a guide who wants to disarm me on my hunt , fu ck that

I've always carried a handgun and it has paid off multiple times.

Nothing "WRONG" with it, just don't see the point, unless the goal was to use the handgun as a primary harvesting tool. Could even be rationalized if the hunter was primarily using a bow and arrow to harvest. I fail to grasp your statement of Guide wants to disarm you, given the you would likely have a rifle. I actually guided a Dall Sheep hunter who every day packed his rifle and a "TWO GLOCKS" one under each armpit (shoulder holster).

Nice bear, congrats to all involved.

Curious why he packed two glocks on a sheep hunt, model, caliber. Worried about bears? Hoping to get in range of sheep? Worried about meth heads?

Incredible bear.

Just curious - did they age him?

Wondering if he was a genetic freak, lived long, ate well, all of the above, etc.

If he was harvested where I suspect, it is a very restricted area to hunt. There is essentially near zero hunting pressure. So the bears have a fair chance of getting old and therefore large.

Most of us that have been guideing brown bears for decades have killed some huge bears,, there are some outfits that always add a foot and some make an almost 9' into a 10+ with ease. That's why trophy size is measured on the skull measurments! Here's a Shuyak bear that we could have called 11' but layed out he was 10'3".

Gotta measure the hide on the diagonal!

Another nice bear!

Someone had to say it. I agree completely.

Harvest? That's gayerd n fugk.

Say's the guy in a spandex suit.

Absolutely Stunning!!!!!
I've had an obsession with those monster bears since I was a child after hearing the stories from my late father who was stationed on Kodiak in the Navy.
I would go to the biggest outdoor shows...SCI and FNAWS and the top Taxidermists shops to look at giant bears and find out which outfits were killing the biggest bears and I'd just be in awe of the giant bear mounts and photos of bears taken on Kodiak and the Peninsula.
I compiled volumes of information and photos.




ere I lived

After a couple of interior Grizzly Bear hunts that were difficult and ended in a mediocre bear....



, I buckled down and saved for a 2 week backpack hunt on Kodiak.
I trained hard for a year backpacking heavy weights up the mountains behind the ranch where I lived.
Long story short, I fulfilled my lifelong dream of taking a huge 10 foot, 1 inch (9 foot 8 x 10 foot 6) square bear measured flat as it lay the skull made all time book.
Not a day goes by that I'm not humbled, thankful and overwhelmed by that experience.
Without question, the most incredible adventure of my lifetime.











Thank you so much for posting this story.
I hope more photos of this bear surface along with a full recap of the hunt.
I've been scouring the internet, but very limited information has surfaced aside from a group of anti hunters that jumped on the story.
Please post more if you find it.

Again, Thank you Swamplord!!!👍

Wow! Big bears all through this thread.

Awesome.

Guy

What a great story ! Thanks for sharing It's great when dreams like this come true.

I had a similar client who was serious about big bears and at two different SCI conventions asked me to guess and tell him just how big , score wise , every big bear mount at the show was 🙄
He finally booked, was in great shape , with a good attitude and killed a great trophy with a 28 8/16" skull.

You big bear guys got big stones. Couldn't begin to imagine the rush. Wow! What great bears and stories! Congrats and thanks for sharing....

It is not always a rush, super sucks when you have seven brown bears in camp at the same time. Or having a large male brown bear on top of you. Or having them run over you as you fire your shot. Or when they are watching you process a moose, and you can't run them off, sometimes they will even just lay down, with head up, watching and waiting. Or when they sleep right outside your cabin door for three nights, and for three days they follow you everywhere you go, always staying about fifty yards back of you. That would have been a rush, other then the nearest other human was 40 to 60 miles away. It is a rush when you look over from reading your book and one is standing erect looking at you with their nose so close to the cabin window that it is fogging it up with each exhale.

I've never been afraid of any wild animal in North America.

EXCEPT for a huge Grizzly Bear I stalked into close quarters near Lake Louise in unit 13 in April of 1996.

The stalk failed in the heavy timber because of crunchy snow and swirling wind .

The following fall my guide took his son in and killed him.
Just a stud of an interior bear.

A 12 year old kid...dang.

This was a neat shot of that kid and his grizz.
Over 9 ft squared, beautiful black hide with gold accents on his shoulders.

That's a cool bear! And a tank.

Great pics Sal, keep them coming.

This is an amazing thread, like reading a Sports Afield article and getting to talk to the guy who was there for real.

One week after I started this thread I had a griz run into me (he shoud've run the other way)

Saw a nice black bear on Sat but spooked him, so I went back Wed night after work (June 8th) hoping to see the blackie again, instead .... a griz came at me whoofin awfully scary like ....

First shot at 14 paces directly in the chest under his chin as he came at me, the impact of the bullet knocked him down but he was back on his feet in a flash, swatting at the ground and snarling, he was broadside at that sec and I shot him in the shoulder the second time, knocking him down/spinning him facing away from me, as I approached him rifle ready, he jumped to his feet and made his way towards the impenetrable thick willow scrub, I shot him a third time directly in the back from ten feet away, breaking his back ... didn't want to go looking for him in the dense willow mess in the middle of the night ....

Suprisingly, with 3 shots in him and a broken back he still crawled away, pulling himself forward with his front paws/claws while snapping at and tearing the brush with his teeth, he made it 75 feet then I walked up on him and at point blank range put another 190 gr LRX bullet just behind the skull, ending it ...

Four shots with an original, unmodified Rem 700 LSS 300 RUM & 190 gr Barnes LRX bullets @ 3214 fps (Barnes factory ammo)

All in all, the first shot killed him but he either didn't know it or didn't accept it right at the moment, the second shot was "keep shooting till he's down" , third shot was insurance, to confirm he was done , the fourth shot was a mercy shot to prevent unnecessary suffering

All this occured in mere seconds and I didn't have time to think, just react to the situation at hand

Solo bear hunts can be scary at times, especially when they involve a bear that won't give up, lol !

Not a giant bear like those in pics posted earlier here, but still a mean azz adult grizzly looking for tasty mooselings, he ain't gonna eat any more of those ...

But stick told me you only need a 22lr ever for any bear.

One of the better threads ever posted.

Swamp----How bad was he rubbed? Can't tell in the photo. That's a good grizz---interior?

I enlarged the photo in the first post, looks like he might have lost his left ear in a fight. Enlarged it looks like he may not have had much remaining as far as teeth.

probably laffin .... & extolling the dumb story about using his 22 wares on his buddy's knee to slow him down while sticky flees

Talkeetna mtn griz, still had his heavy winter coat on due to the massive snow falls this past winter melting all the way into June, had the start of a rub on his butt, about 8x8 patch had the long hairs rubbed off but otherwise has a full fur coat on

My only close encounter with a grizzly was on my first elk hunt in Idaho. There was fresh snow on the ground. I was watching/glassing the valley below as I saw tracks going into the valley and no tracks coming out. The bear came up to maybe 20 feet behind me. I did not hear him/her. I saw the tracks though when I turned around and headed back. I was carrying a 600 Remington 308 Win. I carried either a 338 Win Mag or a 350 Remington Mag with 250 grain partitions on every elk hunt since then until the last elk hunt. I also was much more aware of what was behind me. When I saw how close that bear came up behind me I was shook! That elk hunt in Idaho was nearly 50 years ago.

I’ve often wished for a coastal bear hunt. My then wife had a propensity to spend much greater than my propensity to earn. Her sister told me (after that wife died) she was always giving money away.

This beast just showed up on my Instagram feed...
Killer photo.

that is a giant of a bear congrats ! but the biggest bear lives where we can`t hunt on native American land thar bear is called Grandfather and stands at least 14 feet tall . just punch in Grandfather bear there is a great story of this magnificient bear and documentary film too.

No bear ANYWHERE, stands 14 feet tall.
Guaranteed!!!!

So how do you guys hunt them? Are there some bait around or are you stalking them? Are you in a stand?

Where do you aim when hunting them? In the ear, neck, or heart?

I'm in Florida and curious about your experiences.

Spot and stalk, usually fom a prominant location.
Nothing fouls up an area more than polluting it with excessive human scent.
There is a small area in Alaska where you can bait brown bears, but it's a region not generally known for producing record sized bears.
Dangerous game usually calls for bone crushing, immobilizing shoulder shots.
Mine was done with one shot with a 200 grain partition from my .300 WBY, however I emptied the magazine for insurance.

That is a helluva pic and one helluva bear.

White claws, ears way out on side of head...👍

And the hunter wwwaaayyyyy behind.

That never factors into how I judge photos of game animals.

Here's a question for you Bear country fellas say your Bear height is a eight square or 9 square hide does this correlate to approximately how tall the bear was living also like 8 ft or 9 ft or does that very quite a bit depending on weight and girth?

Nice!

More or less. If they are standing up on their hind legs .

But like on humans, length and weight increase exponentially

A five foot man might weigh 100-120 pounds, while a 6 footer 180-220 pounds and a 7 foot man 350 +

you better watch the video your wrong ,then give me your answer again ?????

So the square measurement equals approximate live height ..Rodger that thank you.

Where is this bear?

The square is length nose to tail + width front paw to front paw
divided by 2

This is a documentary?

https://hiddenremote.com/2018/05/30...s-finding-grandfather-deer-teeth-future/

Not finding much, perhaps post a link if the above is in error.

yes that is one of the links , this Grandfather bear true story was once free

Those square measurements really, really confuse people.
A 10 foot bear doesn't stand 10 feet tall.
There's never been a 14 foot tall brown bear....ever.

That clears it up.
Thanks.

yes is the answer not no, i can`t find the whole story for free anymore

Imagine a bear that weighed 12,600 pounds. That is ten time the size of a very large male Costal Brown Bear.

You'll likely die on this vine because you've proven time and time again to be a hard-headed idiot but I'll save you the trouble; because you saw/heard it somewhere doesn't make it true.

Using one of salmonella's picts from above, if you assume the gentleman in the photo (standing next to a VERY big bear) is 6-ish ft, here's about what 14' would net ya. Do you still think there's a bear that stands at least 14ft tall?

I understand the square deal. And I never myself thought about it being approximate to the living height. They're reading earlier parts of this thread that's what I was taking some people to approximate that too that's why I hence my question was asked. Maybe I misunderstood 458 reply

Measuring skulls and squaring hides is a good way to compare bear sizes. Checking B&C records is a good way to see where the largest bears come from.
Watching bs animal planet shows done by exaggerating film makers doesn't provide anything of use!

Biggest bear hide I ever seen was at the UAF museum in Fairbanks maybe 30-40 years ago. For some reason I thought the hide squared 12 or 13 feet.
Is that hide still on display?

I been fortunate to visit McNeil River sanctuary four separate times to photograph brown bears. One trip we counted 68 bears in view at the same time. Some true monsters were among them. When you spend 8-9 hours a day, day after day, you can see the small differences in their appearance to identify them. Some of the large boars most likely were at least 11 footers. The other bears wouldn’t even walk on the same path they were on.

Good hunting there. But you need to know the line.

14 foot grizzly.

Saw this one at the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge about a month ago when I stayed there. One tough 10 year old girl with a 375 H&H and custom made MCCoy shoulder armor.

I know the outfitter. Not that far from where we guide. Thats a really good bear.

They are out there. We are in a valley that once gave up the #1 bear at one point.

But its not the common to both see a big one and for it all to work out like that.

I do love the big bears for sure.

I work in Talkeetna in the summer  Thats a big bear. I know the taxidermist too. Dare say those numbers are a bit optimistic but who cares. Big bear. All were happy. It worked out great. And it impresses everyone that sees it.

Yep...Larry Rivers's daughter

Interesting way to measure length.

Every bit helps!

That all depends on who's looking at it.

I once had a bear that almost measured 8ft from tip of nose to tip of tail.
I had him mounted standing, that added about 20 inches.
I used a fake rock for a base, that added 16 inches.

So then my almost 8 ft bear required a room with 12 ft ceilings to display.

I later sold the mount, in my ad I made note that the mount required a room with minumum of a 12 ft ceiling but didn't mention the actual measurements of the bear.

The savvy types, including the man that purchased it quickly took note of the base height and commented that without the base it was really only a 10ft bear.

I'd just replied with, 'sure he is'.

So could someone honestly say they've seen a 14ft bear mount?

Sure they could.

So the times we watched an 8' Kodiak being mounted by a 9' boar was actually a 17' mount? And we were not adding a phony base, either.

worried about meth heads?....that made me laugh...good one

It's like you're dreaming about gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly brie time:

Paragraph Pete was clearly referring to a bear in-the-wild standing 14ft.