Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 712 LB Yellowstone Grizz

ingwe;
Good evening my cyber friend, I hope all is as well as can be in your world tonight.

I'm not sure whether or not I'm more surprised at the weight or that it was in Choteau!!

It's been a long long time since we've driven through Choteau, but isn't it out of the mountains by a little bit?

We went up from your town then through there and up through Baab and into Waterton NP in Alberta.

Baab was interesting enough on it's own without a half ton grizzly...

All the best.

Dwayne

Yes that’s Billy in one of Sal’s photos.

Very interesting thread guys, I have never encountered a grizzly, and probably never will. But what is the average weight of a grizzly?

I just saw where the article that Whitetail in MT linked and from which I quoted was published in 2007. If my math teacher didn't fail me that's 16 years ago. So not surprising that bigger bears have been documented since then.

The thought of running into a half ton of grizz in the woods around here makes me pee a little. Sounds like the big ones are up around Choteau though, so maybe I'm safe. Let 'em run around Letterman's place.

I'd hate to run into one while archery hunting elk. Imagine one sneaking up on you while doing a cow call. I'd probably never try that again and I'd do more than pee a little.

They are not all around Choteau, the greater Yellowstone area is home of large bears. Mine was 7 foot with a 22 5/16” skull. It takes 24” to make the record book. My dad killed one the year before that went 9 feet squared. There are plenty of hunters in Alaska that don’t get bears that big…

Dang it Shrap, we want a pic of you and the bear.

A big Griz I photographer in Tom Miner Basin, north of YNP fall 2022. It is about 35 yards away. He was digging up and crunching ground squirrels, I was on foot, out of the truck, but in retrospect, I won't do that again.He never knew I was there. You could hear the crunches when he found one~~

Your tale leaves me wondering if possibly that Griz really just didn't care that you were there more so than 'didn't know' you were there.

Great pic, nice opportunity.

You're aware that posting photos of trophy Montana Grizzlies you've hunted means you're older than dirt since there ain't been no open season for over 30 years?

Here's mine..



He just cracked 7ft and I didn't have no scale with me to properly weigh his azz but he didn't weigh no 1000 pounds.

After wrestling him around to get him skinned I'd guess he weighed a lot closer to half that..

What part of Montana did you get him?

His nose is very pointed, his ears are on top of his head.
I'd say that's not a very big bear.

More than enough bear to make a turd out of you…

I recall reading that bear fat/grease was an important commodity on both sides of the 18th Century Frontier. The Indians in particular would smear it on as bug repellant in the summertime. As a result they stunk different than did unwashed White folks.

ingwe;
Good evening my cyber friend, I hope all is as well as can be in your world tonight.

I'm not sure whether or not I'm more surprised at the weight or that it was in Choteau!!

It's been a long long time since we've driven through Choteau, but isn't it out of the mountains by a little bit?

We went up from your town then through there and up through Baab and into Waterton NP in Alberta.

Baab was interesting enough on it's own without a half ton grizzly...

All the best.

Dwayne[/quote]


Hi Dwayne,

Yes, Choteau is out of the mountains, but grizzlies regularly show up around the little town, and sometimes in it, usually by following the Teton River. My friend Bill McRae, the well-known wildlife photographer and hunting writer, purchased a house near the west edge of Choteau, right on the Teton, around 25 years ago. (He'd lived in a nearby but even smaller town for many years, but right in the middle of town.) He saw grizzlies going up and down the river every year. (Bill's also one of those long-time Montana hunters who legally tagged a grizzly years ago, but has also hunted them in Alaska.)

Of course the Rocky Mountain Front is ranching country, and the bears take some livestock every year, which is partly why they can get so big. Another friend up there has a ranch about 10 miles west of Conrad, in the foothills. Grizzlies regularly show up in the yard, and a few years ago the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks killed a big boar on the place, which had taken up residence to munch on both cows and, especially, sheep. (My friend called it "the .300 Weatherby injection....)

There are quite a few places in Montana where grizzlies regularly roam between the mountains and the valleys, usually by following streams. Another is north of Missoula, in the Mission Valley west of the Mission Mountains, which like the Choteau area is also very good upland-bird hunting. Every few years some pheasant hunter would get charged by a grizzly while hunting the brushy country along the valley streams. Several hunters were mauled, and several bears were shotgunned up close with birdshot.

I lived in Missoula for 11 years in the late 70s and early 80s, and hunted that area pretty regularly, but tended to stay out of the really thick stuff. One year my first Labrador and I were working the brush along a stream when Gillis came running back to me with his tail between his legs, taking quick, wide-eyed glances behind him. I followed his backtrail maybe 50 feet, staying out in the open, and yep, there were fresh bear tracks with claw-tip marks well in front of the pads.

This was on a farm not far off the main state highway through the valley, where parents regularly had to drive their kids to meet the school bus, because grizzlies were roaming the gravel roads between the farms.

Best,
John

Mule Deer;
Good morning to you sir, thanks for the additional info.

That's interesting but not surprising when I think about how far some of the tagged ones travel here.

If I ever get my computer back from the shop, I'll throw up some photos of the fresh grizzly tracks in the snow we ran across this year just a wee bit north of here.

I've got to admit it made my pulse quicken a tad knowing what had to be still hungry grizzly bears were hunting the same whitetail I was.

Speaking of, we've got 3 days left and there's an uncut tag, so I'll be off now.

All the best and thanks again.

Dwayne

Read that as a kid. Still remember it. Awful night.

Hi Dwayne,

Yes, Choteau is out of the mountains, but grizzlies regularly show up around the little town, and sometimes in it, usually by following the Teton River. My friend Bill McRae, the well-known wildlife photographer and hunting writer, purchased a house near the west edge of Choteau, right on the Teton, around 25 years ago. (He'd lived in a nearby but even smaller town for many years, but right in the middle of town.) He saw grizzlies going up and down the river every year. (Bill's also one of those long-time Montana hunters who legally tagged a grizzly years ago, but has also hunted them in Alaska.)

Of course the Rocky Mountain Front is ranching country, and the bears take some livestock every year, which is partly why they can get so big. Another friend up there has a ranch about 10 miles west of Conrad, in the foothills. Grizzlies regularly show up in the yard, and a few years ago the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks killed a big boar on the place, which had taken up residence to munch on both cows and, especially, sheep. (My friend called it "the .300 Weatherby injection....)

There are quite a few places in Montana where grizzlies regularly roam between the mountains and the valleys, usually by following streams. Another is north of Missoula, in the Mission Valley west of the Mission Mountains, which like the Choteau area is also very good upland-bird hunting. Every few years some pheasant hunter would get charged by a grizzly while hunting the brushy country along the valley streams. Several hunters were mauled, and several bears were shotgunned up close with birdshot.

I lived in Missoula for 11 years in the late 70s and early 80s, and hunted that area pretty regularly, but tended to stay out of the really thick stuff. One year my first Labrador and I were working the brush along a stream when Gillis came running back to me with his tail between his legs, taking quick, wide-eyed glances behind him. I followed his backtrail maybe 50 feet, staying out in the open, and yep, there were fresh bear tracks with claw-tip marks well in front of the pads.

This was on a farm not far off the main state highway through the valley, where parents regularly had to drive their kids to meet the school bus, because grizzlies were roaming the gravel roads between the farms.

Best,
John[/quote]

Both the Northern Cheyenne and the Crow history tell of being careful summer camping along the Bighorn, Rosebud, Tongue, and Powder watersheds in Montana due to having a lot of trouble with grizzlies along there for the wild plums and other favored foods.
The Tongue was said to be the worse. It’s noted by the early trappers as well.
Those days will come again sooner than one thinks. The bears are nearly back east that far.

Osky

Lol