So he (Larry Loyie) said it had to have surprised them. Several times I have had to put down large hogs in the 300-400 pound range that were injured. Longs cost less than Long Rifle cartridges. I have. Only a World's Record skull found in 1976 in Alaska was bigger than that of the nearly 9-foot bear shot and killed by Larry Fitzgerald, 35, outside Fairbanks, Alaska. When you live and spend a lot of time hunting in Alaska, your odds of eventually having an encounter with a grizzly drift more toward the guaranteed end of the spectrum. The __qca cookie is associated with Quantcast. The following spring, I shot a black bear that I could tell was big, but even when we squared the hide at 8-feet even, I didnt know what I had. Some folks say it was Dave Auger, Twins companion that killed the bear. Mathews Halon, GrizzlyStik Momentum arrows, and Massai 200 broadheads. I knew it was a trap question, but I answered anyway. Contending with flood-stage water and spending hours snaking through huge log jams, I found that moving downstream was sketchy at best, but even with a late start, I managed to get my bait in and working. If Twin would have seen the bear, she would have turned and carefully exitedhad she had the chance. A Franco-Canadian man died after being attacked by a grizzly bear in a remote area of Canada last week, police announced on Monday. There are no berries available on 10 May in the vicinity of Slave Lake. October 28, 2019 4796 Save 13 Photographs and an accompanying story of a guy who had just killed a massive world record bear in 2001. Dont mess with country girls. One of them was an absolute monster, and one evening I got a glimpse of him in person. 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. Larry died April 8, 2016, but he left behind a legacy of wonderful stories, some of which are in the process of being published by his loving wife Constance Brissenden, who is honoring him with a post-humous publication of his work. Although an experienced and successful bowhunter, Debias' dream of taking a grizzly bear with his bow eluded him for many years. This one taken by overjoyed muzzleloader Douglas Salomon is the largest recorded. The big grizzly dropped, kicked and then lay still. There was a lot of movement from branches with the wind, so that slight movement would not be very noticeable. Three hours later, the auto body man had taken down the grizzly that. Alaska Peninsula brown bears are among the largest types of brown bear in the world. Mr Fitzgerald nabbed the bear in September but on Friday it was declared the largest ever killed by a hunter. Which begs the question: Why arent more bird hunters using them? And, you know, it's walking or standing because if it saw them might have stood and then she wants it to look down so she can shoot it. His huge front paws were raised high. My standard measure of value was how many .22 cartridges does this cost?. Some people mistakenly assume that hunting grizzlies over bait is easy, or even cheating. They chose well. This is just a bear. 145. I would NOT be out there with just a .22lr or worse, unarmed, period. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Leon Pantenburg is a wilderness enthusiast and writer. The grizzlies, however, were not so cooperative. And, if she saw the grizzly coming down the forestry trail, they would have run as fast as they could in the opposite direction. I live in Lesser Slave Lake and this is a story that can be confirmed by many townspeople that have lived here since before 1950. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Several times I have had to put down large hogs in the 300-400 pound range that were injured. The bruin squared more than 10 feet, weighed more than 1,000 pounds, and had a 28-inch skull. PRONGHORN ANTELOPE. I could feel my pulse in my neck. Its hide measured 10 feet 6 inches and it weighed between 1,000 to 1,200 pounds, officials said. However, the validity of this . Debias' impressive grizzly has an initial P&Y score of 27 3/16", which is a full inch . The oldest known wild Kodiak bear was a 34-year-old sow. The subspecies U. a. horribilis is limited to North America and . I was hunting two locations, and after spending a fruitless night in one stand that had just been hit by two nice bears, I headed downriver to check the other bait. The pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. As the huge grizzly came even with their position, it might have caught a whiff of their scent. The Safari Club International Record Book YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages. He lives in Fairbanks, Alaska and has been covering a variety of topics for OL for more than a decade. Animals will often stop and sniff to try to identify a scent. Shortly after 1 a.m., all was quiet, and we were straining our ears to hear the slightest noise. That bear was done in by what used to be known in some circles as a golden BB.. She would have wanted neither the additional velocity nor the additional cost. The account of the incident appeared in a popular book, "Book of a Hundred Bears" published in 1909 by F.D. Ready for an Eco-River Adventure? Bella Twin is show with the world record grizzly she killed with her single shot .22 rifle. THE HOAX. The 1953 High Velocity Long generated 99 foot pounds. The Rifle used by Bella Twin is a Cooey Ace 1. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service. Some say a . The place to aim was between the eyes, about an inch up. My speculation was that she was surprised. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors. In her short rifle, it must have barely been much faster than Subsonic. The bear was just over one thousand six hundred pounds. I have a friend that tells of dropping a bull moose with one shot from a .22 magnum from 100 yrds, right behind the front leg. This way loud centerfire shots would not affect other Moose in the vicinity for the clients ~! Larry Fitzgerald and a pal were moose hunting near Fairbanks, Alaska, when they came across fresh bear tracks in the snow. Yep, thousands of people killed with 22 rimfire. At that point the hunter, at very close range, shoots the bear in the roof of the mouth and the bullet goes right into the brain and kills the bear instantly, they hope. They tried it another time just to see if it was a fluke, but it worked a second time. Well I was expecting The Bella Twins from WWE , theyre hawt ! And family history and honoring people in his family like Bella Twin. However, I knew everybody with a boat and a bag of dog food would be on the water as well. The world-record skull was found by a hiker in 1976, and is just 7/16ths of an inch larger. A new world record, the story said. My money is on it being a Cooeygood ol Canadian classic. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Because of our extreme northern latitude, the midsummer twilight lasts until the wee hours of the morning. The bears skull was purchased from Bella Twin by Reinhold Eben-Ebenau. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. The hide was displayed for many years in the Slave Lake beer hall, nailed to the wall. They saw a large grizzly walking the cutline toward them. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Twin was carrying her battered single-shot .22 when the two were approached by a gigantic grizzly. This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. And before that, the world-record grizzly succumbed to a .22 Rimfire! I also didnt realize how luck I was to be able to get an arrow in him. The bear kept getting closer and closer. But most of the detail in the story I was able to research on the Internets and in relatively unrelated books. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. She would have had only a fraction of a second to attempt to dispatch the bear before it became aware of their presence and attacked them . You have entered an incorrect email address! Just $1 per month , The author takes one of the largest archery grizzly bears of all time with a recurve bow, By It was interesting for me to come across this post since I have myself questioned whether this story was exaggerated over the years. A photo of the skull showing some of the bullet holes can be accessed at: https://www.albertaoutdoorsmen.ca/record-book.html A very popular 22 calibre rifle used in Alberta in 1953 was manufactured by H. W. Cooey Machine & Arms Company in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. A large hungry grizzly is not to be played with a .22lr. But thats what happened on May 10, 1953. Research may disclose.at one time anyway, the World Record grizzly was killed with a 30-30;the story showing up in Outdoor Life in the good old daysand the World Record Polar Bear, with a 270 Winchester. I have to wonder if she donated her set of gigantic brass balls to the same museum after she died. Larry wrote: Without warning, a giant grizzly reared up before them on the trail. Wrong, he said. I have to believe that somebody with only a single-shot would not have taken a shot at a bear that size if the situation wasnt desperate, head shot or no. The bear was as tall as their house. The wooden gun stock was well-worn and broken, attached to the barrelled action with hockey tape. You can still use itits ok. He weighed close to 1,089 kg (2,400 lb) one year before his death. Not exactly a quick stopper! The Cooey Ace 1 is 33 inches long. It was a story that myself and all my cousins were told as little kids growing up in Slave Lake. As usual, black bears showed up first, and I was able to help my wife take her first bear with a bow. A grizzly bear that fatally mauled a Montana man near Yellowstone National Park this spring was likely defending a moose carcass and may have continued to aggressively guard the cache . She walked up to the bear and fired another six or seven rounds of .22 long into its brain, in the same spot. She had been a trapper and a hunter for decades. Grizzly 399 is the most famous brown bear mother in the world, with her own Facebook and Twitter accounts. They were longs not shorts and she changed them at least seven times . This story has been one of the most enjoyable research projects I have engaged in my whole life. I believe IT is possible to kill a big Bear with that type of riffle. Greatest Weights (in pounds) for Montana Big Game . 22s were and still are used to cleanly kill cattle for butchering. While the grizzly was a world record the method of shooting Polar and Grizzly bears is not uncommon. We do not know what year the picture was taken. I got a .22 revolver that will shoot shorts, longs, long rifles and mags. If I ever find anymore longs Ill put it in as my new self defense weapon. He had been there for a couple of minutes when I heard another bear coming in. The bear dropped dead, but because Twin knew what she was up againstput seven more rounds into the bear skullseven insurance shots. I immediately pulled the trail-cam card. It was reportedly 12 feet, 6 inches at the shoulder, no less and weighed at least 1,600 pounds. After five unsuccessful hunting trips, Debias finally got his. The rifle and the Grizzlies hide are both currently in storage at the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton (as of current date March 2017) Before that they where in long term storage at the Reynolds Alberta Museum. The measurements are precise and unchanging. You can see the measurements written on the skull. Montana authorities are searching for a grizzly bear Tuesday after it attacked and killed a woman on an overnight camping trip near the rural town of Ovando, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks . Tests later revealed that the elephant was killed by a CZ .22 LR rifle. The woman took out her little Bareta, shot her husband in the knee, and was able to stroll away unharmed. I was 15 years old , healthy ,nimble , fast and very lucky . For me, this story started at the Royal Museum of Alberta in downtown Edmonton where I was doing a piece on the value of firearms for the Canadian Firearms Journal. WOW! That bear was killed by Rodney Debias near Unalakleet, Alaska and earned an initial entry score of 27 and 3/16, a full inch larger than the current record, which is held by OutdoorHub. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. Before I read this story, I looked at the rifle with a magnifying glass, & thought, That looks like the 1st firearm I ever owned, a Stevens single shot rifle. It was given to me for Christmas when I was 14 y/o, in 1947. They didnt believe that a tiny Cree lady could kill a giant grizzly with a single bullet from a .22, held together with chicken wire, Larry recalled. The bear's skull measured 27 6/16, making it the largest grizzly taken by a hunter ever recorded. Bella Twin was a calm, quiet, clear-headed Cree woman with a trap line. A variation of the _gat cookie set by Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to allow website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. Griz will come in to a bait, but usually only once or twice before moving on. The pounding woke Jim's son, Montana, who ventured from his bedroom to the front room . To finally be able to encounter and possess him was an indescribable feeling. Americas oldest Second Amendment News outlet. The big bear was still alive so the hunter reloaded and shot it several times in the head. Bella Twin thought it was less risk to shoot rather than not shoot. 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. Brain through ear or heart shots. The largest taken by a hunter, a. At the time, it was reported that an airman hunting on Hitchcock Island killed the giant bear. Besides, when the SHTF I wont be trying to protect myself from bears. One shot to the brain at contact distance will kill instantly. And they tracked it down, you know, where they saw the bear and they went after it. Copyright 2023 Leon Pantenburg, All Rights Reserved, Survival Common Sense Blog | Emergency Preparedness, World record grizzly killed with a .22 caliber rifle, https://survivalcommonsense.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Bella-Twin-is-shown-with-the-hide-from-the-world-record-grizzly-bear-312x400.jpg, https://survivalcommonsense.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/22-Long-Rifle-474x400.jpg. Here is a close up of the rifle. He piled up within seconds, after covering only 30 yards. My father owned a Cooey and, as I recall, his would not take a 22 long rifle. i wonder where that 22 is now, certainly the collectors value would be much higher knowing its history with a grizz. But that women sure got big Balls. And the second thing was that people said it wasn't her that shot the bear. 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. A .22 for a hog is O.K. Pure serendipity. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The story claimed a guy who worked for the forest service came across a huge grizzly bear that ended up charging him from 50 yards away. They spend the hunting seasons along alder-, willow-, and brush-choked riversmosquito-infested waters with rarely more than 30 or 40 yards of visibility. Englers photo, above, cuts off the bottom and sides of the hide, but we can estimate what the bear hide measurement would be. This cookie is used to keep track on user informations and reports it to Alexa analytics service. The photos became an internet sensation and soon, stories appeared along with the images. Theyll gut you, quarter you and the coyotes are the only ones that will ever see you again.. They moved to the side of the cutline and hid, hoping the bear would not discover them. I'm also pretty sure the record brown bear fell to a 30/06.I guess these folks were not scared of bears like many internet posters.. Most of the time, the tool used is the farmers .22 rifle. Authors Note: This story first published nine years ago in Outdoor Life magazine. That was seven years before my dad held me for the first time, a five-foot-nothing woman who lived on the land squeezed the trigger on her single-shot rabbit gun and put a .22 rimfire round through the eye of a grizzly bear at close distance. Fired every last cartridge and the Buffalo stood there looking at him. This took place in 1953, was the world-record grizzly for several years. It was good that the weather was cool. The hunter had a 22 pistol with him with something like 60 rounds. She fired and the bear dropped. Its been a while but I think Bella shot this bear with aRead more , Indeed a Cooey 22 which is held by the Royal Alberta Museum, bedded in a piece of bike tire and attached to the stock with hockey tape, the museum has the hide of the bear as well, neither are on regular display. he has said the gun is (in his words) in deplorable condition as BellaRead more . Bella Twin is show with the world record grizzly she killed with her single shot .22 rifle. And on butchering day, the tool used to euthanize a hog or steer was a .22 rifle. The current rank in the Boone and Crockett records is number 21, along with other bears measured at 26 7/16: People have estimated the bear weighed 1,000 pounds. Last week, the Pope and Young Club, a. Its an experience that relatively few people on this earth will have and that none who do will ever forget. With facts like this about this entire thing how can you believe any of it ? Tyler Freel I lived in Slave Lake when Bella shot this bear. doubleclick.net - browser supports cookies. The man-eating monster Alaska bear that refuses to die in cyberspace was shot in fall 2001 on Prince William Sound's Hinchinbrook Island by a then-22-year-old airman from Eielson Air Force Base . It appears to be an inexpensive "boys". They would not have gone and challenged the biggest grizzly in North America. The genetics are still on the landscape, and the bears have not been pursued by hunters since the close of the 2005 season. Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. It was scored at 27 316 by Boone and Crockett measurers and stands as the largest hunter-killed grizzly ever taken by any method. It was reported to be about 30 feet away and moving toward them, and apparently Twin thought she and Auger were in danger. Potential WORLD RECORD GRIZZLY Hunt Anything And Everything Outdoors 8.93K subscribers Subscribe 1.7M views 1 year ago The hunt of a lifetime chasing big mountain grizzly. 13. Same as a .22LR. We dont know what time of day the bear was shot. I have been in contact with the curator of the museum and requested a nice color picture of the gun and he will get me one once they move to their new building and unbox all the exhibits. In fact I remember him telling me this story in the 1970s when I was a boy learning to shoot. There does not appear to be a butt pad. Ill trust the judgement of someone who lived up there and had decades of experience as a hunter and trapper. Bella Twin was a close friend of my grandfathers, and my father has possession of the skull displayed in my grandfathers trophy museum. Hard to get more Canadian than that. It fell 7/16 of an inch short of the current overall Boone & Crockett record grizzly bear--a skull found in Alaska back in 1976 that measured 27 and 13/16 inches. Breathe. The huge boar came right to the bait and flopped down, facing us but without giving me a shot, so I had a chance to collect myself. I can say the same about my first interior grizzly, which was a bear Id seen and had pictures of in previous years as he and other grizzlies overran our black bear baits. Winds make a lot of noise in the woods, and they can blow your scent away from game. He emailed photos of himself posing with the bear to friends. I was actually a little embarrassed. The day was close to 16 hours long at Slave Lake on 10 May, 1953. It was Bella Twins.. Bella Twin, an Indian girl, and her friend Dave Auger were hunting grouse near Lesser Slave Lake in northern Alberta. why couldnt she just scare it off or gently wound it, asked the Liberal snowflake. To endeavor to take a giant bear with a bow and arrow remains no less fantastic today than it did in Saxton Popes time. With a skull measuring 27 and 6/16 inches, this is the biggest grizzly bear ever killed by a hunter in the Boone & Crockett record book. Another collector purchased the bear skull and had it sent in for measurement, which is how it made the record books. When we talk about shot placement we mean understanding anatomy as much as we mean marksmanship. The hide has been tanned. Can you imagine devoting your entire professional life to pursuing big bears? My education on the ease of grizzly baiting involved night after night of sitting in a stand, waiting for bears my trail cams told me were in the neighborhood but that never showed up. 1916 - a grizzly bear killed a man in a roadside camp. The grizzly towered over them, grunting and snorting. Today, they are still among the biggest grizzlies to be recorded., The hole from the single-shot that dropped the grizzly is clearly seen in the skull, beside the right eye socket. Dave Auger appears to have been unarmed. Smith. Ill bet a crisp fifty-dollar bill that they were .22-shorts. And I had a large boar walk to within 3 feet of my rifle muzzle. The two bodies were found side by side. It is the second largest grizzly bear ever documented behind one that an Alaska taxidermist found in 1976, which had a skull that measured less than an inch bigger. He made a dummy out of his clothes and hung it down for the Buffalo to charge at. 2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. They shot the elephant to make it turn so they could shoot it with the big rifle, but it just stood and then fell over. He was a hairy bear, He was a scary bear. Every big game animal in the United States has been killed with a .22. The guy was in the tree all night. This grizzly meant a lot to me at the time, but it means even more to me now. On that fascinating subject, Ive 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. All accounts agree on that. Another collector purchased the bear skull and had it sent in for measurement, which is how it made the record books. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Some folks say she tracked it, went after it. Posted on 02/15/2012 8:43:55 AM PST by marktwain. Nineteen years later, I have yet to top him. Cant get anymore badazz than that! C.I.L. At that very moment, I began to understand Bella Twins amazing story. YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video. In October 2001, a hunter legally shot a bear on Hinchinbrook Island off Alaska's southern coast. I dont know just how close the bear was behind me as I was too preoccupied to take notice . On 10 May, 1953, a front was passing through Slave Lake, a village on the South shore of Lesser Slave Lake in Alberta, Canada. Published May 2, 2022 4:00 PM EDT. I talked to Constance Brissenden, wife of Larry Loyie who was grandson of Bella Twin. Different accounts have given Ms. Twins age from girl to 63 or 67. But her bear wasnt the first giant grizzly to put the town of Slave Lake on the map. A recent one ended with both man and bear dead. I recall buying longs in the middle 1960s from a gas station. Dont know what gun this little girl or old lady is holding but it aint a Stevens ! Every farmer I knew had a shotgun and a .22 rifle. Its not that we dont feel the excitement in the moment, sometimes we just dont realize what we have within the moment. 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. I cant remember where i heard of this; perhaps somewhere on the Alaska Highway many years ago, but twas an old native woman (would be Bella) was in a Hudsons Bay Outpost when the bear came in for food. That bear, killed in 1953, was the world-record grizzly for several years and is still high in the records today. Gun Watch. My father taught me that when I was 13. At dawn, temperature had been 40 degrees F. On the morning of the 11th it would be 35 degrees F. The high for the 10th was 58 degrees. Unfortunately, shooting a grizzly over bait was illegal there, so I had to watch in awe as he walked off with the swagger and cockiness that only the biggest bears display. MOUNTAIN LION. You may be hardcore, but youll never be 63-year-old grandma with a .22 Cooey hardcore. If the bear had stood up near her, its head would have been nine feet in the air. The photograph there might show better details, and the skull photograph may be in that book as well. Brian Park took this number one SCI ranked common grizzly bear by a black powder hunter in August, 2005, while hunting Alaska's Game Management Unit 24. Was it necessary to shoot the bear? Bellas grizzly was the largest in North America at the time, being a few centimeters larger than my dads. Not a chance. Roland Eben-Ebenau was kind enough to photograph the grizzly skull from his family's museum collection. The Buffalo waited for him to come down. Bears have very thick skulls. It always amazes me how an animal so big and powerful can appear and disappear like a ghost. I grew up on an Iowa farm. One study found that the average weight for a coastal male was around 408 kg (899 lb), and . In the top picture by Engler, the rifle is missing the bolt. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. In my research, it appears that somewhere, there is a picture of the bears skull, showing 8 or 9 holes. Author's NoteS: I used a 70-lb. 140. While the bear was busy eating the bait the hunter would rise up and place a 22 against its head and the rest was history. Somehow, more than I realized at the time, this giant of a grizzly bear had become a part of me. 65. People said two things. I was told the Eskimos and native Indians use the single shot 22lr riffle to kill the big bears like this because of a natural trait the bears have of standing on their hind legs when they attack, growling and opening their mouths. My father and others observing the event said that at one point I could have patted the bear on the nose . He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained.