Grizzly Question

timber23

timber23

Member
Rating - 100%
26   0   0
Location
Ladner B.C
good day laddies and gents, i finally got a grizz tag :D now im wondering what is the best gun to take, i want something with stoping power but not a cannon that will blow a 12" hole through the other side. any suggestions?
 
Why would anyone want to hunt down one of the last remaining magnificant grizzlies left on the planet. Sure, I always carry a gun for self protection in bear country, and YES I have killed and eaten bear.
BUT,
I haven't seen a grizz for over fifteen years. I thought I'd never see one again, but saw one last weekend. Three families of them live on Sun Peaks mountain, peacefully co-existing with hundreds of crazy downhill mountain bikers. The locals consider them [ the grizz and the mountain bikers ]as renewable resources ... money in the bank ... the tourists will keep coming to see these same grizz [ and pay for the priviledge ] over and over and over.

Personally, I think we should make it open season on crazy downhill mountain bikers, not grizz ... but what do I know?

And the Grizz definitely make into a better rug!
 
Well I have been on two griz hunts, the first Griz (someone else's draw) was taken with 175g Trophy bonded bear claw 7mmWbyMag @ approx 200 Yards, the second hunt (mine) might have been with a 162g A-Max in 7mRemMag, but I already had a sheep to pack out, so I shot the Griz with my Pentax instead.

If I was to do another griz hunt I'd probably take either the 30.06(165g-180g), or the 7mmRemMag(162g-175g), or 300WSM(168g-190g) or the 340Wby(225g-250g), any of those would do just fine I figure.
I only chose these calibers just because that's what I own and shoot.

Doesn't make too much difference which caliber you choose to use, just make sure you are using a well constructed bullet for the job, the 162g A-Max might have been a bit of a light weight in the construction department for a big Griz, as long as you feel comfortable with your rig and cartridge selection and it shoots well, it all boils down to placing that shot where it counts.
 
Last edited:
What rifles do you presently own?



PS there are no shortage of grizzly bears in BC, the population keep s growing, despite what some eco- tour operators want you to believe.
 
I ran into a grizzly today coming back from fishing. Thankfully we scared him off, and I would agree with Gatehouse... I see more bears now than I have in previous years. We're not running out of them.
 
pharaoh2 said:
Well I guess suspending the Grizzly season worked then. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


No offence intended, but the grizzly hunt was suspended because of fuzzy numbers and politics. Kinda like Ontario's spring bear hunt. It will be interesting to see what Alberta's real grizzly population comes out as. I wonder if it will be the "500" that some say.
 
Scott_N said:
No offence intended, but the grizzly hunt was suspended because of fuzzy numbers and politics. Kinda like Ontario's spring bear hunt. It will be interesting to see what Alberta's real grizzly population comes out as. I wonder if it will be the "500" that some say.
Click to expand...

Not sure where you think this "real" number will come from but I can tell you now that the news from the grizzly recovery team is not good. I don't see a future grizzly hunt in Alberta again.........glad I got to hunt the last year it was open. No doubt K-Country has a good population though and the numbers are showing that. Saw five one day last year near the Highwood Pass.

As for grizz calibres.....30-06 and up with quality bullets.
 
Unfortunatly we will not see any of the numbers. It was about a month or so back I read in the Lethbridge Herald that the results of the study were inconclusive and more time and money was to be allocated to the team for further study. This outraged a real Alberta expert on grizzly bears who, if I remember right was a professor or some other big shot. He was right peeved that the money that was to be given to these people could have gone to the Fish & Wildlife division, or spent otherwise on actual habitat conservation. I.e. to really help the situation. He said nothing will be accomplished by the study, the same as nothing had been accomplished by it in the past. I'll try to dig up the article.
 
sheephunter said:
Not sure where you think this "real" number will come from but I can tell you now that the news from the grizzly recovery team is not good. I don't see a future grizzly hunt in Alberta again.........glad I got to hunt the last year it was open. No doubt K-Country has a good population though and the numbers are showing that. Saw five one day last year near the Highwood Pass.
Click to expand...

sheephunter, do you recall on average how many bears were actually harvested by hunters on average? I seem to remember small numbers, like 15 or less taken by hunters each year. You are one of the lucky ones to draw a tag for that last bear season. The impression that I have is that far more bears are killed on rail lines, highways, and loss of habitat. The 500 number that I mention just seems low, and that is the number that I read often about in the newspapers. Like you mentioned, Kananaskis has a good population of bears these days. The Castle River area seems to have a good population these days too. Maybe it's just being in the right place at the right time, but I see more grizzlies now than I did 20 years ago. Do you have any more information on the grizzly bear recovery team?
 
Scott_N said:
sheephunter, do you recall on average how many bears were actually harvested by hunters on average? I seem to remember small numbers, like 15 or less taken by hunters each year. You are one of the lucky ones to draw a tag for that last bear season. The impression that I have is that far more bears are killed on rail lines, highways, and loss of habitat. The 500 number that I mention just seems low, and that is the number that I read often about in the newspapers. Like you mentioned, Kananaskis has a good population of bears these days. The Castle River area seems to have a good population these days too. Maybe it's just being in the right place at the right time, but I see more grizzlies now than I did 20 years ago. Do you have any more information on the grizzly bear recovery team?
Click to expand...

I think the numbers were even lower than that...maybe 10-12? It is pretty low anyhow. Even the grizzly recovery team said that hunting played an extremely small part in the demise of the grizzly but no government is going to permit hunting for a species whoes numbers are rapidly declining....despite the cause. It's much easier to say, "Look what we did" by stopping the hunt rather than looking at the real issues for declining grizzly numbers. The government did the same thing with the caribou. It was easier to target a few wolves as the culprits rather than look at the real cause. Albertans need to decide what it's worth to them to have grizzlies and caribou in this province. My gut says that it's not worth enough and both will be gone soon.

The government just threw a bunch more money at the grizzly recovery team but other than a few hot spots, grizzly numbers are low. There's no doubt that areas where gas, oil and timber activity is limited, the bear numbers are actually quite healthy...K-Country, Willmore, Waterton. While hunting is not hurting the bear population, it's an easy scapegoat and it's hard for even hunters to argue that we should have a bear season when provincial numbers are declining.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom