.45-70 Government Henry and Grizzly Bears
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- Опубликовано: 14 ноя 2023
- Henry .45-70 Government Lever Action and my grizzly bear encounter.
Thank you for watching the story of my 45-70 and my time in Wyoming hammering it out with a Grizz.
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I worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Southeast Alaska for 21 years and often encountered the large coastal grizzlies/brown bears. Your bear is a mountain grizzly, not one of the well fed (on salmon) coastal grizzlies. The one you encountered is a big mountain grizzly, but probably isn't more than 500 or 600 pounds. It isn't even close to 1,100 pounds. Mountain grizzlies have to work very hard to put on pounds for their winter hibernation, so they just don't get big like the coastal grizzlies that have all the salmon they want for very little work. The average male coastal grizzly will be bigger than the average male mountain grizzly because of the salmon they have to eat. A BIG mountain grizzly MAY go 650 pounds. A BIG coastal grizzly or Kodiak Island grizzly will easily go twice that. The REALLY BIG coastal grizzlies will take your breath away. and if you are carrying a large caliber rifle you will look at the rifle and wonder if it is big enough! To give you an example, one spring our forest wildlife biologist was working with the Alaska Fish & Game bear biologists flying around in a helicopter darting coastal grizzlies, taking blood and DNA samples, and using the helicopter with a scale to lift the bears and weigh them. They were doing this in the spring and trying to do this as soon as the bears came out of hibernation. They watched one particular male bear dig its way through the snow as it just came out of its den. They darted it, and it weighed 1,100 pounds IN THE SPRING AS IT CAME OUT OF ITS DEN! These big bears put on an average of 100 POUNDS PER MONTH until they go back in their den for the winter. In other words, this bear would weigh around 1,700 POUNDS by the time it will go back into its den for the winter. Bears this big are few and far between, but they do exist. To see one within 100 yards is something you will never forget!
I don't care if you're carrying a cannon...Grizzly's are a dangerous animal.
Two people were recently killed by a grizzly in Banff, Canada by a grizzly. Their mace can was empty and the bear kept attacking
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I hunted Grizzlies 4 times, taken 3. The last one was a genuine Alaskan Tundra monster. 8’ 1” hide. Amazing how fast they can move. I used a 300 Weatherby twice and for the last one a 338 WM. Good times. And they have my respect for sure.
Good move getting of the horse in an encounter. You cant control the horse if it happened to spook and it would make your ability to bear spray or shoot ineffective. Worse yet imagine deploying bear spray atop a horse and wind comes back and the horse gets a dose. A real rodeo. You need to get an Lee load kit and load your own 45-70 ammo. You can purchase cast or mono and jacketed bullets and load them yourself. Also for night usebyou need an quick detach light and mount. Nothing else is needed. And you did a really smart move keeping the ammo on that belt instead of the rifle. Solid move.
I had a similar experience 25 years ago in WY when I went on an elk hunting trip with my uncle. This was pre-cellphone era so no pictures for proof, and it's one of those experiences that you can't truly explain to someone that hasn't experienced it themselves. Long story short: we dismounted from our horses and decided to walk for a spell, during our walk, we disturbed a sleeping grizzly that was hidden in a pile of underbrush. I can't honestly say how close it was, with the adrenaline messing with memory, it could have been as close as 20 feet or as far as 50 feet. It stood up, turned and stared right at us, roared, we started yelling and waving our arms, it did a half stand and double stomp of its front paws, roared again, and then turned and walked the other direction. The whole encounter maybe lasted 30 seconds, but in the moment it felt like 10 minutes. Our guide later told us it was a "small" one that he estimated around 800 lbs.
RE: Bear Mace: I do not understand. You are facing a potentially dangerous bear at 30 feet. The bear spray goes out maybe 25 feet. But it all depends on the wind moving in the right direction (not coming back at you). If the bear turns aggressive and attacks, how much time to you have to defend yourself if the spray does not stop the bear in its tracks when they are running at maybe 35 mph at you? It is surprising that the horses didn't act up or bolt. Lucky Lucky Lucky. Good job keeping your wits about you.
That truly is a rare rifle you were lucky to find. One does not see those in left hand very often.
Close grizz encounters are literal life & death encounters..and you did the RIGHT thing dismounting to get your boots on solid ground & lessening the variables if the trigger was needed. Well done cowboy & thanks for letting us saddle up with ya on that adrenaride!💪😎👍
Early 1990's when I was a young ranch hand. About 15 of us were cutting fire wood near the Grand Teton Park and we just got out of the trucks and were taking out our chain saws and tools. I being Native American of course scouted out ahead and found a fresh giant grizzly bear paw print. It was so fresh you could see the print lines from it's paws in the mud. I called out the foreman and showed him the prints. He took one look at it, saw how fresh it was and said, "everybody back in the trucks!" We reloaded all the gear and drove 10-15 miles down the road.
Wonderful tale Bryson, I am not going to lie, what made me pause and take notice of your video was that Big Bad Girl 45-70 right up front in the photo. I love story time and you knocked it out of the park. You are a well-spoken young man with a good vocabulary, and you brought in enough details to keep one’s interest peaked listening to the story. The fact that you took a picture is a great bonus but never let that deter you from telling a great story. People can choose to believe you or not, who cares. Those of us who have lived through similar experiences are the individuals who love to hear these stories. You keep living your life to its fullest and keep telling your stories, that is how legends are born. You ever get up to Alaska try to look me up, I would enjoy sharing a story in person over a beer and show you my 45-70 govt.
Awesome story. Great looking rifle as well. Keep up these great trail riding adventures and stories and this channel will take off.
Most amazing thing about this story to me is, not only, that you walked into a Scheels and they had exactly the 45-70 you were looking for but it is a left handed loading gate.
You absolutely did the right thing by dismounting especially NOT KNOWING THE HORSE. If the horses spook you’ve really got problems. Grizzlies are very tricky and unpredictable. I carry my Ruger 45/70 and Ruger SFAR. I’ve spent enough time behind the SFAR to trust mine but still bring ole faithful. Glad everything turned out positive
The Marlin logo "Danger Ahead", first appeared in the painting "His Last Stand". The painting features a dangerous starving grizzly bear being cornered by dogs and two cowboys with guns on horseback. The artist, Fredrick Remington, was a cousin of Eliphalet Remington, the founder of Remington Arms. Every Marlin logo on every Ruger/Marlin firearm is a classy tip of the hat to Remington.
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An Alaskin bear guide once said, "There's a difference between a defensive and an offensive firearm for a grizzly bear," and that stuck with me as he went on to explain why. It's one thing to pick a bear off, at distance, when he doesn't even know you're there, but would you choose that same gun and sighting system if that same bear was suddenly charging at you from short distances? Most likely, no.
When the US Forest Service decided in the early 70s, that it was going to hire young women for Alaska Forests. The standard at time was that recruits had to hit a paper plate at chosen distance (highly variable from tester to tester) usually with 5 shots. The issue rifle was a Winchester Model 70 with Mauser extractor and iron sights. The cartridges were Winchester factory .375 H&H silver tips. These rifles weighed about eight and a half pounds. I helped two of our King County Search and Rescue girls qualify and get jobs. The Government financed a study provide evidence what a bear protection firearm should be. The rules of the study were, factory firearms, not modified, with commonly available factory ammunition. The standard for measuring the desired wound to the bear was to penetrate the skull at close range. They also referenced a German language published paper that found that velocities less that 2200 fps did not disable the parasympathetic nervous system. That is why the .458 Watt has eclipsed the popularity of the .458 Winchester cartridge for elephant. and cape buffalo. The conclusion of the Government study was that the .375 H&H rifle and ammunition, circa 1972, was hard to beat for an Alaskan bear stopper. The .458 Wichester soft point, .460 and .378 Weatherby bullets were less reliable expanding and often glanced off skulls and big bones. They tested 3 grizzly skulls and found that cattle skulls were a reasonable replica enough to evaluate the ammunition and a lot easier to come by for study. The runner up was the 300gr Winchester load for the .338 Win. Of course Winchrster Ammunition dropped the loading right after the study. The .44 magnum pistol bullets were a joke at the time, the same pill was loaded into the .444 Marlin and it was worse, breaking up easily. The 45-70 was loaded by Remington Ammunition to 1350 fps with a solid lead slug and not a player. Moderate velocities 2200 to 2600 did the best with bullets 300 grains or heavier.
Fantastic story! Thanks so much for sharing this adventure with all of us! I look forward to watching more of your content.