"1-in-1,000 shot" saves Wyoming hunter from grizzly

[Austrian Hunter]

Sorry if this was already posted,

CODY, Wyo. - You think the guy crouched over the 500-pound bear in the photo at left looks a little worse for wear?

It could've been a whole lot worse.

This photo of battered Wyoming elk hunter Ron Leming, Jr. is making the rounds on the internet lately, with a story straight out of Outdoor Life's "This Happened to Me". Leming's face-to-face encounter with the 500-pound grizz is recounted in this story in the Cody, Wyoming newspaper, but the content of a family friend's e-mail breaks the attack down to an even more visceral level.

As the e-mail describes the attack, Ron, Jr. was hunting with his dad, Ron, Sr., when the big grizz came after him. Ron, Jr. made a mad downhill dash for safety, only to have the big bear chase him down.

Before he did, though, Ron, Sr. managed to fire off one wild shot with his bow in a desperate attempt to save his son from being mauled to death.

The following is an excerpt from an e-mail forwarded from a family member of Ron Leming, Jr., who narrowly escaped being a 500-pound grizzly's afternoon snack on a recent Wyoming elk hunt:

Ron, who is an experienced hunter and used to be a guide, was calling an elk for his dad (pictured at right), who was down hill 40 yards. The elk suddenly spooked and then Ron heard a noise behind him. He turned around and a grizzly was 15 feet behind him.

He tried to shoo it away but it proceeded toward him. He went behind a tree and the bear kept coming, so he took off on his 'death run' downhill towards his dad.

With the grizzly just feet behind his son, and running full speed, Ron's dad shot one arrow. Ron saw the arrow fly by his leg, unsure of whether it hit the bear, and within a few more steps, Ron was on his back with the grizzly on top of him. With his arms shielding his head, Ron kicked and punched the bear with all he had. Ron said it all went to fast and he was so full of adrenaline, he could not feel any pain at the time of the attack.

When the bear continued to attack, Ron's dad, could see that the bear was bleeding badly from the arrow, and he went over and started beating on the bear with his bow (you can not carry guns during bow hunting, so he had nothing to shoot it). The bear continued to attack Ron, biting clear through his left hand and glove, and down to the bone of his right arm just below the elbow.

Then the bear, stopped, looking at Ron's dad, walked away several yards, and rolled over dead.

The bear was autopsied and showed that it was well over 500 pounds (the grizzlies in that area average 350 pounds) and 11 years old (which is in its prime).

Following the path of the arrow, the autopsy showed that the arrow went in, hit a main artery, then bent, and hit the heart!


A 1-in-1,000 shot, they said.

Wild Country says ... : There's only one thing to say: nice shootin', Senior!

[Michelle_Nelson]

Thats a big Bear.

[Curly]

I think that was posted a year or two ago.  Great story.......and definately worth posting again.

[Pathfinder101]

This was in Eastman's HJ last year.  Quite a story.  I wonder if I can rig a can of bearspray to the riser on my bow without affecting it's performance...

[WDFW-SUX]

Im hunting there this year I really hope I get to see one of those 

[NRA4LIFE]

I hunted the Ishawa River area back about 1993 and I can definitely tell you there are grizzly's there.  We had one munch on one of the deer carcasses we left behind that very night.

[Bearhunter]

NRA4life, thats were I killed my buck lin my avatar last fall in Wyoming!

[C-Money]

Good story, Glad the hunters survived with minor injuries.

[let.it.fly]

look at the teath on that sumbitch

[Pathfinder101]

Good story, Glad the hunters survived with minor injuries.

If I remember correctly from the article, that's mostly bear blood on the guy's face.  Anybody else on here ever come face to face with a Griz?

[let.it.fly]

the closeest i have come is finding and old track in the methow valley. seeing the length of claws on that track, that was plenty close for me

[WDFW-SUX]

Ive been charge 3 times in Alaska...never had an encounter in the lower 48

[Pathfinder101]

I had a "significant emotional event" in Yellowstone Park when I was 16.  I was fishing in the Yellowstone, waist deep in the river and a griz and a cub came up behind me and wanted to cross the river where I was.  The cub started to walk through the water out towards me and the mamma bear started freaking out.  I was pretty sure I was about to die.  I yelled at the cub and it stopped.  Mamma waded in next to her cub, and I waded out of the river right around them.  The unspooled flyline on my rod was brushing against her fur.  They then proceded to cross the river. 
That's as close as I hope to ever get to a live griz again...  Closer actually.... 

[Austrian Hunter]

  you are one lucky man!

[NWWABOWHNTR]

The river would have turned brown as I walked out.... YIKES! 

[Squatch]

Good thing it ended up being a 1 in 1000 shot. 

[Pathfinder101]

Good thing it ended up being a 1 in 1000 shot. 

Yeah.  Any of the other 999 options would have sucked...

[Gobble]

 

I remember reading this last year, good story!

I had one encounter in the Teanaway of all places back in the late 80s or early 90s. I was muzzloading for elk up Storey creek and came into a area with lots on fresh elk sign. I started calling and glanced down to see HUGE bear turds (the size of coke cans) all over the place and FRESH  I immediately shut up and got the hell out of there. This happened on a sunday and by thurs I read an article in a westside paper saying the game dept reported a confirmed Griz sighting up storey creek and it was confirmed by the WDFW. I just about sh!t myself when I think of what could have been.

[croix]

In 2008 in NE Wa. the lady of our hunting camp was only a couple hundred yards from camp when a griz walked onto the old road in front of her at less than 100 yds. It looked at her and stood up. Connie slowly backed away and the bear meandered off. When she got back to camp she told her husband and cousin about it and they went up to look for bear sign but said all they found was Connie sh*t.

[GoldTip]

That is a good story and one helluva icy cold shot made by the Father to save his son, pretty cool.

I've had a couple of close face-to face's with Grizzlies back home in Montana, one of which he was close enough to smell real good and see that his ear's were back and his neck hair was flattened while he proceeded to circle me slowly popping his teeth.  I realized quite clearly I was not on the top of the food chain in that patch of Alder.  That encounter I believe the bear was about 10-12 feet away.  He was roughly a 2700lb grizzly and the encounter lasted about 7 days or so.  At least it seemed it at the time.  He was one of the biggest Grizzlies I've ever seen in lower 48, being honest.

Had another encounter last year right hear in WA. up scouting the Selkirks for Moose.  That bear was 15-20 yards away, seen it's ass and hump headed the other way after it woofed at me.  I decided to let him keep the huckleberry patch even though he vacated it.  Did eat a couple of fresh handfuls and they were good.

[Pathfinder101]

Yeah, there was one spotted up near where we have some property above Deep Lake.  Thought I saw a track once too, but it was too hard to tell...

[Gobble]

My brothers neighbor got mauled by one while bow hunting Montana about 10-12 years ago. Thankd god he survived but it definately left a mark, his head was really cut up with bite marks

[Curly]

When she got back to camp she told her husband and cousin about it and they went up to look for bear sign but said all they found was Connie sh*t.