It's been said that hunting grizzly and brown bear is really nothing more than days of boredom followed by five seconds of pure terror.

Suddenly the bear stood, and for some reason I still can't fathom, looked right at me. The sight of my face did not make him happy. Immediately he started swinging his massive head from side to side, popping his teeth, and bunching his shoulders. His first two steps were slow and deliberate, and I carefully let go of the bowstring and found the trigger of the .338 I was packing "just in case." At 15 steps he took a large bound at me. My reaction was a mixture of self-defense and fear. I threw the rifle up like a shotgun, squeezed the trigger, and dropped into the fetal position in preparation for the mauling I knew was seconds away.

Nothing happened. I lay rolled up like a frightened armadillo for what seemed like eternity before risking a peek. Nothing. I slowly sat up, racked another cartridge in, and looked around. Nothing. Standing, I saw the bear's unmoving back just above the grass top. When I got the courage up to creep over to him, I found that by some miracle the 250-grain Nosler Partition had gone right through his throat and broken his neck. He was graveyard dead.

I'm not sure how much he weighed, but I could not roll him over to start the skinning job without first digging a small trench to one side. I later weighed the hide, with skull and paws still intact, on very accurate scales used to weigh aircraft cargo at 163 lbs. The hide squared 9'6".

Oh, yeah; I tell you without shame that I did have to throw my Fruit of the Looms away.

The Magnificent Grizzly

In my mind, there is no more magnificent big game animal in all of North America that Ursus arctos horribilis. Taxonomically, both the coastal brown bear and mountain, or interior, grizzly, are the same animal. The difference in the two has to do with their diet. Brown bears have access to salmon streams, which pack the pounds on in a big hurry, and also stay outside their dens eating for a longer period of time each year. The mountain grizzly has to cover lots more ground to eat, subsisting primarily on berries, roots, squirrels, carrion, and whatever moose, caribou, and sheep it can catch. It's a much tougher, leaner life.

Though grizzlies once roamed most of North America, the Lewis & Clark Journals have some incredible tales of grizzly encounters. Today the bears are found primarily in Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, and Alberta, as well in a growing area of the northwestern U.S. that includes portions of Montana, Wyoming, Washington, and Idaho. The first grizzly sighting in decades was reported last fall in Colorado. In states where grizzly hunting is permitted, populations are extremely strong. In the lower 48, where no hunting is allowed, they're growing.

Grizzly and brown bears just naturally have a very bad attitude. In their world they are the top of the food chain, and are not shy about letting anyone and anything know it. Fast as a quarter horse, more powerful than Superman, with a sense of smell that will rival even the whitetail deer, grizzlies are to be respected at all times.

When hunting both mountain grizzlies and brown bears, it is important to shoot the largest caliber rifle you can shoot well.

Spring Vs. Fall Hunting

Grizzlies can be hunted both spring and fall, and there are advantages and disadvantages to each. In spring, if you catch a bear soon after he leaves the den, the hide is unbelievably lush and magnificent. The trouble with spring hunting is the weather. A freak snow storm and you're out of business. Also the bears are moving a lot now as they try and eat as much as they can. Their food sources are scattered, though, so you have to cover a lot of ground yourself, both physically and with your optics.

One spring I accompanied a friend who had drawn a coveted Kodiak Island brown bear tag. The weather was as crappy as it can be for a week, with low fog and either a hard drizzle or rain all day, every day. By day seven we were getting a little growly, as we had not seen a single bear. Then the sun came out, the world came alive, and we spotted five bears in one day. When Paul finally shot a very large bear towards dark on the 9^th day, the dang thing ended up dying in a waist-deep, nearly-frozen tundra swamp pond. Trust me when I tell you that standing thigh-deep and skinning a large bear that's mostly covered by icy water is about as much fun as hitting yourself in the head with a hammer.

In fall, the bears can be found in a more concentrated area, generally around a food source. Hunting brown bears over streams teeming with salmon is one of the best ways to take a good bear, and is incredibly exciting. Interior bears can be found wherever the berry bushes are thick and lush with fruit. A popular way to hunt them is to glass berry-covered mountainsides while waiting for one to come along, or sit over the carcass or a caribou or moose you took earlier on a combination hunt.

While I absolutely love glassing mountainsides and bowls for fall mountain grizzlies, the most interesting encounter I've ever had in fall occurred in southeast Alaska, bowhunting brown bears with my good friend and outfitter extraordinaire James Boyce of Sitka. I was bowhunting, and Jim had the .375 as a back-up. We had hiked a mile or so from the ocean up a small salmon stream that wound its way through the spectacular old-growth forest. The stream bank was covered up with bear tracks, but this day we did not see a bear. That is, until we started back to the Forest Service cabin after dark.

A hundred yards ahead and across the stream our headlamps showed three sets of eyes, a very bad deal that could only mean one thing -- a sow and two cubs. When the eyes disappeared into the trees, then one set came back both Jim and I bristled up. The sow had taken her cubs to safety, and she was back to get rid of this threat. She charged us at full speed, roaring at the top of her lungs like the banshee from Hell. She stopped at the edge of the stream -- which we both agreed later saved our petunias -- and roared some more. Jim fired twice into the water, but she did not even flinch. We stared at her until she finally decided she'd given us enough of a tongue-lashing and retreated towards her cubs. We couldn't get back to the safety of the cabin and comfort of the bourbon bottle fast enough.

Five Seconds of Pure Terror

I once read that hunting grizzly and brown bear is really nothing more than days of boredom followed by five seconds of pure terror. A truer statement has never been made. Often the hunt consists of nothing more than glassing, glassing, glassing while waiting, waiting, waiting in weather that is marginal, bad, or worse. It's easy to get bored stiff. Then, seemingly out of nowhere a bear appears. When it does, the hackles on the back of your neck come to full attention, your palms start to sweat, your heart begins to race. You begin to doubt your courage, your ability to keep your cool and make the shot.

When you do, and you sit beside the most magnificent game animal of them all, stroking that lush hide, feeling those powerful shoulders and dagger-like front claws, it's a feeling of euphoria that is impossible to explain. Try it sometime, and you'll see what I mean.

Equipment

When hunting both mountain grizzlies and brown bears, it is important to shoot the largest caliber rifle you can shoot well. It is much better to use a bit less rifle you are comfortable with than a heavy caliber that makes you flinch and shoot poorly. For mountain bears, a .30-06 would be my minimum, with the various .300 magnums even better and the .338 Win. and Ultra magnums, and .340 Wby. Mag., superb. For brown bears it is tough to beat the venerable .375 H&H Magnum, though some folks use .338's and some jump up tone of the .416's. Personally, when hunting mountain bears I use a custom Remington Model 700 with synthetic stock and stainless metalwork in .300 Win. Mag. and loaded with either a 180-grain Nosler Partition or Winchester Fail-Safe bullet topped with a 2.5-10X scope. For brown bears I have a Remington Model 700 KS Mountain rifle on which I shortened the barrel to 21-inches and added a muzzle brake, topped with a 1.5-6X Bausch & Lomb Elite scope loaded with factory ammo featuring either the 270-grain Remington Core-Lokt or 300-grain Nosler Partition bullet.

Taxonomically, both the coastal brown bear and mountain, or interior, grizzly, are the same animal.

You need the best breathable rainsuit you can buy (like those in the Gore-Tex Extreme Wet Weather program), as well as waterproof, breathable hunting boots, and you should dress head to toe in layers of synthetic fabrics that keep you warm and dry quickly even when wet. In some areas hip boots are necessary. Waterproof, fogproof binoculars in the 8-10X class are essential. Your outfitter  and the use of a licensed outfitter and/or guide is required for nonresidents hunting grizzlies and brown bears in both Alaska and Canada can provide you with a detailed packing list.

These hunts are not cheap. Brown bear hunts run anywhere from $9000 to $15,000, with hunts for interior bears costing anywhere between $7500 and $10,000. The best outfitters are often booked a year or two in advance. It is very important that you carefully research a potential outfitter and get all your questions answered before any money changes hands.