An elk hunter in Eastern Idaho is lucky to have survived a confrontation with an adult grizzly bear after he was forced to use his hunting rifle to defend his life.
The grave encounter unfolded around 3 PM on October 26 while 27-year-old Dylyn Carter hunted cow elk in a heavily timbered area north of Kilgore near Mule Meadows on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Not having much success that Saturday, Carter decided to pack it up and hike back to his truck when the grizzly appeared suddenly in quarters too close for comfort.
“All of a sudden a grizzly popped up. I didn’t see her until we were five yards apart. We immediately locked eyes, and she instantly came my way. As she charged at me, I didn’t really think about what was going on, it happened too fast. I just pulled up my rifle and shot…I feel like she was coming directly for me. I felt like she was on a mission to come get me,” says Carter, who got the shot off with his 7mm-08 Remington with only three feet remaining between himself and the grizzly.
The hunter says he doesn’t remember where he struck the bear at that moment, but Idaho Fish and Game reports say he hit the bear just below its right eye. Having seen the bear fall and roll on the ground, Carter realized he wasn’t out of the woods yet, as he needed to walk directly past the bear to reach help rather than go in the opposite direction, which would have him climb down a canyon and take a much longer and more arduous route back to his truck.
“We’re really close quarters. I had to walk within five yards of the bear, and it looked to me like she was trying to get back up. So I put another shot through the bear, I just turned as I was leaving and shot,” he reported.
Idaho Fish and Game reported that the second shot entered behind the bear’s right shoulder, however, Carter didn’t stick around to find out if his shots had been effective, instead making the one-and-a-half-mile walk back to his truck under what must have been understandable anxiety.
“The whole way down my adrenaline was through the roof,” he said. “When I was on my way down it seemed like every tree blowing in the wind, or any animal making any noise made me pretty skittish.”
Reaching his truck, Carter first called his wife to tell her what had occurred, followed by a call to report the incident to local law enforcement. He reported not smelling any carcasses or seeing other bears in the area, also mentioning that he was carrying bear spray but did not have time to deploy it quickly enough.
Biologists and law enforcement officials with the U.S. Forest Service and Idaho Fish and Game hiked to the scene the following day, with IDFG SCO Chris Johnson validating Carter’s description of the terrain.
“The area surrounding the incident location was heavily timbered with significant deadfall. Visibility, notably at ground level, was poor,” said Johnson.
Andrew Sorensen, an IDFG District Conservation Officer added that he did not see any animal carcasses, gut piles or other bear attractants but found possible bear daybeds in the nearby area confirming Carter’s account.
“The hunter’s encounter with the grizzly bear occurred at a very close distance in very thick timber/deadfall timber cover, leading investigators to believe it to be a surprise encounter,” Sorensen reported.
Investigators removed the bear’s head and claws for further examination, and Carter states that an IDFG agent called him following the incident with follow-up questions. Aside from that, he has not heard from any state or federal officials and only learned the case had been deemed self-defense by reading about it in the news.
Grizzly bears remain federally protected, and any killing triggers federal and state investigations to ensure it is justified. Hunters kill grizzly bears in self-defense regularly, and a 2015 report states that the average number of bears killed by hunters is 10.2 per year. This latest incident is the third since June that officials have determined to be self-defense in this area of Idaho.
Dylyn Carter says he’s been hunting this area his whole life and, although this is his first grizzly confrontation, he believes there are more bears in the area than when he started hunting a decade ago based on his observations.
I regularly peruse a couple Alaskan YouTube gun/ outdoor channels. It’s amazing the # of folk’s who don’t have a gat in bear country. Love for 10mm gats is most common(high capacity). Dunno why but there’s been an uptick in bear attacks🙄🐻🐻🐻
Yep. When you protect a species, you invite more of it. We’re seeing the same thing with “undocumented migrants.” I’ve also seen an uptick in attacks from that species. I hear 10mm works well, but unfortunately, the victims are often unarmed women.
“Unfortunately”? You just don’t lead em as much.
Misogynist. Women are no different from men.
That’s not what he said, libtard.
Obviously jwm was being sarcastic. Maybe you are too. I can’t tell.
Thirty years ago, I spent a summer studying hawks in this exact part of Idaho (Targee national forest, based out of Kilgore). I hiked all over that region, and was always unarmed. As a broke recent college grad, the only gun I owned at the time was a single shot .22lr rifle. I took it with me for fun, but obviously never carried it.
I never saw any bears or cougars. I did see a lot of moose (kept my distance), and also tons of elk and deer.
Now, I never spend hike unarmed in the woods.
“Dylyn Carter says he’s been hunting this area his whole life and, although this is his first grizzly confrontation, he believes there are more bears in the area than when he started hunting a decade ago based on his observations.”
Hes been hunting this area his whole life, but started hunting a decade (10 years) ago?
He’s 10 years old?
.40, give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe, he meant he has been hunting the area all of his “hunting life”.
If he is 27 years-old now (as the article states), 10 years ago he would have been 17 years-old which is a typical minimum age to hunt. Prior to that, I imagine that he accompanied relatives or friends who were the actual hunters and he was an observer, although you could still think of being an observer to qualify as being able to say that he has hunted his whole life.
The guy was trained up well. Nailing the shot with a hunting rifle in close quarters under pressure and getting a one shot stop is both fortunate and has to be the result of lots of trigger time with that rifle.
Ehhhh, I don’t believe that story.
Weren’t no elk and he just wanted to shoot somthing.
A long time ago, I read a story about a man in Montana who was bird hunting with his shotgun and something like #6 or #7 shot. He also had his bird dog with him. A grizzly bear suddenly appeared and charged him. He shot the bear in the head with his shotgun when the bear was about one foot away. Of course bird shot does not stop a bear so the bear knocked him down and proceeded to chomp on the man’s head. As the bear clamped down, the man heard a bone break and for an instant thought it was his skull–that all changed when the bear roared in pain and recoiled from the man with a severely broken jaw. The man and his dog managed to escape. Game wardens came and euthanized that grizzly.
It sounds like a head-shot with almost any firearm is probably the key to stopping grizzly bears, which should not be surprising. The hard part, though, is making a head shot when those things are charging you. I do NOT envy anyone having to make that shot.
I think bird shot from 1′ will stop one. But it has to be a head shot, not a jaw shot.
But whatever, my main point is that whenever a grizz is found dead, the authorities remove the head to prevent souvenir hunting. So they have lots of grizzly heads stashed somewhere. Time for the authorities to utilize these taxpayer assets to definitively test what will and what will not penetrate a grizzly’s head.
It’s a public safety issue! Plus I would just like to know.
I’m a long way from Grizzly country but I’m thinking hunting solo in that environment is just eventually asking for it. It would be in a party of at least two for me.
LazrBeam,
The area where this story occurred is also mountain lion country. That is another reason to have a second armed person (at the very least for self-defense even if the second person is not hunting) on the trip.
The trick to surviving a grizzly encounter is to be God’s Own Drunk.
“So I want you to be my buddy, Buddy bear”
So I took ole’ buddy bear by his island size paw
And I led him over to the still
He’s a sniffin’ around that thing cause
He’s smellin’ somethin’ good
I gave him one of them jugs of honey dew vine water
He downed it up right
Looked like one of them damn bears in the circus
Sippin’ sasparilly in the moonlight
I gave him another’n an another’n an another’n
For I knew it he downed eight of them
And commenced to doin’ the bear dance
Two snips, a snort, a fly turn, and a grunt
It was so simple like the jitter bug
It plum evaded me”
The trick is to be God’s Own Drunk.
“So I want you to be my buddy, Buddy bear”
So I took ole’ buddy bear by his island size paw
And I led him over to the still
He’s a sniffin’ around that thing cause
He’s smellin’ somethin’ good
I gave him one of them jugs of honey dew vine water
He downed it up right
Looked like one of them damn bears in the circus
Sippin’ sasparilly in the moonlight
I gave him another’n an another’n an another’n
For I knew it he downed eight of them
And commenced to doin’ the bear dance
Two snips, a snort, a fly turn, and a grunt
It was so simple like the jitter bug
It plum evaded me”
Apparently I cannot comment on this site without a simple two sentence comment going to moderation purgatory.