For those that haven't listened to the newest episode of Meat Eater about Amber Kornak and her Grizzly attack I suggest it. Pretty amazing story and as usual Steven does a good job setting up and allowing her to tell the whole story, and there is a brief mention of A&M too.

Meat Eater Podcast - Ep. 167: Mauled by a Grizzly

Researcher In 'Dream Job' Attacked By Bear

Montana Officials Release Details On Cabinet Mountains Bear Attack

Just started it on my way to work this morning

I really enjoyed this episode. What a tough woman to survive that

I have 15 min left in the episode, but her attitude about the whole thing is amazing

Have any of you guys had close encounters with grizzlies?

jpistolero02 said:

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Have any of you guys had close encounters with grizzlies?

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Closest I've been was on my 2nd Mulie hunt in Wyoming, just east of the Yellowstone border. One evening as we were riding our horses out we crossed a HUGE pile of bear crap right at the intersection of 2 trails. The guide said it had to be a grizzly because they hadn't seen black bears in the area for several years. Fast forward to about 5am the next day and we were headed back down the same trail and we were within 100 yards of the spot where we had found the pile of crap. It was pitch dark outside and cold as hell. Something big started running in the brush between us and the creek and making a lot of growling noises. The guide started yelling HEY BEAR!! HEY BEAR!! and started riding his horse directly at the noise. He also turned on his headlamp and kept yelling and making all kinds of noise. The running sounds in the brush reversed direction and the growling sounded like it was going away from us and the we heard some splashing in the creek as it crossed. The guide rode back over and told us "Hopefully that is the only time y'all will ever be about 20' from a wild grizzly". I was just sitting there with my bear spray in my hand and my buddy was holding his 30-06. My spray had been strapped to my waist and my buddy's gun had been in a scabbard on the saddle. I don't know if either one of us had them out fast enough to use them if we had needed to.

Last year a guide from the same outfitter shot and killed a grizzly in the same general area when it attacked one of their pack mules going down the trail. They were packing out 1 or 2 elk when it happened.

https://www.apnews.com/4386e03faf7e4aba85f40b3cece21f3c

That is not the original story I read about it. The one I read last year said that the bear had charged them on the trail and they hazed it and it ran off. It went on to say that later down the trail the bear came off of a hillside and attacked the mule.

I saw one in the Denali backcountry. It was about a half a mile away across a valley, but I was still pretty scared.

Surprised y'all haven't posted her picture. In the wildlife profession, she'd rank pretty well.

I have been fairly close to grizzlies at Glacier and the neighboring Bob. I like to see them, but have no inclination to see how close I can get. A dot moving across the hillside is fine. I did get annoyed when my wife (actually got engaged at Glacier while looking for grizzlies) and sister refused to quit singing while hiking to Iceburg Lake. Closest was probably 75 feet munching on berries near Two Medicine.......now black bears, hundreds or times.

Our drilling superintendent is also an outfitter in the west and Alaska. He's got some pretty amazing stories. Just this past fall he had to kill a momma bear on Kodiak Island while they were eating lunch on a deer hunt. He shot her 8 times with a pistol before she stopped a few feet from him. He has another story about a bear on moose they had killed which smelled them as they approached the moose and charged. He couldn't see the bear but could see the brush parting. He sat down and shot it as it cleared the brush. When it fell, he took two steps and kicked it. Another time he shot one off another hunter. He said the bear was playing with the hunter like a cat plays with a mouse. He's got some more stories. Pretty wild stuff.

Backpacking in Denali we had Grizzlies all over the place. Mostly mamma's and cubs. It was pretty intense.
The lead day before the rest of the team came in myself and a couple of guides were setting up a base camp when a sow and her cubs came right through our camp. We grabbed our bear spray and the food that wasn't in the bear canisters and backed up a rise. At the closest she was 50-75 yards from us. Way too close for comfort.
We had the wind at our backs blowing towards her and she new we were there and wasn't upset. She sniffed around our tents and where we had been cooking then walked on and disappeared into the next drainage. After that the closest was probably 150-200 yards.

Listened to it yesterday. Good episode. I think being a bear researcher helped with some of her attitude about the incident.

I listened to a guy named Brad Jameson give his account of a bear that attacked him. I can't remember what podcast it was. The bear was about 10 feet away when he encountered the bear. He realized that his 6.5 bolt action creedmor rifle wouldn't do much against a bear so he ran and jumped into some alders. Bear was almost immediately on him. I think he yelled before running so while he was being attacked his hunting buddies made there way to him and shot the bear.

Ben o Brien interviews Todd Orr on THC podcast. He's the one that had the selfie video on Facebook that went viral a few years ago.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hunting-collective/id1346262634?i=1000434491503

https://www.gofundme.com/amberkornak

To be fair, wildlife technicians make jack.

I hadn't seen the video of the Grizzly digging out the Black Bear they talked about during the podcast... I'm sure it's germans bomb the moon for some but here is the link if you are interested.

NSFW audio

Since we are on the topic of Bears here is a good bear safety video.

I am hunting this fall in the Kootenai national forest about 30 miles north of where she was attacked. I have been toying with the idea of buying a 44 magnum to have as extra bear defense. After listening to the podcast I am going to go ahead and do it.

Last time we were there we saw fresh grizzly tracks in the snow that were quite impressive.

AggieMPH2005 said:

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I am hunting this fall in the Kootenai national forest about 30 miles north of where she was attacked. I have been toying with the idea of buying a 44 magnum to have as extra bear defense. After listening to the podcast I am going to go ahead and do it.

Last time we were there we saw fresh grizzly tracks in the snow that were quite impressive.

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Fast forward to min 38 of the video I posted and listen to what he has to say about guns vs. bear spray.

CT: I had already planned to carry bear spray.

Had several close encounters in the Bob. Usually they ran as soon as they spotted me.

ursusguy said:

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Surprised y'all haven't posted her picture. In the wildlife profession, she'd rank pretty well.

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I'll play.