On the night of Could 21, 2025, Justin Lee and his brother-in-law, John Lengthy, had been charged by a grizzly bear and had been pressured to shoot it in self-defense.
They had been looking for mushrooms alongside Spring Creek, on a property owned by Justin, a couple of miles north of Choteau, Montana. Each males are longtime residents of the realm. The creek has a number of mature cottonwoods, waist-high lifeless grass, and a good quantity of brush in some areas. Justin and John drove to the property on a side-by-side four-wheeler. After they had been near the realm the place mushrooms had been discovered, they parked the side-by-side and proceeded on foot.
Justin is 57 years previous, and John is 43. Justin is disabled and can’t transfer quick on foot. John was about 50 yards forward within the woods when Justin noticed him working again towards him, saying, “There’s a bear! There’s a bear!” John mentioned he had seen a bear and a cub.
The bear was south of them. Justin may see and listen to the bear transferring cross-wind towards the east, attempting to get wind of them. The wind was principally from the northwest, about 15 mph. In advanced terrain, wind varieties eddies and swirls round in advanced patterns.
They noticed the bear transferring towards them from about 50-70 yards away, now southeast of them. The bear stood up, sniffing and searching. She appeared to get their scent and began jogging towards them. Justin thought: she is attempting to work herself as much as a cost.
At 30 yards, the bear put her ears again and charged. Justin and John drew their pistols and began firing. John was on Justin’s proper, about 10 ft away. He was armed with a 1911-style .45 ACP. Justin had a Glock 20 chambered in 10 mm. John fired 5 photographs, Justin fired three photographs.
Justin mentioned, “the bear regarded as large as an elephant coming towards us.”
Justin believed bear spray would have been ineffective due to the variable wind. Justin was utilizing a mixture of Federal full steel jacketed and hole level rounds within the Glock, whereas John was utilizing his .45 ACP.
At about 20 yards, the bear, clearly hit, veered to Justin’s facet and out of sight, transferring north. North was towards the property boundary. Mary Sexton owned the property on the opposite facet. They known as Mary to alert her to the potential for a wounded grizzly coming her manner. They re-mounted the side-by-side four-wheeler and headed towards Truchot Hill, hoping they might be capable to spot the bear from the highest of the hill. On the way in which, they stopped at Sheriff VanSetten’s house and let him know what was occurring. They known as the native Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) Wildlife Administration Specialist, Chad White, and knowledgeable him of the encounter.
Stay Stock Worth Checker
Justin and John drove to the highest of Truchot Hill and used binoculars to identify the bear. They positioned it close to the boundary of the Sexton property, about 300 yards away. The bear was down, however not lifeless. It had traveled a few hundred yards from the place the battle had taken place. As they watched the bear, it alerted, bought up, and moved off, out of their sight. When investigators discovered the bear, it had expired.
The bear was a sow, about 300 lbs. It could in all probability have weighed over 400 lbs within the fall, after it could lard up for the winter.
Justin believes the incident solely lasted about 15 seconds, however it appeared for much longer.
With somewhat coaching and observe, an odd particular person can be taught to attract and hearth two aimed photographs in two seconds. Each males carried pistols particularly due to the potential want for self-defense. They didn’t anticipate to make use of them; they carried them “in case.”
Could twenty first, 2025 was that “in case” day.
Justin mentioned he didn’t wish to shoot the bear, however it was needed. He had seen a number of bears, and the bears had all the time run away. For no matter cause, this bear was unafraid of people. It was the uncommon exception. Most grizzly bears, even sows with cubs, run away from people. Most bears have been taught or have an intuition to keep away from people as a result of people are harmful.
When Justin was a baby, he performed on and explored Spring Creek. Immediately, kids aren’t allowed to take action due to the hazard posed by grizzly bears. Grizzly bears have develop into widespread close to Choteau. There have been a number of defensive shootings of grizzlies within the space, in addition to severe accidents inflicted by grizzly bears.
In 2021, Leah Lokan was dragged from her tent and killed contained in the village of Ovando, Montana, about 70 miles from Choteau. Leah had bear spray, however no firearm.
Grizzly bears can be taught to respect people as harmful predators to keep away from. The simplest approach to accomplish that is to permit them to be hunted.
Alaska has about 30,000 grizzly bears. The decrease 48 states have about 2,000 grizzly bears. The 2 populations of bears kill about the identical variety of people. A lot of the bears in Alaska are topic to common looking seasons, though important grizzly populations in Alaska aren’t. Not one of the grizzly bears within the decrease 48 have been topic to common looking seasons for no less than 34 years, and most for 48 years, a number of bear generations.
Sweden has had a European brown bear inhabitants (grizzly bear) enhance much like the inhabitants enhance within the decrease 48 states, from about 500 bears handled as pests in 1977 to about 2,800 bears in 2016. In that interval, two people had been killed by bears. There have been common looking seasons over the entire interval. The variety of bears allowed to be harvested was tightly regulated after 1977.
Within the decrease 48 states of the USA, the grizzly bear inhabitants was about 700 in 1975. Very restricted looking in Montana was stopped by 1991. The grizzly bear inhabitants elevated to shut to 2000 by 2016. There was no authorized looking for grizzly bears within the decrease 48 after 1991. From 1977 to 2016, 17 people had been killed by grizzly bears within the decrease 48 states. The overwhelming majority of the grizzly bears within the decrease 48 states had been by no means hunted from 1977 to the current.
Correlation doesn’t show causation, however it may be a very good indicator. Larger-level mammals equivalent to grizzly bears be taught from and reply to looking stress. Restoring the looking of grizzly bears within the decrease 48 will probably scale back grizzly bear assaults on people.
Grizzly Bear Assault Stopped with Shotgun and 10mm Handgun
Handgun Defenses In opposition to Bear Assaults – 170 Documented Incidents, 98% Efficient
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a army officer, was on the College of Wisconsin Pistol Group for 4 years, and was first licensed to show firearms security in 1973. He taught the Arizona hid carry course for fifteen years till the objective of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has levels in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Division of Protection after a 30 12 months profession in Military Analysis, Growth, Testing, and Analysis.
Among the hyperlinks on this web page are affiliate hyperlinks, that means at no extra price to you, Ammoland will earn a fee in case you click on by way of and make a purchase order.
