Kootenay Grizzly Hunt

A special thanks to Zeke Fantuz for sending in this story of his 2012 Spring Grizzly Hunt.

Well, after checking and rechecking the 2012 spring grizzly LEH status, the day finally came when they were out, and much to my surprise, I was drawn for MU 4-02. Seeing as I had drawn a tag for a coveted MU in 2004, I didn’t think that I would be drawn for the East Kootenay’s again for a long, long time. Although I was VERY happy and full of anticipation, I also new that this was a tough area to hunt, and that many of the grizzly hunters only saw between 1-3 grizzlies, if any at all, and even fewer killed bears. I had a goal set though, nothing but a mature boar, 7′ or better.

When April 1st finally rolled around, my dad and I headed out to an area where we normally find a decent sized track every year in early April. Sure enough we cut a track, and it was a couple of days old already… good start! Dad and I hunted a little bit for the first week when we had time, until the bear movement started to pick up. There were a lot of tracks early, and the majority of them were boar tracks, but we couldn’t seem to get a sighting. The closest that we came early in the season was when we snow shoed in on the fresh track of a big boar, only to have him turn off into the river bottom where we couldn’t follow due to the conditions. Had he stayed on the old road, we are confident that we would have caught up with him.

Although I hunted as much as possible during April either by myself or with my dad, we didn’t see our first bear of any kind until the 6 or 7 of May. It was a grizzly, but gave me nothing but a 10-15 second look from a long ways away. I’m 99% sure that it was a younger bear, 6-6 1/2′ tops. After the first sighting, it took another week to see our second bear, which turned out to be a young boar, 6 1/2′ tops, and I passed on him. Things finally started to heat up, and we started seeing more bears, both blacks and grizzlies, and though there were some really nice black bears, there were no grizzlies that were shootable.

After hunting as much as possible, it looked like the only remaining time that I would have to find a shooter bear would be the last two days of the season, June 4th and 5th. After meeting my head boss for the first time at the end of May, I ended up with that last four days of the season off because we were overstaffed, and he had been in the same situation before, and knew what it was like to not hunt grizzlies due to work (Thanks Joe!!!). On June 2nd, after seeing lots of black bears, I ended up kicking what I’m 99.99% sure was a shooter boar off the road on our way up to camp in the evening, marking shooter number one, and grizzly number 8. The next day I sat overlooking beautiful bear slides all day in the rain/overcast weather, only to see nothing but mule deer and whitetails. With two days remaining, the pressure was on, but we also new that because of the bears’ mating season, they were the best two days of the season.

Awakening June 4th, we donned our rain gear, saddled up the horses, and headed into a different draw, hoping to see some bears, and possibly kill one. After getting to our glassing spot, the weather did the unexpected and turned into a beautiful blue sky, sunny day. After an hour or so of glassing, I spotted a sow and two 1 year old cubs come out of the bottom of the big slide in front of us, about 550 yards away. After watching them for an hour, the sow took her cubs and started moving up the slide, away from the lush glacier lilies, giving us hope that a boar was near by.

Not wanting to overlook anything, my dad and I hiked into a side draw where there was fresh sign that was there the previous week, while my grandpa stayed to watch the big slide. After about an hour and a half, we were just getting ready to shoulder our packs and head back to our glassing spot when the radio crackled. Grandpa said that he was pretty sure the bear I wanted was in the big slide and busy digging, so to hurry up. 20 minutes later we were at the scope, looking at what we were 95% sure was a shooter bear, but all we could see was his a** end while he was digging. A plan was made, and the stalk began.

Luckily for us, the bear was low in the slide, 550 yards away, with a perfect wind, and a creek right beside his head. After closing the distance down a trail to the slide, we finally got a very quick look at his head at 199 yards, and dad and I both just said ” YUP!” With one small ridge in between us, we closed the gap until we were right on top of the ridge. I was set up on my shooting sticks with the unsuspecting bear 135 yards away… and a screen of alder trees! For 15 minutes we sat there, until deciding to send dad to look for a better position down the ridge. He found one 20 yards down, and I headed for him, and was just about to rest my rifle on a log when I noticed that the bear was completely in the open, and I thought he was watching us! Quickly finding him in the scope, I realized that he wasn’t, but everything was right. As dad watched through his binoculars, I settled the cross hair and squeezed off, hitting him directly behind the shoulder. With a quick roar and a half spin, the bear headed for the timber. A quick follow up shot sent him head over heels into a small alder patch at the edge of the timber, ending his 20 yard run. After skinning him and taking the back straps and hams, we loaded the horses and headed out, grateful that all if the hard work paid off.

My bear ended up squaring 7’6″, and was right around the 15 year old mark. He will go somewhere around 22+” on the skull. The shot was 133 yards, with a .338 Win Mag, and 225 grain Barnes MRX bullets. The first shot hit him right behind the shoulder, and the follow up hit him in the back of the ribs. After hunting as much as possible over the 2 month season, I saw a total of 12 grizzlies. Thank you to everyone who helped me out, it’s definitely something that will never be forgotten!

Zeke’s gear: Sitka Ascent Jacket, mountain pant, gaiters. Badlands 2200 pack. Steiner Bino’s. Leica Range master 900 rangefinder. Ruger M77 MK II All-weather in .338 Win Mag, Leupold VX3 2.5-8x scope, 225 grain Barnes MRX bullets.

UPDATE: Sadly, a year after this incredible experience, Zeke Fantuz passed away in 2013. My heart goes out to all who is suffering this loss.