Thought y'all may enjoy this... I first saw this in Outdoor Life (I think) years ago... Here is a direct link.
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Here’s one heckuva cool story for all you bear-hunting aficionados.
On a spring day back in 1953, 63-year-old Bella Twin and her friend Dave Auger were hunting grouse and picking berries near Lesser Slave Lake in the Swan Hills of northern Alberta, Canada. As the story goes, they were walking an oil-exploration survey line when they ran into a humongous grizzly bear following the same line toward them. The two feared that if they ran, the grizzly would notice them and give chase, so they hid in a brush pile and hoped the big bruin would pass without any trouble.
Unfortunately for the bear, it was intent on getting its share of berries and came very near Twin and Auger. Frightened by the close encounter, Twin raised the rifle she was carrying and fired. Her aim was dead on. The grizzly was struck in the head and fell dead.
Bella’s bear was no ordinary griz. Its skull scored 26 5/16, placing it at the top of the list of Boone and Crockett world’s records where it stayed for many years. The bear currently ranks number 30 among the all-time records and still stands as the longest-reigning provincial big-game record in Alberta.
In the half century since Twin killed her record grizzly, many differing accounts of the incident have been given. However, all of them agree on one thing: little Bella Twin killed that 1,000-pound-plus griz with the humblest of all rifles—a single-shot, bolt-action, .22-caliber rimfire. With just one long-rifle cartridge, this petite Cree Indian grandmother finished off one of the biggest grizzlies ever documented and earned remembrance as one of the world’s truly legendary hunters.
Posted by Keith "Catfish" Sutton
Here’s one heckuva cool story for all you bear-hunting aficionados.
On a spring day back in 1953, 63-year-old Bella Twin and her friend Dave Auger were hunting grouse and picking berries near Lesser Slave Lake in the Swan Hills of northern Alberta, Canada. As the story goes, they were walking an oil-exploration survey line when they ran into a humongous grizzly bear following the same line toward them. The two feared that if they ran, the grizzly would notice them and give chase, so they hid in a brush pile and hoped the big bruin would pass without any trouble.
Unfortunately for the bear, it was intent on getting its share of berries and came very near Twin and Auger. Frightened by the close encounter, Twin raised the rifle she was carrying and fired. Her aim was dead on. The grizzly was struck in the head and fell dead.
Bella’s bear was no ordinary griz. Its skull scored 26 5/16, placing it at the top of the list of Boone and Crockett world’s records where it stayed for many years. The bear currently ranks number 30 among the all-time records and still stands as the longest-reigning provincial big-game record in Alberta.
In the half century since Twin killed her record grizzly, many differing accounts of the incident have been given. However, all of them agree on one thing: little Bella Twin killed that 1,000-pound-plus griz with the humblest of all rifles—a single-shot, bolt-action, .22-caliber rimfire. With just one long-rifle cartridge, this petite Cree Indian grandmother finished off one of the biggest grizzlies ever documented and earned remembrance as one of the world’s truly legendary hunters.
Posted by Keith "Catfish" Sutton
