Justin Lee likes a superb steak. And what makes a superb steak, in Lee’s opinion, is fresh-picked morels. On Wednesday, throughout his first foraging expedition of the spring, Lee and his brother-in-law have been looking for morel mushrooms on Lee’s property north of Choteau, Montana. They have been charged by a grizzly sow, and they shot and killed the bear at shut vary.
“There was no time to be nervous,” Lee tells Outside Life in an unique cellphone interview simply six days after he was charged. “No time for calculation in anyway.”
Lee explains that he and his brother-in-law, John Lengthy, had gone out strolling on his property the night of Might 21. They drove his side-by-side all the way down to Spring Creek, considering it was a great spot to search for morels. Each are from the world, they usually know how one can hike in grizzly nation. They every carried sidearms: Lee had a 10mm Glock, and Lengthy carried a 1911 chambered in .45 ACP.
“They’re probably not bear weapons. We weren’t searching bear,” says Lee, a 53-year-old retired legal professional. “We simply carry these weapons once we’re down there in case. It simply occurred to be the ‘in case’ day that day.”
After parking their rig within the cottonwoods close to the creek, they began looking for mushrooms on foot. Lee walked towards the water. Lengthy went about 50 yards forward of him however returned shortly.
“He got here operating again saying, ‘There’s a bear. There’s a bear.’ Then I noticed the bear and he or she had a cub. We began yelling and leaping up and down attempting to scare her off. She simply saved coming our method. Not charging however coming.”
Lee says he suspects the mom bear was curious and attempting to determine what the ruckus was about. After closing the gap from 100 to 50 yards, the sow stood up on its hind legs, sniffing the air.
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“She acquired our wind — she scented us,” Lee says. “Then she acquired down on all fours and began jogging towards us as an alternative of away from us. At 30 yards, she put her ears again and he or she was charging, so we began capturing.”
It took eight bullets to place the sow down. Lee fired three rounds. Lengthy shot 5. They referred to as an area sport warden instantly to report the incident.
Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks investigated the capturing and dominated it a case of self-defense. Wildlife officers tried looking for the cub however couldn’t discover it. Additionally they eliminated the lifeless bear from Lee’s property, which is marked with “Be Bear Conscious” indicators.
“They have been superb. They by no means questioned us for a second,” Lee says. “I’m sorry to should kill a bear, particularly a feminine with a cub. However there wasn’t a alternative. I’ve seen many bears and [have] been near many bears. In all my encounters, they see me they usually run away. However [this bear] simply wasn’t afraid of people.”
Just a few hours later, Lee was on the native bar. It was poker evening. He performed just a few palms, carried on, and went dwelling. It wasn’t till he climbed into mattress that the occasions of the day caught up with him.
“I used to be mendacity in mattress when it lastly dawned on me what had occurred. I used to be a bit stressed. I don’t have any want to kill a grizzly, however I want I had [gotten] a grizzly claw. You simply can’t imagine them till you see them.”
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Lee has just a few cabins on his largely undeveloped property close to Choteau, which lies in Central Montana alongside the Rocky Mountain Entrance and southeast of Glacier Nationwide Park. The world falls throughout the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, which is dwelling to greater than 1,000 grizzly bears and has seen an uptick within the variety of grizzly conflicts lately. In April, a shed hunter shot and killed a charging grizzly bear close to Dupuyer, which lies roughly 30 miles north of Choteau.
“It doesn’t change the best way I behave, however it makes me surprise about having visitors,” Lee says of the cost he survived final week. “The grizzly bear restoration program in North-Central Montana has been wildly profitable. After I was a child, they have been uncommon and within the mountains. It was a very large deal to see them. Through the years, it’s develop into much less odd. Now it’s simply normal.”
