Father's bow shot kills grizzly attacking his son

This is a pretty scary story that I am sure everyone has thought about before.

Click Here To Read



Father's bow shot kills grizzly attacking his son

By Carole Cloudwalker

This document was published online on Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Printable E-mail Archives 68 comment(s) Comments
A bloodied Ron J. Leming, 37, bends over the 11-year old grizzly bear (No. 1029) that attacked him twice Friday along Castle Creek on the South Fork while he and his father, Ron G. Leming, 62, were on their annual bowhunt in search of elk. The elder Leming managed a tough shot with an arrow that killed the bear and saved his son’s life. (Photo by Ron G. Leming)

A Cody bowhunter in search of an elk found a grizzly bear instead in a Sept. 12 mauling incident on the South Fork.

And Ron J. Leming, 37, attributes his father's lifetime of bowhunting for saving his life.

“There are not many people who could stand their ground like that, especially with a bow and arrow,” Leming said Wednesday.

“I would have been mauled way worse, if not killed, if Dad hadn't had the nerve to stand his ground and shoot that bear with his bow. There's not many people who could have done that.”

Leming said his father's shot with a compound bow severed a major artery in the bear and hit his heart. The bear then moved about 80 yards down hill after being shot before falling dead over a log.

Leming's father, Ron G. Leming, 62, rushed to his son after the grizzly's initial attack, and managed the compound bow shot as both his son and the bear were running down the hill.

“Dad had missed two shots at elk” earlier in the several-day hunting trip to the family's favorite spot, Leming said.

“The night before, Dad said a prayer for God to guide his arrow.”

Leming added that while his father had elk, not bears, in mind as he prayed, he's glad the right arrow found divine intervention.

“If my Dad hadn't been there, who knows?” Leming said. “The look the bear had, the way he was doing ... I could have done absolutely nothing.”

Leming and his father had taken their gear 15 miles up the trail from the Boulder Basin trailhead for their annual bowhunting outing. Though they had spotted a black bear and her cubs, there had been no sign of grizzlies, which Leming said was unusual.

On Friday morning they headed out from camp, located at about 9,500 feet in elevation, and spotted a good elk.

The elder Leming was standing about 30 yards down the hill when his son heard a noise behind him and turned to see the bear standing there.

“He was king of the woods,” Leming said. “He thought there was an elk in there and he would bring it down.”

Leming yelled at the bear, but it charged him.

Trying to pull the trigger release string on his bow, Leming realized there was no time to shoot the bear himself, so he moved behind a tree and began running around it to buy time. Then he ran down hill, figuring he could move faster in that direction.

“I passed my dad and I saw an arrow fly right by my leg, about two feet away,” Ron said. He realized his father had shot at the bear, but he was unsure if the arrow went home.

“I took three or four more steps and I fell,” he said, “The bear was on top of me.”

Leming was kicking at the grizzly and possibly put his hands out defensively.

“It's kind of blurry,” he said.

The bear grabbed Leming's arm and, “I felt like I was in a vice, with the power that thing had,” he said.

He managed to rise and head for a forked tree, where the bear again jumped on his back.

“It was pretty scary,” the long-time hunter said.

The bear attacked again and Leming was hitting him with his bow as well as struggling with the animal, who suddenly moved away.

“He took a few steps toward Dad, then he started walking down the hill. I told Dad to kill him, but he (bear) was already starting to check out,” Leming said.

The bear soon fell on a log, dead.

“I got super cold - I think I was in shock,” Leming said.

His father kept asking how badly he was hurt, and he said he felt OK, considering what he'd been through.

“Things got blurry and I lay there for about 45 minutes. I thought I was going to pass out.”

The two men finally were able to get back to camp - Leming walked because he was unable to mount his horse.

They made sure the camp was clean and Leming “stood on the bear box” to get on his paint mare, Josie, which his father led over.

They took their other horses and got to the trailhead, then loaded the horses and even stopped by the Leming home to drop them off before going to West Park Hospital.

Leming was admitted overnight. He received stitches for wounds to his hands and arm, and the bites on his back were patched up as well.

Dennie Hammer, information specialist for the Game and Fish Department in Cody, said the men spotted a bull elk and were about to take aim when the elk spooked, probably because he spied the bear.

“They were trying to call in the elk when he spooked,” Hammer said.

Leming stood up and so did the grizzly, an 11-year-old male that was about 15 feet from the hunters.

“The bear charged and bit (Leming) on the right arm,” Hammer said.

“His father shot the bear with an arrow,” Hammer said.

The bear, though mortally wounded, charged the younger Leming again, this time biting his left hand and arm, as Hammer described the 9 a.m. incident.

By the time a game warden could reach the spot where the attack took place, the bear's body was badly decomposed because of high temperatures during the weekend, Hammer said.

For that reason, the bear's carcass was left where it fell. Hammer said it appears the grizzly was known to game officials, though he did not know whether the bear had worn a tag or radio collar.

He was captured in 2003 after he broke into a shed at Brown Thomas Meadows on the upper South Fork, Hammer said, and was relocated to the Jackson area.

The Friday incident remains under investigation, but Hammer said it appears to be a case of self-defense.

In such instances, it's legal to kill a grizzly bear, he added.

He said while grizzlies are no longer considered a threatened species, no hunting season for them has been established. They are under G&F management and eventually a season will be set, Hammer added.