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Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
‘There Was No Time to Be Nervous,' Says Montana Mushroom Hunter Who Shot Charging Grizzly
Justin Lee likes a good steak. And what completes a good steak, in Lee's opinion, is fresh-picked morels. On Wednesday, during his first foraging outting of the spring, Lee and his brother-in-law were looking for morel mushrooms on Lee's property north of Choteau, Montana. They were charged by a grizzly sow, and they shot and killed the bear at close range. 'There was no time to be nervous,' Lee tells Outdoor Life in an exclusive phone interview six days after he was charged. 'No time for calculation whatsoever.' Lee explains that he and his brother-in-law, John Long, had gone out walking on his property the evening of May 21. They drove his side-by-side down to Spring Creek, thinking it was a good spot to look for morels. Both men are from the area, and they know how to hike in grizzly country. They each carried sidearms: Lee had his 10mm Glock, and Long carried his 1911 chambered in .45 ACP. 'We weren't hunting bear,' says Lee, a 53-year-old retired attorney. 'We just carry these guns when we're down there in case. It just happened to be the 'in case' day that day.' After parking their rig in the cottonwoods near the creek, they started searching for mushrooms on foot. Lee walked toward the water. Long went about 50 yards ahead of him but returned quickly. 'He came running back saying, 'There's a bear. There's a bear.' Then I saw the bear and she had a cub. We started yelling and jumping up and down trying to scare her off. She just kept coming our way. Not charging but coming.' Lee says he suspects the sow was curious and trying to figure out what the ruckus was about. After closing the distance from 100 to 50 yards, the sow stood up on its hind legs, sniffing the air. Read Next: The Best Bear Defense Handguns of 2025 'She got our wind — she scented us,' Lee says. 'Then she got down on all fours and started jogging toward us instead of away from us. At 30 yards, she put her ears back and she was charging, so we started shooting.' It took eight bullets to put the sow down. Lee fired three rounds; Long shot five. They called a local game warden immediately to report the incident. Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks investigated the shooting and ruled it a case of self-defense. Wildlife officials tried searching for the cub but couldn't find it. They also removed the grizzly carcass from Lee's property, which is marked with 'Be Bear Aware' signs. 'They were very good,' Lee says. 'I'm sorry to have to kill a bear, especially a female with a cub. But there wasn't a choice. I've seen many bears and [have] been close to many bears. In all my encounters, they see me and they run away. But [this bear] just wasn't afraid of humans.' A few hours later, Lee was at the local bar. It was poker night. He played a few hands, carried on, and went home. It wasn't until he climbed into bed that the events of the day caught up with him. 'I was lying in bed when it finally dawned on me what had happened. I was a little restless. I don't have any desire to kill a grizzly, but I wish I had [been able to keep] a grizzly claw. You just can't believe them until you see them.' Read Next: Proposal to Keep Grizzlies on the Endangered Species List Is 'Ludicrous,' Say Western Lawmakers Lee has a few cabins on his mostly undeveloped property near Choteau, which lies in Central Montana along the Rocky Mountain Front and southeast of Glacier National Park. The area falls within the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, which is home to more than 1,000 grizzly bears and has seen an uptick in the number of grizzly conflicts in recent years. In April, a shed hunter shot and killed a charging grizzly bear near Dupuyer, which lies roughly 30 miles north of Choteau. 'It doesn't change the way I behave, but it makes me wonder about having guests,' Lee says. 'The grizzly bear recovery program in North-Central Montana has been wildly successful. When I was a kid, they were rare and in the mountains. It was a really big deal to see them. Over the years, it's become less odd. Now it's just standard.'
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Kayaker Dies During California Fishing Tournament, Cause of Death Under Investigation
The West Coast kayak fishing community is mourning the loss of angler Ryon Mora, 38, who died Saturday morning while fishing a tournament on California's Lake Almanor. The tournament trail's sponsor, Bass Angler Magazine, canceled the event immediately after Mora's death, which BAM confirmed Sunday. Mora's cause of death remains under investigation. The circumstances surrounding the incident are also unclear, but it reportedly occurred during the first hour of the one-day tourney. According to an information page for the tournament, competitors started at 5:50 a.m. when there was enough light for safe fishing. 'The day began like any other tournament morning, under cloudy skies and a light 3-4 mph breeze. At 6:37 a.m., BAM Tournament Director Michael Bray received an urgent call reporting an unmanned kayak on the lake,' BAM explained in an article. 'BAM staff, including CEO Mark Lassagne, immediately responded to the GPS location provided and located Ryon Mora in the water at 6:42 a.m.' Lassagne tells Outdoor Life that he was in the media boat with Bray when Bray received the call. They ran to the GPS location as quickly as they could and found Mora floating face-down in the water roughly 100 yards from shore. Lassagne says Mora was separated from his kayak and still wearing his Type III personal flotation device. He was unresponsive when they pulled him into their boat. Read Next: The Best Life Jackets of 2025, Tested and Reviewed 'I ripped his life jacket open and started doing CPR right away while Michael called 911,' Lassagne says. 'Michael was driving back to the dock, so we're going 45 mph, and I'm doing CPR at the same time. And we got to the dock right at the same time as the paramedics.' He says the paramedics tried for around 45 minutes to revive Mora but were unable to resuscitate him. 'My hats off to those guys, the Plumas County paramedics and the fire department. They worked extremely hard and tried everything they could to revive him,' Lassagne says. 'The kayak fishing community was also great … everybody helped out, and there has been a lot of loving support from them.' Lassagne says the Plumas County Sheriff's Office is still investigating the cause of death. The PCSO did not respond to a request for comment Monday. 'Ryon was a respected competitor, fellow sportsman, and beloved friend to many in the kayak fishing community. He took all proper safety precautions and was participating in a sanctioned event,' BAM said in the statement issued over the weekend. 'This heartbreaking incident is a reminder of the unpredictable nature of the outdoors.'
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Yahoo
Watch: Man Wrestling a Wild Turkey in Cemetery ‘Not a Good Look,' Says Investigating Game Warden
If there was ever a video that showcased why a hunt might be legal but not ethical, it's this one from a country cemetery in the Northeast. On Sunday the New Hampshire Fish and Game law enforcement division took to Facebook asking for the public's help identifying a camo-clad man who was videoed wrestling a flopping wild turkey behind a gravestone and dragging it into the woods. While the gunshot itself wasn't filmed by bystanders, the aftermath was recorded by a turkey hunter who heard it and stepped out of the woods to investigate, Lieutenant Adam Cheney of NHFG law enforcement tells Outdoor Life. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 200%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } The hunter began recording when he saw what looked like a poacher who had mortally wounded a wild turkey on the grounds of the 5-acre cemetery. In the 10-second clip, you can see a man in head-to-toe camo, including a face mask, crawling after a violently flopping turkey, feathers flying as he tries to get a grip on it. When he finally gets hold of its legs, the man scuttles backward, trying to keep a low profile behind the headstones. There was also a pedestrian walking her dog along the road, says Cheney, although the woman appeared not to notice what was going on. The cemetery is adjacent to the Freewill Baptist Church on Clough Hill Road, outside of Loudon. Although the law isn't listed in state game regulations, discharging a gun is illegal in New Hampshire cemeteries since they are considered public gathering places. The properties surrounding the cemetery are private, according to onX Hunt, but it's legal to hunt private property that isn't posted in New Hampshire (this is common in the Northeast). According to the initial request for information, the man in the video 'was dropped off by a late-model, black full-sized pickup.' 'Ethically? It's road hunting and it's something we try to deter people from doing because it leads to instances like this,' says Cheney. 'They see a turkey or a deer and they get zoomed right in and they don't think what they're doing, and it ends up being this when it really shouldn't be.' While law enforcement initially stated in the Facebook post that the man had poached the turkey in the cemetery, that no longer seems to be the case. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the man may have shot the turkey outside the cemetery boundary and then retrieved it on the property, Cheney tells Outdoor Life. 'It does look like it was legally taken, but ethically it's something hunters should keep driving by and leave it alone,' says Cheney, noting that because the investigation remains open he cannot share too many details. Cheney has additional interviews to conduct Monday and, in the meantime, K-9 units have been investigating the incident site to corroborate these claims. After officials posted the video to Facebook, Cheney says the volume of tips to their agency and social pressure on the man in the video were enough that he came forward to law enforcement. 'It's just a shame. But I am glad the video got out there, that certainly helped us because it put a lot of pressure on the person who shot [the turkey] because it kind of scared him because he started getting a lot of threats … He came right to us because he was getting inundated with calls and threats and 'what the hell did you do' type stuff. Read Next: The 7 Biggest Turkey Hunting Mistakes That Will Keep You From Punching Your Tag Cheney says law enforcement plans to issue a statement Tuesday. Even if there was no crime committed, he urges hunters to be mindful of how their behavior appears to non-hunters and to help report anything that looks questionable. 'Anybody who sees something like that going on, especially with the accessibility of phones nowadays, if you can get any kind of video of the person or especially the vehicle or the license plate is very important. But anything like helps, definitely. I'm very thankful for the quick response from lots of people making phone calls and trying to help out.'
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Yahoo
A Wisconsin Bowhunter Killed the Biggest Buck He'd Ever Seen. Then He Gave It to Another Hunter
When 27-year-old Cody Kabus realized the massive buck he'd just killed after two days of tracking wasn't actually his deer, he made a decision few hunters would find easy: he returned the buck to the rightful hunter. As a result of that tough but honest decision, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources honored him with the state's Ethical Hunter Award last month. Kabus, a resource efficiency manager who contracts with the U.S. Army, had taken the afternoon off work to squeeze in a bow hunt on Nov. 10, a week before the 2023 gun season opened. He was hunting from a treestand on family land near Independence, occasionally rattling to see what might turn up, when he heard something crashing through the woods. 'It was a good-size buck, so I grabbed my bow and stopped him [with a grunt],' Kabus tells Outdoor Life. 'He started looking at me as I drew my bow. Then, just as I released the arrow, he lurched forward. I immediately knew it wasn't a great shot. It hit too far back.' Not wanting to bump the buck, Kabus decided to back out and wait a bit before tracking. He went back a few hours later with a flashlight. By that time, it was well after dark. 'I only found about seven or eight drops of blood,' Kabus says. 'It wasn't much.' When the scant blood trail ran dry, Kabus decided to come back in the morning. Before he turned in for the night, he informed a neighbor on the bordering property that he had shot a buck, but that it wasn't a great shot. The neighbor said another hunter had shot a buck near there two days before his own Friday hunt, but he hadn't been able to locate either. The neighbor promised he'd keep an eye out for Kabus's deer. The following day, Kabus heard from his neighbor: He'd spotted a buck walking along the road with an arrow sticking out of its side. 'I didn't want him to suffer, so I hurried out there as fast as I could,' Kabus says. Over the next two days Kabus tracked the buck, getting permission from two different neighboring property owners to search their properties. 'I walked and walked without seeing any blood, but I had this feeling that I needed to keep going.' On Sunday evening, more than 48 hours after he made his shot, Kabus hiked up to the top of a ridge on the neighbor's property. He looked over the hill, and as he was scanning the terrain, he saw a big rack resting on the leaves. 'I saw this buck just laid out,' Kabus says. 'I said some colorful words in that moment.' Although the deer looked dead, Kabus approached it cautiously. When he got within 20 yards, the buck jumped up and attempted to run. 'I saw his front leg just collapse as he tripped and fell into a bunch of brush,' Kabus says. 'I thought that was odd because my arrow hit my buck pretty far back.' Kabus approached even more cautiously, and was able to finish him with another arrow. Once the deer was still, he waited a few more minutes just to make sure before closing the remaining distance. 'I was looking at that rack and thinking, 'This is the biggest buck I have ever seen,'' Kabus says. 'Then, when I rolled him over, I saw another arrow, but it wasn't one of mine.' That's when he realized this wasn't the buck he'd shot Friday afternoon. Kabus wasn't sure what to do in that moment. Even though he'd been the one to kill the deer, he didn't want to take credit for tagging a buck that wasn't his. He called up a buddy for advice. His friend asked if he knew anyone else who hunted in the area. That's when Kabus remembered the other hunter his neighbor had mentioned who hadn't found his buck. His neighbor helped put the two men in touch. The first hunter arrived and confirmed the arrow was his. He had shot the big buck more than half a mile away, four days before Kabus dispatched it. His mechanical broadhead had only penetrated a few inches before striking the shoulder blade. 'I never once thought about keeping that buck,' Kabus says. 'I may have finished him off, but he was in pretty bad shape when I found him. I got his buck back to him, and I'm good with that.' Unfortunately, Kabus was never able to recover the buck that he shot. While the end of his own hunt weighed on him, he was content with having helped out a fellow hunter. After Kabus's coworker Matt Schneider heard the story, however, he thought his friend deserved some recognition. Schneider nominated Kabus for the Wisconsin Ethical Hunter Award. Established in 1997 by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the award recognizes hunters who demonstrate 'exceptional moral actions and character while out in the field.' Kabus was recognized as a 2024 recipient of the award, along with Eliot Babino of Platteville, who found two hunting rifles left at a boat landing and, with the help of a DNR conservation officer, was able to return the guns to their rightful owners. 'We want to ensure future generations have good stories to hear about hunters doing the right thing. Or, better yet, see these actions as they occur in the field,' Wisconsin DNR hunter education administrator Renee Thok said in a DNR press release. 'These ethical acts are real-life examples of how to hunt correctly and ethically, and it is very important to highlight and honor them.' Read Next: Wisconsin Bowhunter Bleats in 16-Pointer and Kills It with a 20-Year-Old Bow But for Kabus, returning that big buck to the right hunter was never about receiving recognition. 'When we're hunting, I just think this is what we should do. As neighbors, we watch out for each other,' Kabus says. 'Doing the right thing means more to me than having that buck on the wall.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
This Bounty Hunter Is Earning Thousands Fishing for Snakeheads in Baltimore
Parts of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay are loaded with invasive fish species — most notably snakeheads, which were introduced illegally into Maryland waters some 20 years ago and have been vilified by fisheries biologists and in the media ever since. The sprawling tidewater in the Baltimore Harbor area is also home to overpopulations of blue and flathead catfish, both of which have expanded their range into the bay and are eating their way through the native food chain. To help solve the bay's invasive fish problem, a bounty reward program has been established to encourage harvest. A coalition of local conservation groups established the 'Reel Rewards' fish program in 2024, and it pays anglers $30 for every snakehead, blue, and flathead they catch in the harbor. Fishermen can use rods and reels or bows, and they can cash in their fish at pickup locations around the area. The heads are kept there, while anglers can take the rest of the fish home to eat. Read Next: How to Catch Snakeheads The program is currently limited to the Baltimore Harbor area of the Petapsco River, and anglers can turn in up to 15 fish per week. But there is no cap on the overall number of fish, and some local fishermen are making hay while they can. Last year, 26-year-old Brian Slacum made around $4,000 turning in 134 snakeheads. He had plenty of fish to eat, too. 'Snakeheads are excellent eating,' he tells Outdoor Life. 'I like them better than striped bass, and Baltimore Harbor is jammed with them. They are literally everywhere in shallow water these days, spawning I think.' Slacum and his bowfishing buddy, Chris Taylor, are at it again this spring. They're already on track to surpass their 2024 haul. 'We've logged 106 fish this year, and the season runs into mid-July,' Slacum says. 'We arrowed 65 fish one night this year. Most weigh under 5 pounds, but we see fish to 10 pounds, and our biggest was 15 pounds.' Slacum uses a bow with a relatively light draw weight of just 35 pounds. It's plenty powerful for bowfishing, and he says it keeps them from driving an arrow too far into the mud if they miss a fish, making it easier to retrieve. Most of the snakeheads the bowfishermen see are lone females cruising the shallows. But they'll occasionally find four or more fish jammed together. Slacum sees other bowfisherman on the water going after bounties, and he believes anglers are putting a dent in Maryland's invasive fish population. But he says the Baltimore harbor is still a 'target-rich' environment, and he and Taylor will regularly see up to 60 fish in a four-hour trip. Archers prefer low, outgoing tidewater, since targeting water just a foot deep has been the most productive, says Slacum. They bowfish from a shallow-draft Tracker Marine boat, set up with underwater lights and a raised platform for shooting. Read Next: The Best Snakehead Lures 'We still get stuck on mud flats sometimes, but we can usually work our way off them,' Slacum says. He says he's been amazed at how adaptable snakeheads are. He's arrowed fish in freshwater, tidewater creeks, and in the saltwater near the massive Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The way Slacum sees it, getting paid to harvest these fish helps everyone. Scientists keep the heads for analysis and data collection, the bay's striped bass and other native fish have fewer nonative predators to worry about, and anglers have an even bigger incentive to get out on the water.
