Landon Clement, 31, a hunter from Blue Ridge, Georgia, was attacked by a grizzly bear in the early morning hours of Sept. 26 in Wyoming’s Upper Green River Basin. Suffering severe bite wounds from the apex predator, he was able to escape with his life after shooting the bear dead with his handgun.
The incident occurred around 7:30 AM as Clement and life-long friend John Quintrell enjoyed an archery hunt in picturesque Western Wyoming. The two friends were approximately 300 yards apart scanning the area for elk when Quintrell suddenly heard gunshots followed by Clement screaming, sending him running to his friend’s aid.
Clement was set against a large flat rock, observing the area below when he spotted a large female grizzly and her two nearly grown cubs descending the hillside adjacent to his position.
Recognizing this was dangerous territory, the hunter drew his 10mm Glock “and tried to stay as absolutely still and quiet as he could,” Quintrell reported.
That old trick didn’t work. Mama Bear caught a whiff of Clement’s scent as the trio passed 10 yards in front of him, causing her to immediately charge the young man trapped against a rock with nowhere to go. That’s when Clement opened fire. As the bear’s teeth found their way into his leg, Clement was forced to overcome one more unfortunate piece of bad luck. His Glock jammed.
Thankfully training and presence of mind took over as he cleared the jam like a boss and proceeded to dump those 10mm rounds like last night’s takeout. Quintrell later said that Clement probably fired around 10 shots, and he personally witnessed at least four wounds on the bear’s lifeless carcass, including a fatal headshot.
The bear “was as dead as hell when I got there,” Quintrell said.
Clement described the attack to his friend as sudden and extremely violent, later adding “It Felt Like A Freight Train.”
With 3-inch deep bite wounds in his thigh, it was time to extract his friend and get him to the nearest hospital. Clement’s cousin and father were also along for the hunt and were a half-mile away when the grizzly bear attacked. When they arrived on the scene Quintrell ran to retrieve his side-by-side.
Not quite satisfied yet with his own level of badassery, the injured hunter proceeded to walk part of the way with help from his father and cousin. At that point he was just showing off.
Clement was treated at the Pinedale Clinic in Wyoming.
“He’s still back there with the doctor. He’s been back there a long time,” Quintrell told Cowboy State Daily as they waited at the hospital.
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service game warden was informed of the attack and the fate of the bear, according to Quintrell, who described his hospitalized mate as an avid hunter, athlete and good guy who is in peak physical condition and of excellent character.
“He’s as honest as the day is long… He doesn’t even cuss. And of course, I cuss like hell.” Quintrell said, adding that he is optimistic about his friend making a full recovery.
According to Quintrell, this wasn’t their first grizzly rodeo in the Upper Green River Basin. Landon Clement and his father were attacked two years prior while returning from a hunt at night. In that incident, Clement was knocked to the ground before the bear fled.
Quintrell himself had an encounter several years back while he and another hunter were attempting to recover an elk his friend had killed earlier. Having been charged by a grizzly already that day, that hunter asked Quintrell to return with him, one carrying a .308 rifle and the other a shotgun. A grizzly, perhaps the one that attacked the hunter earlier, took another run at it, this time getting shot with both weapons before escaping the scene.
Grizzlies remain under federal protection in the lower 48 states and hunting them is prohibited. While it is legal to kill a grizzly in self-defense, game wardens investigate all such shootings.
Considering these attacks and additional incidents occurring with hunters in Idaho and Montana, Quintrell is convinced that grizzlies should be delisted, voicing his concerns with understandable frustration on the matter.
“This is getting ridiculous…Whose kid is going to have to get killed before we have a hunting season on these bears? Is it going to take a governor’s kid or a senator’s kid?”
Quintrell doesn’t think grizzlies need to be exterminated by any means, but allowing hunting of the bears could control their numbers and lessen the risk to hunters and livestock, while also possibly making them more fearful of humans and less prone to attack.
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