A Grizzly For Alice

All hell seemed to break loose in that small wooded area... I knew a grizzly could explode out of that cover like an express train, with none of the bush slowing him down at all...

Pentecost's bullets had done lethal damage. Entered in the 19th B&C awards period, the great animal joined Shelton's in a tie for world's record. But the two bears were matched in 1991 when Theodore Kurdziel, Jr. hunted the Inglutalik River near Koyuk, Alaska. His account also appears in the Boone & Crockett Club records book:

Suddenly the bear appeared about 40 yards ahead, running for me at full speed. Steve could not see him from his position. The bear, his hackles raised, looked as mad as a guard dog protecting his turf. I shouldered my rifle and found the grizzly in my scope. The only shot I had was at the bear's head, so I held off until the bear was about 20 yards away. At that point, he stumbled momentarily and exposed his chest, and I fired instinctively. The bear spun around like a top and ran uphill, more or less angling toward Steve. I shot again, hitting the bear in the neck.

When we walked up to that mountain of a bear, we were awestruck by his size. I did not care at that point whether he was a Boone and Crockett bear or not. All I knew was that I had experienced a close-range encounter with one of the most imposing, gorgeous creatures on Earth, and I had survived.

The adventure of grizzly hunting is not tied solely to the bear's ferocity. In truth, most grizzlies would as soon have nothing to do with people. And unless surprised or on a kill or tending cubs, the bears almost always retreat. Indeed, seeing a bear where grizzlies are common can be difficult. Bear hunts often mean long days afield, glassing wilderness in the hopes of spotting a grizzly far away.

But Alice Poluchova was up for the challenge. "I want to hunt, not simply to collect," said the young Czech-born president of CZ-USA. Her business acumen and multilingual talents surely had a lot to do with her leaving the Czech Republic to forge a new future for her employer stateside. But she had taken to the field readily too, ably representing CZ on big game hunts in Africa and North America.

I found Alice in Vancouver, B.C., after an ice age in security lines and customs check-points. We sat together on a flight to Smithers, hoping her .375 Safari rifle and my 9.3x62 CZ 550 were also aboard. Craggy gray peaks winked between loose white clouds skimming by the belly of the jet. Cradles of fresh snow hung from rock well above timber, reminding us that September in British Columbia can bring blasts of winter.