An archery hunter who was tossed around and dangled from the jaws of a 530-pound grizzly bear miraculously survived the savage attack after he and his friend blasted the beast with 24 bullets.
Riley Hill, 20, was hunting elk in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest, west of Henrys Lake in Island Park, Idaho, last week when the grizzly charged out of nowhere and sunk its teeth into his arm, puncturing his skin and bone.
‘It was lifting me off the ground and then slamming me back on the ground,’ Hill told East Idaho News. ‘It was like playing tug of war with your dog, but he was playing it with my arm and ripping it apart.’
Braxton Meyers, who was hunting with Hill, fired several shots at the 20-year-old male grizzly while it flung his friend from side-to-side. Hill also managed to reach his gun and fire at the animal. The pair shot 24 bear bullets at the grizzly before successfully bringing it down.
The duo, accompanied by another friend, hiked out of the woods and back to their vehicle in hopes of putting themselves in a place where they could be rescued.
Hill was ultimately airlifted to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Hospital where he received 40 staples and numerous stitches. He has been released from the hospital, but doctors estimate it will be at least two months before his arm is healed.
This is the 530lb grizzly bear that charged at a pair of archery hunters in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest and sunk its teeth into one’s arm, puncturing the hunter’s skin and bone. The bear has died after the duo shot it 24 times
Riley Hill, 20, (right) airlifted to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Hospital where he received 40 staples and numerous stitches. He has been released from the hospital, but doctors estimate it will be at least two months before his arm is healed. He is pictured with Braxton Meyers, (left) who was with him during the attack
Hill and Meyers began their hunt on Sunday, September 1 shortly after dropping two friends off around 7am nearby.
The pair parked their vehicle and began hiking in the woods, be careful not to ‘spook anything’, Hill recalled.
He remembers stepping forward about 10 feet, at roughly 7.20am, when he heard a ‘loud thud’, followed by Meyers yelling out, ‘Oh crap, that’s a bear!’
Meyers said the grizzly started charging at him on all fours, so he started sprinting away in hopes that Hill could grab his gun.
Hill, who was holding his archery bow, dropped the weapon, pulled a 10mm gun from the holster on his hip and shot the bear in its side. Meyers reportedly tripped and fell to the ground.
‘Grizzly bears don’t usually get off their target, but this one did,’ the hunter recalled. ‘This one turned looked right at me, and he’s charging, charging fast.’
Hill managed to shoot the bear in the face and shoulder region three times before it clamped its teeth into his arm and started flinging him around.
Meyers then stood up, ‘fumbled around’ a bit, and pulled out a pistol, firing four or five shots at the animal before his gun jammed.
Hill, pictured with his injured arm after the attack, said the bear was ‘lifting me off the ground and then slamming me back on the ground. It was like playing tug of war with your dog, but he was playing it with my arm and ripping it apart’
‘I was having to pick my shots careful,’ Meyers explained, adding: ‘By then, the bear’s on top of Riley, and Riley’s shoulders are between [its] front feet and his legs are kind of kicked out from its stomach. I couldn’t see anything Riley was doing. I just could see the bear on him.’
Meyers said he then ran up to the bear and continued to shoot at it, with Hill alleging he could ‘feel the bullets hitting the bear through my arm’.
Although Hill was not struck by the gunfire, he claims that he could feel the ‘repercussion from the bullets hitting the bear’. He also recalled how several bullets came within ‘two to three inches’ of his head.
Hill said the grizzly ‘looked up at me and I saw its eyes,’ and then started shooting at it, prompting it to ‘put its head back down’. He then shot it in the spine, which he claims ‘did the trick’.
He then ‘ripped open that jaw, ripped my arm out’ and stood up, unsure if the bear was going to chase after him. He grabbed his gun and fired through more shots at the animal’s head.
After bringing the bear down, Meyers tried to tend to Hill’s wounds, wrapping a shirt around his arm and using their belts to make two tourniquets. He then called 911 and requested an ambulance or helicopter.
Riley Hill and Braxton Meyers were hunting elk near Henrys Lake in Island Park, Idaho – located approximately 15 miles west of Yellowstone National Park – on Sunday, September 1 when they were attacked by an adult male grizzly bear. Hill was ‘knocked down and bitten by the bear’ during the encounter
Meanwhile, Meyers’ younger brother Boone, 18, started rushing towards the duo’s location after having heard the pair screaming from a mile away.
Boone, who had been with the pair just 20 minutes prior to the attack, arrived at the scene in seven minutes.
He recalled: ‘All I saw was just this massive bear lying on the ground. It was a wild, wild site, to be honest. They were up, both still alive luckily.’
The trio hiked back to their vehicle on a journey that Hill described as being ‘painful’ and ‘one of the hardest climbs of my life’. Blood was reportedly spurting out of his wound every 15 or so steps.
They got to their vehicle, barreled across a field and positioned themselves in a place where a helicopter could land.
Hill was airlifted to a nearby hospital, treated and released the next day. Although he is lucky the grizzly did not puncture any arteries, doctors say it will take several months for his arm to fully recover.
The hunters both credit one another for saving their lives.
Idaho Fish and Game conducted a thorough investigation into the attack on Hill and Meyers, with conservation officers determining the pair were acting in self-defense when they shot the grizzly.
‘I am extremely grateful that both of these individuals survived this encounter,’ Fish and Game Regional Supervisor Matt Pieron said in a press release last week.
‘I have had the opportunity to speak with the injured hunter and his family and they are truly wonderful people. I wish him a speedy recovery from his injuries and the trauma these two hunters experienced.’
Although Hill and Meyers are grateful to be alive, they both say they are ‘sad’ that the bear was killed.
There are an estimated 1,000 grizzly bears residing in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Grizzly bears are protected under the Endangered Species Act, meaning it is illegal to harm one unless in self-defense (File photo of Caribou Targhee National Forest)
There are an estimated 1,000 grizzly bears residing in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Caribou-Targhee National Forest is located approximately 15 miles west of Yellowstone National Park.
Grizzly bears are protected under the Endangered Species Act, meaning it is illegal to harm one unless in self-defense.
‘Grizzly bears in the 48 contiguous states are currently protected as a threatened species. It is illegal to harm, harass or kill these bears, except in cases of self-defense or the defense of others,’ an US Fish and Wildlife official told ABC News.
‘Grizzly bear conservation is complex and only made possible through a variety of partnerships with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, state wildlife agencies, Native American Tribes, federal agencies, universities and other organizations.’
