Dead grizzly (courtesy Boone & Crockett Club)

Press Release:

The largest grizzly bear ever taken by a hunter has been entered into Boone and Crockett records. The big bruin, taken in 2013 near Fairbanks, Alaska, scores 27-6/16. It missed the World’s Record mark by 7/16 of an inch but landed a spot as the second-largest grizzly ever recorded. The reigning World’s Record is a skull found in Alaska in 1976. Bears are scored based on skull length and width measurements . . .


Conservationists use Boone and Crockett trophy data to gauge outstanding habitat, strong recruitment of game animals into older age classes, sustainable harvest objectives and other elements of sound wildlife management and fair-chase hunting.

Grizzlies are symbols of our willingness to accommodate large predators and wilderness, but hunter Larry Fitzgerald of Fairbanks found his trophy boar in a location that seems counterintuitive.

“One would think that a relatively accessible area, with liberal bear hunting regulations to keep populations in line with available habitat and food, would be the last place to find one of the largest grizzly bears on record,” said Richard Hale, chairman of the Boone and Crockett Club’s Records of North American Big Game committee.

Hale said the area is being managed for an overpopulation of grizzlies. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game liberalized hunting regulations to help balance and control bear predation on moose. Baiting is allowed although Fitzgerald stalked his trophy.

“Grizzly populations are doing well across all their ranges. That includes populations in the Lower 48 states that are currently federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, but will soon be up for delisting and management authority turned over to the watchful eye of state wildlife managers,” said Hale.

Hale added that Boone and Crockett Club recognizes found or picked-up trophies, like the reigning World’s Record grizzly which scores 27-13/16, alongside hunter-taken trophies because all are useful for documenting historic conservation successes.

47 COMMENTS

  1. Now he knows how my dad felt when he turned in the next to the biggest beaver pelt to Strange Brothers hide company in Sioux City, IA years ago.

    The one that beat him was from the 1800’s.

      • As an interesting aside, a very young Robert Blake co-starred in 23 “Red Ryder” films. His character’s name was “Little Beaver.”

        Keep your eye on the sparrow.

    • Looks like he still has a record, as the only larger was a skull which may be from 10,000 years ago and died of old age.

  2. Holy Crap, I don’t ever want to see a bear anywhere nearly that big. Period. Unless I’m hunting it, and maybe not even then. What a huge animal…

    Can you eat bear?

  3. Awesome.
    If I don’t draw my moose tag for Montana, it’s back to Alaska for another go round on a coastal brown.
    Mmmmmm, sausage, roasts, loins….

    • Ever notice a jolt from the bear meat?
      Something about the sausage…or the butcher slipped in some little blue pills…

  4. I see mobile reply is still not working.

    “Can you eat bear?”

    Yes but most people don’t eat grizzly bear. The taste is bad. Black bear, on the other hand, is quite good depending on the time of year and diet of the animal.

    Being from interior alaska this has made me reconsider my outdoor sidearm of choice being in .357 sig.

  5. The funny thing about Alaska grizzly is that when you ACCIDENTALLY run into one (about 35 yards from a bend in the river) they pretty much look like a Boone and Crockett record holder in size or even bigger.

  6. That’s one helluva shoot. Very impressive.

    Is it a weird that seeing that beast dead kinda bums me out? I don’t have any affinity for deer or elk, really, and coyotes are respected, not revered, but for some reason I don’t know that I could ever hunt a bear.
    Not that he’d have any such reservations about eating me for lunch, mind you…

    • Well, if I ran into it alive, I can guarantee I would wish someone had killed it!

  7. Seems like a waste to me. Never understood trophy hunting. Why kill for the sake of killing?

    • I wouldn’t do it either, but remember that humans are apex predators. We didn’t get to be this successful as a species without having a bit of killer instinct. Also, I didn’t see anywhere in the article that he wasn’t planning on eating it or donating the meat for consumption, but I’ve been up far too many hours already. If it’s there, I plain missed it.

  8. Seriously? Unless that was sarcasm, the site is about guns. This involves a gun, and something got shot. If you don’t like it, go elsewhere.

    • I suppose if people including children who got shot with a firearm should have pictures posted also??? Just because it was taken down by a firearm doesn’t mean it should be posted here. This isn’t the site for that.

    • Lordy, just think of the proverbial bearskin rug. Nice fireplace, some good wine, and a few mellow ladies…

  9. I am old and weak, now, but I think on my best day ever, I’d have run screaming if someone suggested I go stalk a huge grizzly. Damn.

  10. Bear meat is just like most other – greasy if over-fed, bad flavor if excited when harvested: contented prey is mild-flavored prey.

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