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Veteran hunter, 73, rescued after mauling by grizzly in B.C. bush
By MARK HUME
Tuesday, October 19, 2004 - Page A8
VANCOUVER -- As he worked his way through the thick forest near McBride, B.C., Fred Chantler, at 73 one of the oldest and most experienced hunters in the bush, kept his rifle on his shoulder.
And that's where it was when the grizzly bear attacked.
"The bear was on him so fast he didn't even see it coming," his hunting partner, Ray Pultz, said yesterday.
"He looked up and saw it leaving, that's how he knew what happened. It was a grizzly bear. A silver tip." It was Mr. Pultz who found Mr. Chantler staggering through the woods Sunday afternoon and led him to safety.
The two hunting buddies came out of the bush under their own power. With Mr. Pultz walking in front and Mr. Chantler, bleeding from multiple wounds, following behind.
"He was pretty badly cut up. One eye was, I don't know, hanging out sort of, all blood. . . . He was under his own steam. I just went in front, carrying his rifle. I told him, 'Look out, log here, or step this way.' It was just the two of us coming up like a narrow cow path."
Mr. Chantler was in Prince George Regional Hospital last night under emergency care for severe wounds and unable to give an interview.
Mr. Pultz, staying with friends in McBride, sounded calm as he discussed the incident. But his voice started to shake when he tried to describe how he felt when he first saw his old friend, his face covered with blood, fighting to stay on his feet.
" 'A grizzly got me,' was the first thing he said. I don't know how I felt at that point. My biggest fear was just to get him out of the bush before shock set in."
Mr. Chantler, a former hunting guide in Yukon and a logging contractor in B.C., was on a seasonal moose hunting trip on the east slope of the Rocky Mountains, about 200 kilometres east of Prince George, when he was attacked.
There in the poplar and willow thickets that grow on the slopes above the Fraser River, the two men had hoped to find a moose.
Mr. Chantler was out alone when Mr. Pultz, back at the camper truck, heard three shots in quick succession.
"I thought he must have got something," Mr. Pultz said. Shouldering his own rifle, he went to look for him, thinking he'd need help with the moose.
But as he worked his way down the slope he heard two more shots, then, after a moment, a third. Mr. Pultz said he didn't realize at first that Mr. Chantler was using the hunter's internationally known distress signal, of three shots in quick succession.
"But I knew something was wrong. That was a lot of shots. He's a good shot and I figured, okay, something's up."
In the thick brush, Mr. Pultz couldn't see his friend. So he started circling, hoping to strike his trail. Then another shot sounded.
"I got a pretty good location from that and just started working towards him."
When he found Mr. Chantler, he was shocked by the sight. His friend had been bitten in the back of the head, on one arm and one leg, and his face had been mauled.
"It bit him. It was big. Of course he was in pretty bad shape," Mr. Pultz said.
"The bear came out from behind a tree," Mr. Chantler told his friend. "I never got the rifle off my shoulder."
Mr. Pultz said he wasn't sure how he was going to get the injured hunter out of the bush and didn't want to leave him there, with a grizzly bear somewhere nearby.
Mr. Chantler offered a solution.
"You walk ahead of me. I'll follow," he said to Mr. Pultz.
"I took his rifle and we set off. He couldn't see much. But we made it. He's a tough old guy."
When they got back to the camper, Mr. Pultz did his best to wrap his friend's wounds. Just then a rancher who'd heard the shots showed up to investigate and together they got Mr. Chantler to the McBride nursing station.
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