Yeah, I'm sure this native, hunting for his dinner for a month, went home and googled this bear, found out it was a rare find, then went back out and shot it.
Put your brain in gear first next time.

Wow, what a cool story. From the bear to the rifle this one's gunna make for good stories around the fire. I'm glad I found this link!

Civilized hunter - hehe.

There's a difference between 'live to hunt' and 'hunt to live'.

Most of these guys up in the Arctic use the Enfield .303 because they're also Canadian Rangers.

These rifles are issued to every Ranger along with 60 rounds. In the north guys use this rifle due to its durability and proven effectivness in the austere regions of Canada's north.

fishin4life80- have you ever hunted before?
The guy had the right idea of calling in a biologists so the bear can be studied. Great story and some pretty good pictures of a rare kind of animal.

Reminds me of an article I read a few years back. Gist of it was that before modern calibers the 30-30 successfully shot all big game in North America ie. moose, elk, black and grizzlies, etc... Nobody ever thought to tell these frontiersmen that they were undergunned for the task at hand.

Wow, this guy hunts Polar (and sometimes /Grizzly) bears with a .303 British for a LIVING…LITERALLY! He must not have talked to all the “experts” I know that say the .30-06 (which ballistics is similar but still out-performs the .303---*see link to shootingtimes.com ballistics) is too underpowered and not “enough” gun to efficiently kill a Grizzly. Interesting.

http://www.shootingtimes.com/ballistics/ballistic-tables/

And yep! - Thats a Canadian Ranger sticker on the Enfield buttstock. The guy's a Ranger all right.

Yes babicma, he looks like a Ranger. His .303 ammo was probably paid for by the taxpayers. And I'm perfectly OK with that.

Looks like he did someone a favor. That bear seems to have chosen the cabins as a preferred food source. Be pretty hard on someone using one of those cabins if he happened by and they were asleep. As to the comments about shooting a new species. Appears that was happenstance and not intentional. Too bad, still with the proclivity towards cabins, sooner or later it would be taken. Suspect David had some concern in that direction after the 3rd cabin he had seen broken into. Also suspect those cabins were there for him and his friends.

Clay, a couple of years ago a sport hunter in Alaska (I believe, could have been Canada) shot a hybrid like this and had a Polar Bear tag. The DNR was looking into if he technically broke the law by shooting a Grizzly and not a Polar. But they decided that since it was half Polar and solid white (more resembling a Polar) he was cleared and it was deemed legal being it was not technically neither Polar nor Grizz. I believe that was the outcome, at least what I can remember.

Marlinmarie, while I emphatically support being 100% sure of what you are shooting at this is a clear case of “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck”. He lives in polar bear region and was hunting polar bears in a solid white landscape. When along come a white bear. I don’t fault him at all. In fact some hippies argued (the last time someone shot a hybrid) that the hybrids are a result of man’s causing global warming. That due to warmer temps the polars are ranging further south into Grizz territory for food and Grizz are ranging further north into Polar territory because they can. So some hippies say these hybrids are not natural. Therefore Mr. Kuptana has done nature a favor by removing this man-made hybrid. That is of course just one of the many hippie theories floating around.

The bear was clearly a problem bear. It was destroying property, raiding cabins and would have eventually hurt somebody if not stopped. So I'm okay with the hunter taking the bear.

But, and at the risk of scores of red slashes here, chasing the bear while on a motorized vehicle seems wrong. Nothing sporting about it. Plenty that's cruel about it. Regardless of who the hunter is or where he's hunting in the world, I'm hard-pressed to find any good (or acceptable) reason to chase (as opposed to retrieving or transporting one, which is fine) any animal with any motorized vehicle. I would not.

TWD

*effective*

Nature has its ways,its always changing. Iv'e seen offspring from my EX and Bigfoot. OMG. Their cute when their little, But, Meat eaters when they grow up.

At realhawkeye, just because this guy is a native doesn't mean he is not allowed to use modern equipment, he is after all living in the modern world and not some separate, native world. I doubt this guy cares about "native American mystique", he probably just cares about putting food on his families table. And he didn't seem to be bragging about how many bears he's killed, he probably said that to just show the writer he's been doing it all his life. And this article is in a hunting magazine because as hunters we always like to hear about other hunters interesting and strange kills.

Wow that is amazing that will probubly be the last polar bear he kills because of the ice sheets melting and now they are "endangered"

No worries ESKIMO JOE, It's my fault for not properly expressing myself. But this guy, Kuptana, he's my new hero. He's like a modern day Mountain Man just without any mountains. I've been above the Arctic Circle in Alaska, pretty flat but remarkably beautiful land with remarkably wonderful people.

I find the racism to be most objectionable.

I am almost 1/4 Native American, with roots among the Acadians of Nova Scotia and later, Louisiana.

I crossed over and got a high-tech education and career.

I have lived among other "Indians" who were sophisticated enough to shame any Englishman since Isaac Newton.

This whiteboyshit has got to go!

"Labradors", after all, were a breed developed by Newfoundlanders of mixed ancestry living in the outback...

They are the only explanation for black wolves in the area.

And "silver Labradors" are their reciprocal.

Obviously, none of my ancestors cared about racial origins and ethnicity.

It is entirely inappropriae in these times.

Wow this place is Beautiful with beautiful animals. Congrats on your kill.

I remember reading some years back, a lot of the Inuit's also used the .250 Savage to shoot walrus and bear. One Inuit had used the .250 after his Dad died, his Dad had used it for about 20 years, good rifles die hard.

That's a big ol bear

1, the bear was raiding cabins and eating food cashed that could be vital for the survival of the local hunters.
2, The Inuit hunter is a bear hunter. It is what he does, it isn't as if he can get a job huckstering commodities markets. He has to eat somehow. Even his wife "Bella" (my namesake) shoots bears.
3, Often in Nunavit, if you do not hunt the bear, the bear will hunt you.
As far as the venerable SMLE goes, the rifle in the picture has a shield on the butt, it likely is Arctic Ranger issue. I heard a story from a former US army ordinance captain once that the Soviets actually did land in Canada once back in the '50s, but the Rangers took 'em to pieces and nobody ever heard a word about it ever again.
Hail the Inuit Hunter!

WHY DO THESE PICTURES TAKE SO LONG TO DOWN LOAD?

SEEMS LIKE MINUTES BETWEEN PICTURES

JUST TAKES WAY TOO LONG.

If I remember right their was something on TV don’t remember what show, but they said this is happing more often then we really know about.

For safeties sake someone needs to send that man an overpowered short magnum. His iron sighted 303 British makes us "modern" hunters look totally ridiclous. One of our modern short mags would have never lasted a lifetime in the Artic, the scope would have long been broken and the barrel would have been shot out 30 times over by now and yet that 303 clearly keeps clipping along.

I would love to hunt a polar bear some day and a lot of people tell me that why would you want to kill an endangered species but by hunting polar bear it actually helps the species.

great article.. wish i was there... hopefully i will get out that way in the next 20 years or so if i can manage it. i am mpressed with these posts... some of the people on here seem to be on a smear campaign directed at other members. and as far as rifle caliber goes... if it puts a sufficient hole in the heart or lungs...then the caliber is good... blame the lack of killing power on poor hunting and shooting.

wow. that bear is gorgeous.

wow. that bear is gorgeous.

awsome

Great trophy for a man who has to hunt for his food!!!

That's kind of weird. A polar and grizzly bear.

So let me get this straight: To read this story, I have to click through 20 pages of a paragraph with ads? Screw that. No story is worth that.

I don't quite get why we're supposed to praise this guy for killing this unique ursine specimen.

Drive by polar bear hunting with smaller caliber military surplus rifles- more fun than minimum wage walmart working for gringo could imagine-only thing stopping us is not being an Inuit, and not liking the cold. What's funny is sport polar bear hunting once went for 25k+ and this man has killed more polar bear than many of you have killed whitetails. How many whitetails have you killed, or what's the biggest # you have heard of people killing?

Im with the other comment why are we killing this beautiful new bread of bear.

..."The only second generation Polar/Grizzly ever confirmed in the wild". Yeah so lets kill it, thats a great idea. WTF!