B&C World's Record - Grizzly Bear

A hunter found the World's Record grizzly skull near McGrath, Alaska in 1976. He stored it in his attic for 30 years before having it officially scored. Turns out it's the largest grizzly skull ever recorded.

In April 1974 a friend and I flew in a Piper Super Cub to the McGrath, Alaska area for a three-week-long grizzly bear hunt. We covered a large area, encountered scores of bears, and settled on a couple of locations where large boars were present. We concentrated our efforts at these places and took two large grizzlies. One of these bears is listed in the current Boone & Crockett records, taken by Curtis C. Classen, McGrath, Alaska, 1974. The skull scored 25-2/16. I also shot a large grizzly, but never entered the skull in the records.

While this area produces large grizzlies, it also offers black bears. So, in spring 1976 I returned, this time to hunt black bear. While on an extended hike over the tundra and bogs, I stumbled across some bones partially frozen in moss and overflow ice. After closer inspection, I determined the remains to be from a grizzly bear.

The skull was smelly, but I knew it was big and worth an effort to keep. So, I brought it out, along with a couple vertebrae. There was meat and hide on the back of the skull, and some teeth were missing. I cleaned the skull and this time judged it to be from a mature brown bear. From that point on, I stored it in my attic.

Almost 30 years later, I was remodeling the attic and came across the skull. I decided to score it and to my surprise it was larger than I thought. After studying the Boone & Crockett boundary descriptions for grizzlies and brown bears, I determined that the skull should be scored as a grizzly. I had it officially measured and was amazed to learn that this was, in fact, the largest grizzly ever recorded. It was quite a find.