(Editor’s Note: We are sad to announce that Predator Xtreme's good friend Ed Park passed away Tuesday night at the age of 78. He was a longtime outdoor writer and contributor to Predator Xtreme. This is his final column, submitted just one day before his death. We’re going to miss him.)

All predator callers should be aware that when you call, you might attract something you don’t expect. You could call any critter that eats meat – from a rancher’s dog or a great horned owl, or on up to something that is more than you want to mess with, depending of course what toothy critters are found in your calling area. I frequently call coyotes in cougar and bear country, so the big guys are always on my mind when I ring that dinner bell.

A related thing happened recently to Ron G. Leming and his son Ron J., of Cody, Wyoming. The two thought they were bowhunting for elk, using bull bugles and cow talk calls. Son Ron did in fact call in a dandy bull, as he stood on a slope, some 50 yards above his father, but the bull wouldn’t quite come within range.

Then suddenly that bull bolted away as if it had just gotten a snoot full of human stink. But it was another threat, and as son Ron turned to check the area, he found a big grizzly had been attracted to his expert calling, and was now standing just 5 yards behind him. Ron’s initial thought was to arrow the bear, but just as quickly changed his mind. He instead ran around a tree and ran full-tilt downhill, with the griz right on his tail.

As he raced past his father, he saw the flash of an arrow missing his leg by only a foot. He made it just a couple of more steps before the griz flattened him. As he fell, Ron rolled onto his back and fought back, kicking and punching with all his strength.

Abruptly the bear halted the attack, staggered down the slope a few yards, and then fell over dead.

Badly shaken, father and son wondered what had happened, as they stood looking at a dead, 500 pound, 11-year-old male grizzly. With a one-in-a-million shot at a full-charging bear, father Ron’s arrow had sliced the bear’s aorta, and it quickly bled out.

That’ll teach that bear to threaten an expert bowhunter’s son.