Helena, Montana: Man Shot At After Being Mistaken for Bigfoot

The North Hills sit about 6 miles northeast of Helena, Montana. It is public land, most of it managed by the Bureau of Land Management, and it is busy with target shooters. The agency has issued shooting restriction maps for the area. In 2019 a 5,000-acre fire there was started by someone shooting exploding targets. Montana has its own Bigfoot lore too. The BFRO has been cited for 46 Montana sightings since 1978, among them three backpackers in the Gallatin National Forest in 1993 who reported a large, upright, two-legged animal.

It was a Sunday in December 2018. A 27-year-old Helena man was setting up targets in the North Hills. He was not wearing hunter orange. Then the shots came. He told police a bullet hit about 3 feet to his left, and then another to his right. He ran for cover. He kept hearing more shots.

When the shooting stopped, he approached the shooter, a man in a black Ford F-150. By his account, the answer was blunt. "I thought you were Bigfoot." The shooter reportedly added: "I don't target practice, but if I see something that looks like Bigfoot, I just shoot at it." He said he "was out hunting Bigfoot," and that the man should be wearing orange.

The man reported it the next day to the Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office. He could not describe the shooter or give a plate number. He did not want to press charges. He asked only that the area be checked and that the shooter be told about safe shooting.

Sheriff Leo Dutton took it seriously. "We're working to find this person," he said. "It is of great concern that this individual might think it's OK to shoot at anything he thinks is Bigfoot." He described the shooter's reaction as a "non-emotional approach to something that's extremely serious." If the claims were true, Dutton said, the shooter could face attempted negligent homicide charges. Deputies searched the area. They found no matching pickup and had no other leads.

Dutton was candid that "there was some question about the veracity of the report." The day's delay, the missing description, the refusal to press charges and the empty search all weighed on it. He said the incident "seems to be a localized event to one geographic area" and did not think the wider public was in danger.

Then a woman came forward after the Independent Record ran the story. She said a man in a black F-150 had shot at her in the North Hills. Bigfoot played no part in her account. Dutton said the truck she described was identical.

Several readings have been offered. A reckless shooter in a crowded shooting area fits the North Hills and its history of complaints. The remark about orange suggests the man was taken for game, or simply treated as a target. The Bigfoot line may have been a flippant excuse rather than a belief. Or the account may have been embellished, as the sheriff's doubts suggest. Nobody has formally alleged a hoax. No follow-up reporting of an arrest or charges has surfaced.

The story travelled fast, from Fox News to High Country News, where Betsy Marston included it in a humour column in January 2019. The Wikipedia article on Bigfoot now cites it among human explanations for sightings. It is a case that runs backwards. No creature. No tracks. No film. Just a man who was taken for one.