My apologies for not posting this story earlier and in a timelier manner. I was recently married and headed to Texas to move the new bride up to Alaska a week after the hunt. Now that I am divorced I have the time to write the story and make the post. Yes, married and divorced in three months.
This year my veteran hunter was Matt Eaton who was serving at the Pentagon this past year. My son, Adam was also along for his first black bear hunt. Matt and Adam communicated for several months via email and phone prior to the trip. They would be arriving in Anchorage around the same time so they would take a rented car over to Valdez.
They arrived in the early morning of May 27th. A little practice session and they were both ready to go even though they had no sleep the previous night. The first night was a bust, nothing. Sunday we split up and Matt hunted a bait site by himself. Adam was rewarded with his first black bear sighting. It would be three days latter before I finally gave him the OK to shoot. We saw plenty of smallish bears but nothing that I considered a first trophy.
Mean while Matt was seeing bears too but nothing that would end up on the end of an arrow. The bears were around but not cooperating.
The trip home on Sunday was difficult. The waves were so high that I was taking water over the sidewalls of the boat. Progress was slow and after a good attempt we had to head to calmer waters and wait for the winds to cease. About two hours latter we made the trip safely to port.
On Monday we established a hunting camp at a US Forest cabin so that the boat trips would be a little less in duration. This time of the year you can safely travel at 11-11:30 pm at night on the water with the available sunlight.
Finally Adam got his turn. A bear that we had not seen before came from an odd direction and drove a smaller bear off of the bait. While I was still not sure, I gave him the go ahead. The waiting and viewing the other bears had paid off as Adam patiently waited for the perfect shot. A clean release and an arrow closed the distance to the lungs from eighteen yards away. A short 30-35 yard run and the bear was down for the count. I was a little surprised to find it to be a female bear. During registration we found it to be a female, maybe 10 years old and with a beautiful long hide. She measured 6 foot squared, 16 7/8” skull and will make a beautiful trophy. Adam was very pleased with his trophy.
The weather during the week was fantastic. Clear skies and cool temperatures made hunting a pleasure to endure as opposed to our usual rainy skies in the spring.
Matt was still trying to harvest a bear on his own but nothing was working out. Both teams of hunters had a marvelous time viewing smaller bears, Stellar Jays and even martins coming to the baits. We have one bear picked out for the future. He sports a white outline of a diamond on his chest.
It was my turn next to try and Adam filmed my bear. It was only the next day after he took his that a bear came in and I knew immediately that it was a very good bear. Adam knew too by now and if he had passed on his, he would have had this one. I let the bear settle down and waited for the shot. An easy eighteen-yard shot that I could make any day, but on my release I knew something was wrong. The arrow hit 4 inches to the left of my spot and only penetrated maybe 4 inches. Now I shoot a 70-pound BowTech with 500 grain arrows and was using Magnus Stinger 2 blade broad heads. I should have been able to penetrate almost any part of the bear. He took off in a circular path, dropping the arrow almost at our feet. The bear traveled 30-35 yards, paused and disappeared in the brush. I figured that with the running through the woods that damage had been done to some internal organ. Adam and I gave the bear an hour before we retrieved the .35 Whelen from the boat. Since this was AdamÂ’s first chasing of wounded bears, he thought that maybe a bigger gun was warranted than just my .44 magnum. GrantedÂ…Â…. Good idea.
We approached the spot where we last saw the bear and found nothing. Thankful for Adams excellent eyes for spotting blood, we covered a scant blood trail for 400-500 yards before loosing the bear. We had put in a total of about 8 hours in searching but lost him. A review of the film back at the house and some slow motion viewing confirmed my fears. I had made a bad hit, a real bad hit.
MattÂ’s turn next and we were running out of time. A few practice arrows and the three of us were ready to see Matt harvest his bear. Finally a bear came in and Matt drew his stick bow back and released. The arrow hit the bait barrel just over the bears back. Now down to the final day Matt decided that the .44 magnum was going to have to be the weapon of choice. So as the next bear came in, Matt made a clean shoulder shot on his bear. A nice 5-foot plus bear with a beautiful hide.
All in all it was another beautiful hunt and a wonderful time. Two nice bears harvested, beautiful weather and great time.
