Author Topic: Alaska bear story... (Read 828 times)

alaskacajun · « **on:** June 22, 2005, 04:09:13 PM »

Here's my story from the 2003 bear season...

One day at work my buddy Steve, asked if I could help him hual in some bait to his bait station. The guy that was supposed to help him had pulled out at the last minute. He told me to bring rubber boots and my Browning .338 just in case. But he kept stressing that it was too early and we wouldn't see anything...
We took off after work and drove 4 hours to Cantwell, it was 9:00 at night when we got there but in May it don't get dark until about 11:00 so we had plenty of time. We walked to his bait station carrying 2 bucket each of dog food saturated with donut grease. His bait station was located next to a river about 2 miles from the road so it took a little while to get there.
As we were walking through the creek I spotted what I thought was a wolverine in a tree about 100 yards away. We put glass on it and it turned out to be a big black bear on the backside of the tree looking at us. He said he wanted to try out his new .416 so he walked a little closer and took the shot. The blackie never had a chance.
So we proceeded to the bait station which was located about 100 more yards up river. As we arrived we found out why Steve's bear was up a tree. There was one big blackie at the bait pile. He ran off before I could get a shot. So we dropped the buckets we were carrying on the opposite bank and proceeded to the stand. After about 30 minutes I heard the slightest noise in the brush behind us. I turned around to see a really big black bear approaching. I hit Steve and pointed, Steve turned on the video camera and gave me the O.K. signal.
The bear was in really thick alder's, so being a whitetail hunter from Luziana, I chose an opening in the brush and waited for hair. I saw the bear's head come into my scope and I aimed at his neck from about 45 yards. The 210 gr Nosler Partition hit him hard, and he never moved after the shot.
We cleaned both bears out and hualed out the meat and hides, this took us 2 days of hard packing. It turns out Steve's bear measured 6'8" and the scull squared 18 1/2". Mine squared 7 foot even and the scull was 19 15/16". If he ever asks me to help him do anything hunting related I always answer yes...LOL

- Clint

Elwood · « **Reply #1 on:** June 22, 2005, 05:41:45 PM »

Great story!
Thanx for sharing it

Elwood

alaskacajun · « **Reply #2 on:** June 22, 2005, 06:10:02 PM »

Yeah this year was a lot different. I have a friend (Brian) who has never taken a bear. So this year we hit it pretty hard. We went out about 20 times since May 1st.

One afternoon Brian, Tim and I went up a river in his boat. We had been there a few hours and they were getting bored while I glassed the mountainside. Brian says something about shooting some rock like 800 yards away (Iwasn't paying attention)! I here BOOM and he starts talking to Tim about hitting this rock. They are talking about it when I notice a nice sow with 2, 2 or 3 year old cubs. They were as big as her.

I point them out to the dynamic duo, and that lit a fire in their spirits. As we are glassing the bears I notice another bear about 150 yards above the sow. It looks like a Big Boar, as we are looking at him, Tim says he sees another bear. This one appears to be another nice boar to the right of the sow about 150 yards away.

Up the mountain Brian and I go. We made our way up a snow shoot and attempted to make our way around the sow to get to one of the boars... when the wind shifts on us. Brian being the person he is decided to shut down the stalk and wait for another day. It was probably a wise choice since we could no longer see any of the bears and were in very close proximity.

All said he returned without me a couple of days later with a friend and they took a 6 and half footer. In all we saw 15 bears this year, I personally got within shooting range of 2 nice boars. One I had in my sights and kept touching the trigger, but it was Patrick's turn and he didn't shoot...

- Clint

sniperVLS · « **Reply #3 on:** June 22, 2005, 06:10:18 PM »

a blackie at 45 yards with a .338...

OUCH!

nice story, love reading these :grin:

alaskacajun · « **Reply #4 on:** June 22, 2005, 06:32:41 PM »

Yeah sniper he didn't even flinch, just hit the ground...

Then there was the last hunt I went on this year. I was supposed to meet a customer of mine. But he called me 5 minutes before I walked out the door, to tell me he'd be about an hour late. I told him I'd be at the parking lot of the boat luanch waiting on him. I got there and about 20 minutes later Brian shows up. He suggested that I jump in with him. So I left a note on my dash, to the late customer that I went up river.

We take off up river and arrive at our area where Brian and the friend shot the other bear. Brian is still in the boat fooling with his spotting scope telling me where he and Tim saw a really big boar a week before. I was glassing the area when I ask him "you want this bear?" He says "you see one" and I point it out. It's really big and way up the mountain. We weren't there more than 6 minutes. We take off up the mountain.

We get all the way up where I think it should be but the alder's are like 30 feet high... Brian says he'll go up higher to see if he can get a shot from above. I watch him ascend and then return, he couldn't see a thing. At this point we are in a slide and the alders are about 10 yards from us. He asks what I think we should do and I tell him to get ready. I pull out one of my varmint calls and start to sound like some poor dieing animal... I;m on the 3rd blast when the alder's come alive about 30 yards and to the right of us. I pick up my .300 Weatherby and knock off the saftey. Here it comes.... There is an out crop below us and to the right about 40 yards away and that is where the bear is going so I point the .300 in that direction not knowing if the bear is gonna charge. About that time 2 very (I thought they were squirrels first) tiny cubs go up the tree. Then I see a very big and mad momma looking at me. She sits at the bottom of the tree for a good 15-20 minutes staring at us.

We would have left but she blocked our escape. Everytime the cubs came down she would chase 'em back up the tree. Finally she let them down and they left, but I was a little nervous for a few minutes there...LOL

- Clint

sniperVLS · « **Reply #5 on:** June 22, 2005, 06:34:45 PM »

another good one.

I'd be nervous too :shock:

alaskacajun · « **Reply #6 on:** June 25, 2005, 05:20:49 PM »

This year I also went up North a ways to check on a spot that I have seen some BIG Griz tracks in previous years. Patrick was with me again. We hiked about a mile and a half into the mountains to an area where I moose hunt. The snow was still pretty deep in spots but the hike wasn't too bad. We took turns "post holeing" through the 3 foot deep snow. We arrived at the area I wanted to glass, when he noticed some fresh tracks in the snow far off heading in our direction.

We began glassing the area, but it was still too early, he went down to check on the Griz tracks and said they were about 9" across. They were really fresh like that morning or the night before. The snow had been melting really fast but you could really make out the foot print really well. I told him that a friend and I had moose hunted this area 2 years before and had come across an enormous set of griz tracks. I'll probably be up that way this Fall. This is one big bear, considering a interior griz usually doesn't get much bigger than 7 or 8 foot....

I'll keep y'all posted, this will be my first Griz, as I have been close to them but never really tried to get one till now...

- Clint