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1 June 2007

June 1, 2007 - Day 6 in Alaska - Day 2 Hunting Alaskan Coastal Black Bear!

Posted by Darrell under: Black Bear; Alaska; My Journal .

Don’t forget my amazing photos from today! 

Big bear down! Today I was offered a chance at redemption and seized it. Here is the story.

We awoke to absolutely beautiful weather. Clear skies and in the low 70s. I actually was able to wear shorts and a t-shirt. I was still aware of the fact that I had taken a long shot at a beautiful bear yesterday (and missed), but the day was just too gorgeous to dwell on anything negative. Caleb and I were just happy to be alive and spending time together in Alaska.

We got up late, as is usual here. We ate breakfast, which would have been a late lunch at home, made sandwiches for lunch and left on the skiff at about 1:30. We had decided that we would start hunting a little earlier than usual as Chad (our guide) and I were both stoked about the bears we saw yesterday. Also, since it was the first day of the weekend, we didn’t want anyone else staking a claim to our hunting spot – even though this was unlikely. We weren’t taking any chances.

We trolled for King Salmon on the way to our hunting spot. Again, we had no bites. Kings are hard to catch. We beached the skiff at our spot at around 3:30, which is early for hunting bears. Most bears are in the woods sleeping at this time. We wanted to get in and get set up for when the bears showed up again. It reminded me of setting up to ambush whitetails.

This spot was awesome. It was a large grass flat with water standing throughout. The flat itself was full of lush green grass. The one thing it was lacking was any cover. This flat was over a rise and you could not see it from the water. Chad only knew about it because he had successfully duck hunted the area previously. The dense forest behind the flat was still covered in deep snow. All of this was at the base of a large mountain. It seemed logical that any bear hibernating on or under this mountain would immediately head for this grand grass flat and begin filling his belly. If we were right in our assumptions, the bear would still have a perfect coat.

On our approach from the water towards the spot we planned to beach the boat, Chad noticed a black spot up on a rocky bluff overlooking the beach. We were all surprised when as we approached it started moving. It was a small black bear that had been laying on the rocky bluff overlooking the water. It looked like the kind of place you’d find mountain lions (or eagles since we are in Alaska) but certainly not bears. Chad was shocked. Apparently, it was the first time for him to see a bear laying out on the rocks of a vertical bluff – sunning himself.

We arrived at our spot and quietly hiked into the flat and set up on the edge of the forest (in the snow) overlooking the grasslands. It was the only place we could stay without having our scent blown directly onto the flat. There were no bears present, which was fortunate. The wind kept swirling and blowing behind us and back towards the flat. I was using my wind powder and Chad was using his lighter. We both looked at each other in disgust. Deep down, I think we were both afraid that we had blown this perfect spot.

Chad said “Let’s get out of here. Now!” and we hightailed it back to the skiff. I was sick inside because I was just certain that that spot was blown for today and maybe for the rest of the week. If we’d have been hunting whitetails, I probably would have been right.

Back on the skiff we discussed what to do next. Chad wanted to wait until later and come back to this spot. He said that later in the evening a wind would pick up and blow down off the mountain, across the flat, and directly towards the water – which would be exactly what we wanted. I wondered how he knew that, since that would be opposite what it was doing right now. He said it just happened like that every evening. Later, I would find that he was right.

We decided to troll down the bank and look for black bears. Chad wasn’t too thrilled with the idea because he kept saying “I don’t want to shoot any other bears. I want us to get one of those bears.” But, I didn’t think we’d ever see those bears again. I was smart enough not to share this thought with Chad, though.

Just minutes into our cruising a large boat passed us moving fast. We noticed a guy in camo standing out on deck glassing the banks. Another hunter! The boat started to slow down and stopped right out in front of the spot where we had had our skiff beached just minutes before. Chad turned us around and we headed straight for the big boat. Even though they couldn’t see the grass flat from the water, we were afraid they were somehow going to contaminate ‘our’ spot. The boat started back up and blew past going the way from which it came.

This was enough for Chad. He didn’t want to lose our spot and so we just floated out in front of it (about 200 yards offshore) for the next 2 hours or so. I took the opportunity to lay back, soak up the sun, and take a nice nap. When I awoke at a little after 6pm, Chad said we could probably head back. We, for the second time today, beached our skiff and started our hike to the grass flat.

When we first caught site of the flat – nothing! Not a bear in sight. We started working our way towards the spot we were at last night. There is a row of evergreen trees between the flat and the water. From those trees to the forest across the flat is about 200 yards of lush green grass and little pools of water and the bears, yesterday, had been standing right out in the middle of the grass.

Chad was a little in front of me and was glassing towards the small rise from which I had flung my arrow yesterday and he froze. My heart started beating faster. I inched up to where he was and sure enough, a big bear was in the same spot as yesterday. The wind was in our face. Perfect, or so I thought.

I set Caleb up with the camcorder in the evergreen trees. From his vantage point he had a good view of the bear and the rise from which I would likely end up shooting again. Chad and I then started slowly working our way towards the bear. We were able to keep him out of sight by keeping the slight rise between us and him. Chad was really studying the bear and I was awaiting the thumbs up which would signal that it was time for me to start my final stalk. The thumbs up wasn’t coming.

Chad whispered that the bear looked like a brown bear. I don’t have much experience with bears but I could kind of see his point. The fur was black but with the sun in our faces there was a definite brown glow. He also had wide rounded ears and a hump on his back. A brown bear? I was devastated. This bear was a good 10 yards closer than the bear I shot at yesterday which made my chances of taking him a lot better. Chad continued studying him with his binoculars. I knew that he was trying to get a glimpse of his rear paw pads. The big difference between large blacks and brown bears is the rear pad. Brown bears have a solid pad. Black bears have a line of fur cutting horizontally through their rear pad.

Chad finally gave me a thumbs up. Way up. A big bear, eating grass, undisturbed by us so far. He was about 60 yards away from where I had already crawled up to. I wanted to gain another 20 yards. Before I came to Alaska, I had decided I didn’t want to shoot at a bear that was further than 30 yards out. I threw that out the window yesterday with my 55 yard miss. Today, I was hoping for 40 yards.

I started my final stalk. Slowly, inching my way towards the bear, on my belly. I made inches at a time, while mentally focusing on the spot behind his front shoulder where I would shoot him. I got to within 45 yards on my belly and the bear turned sideways. When he put his head down I slowly rose to my knees. Deep breath. Expel. Draw back. My 40 yard pin was on the top of his back. My 50 yard pin was at the bottom of his belly directly behind the front shoulder. I envisioned the shot and aimed for the opposite shoulder. Release!

The shot was perfect hitting exactly where I had aimed. I didn’t hear the release but the whomp from my arrow making contact was loud and sounded like hitting a bag target. The bear jumped up and made one low howl and then started slowly walking towards the woods. I could see the veins of my arrow sticking out behind his front shoulder.

He stopped for a second and staggered while having a bowel movement. He went down for a second and when he rose my arrow was gone. Thankfully, he wasn’t screaming or making any noise. He crossed a small stream and as he rose out of it I could see the water pouring off him was bloody. It seemed like a good hit. He stumbled on towards the forest and re-crossed the small stream. Again, I could see the blood pouring off him. He made another 5 yards before collapsing. He tried to get up once, and then just rolled over and lay their still. He barely made 50 yards from where I had shot him.

I sat their on my knees the entire time – watching, not moving, not wanting to do anything to spook that bear. I vaguely remember hearing Chad, our very excited guide, whisper “awesome shot”, but I was in my own world. What a beautiful animal and even more important: a quick kill.

The bear never moved again and after about 20 minutes we went to get it. I was a little apprehensive, since I’d heard that some people give bears 2-3 hours before trying to retrieve them. This bear was already completely dead. He was beautiful. A big boar with a perfect coat and without a single rub. His teeth were old and many were missing and broken. Chad estimated him to be 12-13 years old. Last week, Chad had a muzzle-loader hunter filming a TV show. That guy took a bear with a 19 3/8” skull and Chad said my bear was bigger. Tomorrow we will find out.

We spent the next hour taking pictures and soaking up the moment. We went to get a log to lay his head over for the pictures. While in the Forest behind the grass flat we saw hundreds of bear prints and piles of skat in the deep snow. This was bear country.

Chad started to skin my bear. He asked me, before he began, how I was going to mount him. You skin a bear different for a rug or full mount. I had already decided on a full mount. It took a good hour or more to skin the bear and quarter him. I helped where I could but mostly watched and stayed out of the way.

Caleb went and recovered my arrow. About 6 inches of the arrow was missing (the end with the broadhead) and we realized it was broken off inside the bear. Chad found the broadhead just moments later – firmly embedded in the opposite shoulder. I had punctured both lungs and embedded in the opposite shoulder.

I back tracked the bear to where I had shot him. While planning this hunt, I read several articles stating that when you hit a bear with a broadhead they don’t bleed. Everything I read said that the hair and fat is too thick to allow any blood to escape. Travis, at Cabellas, recommended that I hunt with a rifle instead of a bow. “Bears are just too hard to kill and they don’t bleed out like other animals” he told me. “Since this is your first bear hunt, why don’t you just take your rifle?”.

I’m glad I refused to listen. I’m glad that Keegan, the outfitter at Ocean Point Alaska Adventures, told me to bring my bow if I wanted to! I’m wondering if maybe the authors of all the articles I read weren’t using Montec G5 fixed blade 100 grain broadheads? This bear left the heaviest blood trail I have ever followed. I was shocked at how much blood this bear lost in barely 50 yards. Maybe it was dumb luck. I don’t know. I do know however that this bear bled heavily and died fast and I have the pictures and video to prove it.

We packed that bear out and back to the skiff and made it back to the big boat before dark. We had time to check the crab pots and had dungee crab for dinner. You couldn’t ask for a better day.

It was a perfect day in Alaska.

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