(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd047.jpg)
If the above pic doesn't give you the heevy-jeevies, you might not know what you're looking at (a tight little stream with spawning salmon and bear trails everywhere thru the thick stuff). But if you have it in you to go after these guys the pic might give you a smile and warm your heart a bit.
Just got back from most of a week going after brown bears. It was fairly epic, but all we saw was sows & cubs and small ones. Not sure if the flooding or low numbers of salmon moved the big guys off, but they weren't there.
Not sure if this worth telling but I like posting pics.
I've got lots more but have to sort out how to tell it. Here's a trail pic in a relatively open area. More later.
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(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd015-2.jpg)
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:campfire:
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: This looks like it may be interesting.........
:campfire:
:coffee:
:coffee:
:bigsmyl:
I am enjoying the pictures.
Please post...Im facinated with anything grizz related.
:campfire: I like picture stories. :)
Mike
You're living the dream Tim. :scared:
Not sure which yet! :D
This should be good
QuoteOriginally posted by chinook907:
If the above pic doesn't give you the heevy-jeevies, you might not know what you're looking at (a tight little stream with spawning salmon and bear trails everywhere thru the thick stuff).
Brings me right back to the first time I walked with my dad in brown bear country on the Kenai Peninsula without knowing what the %^&! we were doing. Stream bank absolutely littered with salmon carcasses, head-high grass and lots of odd little trails ... Thanks for jogging my memory!
You have my attention. :scared: :campfire:
Did the bear eat your camera?
This is gona be good. Keep em coming.
Looks like fun! Keep em coming!
:campfire:
:campfire:
Cool pics! It would be really neat to hunt an animal like that.
Bisch
:campfire:
:campfire:
Reality is better than ANY fiction...I have never stood in the presence of the Brown bear, but I bet their spirit can be felt just as real as cold rain.
Thanks for sharing. :campfire:
This story is bringing me back to my (very limited) experience with brown bears during the summer of 2011. What huge, formidable animals, that can raise the hair on the back of your neck when you are close to them. Hunting them with stick and string has to be a huge adrenaline rush. Looking forward to the rest of the story. :campfire:
(http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac67/peastes/P1020277_zpsd9829811.jpg)
Sorry for the wait.
Been wanting to try this for awhile.
We spent most of day one packing most of the way in to where we would be doing most of our hunting.
Fair bit of sign on the way, in fact more sign of mature animals than where we ended up. :banghead:
Had just a little snow too, and that helped with finding sign. Here's some smallish tracks, but they showed well in the snow.
(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd008-3.jpg)
Part way in we had been seeing signs of a large one. We stopped at a small feeder stream for a break, and Mr Big must have been bedded real close as all of a sudden we started hearing a bear kindof growling/hooting at us, something of a deep, guttural, rattling moan that started with an h. Never saw him, sounded like he was within 30 yards at first, as he moved off continuing to growl we paralleled him, hoping to get a glimpse or pic but it was too thick and no openings. Season opened the next day so we couldn't have shot.
Went on and on growling for an honest 2 minutes or so. Never got a pic, in fact I never took a pic of any of the bears we encountered as we always had our hands full as they were all close encounters, as I'll explain.
Guess I should back up a bit. A friend was hunting with and he was using a long g**.
The spot I picked normally has a lot of brown bears, and we would likely have it to ourselves. But it isn't possible to see them from much distance, so to hunt it you need to either creep thru the area hoping to come across one, or sit near one of their fishing spots where they would be in range when they were fishing.
It was pretty sketchy, but I walk salmon streams every year for work and for play and I'm mostly used to it.
Back in a bit.
Man ,what dreams are made of !!
:campfire:
this is the first item on my bucket list!!!
shew you're lucky Tim, I almost called you a tease after the first post LOL!
I was on a bear stream last night..got the heeby jeebies....50 yards later I walked up on a moose kill. I know there was a big boy around, tracks everywhere and turds shew!
That first picture with the bow and the stream is great! I had to even show my wife that one! I think I'd be one nervous critter hunting with those big boys around!
Bernie Bjorklund
NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin
Hey thanks for all your encouragement, glad it fires a spark in folks.
No Lynn I'm not crazy ! lol
And Dan, what are you doing creeping around a bear kill ?!
So where was I ?
We made camp the first night, then packed up and slowly hunted our way to where we would spend most of our time. No action along the way but we noticed that the sign was all sows w/cubs and what are called 3 year olds. Three year olds are on their first year on the own from momma, and are small (300-something to maybe 400 lbs).
Made camp at the new spot, and we split up to hunt in different areas based on where we had seen sign and expected to see animals.
We were deep in brown bear country and I found myself moving very slowly, especially when close to recent sign.
Here's another pick of one of their trails.
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(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd018.jpg)
Was sneaking along, the wind mostly in my face but with occasional swirls that moved it in 360 degrees in a small area. Came to some sow w/cub tracks that we had seen on the way in a couple hours earlier...
Was moving down a tight trail ~15 yards from the creek, when I heard plunk-plunk-plunk something walking in the creek screened by brush, right next to me. Bear or moose I thought and started to move closer to get a peek thru the ragweed when I heard a growl/moan and I knew Bear !
I started to pluck an arrow out of the quiver as I moved forward trying to get a look. I saw a dark brown spring (born last winter/spring)cub hustling thru the brush maybe 10 yards away moving parallel to me (ouch) and thought gotta-get-outta-here. Sow with a cub.
I backed away quickly while looking for the sow and drawing the revolver on my hip. Spotted her in thick brush shaking a small tree to further make her point. Point made and further away I went.
When I was taking stock of things moments later I noticed that I had gotten the broadhead out of the quiver foam before I realized the situation and switched gears.
Kept hunting but that was the excitement for that evening.
:thumbsup:
Next day we left camp and hiked a few hours into another little creek. It was only bear trails the whole way, and the wind was in our favor so we went real slow, so that we might get a shot or avoid stumbling into another Goldilocks situation. No problems getting there.
As long as it took to get there, we only had time to check the spot out and turn around as we had no desire to hike out in the dark.
Here's some of what we found. The matted grass is from bears fishing. It looked good, but the sign still looked like from small ones.
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(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd043.jpg)
On the long hike back the wind was at our backs so we double-timed it, figuring our scent would blow any bears in front of us out of there. The wind was pretty strong and covered a lot of the noise we were making also.
My friend was in the lead, maybe 12 yards ahead and just around the corner from me when he came running back towards me and the silent, wide-eyed look on his face said it all.
I dropped my bow-ran towards him-and-drew my you know what (2nd time in 24 hours) as he stopped and faced his backtrail while bringing his long g** up.
For crying out loud, who the heck is hunting who in this place ?
She never came.
He had been coming around the corner and had a sow and cub 12-15 yards further on. The sow was standing on her hind legs facing him. Last he saw she was dropping to all fours in his direction, and figured here she comes. She didn't. There were several downed trees across the bear trail between he and she, maybe that's why she didn't, or maybe she just didn't.
We slowed down a bit after that and stayed closer together. :rolleyes:
Stubborn, determined, I don't know but next day we got a good start back to the new spot with no problems.
We snuck up the new creek, me in the lead hoping for a shot.
We were to sit two different wide spots in the creek (almost like ponds but the water was moving) that had concentrations of salmon lots of bear sign.
I sat the smaller one, here's a pic, its about 20-some yards across.
I backed under a spruce in the upper right between the long snag in the pond, and the broken off standing snag.
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(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd027.jpg)
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Sat there for 6 hours or so in the rain. Nothing.
Nothing on my end anyway.
Another pic. Right between the two snags I sat.
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(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd032.jpg)
The little creek in the upper left is the inlet.
Here's the outlet.
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(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd031.jpg)
Really don't mean to tease but am headed to a movie with my wife.
More later. Quite a bit more I think.
:campfire:
Pretty darn great adventure....I'm jealous! :notworthy:
blah you got me on the edge of my seat LOL! I was out chasing moose last night, along with grizzlies. Moose was first (drew a cow tag). The place is chock full of big grizzlies...but nothing like you're playing goodilocks with ;) . Looking forward to the rest of this!
Another AK brownie hunter tuned in here!
Great story. What are the specs on your Black Widow.
Loving the pics. Thanks for taking us along.
:campfire:
You have my FULL attention!!! :campfire:
This is great. We need more or are you sow food :biglaugh:
Fantastic story Tim. Please continue. :archer: :coffee:
Tim,
Brown Bear, most adrenaline filled hunt I have ever been on! We typically hunted until last light in the same type of terrain along salmon streams as in your pictures.One evening during my hunt we needed to walk back to camp in the dark the same direction that a sow, cub and another lone bear headed less than an hour before. All I can say the pucker factor was immense!
:campfire:
Very cool
I wonder if I am the only one with an andrenelin rush reading this. very cool.
Noticed no string silencer to assist with getting stealthily "closer".
:saywhat: More please
I don't know that I could ever get used to walking salmon streams in grizzly country! Great story and a dream hunt right there. Thanks for the stories and pics :thumbsup:
Looking forward to more. I love the walk along with you guys. This kind of hunt is one I would love to go on some day!
:campfire:
K.C.
I'm sitting here reading along and I keep looking back over my shoulder.. LOL
Excellent story!
SteveH - yes I remember reading your story and you pulled it off, congrats again. :clapper:
Panzer - 60#, 58" osage Widow, PSAX.
Jack Shanks - have you posted that story here ? I would be interested in hearing/reading it.
Butts2 - My bow is pretty quiet without anything extra on it, and I don't want anything more to snag on brush, get soaking wet, etc.
So after sitting all day and no action I did a slow mooch up the creek hunting towards my friend to pick him up so-to-speak for the hike back to camp. Along the way here's a pic of another trail in the grass.
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(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd048.jpg)
Here's a pic of the larger "pond" when I got there.
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(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd052.jpg)
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He had some action but that's not for here.
We got back to camp right at dark without any unnecessary excitement.
:)
We hunted more after that without incident and then it was time to start back.
On the way out, just a pic of a large bear p**p. If you look close you might see a decent sized bear track or two in it. It was very deep.
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(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd062.jpg)
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We had one more encounter on the way out. Not sure my adrenal gland will work anymore after this trip.
Tim,
Out of respect for the outfitter I never posted a story of my Brown bear hunt. Better told around the campfire anyway.
Enjoying yours!
Oh sure Jack I understand.
So as I said we packed and headed out to get back home. The wind was at our backs again so we were somewhat comfortable that any bears in front of us would know we were there.
When we came to the spot in the trail where I had bumped the sow & cub in the trail by myself, there was a freshly killed salmon laying there. Fresh. Not flopping, but fresh, the iris of the eye was still golden. Apparently a bear had just caught it, smelled us, dropped it and ran (we were 15 yards from the stream, and salmon don't fly lol).
We hustled along to get out of that spot, what a dosvedonya from that place. Took part of a couple days to get all the way out.
We had a great time though, God Gives Good Gifts. We hunted hard, we hunted smart, and we left it on the field. But don't get me wrong I'm not done, just for this season.
I better throw at least one brown bear pic in, although it wasn't from this trip.
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(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszdbrwaterhead.jpg)
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And here's a pic of one brown bear hunters kit.
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(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd001-3.jpg)
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Had a lot of Forest Gump quotable moments like, "Run Forest RUUUNN", and "...you never know what you're gonna get". But my favorite quote is the scripture in my tag line.
And just one more from Forest Gump now that the story's been told: "That's all I have to say about that".
:thumbsup: :campfire:
Looks like a creek I considered hunting but I think it maybe is not. I am once again "eligible" for a "one bear in four year" quota. Intend to go back to my regular spot in May.
I sure hope a LOT of bars get killed in this season. If so the black bear hunting will get nothing but better.
Great story! Thanks for posting it up!
Great story and pics! Thanks for taking us along!
Kenny :archer2:
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :campfire:
I enjoyed your pictures and story. That sounds about as exciting as it gets.
-Jay
Thank you for sharing.... incredible
What an exciting story! I cant help but wish I was there! :)
cool story, Tim. Looks like the hunt is gonna be over monday.
give me a call if you make it down my way....
Always enjoy your posts Tim. It's the only way I get to hunt Alaska....for now. Awesome pictures. Thanks for taking us along.
Loved it!
Thanks again for sharing and taking us along.
QuoteOriginally posted by chinook907:
[QB] We hunted more after that without incident and then it was time to start back.
On the way out, just a pic of a large bear p**p. If you look close you might see a decent sized bear track or two in it. It was very deep.
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(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/rszd062.jpg)
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Did it have remnants of little bells and smell like pepper spray? :eek:
Wow, exciting hunt to say the least.
That's awesome
great story as usual Tim and nice pics!
I think the Kenai bears are pretty hard up for food this year. Most of our salmon streams were blown out with monsoon rains a few weeks ago and our berry crop was really poor. Appears that this one was eating highbush cranberries which I don't believe is the preferred berry,likely not much else out there right now.
Wow, many of my friends and family feel I am a bit off for some of the adventures I partake in but I can't imagine hunting Brown bears in close quarters with a stick bow. You my friend are one crazy feller. I can't say I wouldn't try it but I sure would be puckered.
Edge of my seat for sure. What a great adventure. I'd like to say that I could do that.....but honestly I'm not sure I trust my longbow skills at that level.
Just a great story! Thanks for sharing.
Awesome!
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :campfire:
OMG... if it takes 4 seconds for a whitetail to run 100 yards heart-shot...what damage can a brown bear do, while fatally wounded by a bow 20 yards away?
Back up or no... you must make a brass monkey blush!