Bears coming to my cow moose call!

[SaltySailor]

So this is the second time a bear has come to my cow moose calls up here in Alaska. The first time was a picture perfect scenario, I was cow calling across a large open meadow with hundreds of yards of visibility all around and the bear came out into the middle of the open from 500 yards out. Plenty of time to get set up and the wind was from him to us. It was making a beeline directly for us sniffing the air looking inquisitive. My buddy took him as his first bear. I was surprised at the time and told myself that maybe it was all coincidence that I was moose calling and he came right to us.



This year I was up early at camp one morning and ran up the spotting hill to get a purview of the surrounding area. I have run up that hill a few hundred times and have never taken my gun, but for some reason I just carried it up with me this time. I did my 360 sweep with binos and noticed a brown spot behind camp, so I put the spotter on it and a cow moose came into view. A few seconds of quality glass revealed four cows total feeding close together, a good sign and my excitement grew at the prospect of an unseen bull near them. I let out a long cow call in their direction and all four cows stopped feeding and looked towards me from the better part of a mile away. I waited for that flash of white palm or any other signs of a bull but nothing seemed to show. After about 10 minutes I let out another ‘sexier’ cow call in a sequence in their direction, waited a few minutes, and then used an action packer lid to thrash some brush around. I had just threw the lid down and was returning my eye to the spotting scope when I heard brush crash from some distance behind me!


I turned around pumped up thinking a bull was close and coming in from behind and about 400 yards away, now splashing across a bend in the creek, was a brown animal moving fast. I quickly realized that it was not a moose, but a bear, and it was moving up the opposite creek bank at a quick walk looking right at me. At one point he stood on his hind legs looking/sniffing right in my direction before dropping back to all fours and trucking up the creek towards me. From the creek/bear’s view I was perfectly sky lined, but the slight wind was again completely in my favor. This whole event caught me off guard, and I scrambled to grab my gun, guess range, try to find a good rest, etc. During that time the bear was now directly across from me almost broadside at 300 yards looking in my direction.

 

[SaltySailor]

I put the crosshairs on him and let one fly. He immediately dropped on his belly like somebody just chopped off all four of his legs at once and then he started rolling around into some low brush and snapping at his own body. I have a five-round mag so every time he came into view in that patch of brush I would send another one. My slumbering family in the tent down the hill was now wide awake and as my oldest son ran up I hollered for him to grab my pack that had my extra rounds in it. The bear was stationary from what I could tell but still lifting its head up and down. The boy got my pack to me and I reloaded, waited for it to raise its head again and squeezed one more off. He stopped moving after that.



I stood there in disbelief at how this unfolded, and was once again thinking about my moose call wondering how many other times a bear may have come into it while I was unaware. I gave it about 20 minutes of no movement before I left to get the wife and kids dressed warm for the ride over to it. I drove my wheeler down the creek parallel by myself first to ensure it was dead before we all walked up to it. It wasn’t huge by any means, squaring out at 7’ 3”, but this was a first for the family to put hands on a bear. Cool experience to teach the boys how to skin one out. Oh yeah, the cows were all gone, never saw them again, lol. My cow call does work on moose, I have called in many a bull and even other cows.



Here is a pic of him laid out after skinning.

 

[go_deep]

That's great!
Did you try any of them meat by chance?

 

[Cj0n3s12]

Good read and congrats!

 

[SaltySailor]

That's great!
Did you try any of them meat by chance?

I have tried grizz a few times in the past and it does not tantalize my pallet. I may of tried this one if he had blueberry butt. He did not though and was actually pretty lean, not much fat on him compared to the other bear shot at camp this year.

 

[Travis907]

Great story and congrats on your successful Griz call! Might want to try and market it!

 

[Loper]

Very cool story! Congrats!

View attachment 455479

Nice hoodie!

 

[SaltySailor]

Lol, I've had that hoodie for about 10 years, it refuses to die.

 

[SaltySailor]

That's great!
Did you try any of them meat by chance?

Do you eat grizz?

 

[go_deep]

Do you eat grizz?

I've ate a lot of black bear, and it's really good, so just wondering if grizzly is good too.