First bear

[BeauH]

So finally took my very first bear and very first bow kill as well with this hunt. Took a shot at 45 yards, had to climb over 600 feet vertical to get to him and took 2 hours to get within range.

His skull pretty much got banged up he ended up falling end over end down the rock chute about 500 feet or so. Rough square he’s about a 6’5 bear. Will be getting him sealed tomorrow so I’ll update with an official score. He had one ear that was half gone from being in a fight at one point in his life which was pretty neat

When we finally found him he was at the bottom of the runout piled up in the rocks. Once I got to the bear I ended up spotting some ram horns that were laying there. Most likely this ram died from an avalanche in the area several years ago but it’s a nice addition to the hunt.

 

[ledflight]

Nice job, great first bow kill!

 

[Salmonchaser]

Damn that’s tuff looking country. Nice work.

 

[JohnnyB]

Congrats, nice shot.

 

[roosiebull]

Awesome man!! What a cool scenario for a first bear, big bear in super rugged country. Great work!

 

[AK Troutbum]

Congratulations man, that’s a great looking bear! Looks a lot like some areas around my neck on the woods.


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[BeauH]

It was a fun hunt for sure. He measured 84 inches from paw to paw and 72 from nose to tail.

Here’s a little write up I did on Facebook
So yesterday we took a little wheeling trip with the intention to do some glassing and possibly shoot a bear. It was a beautiful day to be outside and enjoying this spring weather. My friend Brady has a rifle gun tag for this unit and I’m able to shoot black bears with a bow in the same unit so might as well see what we can do.

We started glassing the hillsides all around us. We see several black bears around us, moose, dall sheep and Billie goats but no brown bears yet. We keep glassing and then decide to head to the very end of the trail and check out the waterfalls and scenery. We finally stop around 2:30 pm at the end of the trail. We take our photos and then decide to start glassing the one hillside on the other side of the creek. Within 10 minutes we spot a bear up on the hillside just grazing away. So we keep watching em just taking in the scenery. Of course more people start showing up as well enjoying their Sunday out as well. We then spot another bear 300 yards away from the first bear. The second bear ends up being a sow with a little cub, well then we lose sight of the first bear. Momma bear and cub then take off up the mountain side and we were just amazed that her and the cub climbed this mountain side so easily. She was trying to hide the baby cub and must’ve done a good job of it because the first bear didn’t see her. We continued to watch her hide her cub on this mountain face.

Then first bear finally pops back out into a clearing where we can see him and he’s pretty content on just feeding away. By this time the crowd has died down and we decide to take the bow to go after this bear. At this point it’s 600 meters away straight line but we have to climb 600 feet in less than a quarter mile so it’s fairly steep terrain. We cross the river and start making our way to the base of the hill. Taking the left route to stalk this bear as the wind was blowing from right to left. We finally reach the base of the hill and start climbing, at first it wasn’t that bad when we were on solid ground. Well at one point we got off course and were in the rockchute about halfway up and realize we were in a bad spot as the rocks kept slipping out from underneath us. This whole time we do not have a visual on the bear and we’re only concerned about getting up to more solid ground. I’m strattling this small finger that had some rocks that were somewhat solid so I continued to climb that and finally get towards the edge where the trees were at and had to throw my bow up on the ground to grab the tree and finally pulled myself up. My partner Brady on the other hand was having just as bad of time trying to get up. He eventually had to slide down and make his way over to the solid ground. This step probably took around 30 minutes for us to get situated. Lesson learned be sure of your route beforehand.

During this point I was finally able to get eyes on with the bear and he was approximately 360 yards away when I ranged him and we were at the same elevation as him. He had moved quite about 200 yards from when we were first seen him but he was still in a spot where we thought we had a chance. We continued to close the distance and kept looking down below at the crew to see if the bear had moved at all or if we were still good. They were able to watch us the majority of time and give us thumbs up or down to continue to proceed.

Me and Brady continue closing the distance trying to be as quite as we could be considering the snow and rocks we were crossing, but with rocks slides being a command occurance the bear didn’t even flinch. We finally got into the thick bushes and couldn’t see anything more than 20 yards in front of us but see a visual point on the side of the mountain that we could keep in reference for guiding us. Finally get closer and I look up and could see the bear just enough through a small clearing loophole to tell he was only 100 yards away at this point and hadn’t moved. Wind was still good and we had enough cover to get closer. We continue to inch forward trying to go through the thick vegetation. Finally we get to a small game trail that we were able to use and get closer. I see the bear and he’s at 45 yards but now he’s behind a bush. We were on one side of the chute and he was on the complete opposite side, so at this time
I knew this was about as close as we could get. I knock an arrow and wait for a chance to fling an arrow his way. This took a few moments but he finally pokes out just enough to let one fly. I hit him just behind his shoulder blade and he ends up tumbling down the mountain about 500 feet towards the bottom. I’m sure it was an interesting sight from below watching this bear just tumble down the mountain. Myself and Brady start making our way down the mountain which took a few minutes and we were able to see where the bear was. He was laid up in a pile of rocks and trees. Once we got up to the bear we had to shoot him in the head as he lunged up at us when we were less than 10 yards away and that quickly dispatched him and we were able to start the process of getting him outta here. I then noticed next to the bear was a dall sheep antler that must’ve been knocked off after a ram got killed in an avalanche or rock slide many years ago and then actually found the second one as well. We later find out that when I arrowed the bear that another sow with 3 cubs was about 100 yards away from us just above us in elevation

At this point myself and Brady are exhausted and our game bags are back on the other side of the river. One of our other friends Sam brought a frame pack and my game bags to us and we started processing the bear right there. At this point it’s around 730pm. We didn’t get done with the bear until about 950 and got back to the wheeler around 1030pm. We were 12 miles back and just started hauling ass back to the trucks so we can all go home. This was my first successful big game hunt in Alaska and first bear so I’m pretty stoked. I can’t begin to thanks my friends that were there that helped with everything.

 

[BeauH]

Few more photos I took while up on the hillside.

we also figured no one else was dumb enough to attempt this so we might as well do it.

 

[BackcountryBloodline]

Nicely done. Beautiful country, great bear and an awesome find!

 

[OFFHNTN]

Congrats! That's awesome!

 

[Sawtooth66]

Great write up, congrats on the archery bear! Looks like that was one hell of a hunt.

 

[CajunLab]

Beautiful country! Congrats!

 

[Rob5589]

Great stuff, congrats!

 

[weekender7]

Congrats on a goodurn.

 

[crossone]

I always wanted to try spot and stalk for a spring black bear. I appreciate the story, I gives me confidence that it’s possible. What an accomplishment!

cross

 

[hikenhunt]

wow, nice work with the bow!

 

[Harrott]

Good job!

 

[Soj51hopeful]

Good deal!

 

[greenheadkilla]

Looks rugged! Nice work!

 

[Cb750]

Well done!!!