Andrewdk
FNG
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2022
- Messages
- 45
I had a bit of an interesting day on November 2nd in Southeast Alaska.
Woke up early to hunt a muskeg behind my home, it’s about an hour walk/climb through some rough terrain and thick brush. I didn’t have high expectations and hadn’t had any luck with blacktails so far. A minute into the woods and I almost walked into a fawn and doe on the trail that didn’t seem bothered by my presence.
I took my time going up through the woods, made it to the edge of the muskeg and decided to walk to a second muskeg, and called as I moved slowly. A doe ran out 10 yards from me at a small dip in the terrain, I watched her for a minute while she investigated me. Another deer popped out of the brush to check me out and I realized it was a buck. I sidestepped for a clear shot, as soon as he turned broadside I fired and had a perfect heart shot from 20 yards. He ran and went down in another small dip in the terrain less than 20 yards from where I shot him. I was ecstatic.. The deer was a spike, but it was my first buck ever after days and days of hitting the woods and striking out here.
Gave my friends a heads up by phone that I had a deer down and got to work quartering him out where he went down.
I had bagged all the meat and head and strapped it into my pack and put my pack on. As I turned around and got ready to leave, a bear came out of the brush 10 yards away and slightly uphill from me. He was broadside with his head hunched down and looking straight at me. Here I am, alone in the woods with a bag of meat on my back and a big bear staring me down. It took about 3 seconds for me to decide to shoot the bear based on my circumstances( I had my fall tags for bear as well). I was standing downhill from him and between him and the deer gut pile and hide, and the body language from him made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
I snapped my rifle to my shoulder and fired. He bolted uphill and into the brush. My hands were shaking as I chambered another round in my rifle. I heard a crash and the bear bellow. I stood there trying to catch my breath for two minutes, unsure of whether or not to move or if the bear went down. Here I am with a load of meat on my back and a bear nearby that I wasn’t sure if it was down or not. I got on the phone and let my friends know what had happened, hung my pack on a tree and slowly looked for the bear. I found him down in brush about 25-30 yards away and he was dead.
Called a friend and told him what happened, he got his stuff together to come up and help and I got to work on skinning and quartering out the bear.
My friend made it up quickly (pretty sure he ran up the mountain). Joker decided to sneak up on me while I was gutting and skinning and growled at me, Im pretty sure I jumped 5 feet in the air. We had a good laugh over it afterwards.
we got the hide separated and rolled up and the meat bagged and hung in a tree. For a fall bear, he had a great layer of fat and good looking meat. We were trying to get the skull out when we realized how fast we were losing daylight. I put the hide/head in my frame pack(did a sloppy job of that due to rushing) and we started heading down, my friend carried my deer meat in his pack.
We took a wrong turn going down in the dark and ended up bushwhacking and falling most of the way down the hill. At one point the bears head shifted on my pack and threw me off balance and I fell backwards downhill and luckily right into some tree roots that stopped me. An hour and a half later we made it to the bottom. My neighbor was waiting with beers on our deck. I didn't sleep well that night and ended up waking up at 430 am to finish getting the skull separated from the hide.
The skull ended up scoring 17 12/16ths, haven't had a chance to measure the hide yet. all in all it was quite the experience, and hopefully the last time I shoot a bear in terrain like that. Thankful for 2 good friends that were willing to come help when I needed it, and looking forward to the rug coming from this bear as a good story to tell in the future about my first bear hunt that was completely unplanned.
Woke up early to hunt a muskeg behind my home, it’s about an hour walk/climb through some rough terrain and thick brush. I didn’t have high expectations and hadn’t had any luck with blacktails so far. A minute into the woods and I almost walked into a fawn and doe on the trail that didn’t seem bothered by my presence.
I took my time going up through the woods, made it to the edge of the muskeg and decided to walk to a second muskeg, and called as I moved slowly. A doe ran out 10 yards from me at a small dip in the terrain, I watched her for a minute while she investigated me. Another deer popped out of the brush to check me out and I realized it was a buck. I sidestepped for a clear shot, as soon as he turned broadside I fired and had a perfect heart shot from 20 yards. He ran and went down in another small dip in the terrain less than 20 yards from where I shot him. I was ecstatic.. The deer was a spike, but it was my first buck ever after days and days of hitting the woods and striking out here.
Gave my friends a heads up by phone that I had a deer down and got to work quartering him out where he went down.
I had bagged all the meat and head and strapped it into my pack and put my pack on. As I turned around and got ready to leave, a bear came out of the brush 10 yards away and slightly uphill from me. He was broadside with his head hunched down and looking straight at me. Here I am, alone in the woods with a bag of meat on my back and a big bear staring me down. It took about 3 seconds for me to decide to shoot the bear based on my circumstances( I had my fall tags for bear as well). I was standing downhill from him and between him and the deer gut pile and hide, and the body language from him made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
I snapped my rifle to my shoulder and fired. He bolted uphill and into the brush. My hands were shaking as I chambered another round in my rifle. I heard a crash and the bear bellow. I stood there trying to catch my breath for two minutes, unsure of whether or not to move or if the bear went down. Here I am with a load of meat on my back and a bear nearby that I wasn’t sure if it was down or not. I got on the phone and let my friends know what had happened, hung my pack on a tree and slowly looked for the bear. I found him down in brush about 25-30 yards away and he was dead.
Called a friend and told him what happened, he got his stuff together to come up and help and I got to work on skinning and quartering out the bear.
My friend made it up quickly (pretty sure he ran up the mountain). Joker decided to sneak up on me while I was gutting and skinning and growled at me, Im pretty sure I jumped 5 feet in the air. We had a good laugh over it afterwards.
we got the hide separated and rolled up and the meat bagged and hung in a tree. For a fall bear, he had a great layer of fat and good looking meat. We were trying to get the skull out when we realized how fast we were losing daylight. I put the hide/head in my frame pack(did a sloppy job of that due to rushing) and we started heading down, my friend carried my deer meat in his pack.
We took a wrong turn going down in the dark and ended up bushwhacking and falling most of the way down the hill. At one point the bears head shifted on my pack and threw me off balance and I fell backwards downhill and luckily right into some tree roots that stopped me. An hour and a half later we made it to the bottom. My neighbor was waiting with beers on our deck. I didn't sleep well that night and ended up waking up at 430 am to finish getting the skull separated from the hide.
The skull ended up scoring 17 12/16ths, haven't had a chance to measure the hide yet. all in all it was quite the experience, and hopefully the last time I shoot a bear in terrain like that. Thankful for 2 good friends that were willing to come help when I needed it, and looking forward to the rug coming from this bear as a good story to tell in the future about my first bear hunt that was completely unplanned.
Last edited:
