My dad hunted Alaska when I was 3 years old and I grew up watching the 8mm video of his hunt. I knew some day I to would go to Alaska for an adventure of my own.

Jake Jefferson of Black River Hunting Camps and I had talked a few times and I had been watching his hunt reports here on the AR forums. We decided to throw my name in the hat for a Kodiak bear tag and I was lucky enough to draw on the first try. Many e-mails back and forth with Jake and help from the guys on 24 hour campfire and here on AR and I was ready to go.

We flew out with Andrews Air on the 27th. It was a bluebird day no wind or rain. Got the tent set up and had a nice 8+ ft bear go over the snow saddle 1000 yards behind the tent. Didn’t sleep much as I was dreaming of kodiak bears running all over the hillsides.

About 45 min. before we were scheduled to get up a light rain started to hit the tent fly. It wasn’t until the next morning that it gave up enough to let us out of the tent. During the rain delay I made it out for a few minutes towards evening and spotted a bear 1 3/4 miles away.

We spent the whole next day set up on a ridge hoping to get a better look at him but he didn’t show. On the way back to camp that evening we spotted the bear that would be known as "our bear".
April 30th. All of the next day we waited for him to show himself but just like the day before this bear didn’t show. We did manage to see a sow with a single cub and one other rubbed 7 ft type bear.

May 1st. We went for a walk down the beach to a new valley and saw quite a few deer and fox and one pretty decent 8 ft bear with some minor rubs.

May 2nd. The breeze was blowing up the valley with a little left to right in it. We decided to check a new valley near camp that Jake had taken a 10ft + bear out of a few years back. We hugged the right side of the valley to keep our scent out of the bottom an left slope as these were the most likely areas the bear would be. As soon as we sat down Jake said "Bear". This bear had caught our scent and was headed out of the valley. In 10 Min. he covered more ground than we could have in the rest of the day. He as in my opinion the biggest bear we saw on this trip. 10ish. Rubbed some on his right side. Also got to watch a sow with nice hair that had just come ut of her den.

After buggering up this valley a little bit we decided to go look for "Our Bear". Walked the ridge over and there he was same elevation and 100 yards from the first time we saw him. We decided to make a push for him as we had 4 hours before dark. 2 hours later we were within 180 yards of him. Only one problem he chose to bed in a really tough spot. They always do that. He had alders below and on both sides of him and a little ridge with devils club hiding him from the top. Even though we were above and to one side of him he was well hidden. We were not sure even if he stood if that would do it.

Rather than force the issue we decided to back out and come back the next day. That was really hard for me but Jake said it was the smart thing to do. He was right.

May 3rd. 6th day of the hunt. We got up early and headed to a spot in the valley about 600 yards below where we left him beaded last night. As far as we could tell he hadn’t moved. Now the waiting game was on. We needed him to make a move in any direction. About 3 in the afternoon he started to stretch and move around a lot. 15 min later he was on his feet. The hunting God's must have been smiling on us for our patience because he decided to feed down the mountain. He kept working down the mountain and we kept working closer to the base of the hill. Alders on the valley floor made our approach pretty slick.

I practice mainly off underwood shooting sticks and because of the steep uphill angle getting set up took me a while. First try was awkward because of the steep angle, second try was kneeling holding the side of an alder branch not awkward but to unsteady for a shot like this. Third try I used an alder base for a backreast and my sticks for a rock solid setup. Safety off and only one alder branch the size of my thumb angling across his chest. Just need one step!! That’s when he threw his nose in the air and took a couple of long pulls. It was easy to tell he wasnt just checking the wind he was trying to figure out just how much trouble he was in. Jake said "you better shoot" but I needed one more step. As it turned out he didn’t give me one more step but turned and went straight away I didn’t want this shot but thought I may be forced to take it. Jake hooted at him to get him to stop. I gave him a step to see if he would but no luck. As I was following him through my scope He reached forward with his front legs to start covering some real ground. Hard quartering away the scene went into slow motion. I pulled ahead a little and squeezed off the shot. Jake later said he almost buckled but regained footing. That first shot caught him on the back ribs right side and ended up in the meat of his front left shoulder. Jake gave a follow up shot through the chest and as I got back on him he was headed across the slope. My second shot broke his spine near the hump and he tumbled into a clump of alders and was done. WOW that was a rush! When we stood up to go check him out my feet didn’t work so good for a few steps until I settled down. We had "Our Bear"

He had better fur than we could have hoped for; dark and no rubs. Nice long white claws and worn teeth. Estimated at sealing of skull and hide to be about 10 years old. 9' 2" sq. 26 1/2 skull. Long legs fairly short body 10'+ legs meas. and 8'+ nose to tail. Also he has a split lip and the layer of extra pad tissue that they get in the den was still on his feet. Pictures to follow.

Special thanks to Jake and everyone here on AR for all the help.
Dean

Nice Bear

That's a beauty- I love the big white claws on him!

Camp on Kodiak



Split lip


Jakes 100th bear

What make & caliber rifle, bullets etc?

Awesome bear! Congratulations on a great hunt and thanks for sharing the story. That guy's got great fur and claws too.

Bob

I used a 375 H&H with 270 gr barnes tsx over R-19. 2700FPS. The one bullet that didnt exit hit a small alder twig about 4 ft in front of the bear.I found a little bit of wood fiber in the hollow tip of the bullet. Only 2 of its petals opened at all and it was sitting sideways in the leg muscle. Still tumbling through the chest cavity was pretty hard on him. Dean

Jake, Would you link or paste your post from the Alaske outdoors forum here for the guys on AR to read? Jake wrote a story of our hunt that is a much better read than mine. I stated most of the facts with hopefully a few interesting side notes. Jakes story creats a picture you can almost see especially if you have been there before. Dean

Very nice bear. Thank you very much for sharing!

dean no prob buddy heres my rough version...

....my eyes squited against the rare kodiak sunshine as i slumped in my seat to see under the wing. The soft drone of the beaver echoed in my head somewhere, its easy to echo in my head, i keep alot of it empty. We banked softly thru the pass and into the valley that feels like home. Bear trails run like viens from brush patches to creek banks, weaving there way around the valley floor and walls, appearing as an unorganized mess, but yet extremely efficient and tactfully laid out.

After my eyes adjusted from the bright trackless snow and I could see into the leafless alders and flattened grass, I glanced straight down, perhaps knowing somehow that i needed to? A dark ominous form was positioned between a snow slide and alder patch. I craned my neck and face against the window to follow it with my eyes as long i could, desperatly wanting to know if it was a brown bear. My gut said yes, my eyes said maybe and my mind said move on. With no resolvement, i turn back forward.

22 hours of heavy rains gave me time to get to know my client, Dean an eye doctor from Iowa. He was beginning to get antsy. Kodiak rain will do that to you. My new cabela's XWT 10x10 defeated every rain drop, often times its the little things. Like a tent working to help a trip be an adventure and not a survial trip.

We spotted him on day 2, when the sun was out beconing the island back to life. Deer grazed on almost every hill side, one of the boone and crocket bumble bee's whizzed by and the foxes were out on the beaches digging around and watching the whale as it coasted thru the bay. A good day. But to late in the evening.

To sum up the next several days...it rained. on day 4 or 5, we saw him again. A tall long legged bear, dark against the brown carhart colored grass, but on this day we saw him bed.

A fine location he'd picked, the intersecting point to about five brush patches, laden with black berry bushes and dense alders surrounding him. No weak point i could find to break in and trash his house. We set up at 200 yards and just waited...and waited....you get the idea. Our wind was squirrely, not wanting to bust him from this valley wall, we eased out and let him lay. There will be another day...tomorrow.

On day six we moved back into his neighborhood slowly, with the my Big Eye (swarovski spotter) tearing apart the landscape. We found him....again. He hadn't moved, still slumbering in his bed. Taking up a mobile postion 500 yards out we sat and waiting,dreaming of ways he could move that would be great for us and bad for him, fretting about ways he could move that would be great for him and bad for us! Taking about shot placement and our sandwhiches. roast beef with barbacue sauce...ya.

You could see the restlessness in the bear, he rolled and flopped around. Stretching and reaching, sniffing the air and flopping back down. I didn't dare try to make a move on him as he acted ready to move himself. He did. he rose from his bed, he tiny black marble eyes standing guard as his nose went to work...satisfed he was alone he began to graze. straight down hill!!! perfect, we hadn't though of that one. We slide forward, workin' tight to the alders to break up our outline along the grass, moving when he was distracted, stopping when he stared. He slid down the hill a few yards on his rump, like the neighbors dog does on the carpet...never taking his eyes off the valley. We slithered thru some thick alders, duckin' and weaving our way under and over tender dead limbs and devils club. but on this day, none of it seemed to hold us back, only add concelement to our mission. 230 yards we stopped, unless he came down more, this was going to be the kill floor. he was in some pretty open country, a couple small bushes that want to be alders when they grow up decorated the grass patch he stood guard over. it was one of those junior alder branches that now kept us from shooting....

we waited....he stared, we stared. he sniffed, we wondred. Then it happened. His nose shot into the air, reaching out with his head as far as he could reach as if there was just one odor just to far to grab that he needed desperatly....he reached it. The smell of Dean filled his nose (deans taller than me so i just figure the bear smelled him first.. ) spinning on his haunches he headed up hill. "you'd better do it, you'd better do it!" i uttered, a soft bark to try to stop him, no, he sped up, "do it, do it!"

Well, Dean did it, a perfect vital shot from a .375 took the bear on a hard quarter away, stopped him, but not rolling him. I heard the soft empty metallic song that empty brass sings when it flies thru the air and lands softly in the wet grass. knowing dean was not loaded yet and the bear on the move again i fired thru his chest as well...as the bear climbed thru one of the young alder bushes the last shot to be heard in the valley that day broke the bruins back and dropped him on the steep slope. 60 yards or so from the security of his bed. Dean had done it, two perfect shots, one perfect bear.

We pounded fists and talked of hugging, but both figured it would be awkward. We rolled the bear down the hill for better pictures and skinning. Found him to be a big 9'2" boar with long legs and a 26.5" skull, estimated age of 9 years old. His lip was split in half years back and healed up this way. it will be remembered in the lifesize mount.
Another great client, with a great attitude and expectations made this a great trip for me and him as well.
This was my 100th bear....never saw that day coming.

very nice bear. Congratulatiosn to the hunter and to the guide

Excellent. Like the scared lip. Hope taxidermist captures all the attitude. Congrats.

Smarterthanu, I stopped at the taxedermists shop today and we talked about the mount. Plan on doing a life size standing on all 4 legs. Hope to use some shells and rocks from the beach near camp. Also we found a grey whale vertebrae that is being shipped to me after being ok'ed by the marine mammal agency [ thats not the correct name but you get the idea]. Anyway I plan on keeping the split lip split but may have him tuck it up a little so it isnt distracting from the mount. Dean

well if i'd have known you didn't like the split lip dean i'd have had you shoot one with out it!! uniquness (sp) never distracts from a mount...

Yeh Jake I didnt want to say anything about my bear being deformed and a freak. From the pictures you can probably tell how much it bothered me!:] Maybe we should have went after that one 6-7 ft poodle bear we saw at least he probably didnt have a deformed lip!!

Great bear many congratulations. Of all my trophies I rate my Alaskan brown bear as probably my best trophy, not from a size point of view but from the overall experience of the hunt.

quote:

Smarterthanu, I stopped at the taxedermists shop today and we talked about the mount. Plan on doing a life size standing on all 4 legs. Hope to use some shells and rocks from the beach near camp. Also we found a grey whale vertebrae that is being shipped to me after being ok'ed by the marine mammal agency [ thats not the correct name but you get the idea]. Anyway I plan on keeping the split lip split but may have him tuck it up a little so it isnt distracting from the mount. Dean

Excellent. Sounds like mount will have a lot of atmosphere and attitude. A good recipe for a trophy no one will sonn forget.

Sorry about my spelling.TAXEEEdermist???
If anyone here has info or pictures of their brown or grizzly bear mounts I would like to see them. How much floor space are we talking about for a somewhat inclined 9 ft bear on all four feet with a modest habitat surround? Thanks Dean

Congratulations Dean!

I sure like that thick, dark pelt and the ivory claws. Nice bear!

this is one sharp mount, fall brownie off kodiak, it was 10'6" not sure if you can get an idea on base size off this pic or not. but it looks sharp. don't just mount an animal on a form, create a scene that tells a story that'll take you back to that hillside forever and you'll be glad you did.
maybe mount him on a slope, don't see that everyday, be sharp set up.
pickin' a mount...good problem to have!

You can get a good idea of the size of the bear by looking at the door frame on the right side of the picture.

From the door frame the base looks to be about 3x8ft.
Jake, Thanks for the mount pic. I wouldnt try to fight that gut for the deer.

Can't wait!! I'll be grizzly hunting with Jake Aug. 2 thru Aug. 9. He surely is good about answering e-mails and taking care of details.

wpe2. Yes he is good at getting back to you about questions you may have. What ever you do dont forget to take gun oil and a leatherman with you!!:] Seems I am one in a 100. Inside joke ask Jake about it. You will have a fun hunt and that is a great time to be out after a grizz. Post pict of bear number 10_??

Great looking Bear Dean, congrats! Your taxidermist should have lots of pics and ideas I would think. Give us a view when he's in your possession. Good job Jake.
Cheers,
David

Absolutely awesome bear and two stories but from different eyes. Couldn't have been told better!!!

How was the Cabelas XWT tent? What accessories were used with the tent?

Dean, what rifle and scope?

Alan

The tent was a 10x10 with vest. It was the perfect size for 2 with cots and trying to dry things out on the clothes line in the tent.
My gun was a weatherby mark 5 stailess with McMillan stock and vx3 2.5-8. It shoots the 270tsx handloads well and thats what I used.