One of Us
| I was hoping Brother Bill would complete the story to accompany the photos. The short story is we were on the Alaska Peninsula and for the first day we hunted a drainage favorable to the wind, seeing some nice bears but nothing big during the morning. Late in the evening we spied a bear I figured to be about 9.5 feet, but he was way out in the tide line moving faster than we could ever catch him, so we retired. The next morning the wind had changed but we really wanted to see if we could catch the boar we saw earlier. We geared-up with our headlamps and almost started into the drainage, when we looked at each other and asked what the devil we were doing, as the wind would almost certainly bust us, possibly sending the bear into a nocturnal mode. So, we backed-out and re-grouped. We decided to try another drainage a few miles away that would afford a better position with the wind. It was still dark when we got there, but as it got lighter we started seeing bears in a side drainage at about 1/2 mile distant. We watched what we thought were a sow and a cub for a bit as they faded in and out of view, then saw two bigger bears. One started out of the side drainage toward our position, the other was out of sight. My first impression was that the bear was a solid 8.5 to 9 footer and I suggested we get positioned on the bluff ahead in case we wanted to try for him. Bill was a little hesitant because the other bear had not emerged and did not want to take a smaller bear. As the bear got closer and we could see his swagger, huge belly, stove pipe nose and tiny ears, we mad tracks for the bluff. Bill nestled-in with his pack as a rest for the McMillan stocked, Sako actioned .375 AI. As the boar got close to the river the other came into view, showing he was indeed the smaller of the two. The big boar stepped into a little side branch of the river and grabbed a stinky old salmon, turned his back to us and laid down to eat. Bill ranged him at 218 yards which meant my 45/70 was not going to be used as a back-up! After about 10 minutes the bear got up on the bank and turned to the right, giving Bill the green light to launch the first 270 grain TSX while I manned the video camera. At the first shot through the shoulder the bear pushed off hard, doing a somersault, rolled off the bank and fell into the water. When he started to get up Bill smacked him again through right side, sending him down again. As he crawled out of the water (thank God) Bill hit him again which put him down for the count. When we got to the bear I realized he was all of 9.5 feet. Taking his paw in my hands I told Bill he may even get close to 10. After the skinning we loaded the 160 pound hide (as weighed at the airline) on Bill, I took the skull and other stuff, and off we went. Without stretching on the hide it squared 10' 2". It is being made into a live mount. The skull has been measured at 29 13/16" and currently sits tied at #29 with some other fine bears in the B&C book. The age of the bear was estimated at 20 years. Good trip, glad I was along to take crappy video! |
That's a big bear. Tell us the story!
