It took three tries.

After unsuccessful hunts out of Illiamna and on Kodiak Island in the two previous years I turned to Ray Atkinson for help. Ray arranged for me to hunt with Phil Shoemaker (who posts here as 458 Win) by Becherof Lake near King Salmon, Alaska.

Phil takes only 5 hunters each spring. Each hunter has his own guide. My camp was (appropriately) in the Bear Creek basin.



Phil flew me to the camp on a gravel bar in his Producer.



Here my guide Taj Shoemaker and the packer/skinner Marty Meierotto glass the valley we hunted. Taj has hunted bear all his life and Marty is a Fairbanks smokejumper in the summer and trapper in the winter. We observed an average of 6 bears per day. This area has an exceptionally high number of bears compared to the other places I have hunted. It is remote and it has a lot of salmon in the streams later in the year.



It took all afternoon in the tenth day of the hunt to get within range of this bear. When Marty spotted him he was two miles away to the left side of this picture and he was walking away from us. Marty said he was going to use his "Mojo" on him to make him turn around - then incredibly it worked! We suspect the turnaround was actually the result of the boar striking the trail of a sow we had seen the day before but Marty was convinced that his "Mojo" did the trick.



Whatever the reason, the bear climbed the back of this mountain then slid Superman style down the snowslide in the center of the picture. We were on the opposite side of the valley about 2/3 of the way up a mountainside and we rapidly rushed downward through a nasty patch of alders to the valley and creek the bear was moving toward.

Once inside the alders we lost sight of the bear which was by now in the same patch as we. We came to the creek and guessed that we should move left. After about 30 careful steps the bear stood up and looked at us. He probably heard me. Marty later said the bears head was above the alders however all I saw was fur in the scope which was set on 1.75 power.

The bear was only 20 to 25 yards away. I found a hole in the alder branches to shoot through just as Taj said "shoot".

My first shot was through the base of the neck and the bear collapsed. Then he started to rise again and the second shot struck his near shoulder. He didn't rise again after that but I gave a third one just for insurance.



Taj and I circled the alders to the clearing I am standing in here. Marty covered the bear from where we had been standing. I covered him from the clearing while Taj administered the old poke in the eye test with his rifle barrel.



Perhaps only someone who has had the privilege of hunting these magnificent creatures can appreciate the thrill and honor of taking one after so many days trying to do so. I might add that taking one in my opinion is a team effort.

This one squared 9'-4" after salting the hide and had a 26.1" skull.



For good luck I borrowed from an American Indian tradition and carved a fetish during the long winter nights prior to this hunt. After the bear was dead I left it where his soul departed this earth.



This old boar had his lower jaw smashed long ago - probably by a moose kick or a fight with another bear. He had to have lived in misery because some of his teeth were still attached to his lips but not to his jaw bone.

I wonder if this qualifies him for Saeed's outer circle?



I used 300 grain Swift A Frame loaded by Superior Ammunition. These two completely penetrated the bear to the point of just puncturing the skin on the opposite side. My third shot was a Barnes solid which passed lengthways through the bear and was not recovered.



Thanks to Phil Shoemaker, his wife Rocky, son Taj and packer Marty (Captain Mojo) for this hunt.

Special thanks to Ray Atkinson for his knowledge and connections, to John Ricks for my .375 which functioned flawlessly when it was needed and to Kathi Klimes for all the flight arrangements and changes when required. AR members can really make things happen.

Most of all - thanks to my wife Irene for her understanding and support.



I will not shoot another brownie. One is enough for any man.

Congrats Palmer. Who says Alaska isnt as good as Africa? Nice bear. Every trip up there is great no matter the outcome of the hunt. How are you going to have the taxidermy done? If I get another bear done it will be a wall pedestal. I find the rugs take up too much room and really dont get the appreciation they deserve.

Congradulations, thanks for sharing your experience, I to love the Alaskan experience and hopefully will cross your foot tracks on a similar hunt.

Congrats!

That area of AK has lots of bears, and some giants, I spent several summers in Chignik(about an hour south of King Salmon) and the terrain looks very similar. I havn't been the hunter in a dedicated bear hunt, but have been around a few...glad to see you had a good time, and appreciated that bear.


Well Done

Allen,

Congratulations, what a bear.

Regards,

Terry

NICE very NICE.Congrats!!!

Congratulations and well done!

Thanks for taking us along with the great photos and captions!

Outstanding! That's some breath-taking scenery up there. I'd love to do something like that but found a while ago that I can't seem to breathe and exert myself at high altitudes like I did when wearing pukie green and camouflougie carrying 150# including my weapon. Once again, congratulations on your bear. Weren't you the guy who hunted with Ray on that Bison hunt a while back?

Palmer,
Congratulations on a GREAT bear. Very well deserved. I especially liked your carving the fetish. He is really a bear of a lifetime.

Kathi

kathi@wldtravel.com

alaska is better than africa.

congrats on a very nice bear and thanks for sharing the photos and story with us.

cold zero

Congratulations! A splendid bear in splendid country. What more could a man ask? Happy for you Palmer. That's a milestone.

Palmer,

Great adventure and nice pics. Well done!

Regards,

Mark

Palmer,

Congrats! Wonderful photos, I know the humility one feels as you kneel to first touch these wonders of nature. It has been only a little over a week since I had the honor, I have yet to get over it and dont know if I want to.

I spoke with Phil, just for a minute in King Salmon's Airport on the 7th. he was looking forward to his hunters arriving, and seemed just as fired up for things to come as the rest of us that were there for the first time.

HBH

Thanks for the good words Allen, thats what keeps the wolves from our door!

Allen also shot a great Bison in a snowstorm with us and so did Phil, the photos I got are awsome, and he will be shooting a Cape Buffalo with us in Sept....He will fly in on the plane that Saeed and group flys out on I am thinking so Allen and Saeed and I will have some time to visit..which reminds me I had better get myself in shape, I only have 2 months and its been a tough year of surgery and what not, but I'm haired up and healed over, just need to get trim and in fighting shape, you have to be to keep up with that skinny and ugly Arab.....

I'm so truly happy for you. I just returned from my first hunt for brownies and, as you may have read, took home no bear. So I'm awfully glad you were successful on this hunt. Phil has a great reputation for helping clients get the job done.

Thanks for the pictures. Real nice paw!

Congratulations, Palmer!

Russ

Way to go, Allen! Quite a nice narrative too. The photos really bring your hunt to life.

Great bear, great story, and great pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Palmer ----- WOW, what a great story and Bear. Brings back some of my fondest hunting memories of my Bear from Cold Bay. They were about the same size and just seeing your pictures made me get mine out and relive the whole adventure. As you state, one is enough for anyone, everything else in the hunting realm is just icing on the cake. The rug or mount will always be cherished, and by the way the teeth make impressive necklaces for you and your lady. Good shooting.

Allen, thanks for being the type of hunter that makes all of us guides happy. Great photos and story as well.

Outstanding post and pics. You appear to be a very classy hunter, and I liked the American Indian tradition and carving of the fetish you left. I am a Native American and it felt good seeing this.

I appreciate everyones congratulations - thanks. I have still not quite come "down" from that experience. Alaska is incredibly beautiful and when you are there you have a sense of freedom that simply cannot be described.

Mike, I intend to mount him standing up as he was at his last waking moment. My taxidermist was very complimentary of the professional way Taj and Marty skinned (or as they say - "skun") the bear. That is just one more reason that one should be careful to select a good outfitter and guide for a Brown Bear hunt.

HI,

PALMER,that is one hell of a bear, what other big game do they have in that area,moose,black bear as I am thinking might be a great area for other game,Kev

Well done. Well told. Great pics! Capital effort.

Excellent tale, the experience of a lifetime I'm sure!

Kev,

The Shoemakers also guide for moose. From the pictures on the wall at base camp it appears they have been quite successful with the moose hunting.

I believe the caribou hunting has been put on hold where I was due to some type of "die back" a few years ago however we had caribou around us every day so that will probably be open again in the future.

I did not see any black bear where we were hunting. We did see some Wolverines.

In the summer they guide fisherman for Salmon, Trout, Grayling and Char. They fly the fisherman out to the various streams in the area for a day of fishing and then back to base camp for the evening. I believe these trips are all guided. The fishing pictures on the wall were impressive also. In fact, the general area around King Salmon and Lake Becherof seems to be full of fishing outfitters.

It goes without saying that the quality of fishing has a lot to do with the number of bears in the area.

Allen: Congratulations. That is an absolutely beautiful bear. Bears are always tough, but you did not give up and it paid off. Plus you picked a guide with an excellent reputation that hunts in an excellent area. Congratulations.