Close Call on a Big Bear
05-04-2006, 12:22 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Midvale, Id USA
Posts: 406
Close Call on a Big Bear
My brother in law Miah and his friend Roy were hunting for brown bear from snowmobiles in Alaska. They were looking for bears coming out from their dens, and had cut a set of large tracks earlier in the week, but a recent snow had covered them. Miah was hunting with a scoped 375 Remington Ultra-mag and Roy with his compound bow. They spotted a den up on a mountain side and set up on the opposite ridge for observation. They saw only one old set of tracks coming out of the den, giving the appearance that the bear had come out of the den several days before. Roy wanted a closer look at the den, so they climbed up the steep hillside to the den.
The den appeared abandoned with old mud and tracks under the earlier snow. They had been at the den for several minutes making plenty of noise and talking at a normal level. Miah had thoughts of throwing some rocks in the den to ensure un-occupancy, when Roy decided to look into the den. Roy noticed that it wasn’t very deep, then discovered it made a 90deg. turn into the hill. He poked his head in a little further, and came face to face with a bear. Yelling “It’s a Bear!”, Roy thru himself out of the opening, with the big boar swiping and barely missing Roy’s head. He fell back and into Miah, knocking him to the ground. Roy then continued down the hill, tumbling and scrambling away. Miah just regained his footing as the bruiser came out from the den. The bears focus was on Roy, then it whirled and faced Miah at 15ft away. The bear charged in, and Miah bearly remembers getting the shot off. His scoped rifle was of little use at that close of range totake aim, but the bullet penetrated the gap between the shoulder and neck, continuing on thru the lungs and spine. The fatal shot collapsed the bear in it’s tracks. It rolled down the steep incline and over Roy, burying him in the snow bank. Miah kept shooting at the bear in it’s decent down the slope, and finally emptying his rifle into the boar where it stopped.
Both men were extremely shaken, and it took them several minutes to take in the whole event. They both came to the harsh realization of how close they came to being mauled by the bruiser. After they had calmed down enough, they gutted the bear. Daylight faded and they realized they needed their pull sled to manage the hide & carcass down the slope and out to camp.
They returned the next day to find two men skinning the bear. The men were relieved to see them, and found out they were an outfitter and client who had been watching the bear for a couple weeks. The outfitter thought that the bear was killed for its gall bladder (which can go for $6000 on the black market). The outfitter told them that the bear came out of a different den, and they tracked it to this one 5 days earlier. It apparently wasn’t ready for spring and decided to go back to sleep for a while longer. They left it alone as they weren’t certain of it’s size to pursue an awake bear. It ended up measuring 10ft and weighing in close to 1000lbs. The outfitter was relieved of Miah’s return to collect such a fine trophy.
The den appeared abandoned with old mud and tracks under the earlier snow. They had been at the den for several minutes making plenty of noise and talking at a normal level. Miah had thoughts of throwing some rocks in the den to ensure un-occupancy, when Roy decided to look into the den. Roy noticed that it wasn’t very deep, then discovered it made a 90deg. turn into the hill. He poked his head in a little further, and came face to face with a bear. Yelling “It’s a Bear!”, Roy thru himself out of the opening, with the big boar swiping and barely missing Roy’s head. He fell back and into Miah, knocking him to the ground. Roy then continued down the hill, tumbling and scrambling away. Miah just regained his footing as the bruiser came out from the den. The bears focus was on Roy, then it whirled and faced Miah at 15ft away. The bear charged in, and Miah bearly remembers getting the shot off. His scoped rifle was of little use at that close of range totake aim, but the bullet penetrated the gap between the shoulder and neck, continuing on thru the lungs and spine. The fatal shot collapsed the bear in it’s tracks. It rolled down the steep incline and over Roy, burying him in the snow bank. Miah kept shooting at the bear in it’s decent down the slope, and finally emptying his rifle into the boar where it stopped.
Both men were extremely shaken, and it took them several minutes to take in the whole event. They both came to the harsh realization of how close they came to being mauled by the bruiser. After they had calmed down enough, they gutted the bear. Daylight faded and they realized they needed their pull sled to manage the hide & carcass down the slope and out to camp.
They returned the next day to find two men skinning the bear. The men were relieved to see them, and found out they were an outfitter and client who had been watching the bear for a couple weeks. The outfitter thought that the bear was killed for its gall bladder (which can go for $6000 on the black market). The outfitter told them that the bear came out of a different den, and they tracked it to this one 5 days earlier. It apparently wasn’t ready for spring and decided to go back to sleep for a while longer. They left it alone as they weren’t certain of it’s size to pursue an awake bear. It ended up measuring 10ft and weighing in close to 1000lbs. The outfitter was relieved of Miah’s return to collect such a fine trophy.
05-05-2006, 07:11 AM
#7
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 801
RE: Close Call on a Big Bear
There are some things that will never dim with time, the feeling Roy experienced when he poked his head into a brown bear den and came face to face with a lightly "resting" boar would probably qualify as one of those.
Nice shooting by Miah. There aren't a lot of guys who can shoot that well based on pure instinct.
Nice shooting by Miah. There aren't a lot of guys who can shoot that well based on pure instinct.
05-05-2006, 08:46 AM
#9
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location:
Posts: 961
RE: Close Call on a Big Bear
That reminds me of a bow hunt for elk in montana many years ago my buddy saw a hole in a hill side and decided to have lunch in it because of the wind and snow . After sitting in the opening he dug out his flashlight to see into the back where there was a wall of leaves with a basket ball size hole in the middle of it he then relized he was looking at alarge bear head looking at him , he did the same thing rolling out of there and down the hill lucky for him the the bear sayed in the den. There was an old billy goat across the hill watching the whole thing and probaly new of the den if they laugh he had to!
05-05-2006, 09:19 AM
#10
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Rural Kansas... Where Life is Good
Posts: 4,139
RE: Close Call on a Big Bear
Great looking bear, great story, and I'm glad neither of them were hurt.
It is normal practice for a hunter to crawl into a bear den, covered withtracks, to see if a bear is inside?????? I've never hunted bear,so i'm not sure how's it done. But geez, going into a den and around a 90 degree turn to look for big brown bear.... does anybody else think this is dangerously stupid? If you don't want to be face to face with a bear,and be easily put in this type of dangerous situation, then why go into the den? I'm just curious more than anything...
It is normal practice for a hunter to crawl into a bear den, covered withtracks, to see if a bear is inside?????? I've never hunted bear,so i'm not sure how's it done. But geez, going into a den and around a 90 degree turn to look for big brown bear.... does anybody else think this is dangerously stupid? If you don't want to be face to face with a bear,and be easily put in this type of dangerous situation, then why go into the den? I'm just curious more than anything...