Archery Grizzly Success
 

Well, first night out and I filled my grizzly tag on the Dalton. Just north of Ice Cut we spotted a grizzly crossing the road and heading east towards the pipeline. Several big rigs (so called Ice Road Truckers on the History Channel) were heading through, and really worked him up, so he ran well past the pipeline and started foraging around out there. I was dropped off and began the stalk, but he was out in the open so I got to the pipeline and figure out what to do from there. He started heading further east, and headed down the ridge some, but turned and kept south, so I paralleled him on the west side of the pipeline VSM's (Vertical Stand Mounts) and was either going to head out after him if he crested over the ridge much further, or set up an ambush if he decided to come back my way.

As luck would have it, he came back my way, almost on a string. The VSM's are 60 feet apart, and he walked right between two VSM's. I was on the north one and he was about 5 yards in from the one to my south. He got back on my side of the pipeline and the wind carried my scent right to him. I had already drawn my bow when he was at 15 yards and his head was behind the VSM, so I was ready to go, but did not have a shot yet because of some bushes. He started to trot off, so I yelped at him a few times and he stopped for a quick second to look back at the noise. I already had my 30 yard pin on him and touched off the shot like it was second nature. The arrow sailed perfectly blowing right through him and sticked straight up in the tundra about 10 yards past him. He hauled fur across about 50 yards to the road and went another 50 yards past on the other side before laying down. About 2 minutes went by and his head was down and he was no longer moving. Meanwhile the adrenaline is flowing and I'm all sorts of jacked up. I knew it was a dead bear when I saw the arrow hit, it was just a matter of having to wait. 15 minutes later and we are taking pictures.

Unfortunately there was no video. My buddy driving had to drop me off and get out of there because of all the traffic. Tons of big rigs heading north and south, and a couple guys got a real good view of me shooting the bear. We gutted the bear and muscled him back to the road and took him up to the boat launch to show a friend and make him help with the skinning.
This makes three grizzly/brown bears with the bow in the last three years. I was fortunate to draw one of the 20 tags for this area. It is about 50 miles south of where I shot the blond grizzly two years ago. About 100 miles south of the Arctic Ocean. The bear is a respectible 6 footer, which is average for this area. Big bears are in the 7 foot range and an 8 footer would be a moster.

Hopefully next year I can hold up 4 fingers in front of another grizzly.






Off to chase caribou for the weekend...

Jerry

Awesome story and congrats on your grizzly. Unfortunately the pictures did not come through. Good luck with the caribou!

Thanks Razor.

I guess facebook doesn't work as a photo hosting site, I'll try myspace since that has worked in the past. Should have it fixed in a few minutes.

Nice. What have you done with them? Full mounts-half-rugs?

:hail:Awesome!....you should truely be proud of such an accomplishment....

Thanks guys

So far I have only had one grizzly turned into a rug. The coastal brownie I shot last year had a collar on it that had worn the skin through to the meat, so the head just about fell off in tanning. The hide ended up being worthless for any kind of mount. I cut it down to just the good back fur and plan to make a small throw blanket or pillow out of it. This one will go in the freezer for a little while. The taxidermy bill is starting to build up with the mountain goat, musk ox and now a grizzly to deal with.

Amazing story and awesome pics.! Thank you for posting that. I am glad you made it back to this site, I have always enjoyed your stories and pictures.

Well stranger, congrats and welcome back. BTW, hows the wife and kids, did she ever get that Doctors degree in LV? I think she was going to be a doctor wasn't she? Forgive me if I'm wrong. Have you been back East again or planning another trip back this way. If so we will have to get together again.

Congrat's great story.

Great story. Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

Shane

that was an awesome story. great pics too. gotta say you got some brass ones my man. or anyone that hunts grizzly. GREAT JOB!!

ABM,

First off, great to see you again.

Next, the pictures look familiar and I know it's because I saw one and two Congratulations on number 3. I hope to add 1 some day.

Stick around. :happy0001:

Congrats on that fine animal. That there is a dream of mine for the future, in pictures.

thats a nice lookin bear

That's awesome. Enjoyed the story as much if not more than the actual pictures.

Awesome Artic, long time no see. Thats a dream hunt imo, griz with the bow, hard to beat that! Thanks for sharing.

Wow, congratulations! Great story too, and beautiful pictures. We all expect to see some caribou pics shortly too!

That's too bad. Those bills do add up and then when you get more mounts than wall/floor space ya need a new place. :)

That is Awsome !! Congrats on # 3 Artic! I hope you have more in the years to come.. I also hope to see you drop one of those 8 footers...

Awesome! I can't wait for my shot at one of those awesome bruins!

Nice
 

Very nice bear, congrats. The pictures came out very nice, great job on the story and pictures.

Congrats on your third. Great story and photo's, and thanks for taking time to share with us.

Thanks for all the comments guys. I tried to do some caribou hunting this weekend, but my buddies boat is having problems so we spent some time pushing it a couple miles through shallow water to the boat launch and spent the day trying to fix it. We have some parts being overnighted to us, so hopefully we'll get him back in line.

I've been logging on and checking out the threads, just not posting much.

Rick, I don't have any plans right now on coming back east, but if I do I will definately let you guys know. Tammy is really wanting to head up to the north east and so some antique shopping. Hope all is well with you guys.

You sure are liv'n the dream!:s3:

Awesome hunt man. Good luck on the caribou.

Awesome!!! Congrats... what a beautiful bear... great pics!!!! Thanks for sharing.

Congrats man, great story. I dont think i could ever do it, but man what a wild scene that must have been

Grizzlies with a bow, now that is a hunt. Congrats on the success and great story. I love the pics too. It's cool to see the pipeline in the back of the last picture.

Awesome JOB!!!!!!!

Beautiful bear and a good story! Thanks for sharing.

wow great story, had my heart racing just reading it, can't imagine the emotions you must have felt being that close!!!
thanks for sharing!!

awesome congrats on the nice bears. a dream hunt for many of us.