2014 Brown Bear Adventure

[thecrittergitter]

Well, after a little harassment from some buddies, I figured I had better give a little run down of my recent Brown Bear Adventure in Alaska. This thread my get a little pic heavy and may get shortened up from full version slightly

So, I was given a pretty dang awesome opportunity this spring to go on an early season brown bear hunt in Alaska. Something I had dreamed of doing for years! Knowing this for the past couple months, I have been at the range shooting my rifle like its going out of style. In fact getting quite particular about my loads and my comfort zones was #1 priority in my life since the end of February. After nearly 200 rounds, I finally had what I thought was an acceptable load grouping 5 shot groups at 200 yards at an inch or less every day. I then began shooting longer ranges just to get comfortable knowing that I have 100% confidence in the gun. Ol Lawnboy came along on many of these outings and even he was busting milk jugs at 700+ yards. Now, I didn't expect to have to shoot a brown bear at long distance but when you are busting milk jugs at 900 yards, the 2,3,400 yard shots seem like a walk in the park

But come April 7th, I was as confident as a person could be that if any bear showed itself, it was in serious trouble.

So off I went to Alaska for quite an adventure! Little did I know that all the good luck I have built up over the past few years was about to come to a screeching halt

I will say, that its tough to beat the scenery on a hunt like this.

Here we are heading out of civilization into the middle of nowhere!

 

[thecrittergitter]

Forgot to upload

 

[thecrittergitter]

We spent the first 3 hours of the trip flying and looking for dens. Low and behold, first day out, we turn up a fresh one! We make a couple loops and BAM, there he is! Now, I expected them to be bigger than what I'm used to, but this one already looked like a shooter to me. Jonah agreed without any hesitation so we flew off over the mountain to find a place to land. In AK, you can't hunt the same day you fly so we put the plane down and set up camp to go after him the next day hoping he would stay put as he was in a very killable spot.

So we set up camp and had to wait out the day.......and had a little time for a selfie in the Alaska Snow

 

[thecrittergitter]

Next morning we had a little breakfast and slapped on the snowshoes! We were gonna go get this sucker! A mile or so hike and we should be on him no problem from where we camped.

 

[thecrittergitter]

About 3 hours into the hunt, we tracked the bear to a very unfortunate area. On normal years, there is so much snow here, that the 12' tall alders are not showing at all. This year, the south facing hillside was just dog hair thick with those alders and there was patchy dirt and rock showing.

How we even saw this bear is beyond me but this sucker put himself in a little spot about 3/4 of the way up in those alders and he was calling that spot home for the day. Man, when I got the spotter on this sucker, it wasn't even a question of big enough, it was immediately apparent that we had to find a way to kill this bear. My guide has seen a pile of bears killed over the years and he said this one was a "no brainer". I agreed

So off we went to figure out a game plan, we spotted him at 900 yards so we grabbed the packs and started cutting the distance...

 

[thecrittergitter]

So, after cutting the distance a few hundred yards, we set up to glass again to figure out a game plan. After realizing there were not many good options for going up the hill, we decided to wait him out to see if he would just get up and head down the mountain. After about 4 hours, it seemed clear that wasn't happening. And with no way to get through the alders to get close to him, Jonah says.......What do you think, you want to just shoot him from here when he stands up? I hit him with the rangefinder and said that he was closer than I though he was, and I can make this shot all day long! I was well within my comfort zone especially how much I had been shooting the past 4 weeks. This bear was as good as dead

So, I set up for the shot, dialed my range and got set. Wow!, even with my bipod fully extended, I had to stuff my pack full of coats and then lay the bipod on it to get enough elevation to shoot. You want to talk about some steep flippin hills, that country has some of the steepest I've ever been in.

I dug in and got set, Jonah was on the bear with the spotter and gave me the go ahead. I put the crosshair right where it needed to be and started the squeeze.............I'm sure I was smiling knowing how dead this bear was about to be............and BOOM! The next thing I hear just sank me...........Jonah says, you shot right over the top of him! I absolutely couldn't believe it. There was no friggin way that could happen, I literally shot over 50 rounds at distances farther than that at pop bottles and milk jugs and just hammered them............Bear waltzed up into the alders and laid back down in an unshootable spot..............The opportunity of my life and I friggin choked! Now I'm sure we have all missed shots that we didn't expect to miss, but it doesn't make me feel any better

It was a long ass walk back to the plane that night............Feeling like a friggin idiot. Still to this minute, can't explain the miss.

 

[thecrittergitter]

We stayed that night at the camp and I laid awake most of the night wondering how the heck I blew that.........did I dial wrong, was the rangefinder hitting a bush in front of the bear, was it just not reading right, was the eye point of looking through the scope that much different trying to shoot up that super steep hillside?? Who knows, the only thing I knew for sure, was I had an opportunity, and no matter what caused the miss, I knew is my fault.

So the next morning we were back in the plane looking for another bear. 5 or 6 canyons away, we found another den freshly kicked open. this one much higher on the mountains with way more snow and less places to land a plane. Unless you have a top notch pilot like I did Jonah dropped John, my new guide, and I at the top of this mountain to hammer this bear when he came out to sun the next day. They saw him when they flew John in but the bear ran back in his den when I came by. Again, had to wait till morning anyway to go after him.

Being on top of this saddle, we knew it would be best to dig the tent down a few feet to keep some of the wind off us. And an awesome evening viewing around us, knowing for sure this bear was in big trouble tomorrow. I might add that before we flew in, Jonah landed on an old lake where I could shoot my gun a few times to get my confidence back. Set up at 200 yards. Hit a spot about the size of an apple. Set up at 400 yards, hit the same spot. Set up a coffee can across the lake at 675 yards, smoked it first shot. And my shot at the bear was less than that so again, no explanation other than it clearly had something to do with shooting the steep angle that I wasn't used to.

 

[thecrittergitter]

This is right about where the rest of bad luck started rolling in.............about midnight, a big blizzard rolled in and started pounding us..........And one quick peek out of the tent in the morning made me not even want to get out to piss......

 

[thecrittergitter]

Here we were, sitting hours away from heading out to get a bear that looked like he had been coming out of his den every day for a couple days, and we can't see 50 yards from the tent! You have got to be kidding me.........

And........the sound of that snow beating the tent didn't stop for over 50 hours! Yep, that's right, got to spend 2.5 days and 2 nights laying in a friggin tent in a sleeping bag while my bear 1/2 mile away was probably crawling way back in his den....

By the way, its hard to smile after being stuck in a tent that long when you have so much riding on a hunt that you need every minute of......

 

[thecrittergitter]

After a couple days of that crap and nearly 30" of new snow, we could finally get out and see again.....

Pretty awesome viewing that day, even got a bit sunburnt on the ol face I wish that bear den wasn't buried in over 2 feet of snow now. Sat at that den for over 14 hours.........no bear.

Notice in the 3rd pic, our tent

 

[thecrittergitter]

Well, to pour a little salt in the wound, I realized that night that I only had 1 day left to hunt although I thought I had two. I set up my ticket to leave on the 16th, not realizing it was a 1 am flight which means I actually had to be at the airport on the 15th to catch that flight......idiot.

A few more pics of sitting and glassing.....during my final hours..

 

[thecrittergitter]

And just to kick me a little more when I was down on my luck, Jonah's next client flew in the night before and they ended up spotting a big bear before he even made it to camp. Next morning, they hopped on the snowmobiles and shot a 9 footer a mile from camp Hey, sometimes that's how the dice roll.

Jonah, actually found another bear that he was going to get me on the next morning but when he came and got me, I explained I needed to be at the airport that night so I was screwed. He tried to talk me into staying a few more days as he said there was no way I was leaving without a bear but one thing became clear to me on this particular trip that has never hit me like this before.

I really missed my family and there wasn't much that was going to get in the way of me getting home to see them...........apparently, not even a brown bear. Chances were really good that I would have killed a bear had I stayed two or three more days, but just couldn't do it....

I'm not sure if I'm turning into a pansie ass or what, or if its the long sit times in a tent, but I can't tell you how many times this went through my mind...." I sure wish I was home with my wife and kids"...........but it was a lot

This is a good example that hunting is hunting, and there are no guarantees, no matter the hunt. You win some, you lose some. No matter how good your odds are, you can't change the way some hunts are laid out for you. Jonah has now taken 19 clients and 18 of 19 have all gone home with bears...........I'm the only one ever to not go home with one But I had my chance, I just blew it.

There is one thing you can bet on, I will be going back! Not sure when or which one of my kids is going to lose their college savings account to make it happen............but you can bet I will be looking down another brown bear through my crosshairs in the future, and this time, I will put my money on me

Hopefully you all enjoy the story, even though there is no dead bear at the end. I'm sure a Montana Black Bear is going to pay the price for the whipping I got

 

[havgunwilltravel]

Sounds like a great adventure CG and i can only imagine the patience required waiting in the snow for those bears to make a move. I guess you might have shot the read distance from the rangefinder and not the 'actual' distance taking into account the angle of the hill with your turret adjustment and perhaps the elevation might have been different to where you were shooting the milk jugs back home.
Good luck next time.

 

[kansasdad]

What a Great Adventure! Amazing photos in the brilliant snow.

 

[1_pointer]

That looks like a super adventure, congrats on just being able to go! That's a bucket list hunt for me and one I doubt I'll ever make. Thanks for sharing.

Is it possible you shot high because, at steep angles, the line of sight distance is much longer than the horizontal distance (Pythagorean theorum?) which is what affects bullet drop?

 

[L. I. Yankee]

Great story and pics critter....I love nothing more than being away on a hunt but when I am I to miss my family terribly.If you are doing your job as a good father and husband your gonna want to be home...You did the right thing by going home.You will get back there one day and possibly get your bear.I to few years back flat out missed a layup on a 190+ whitetail and still haven't gotten over it. Maybe one day I will have another chance at on e like that....or with my luck....probably not.....

 

[Nameless Range]

Thanks for the write-up. That early season brown bear hunt sounds like a tough one. Beautiful country.

 

[noharleyyet]

I always enjoy the awesome ride along your threads avail. Thanks critter.

 

[02bfishn]

Thanks for the story and photos. Cool that you were able to get images of him even if you didn't get to bring him home.

If it was the shot angle that burned you - might check out the "Shooter" app for your phone. It will figure all the factors including angle using your phone and give you a solution. Pretty cool app.

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

Hell of an adventure, Critter. I especially like the pic of your tent after the blizzard. It will definately make it that much sweeter when you do connect with your bear; which I am guessing you will take another swing at