POW Black Bear

[Nemont]

A guy I work with just got back from Alaska and sent me this email and pics of the bear he took with his bow.

Jeff,
I have several other really nice pictures I wanted to attach with this e-mail, but my computer is so slow at work that it took me thirty minutes to get these three downloaded. I am just guessing as to which ones to send and don't have time to look through them right now. I will find some better shots tonight and send them later on.
If you notice you can see the feet are rubbed pretty bad. Almost all the bears on these islands have these rubs on their feet and flanks. I've heard several rumors about this everything from parasites in the salt water, shrews eating the hair during hibernation, and several other tough to believe rumors. This bear was over 6' 6" long and was 7' wide. His skull was callipered by the fur sealer in Craig at 19 9/16" and the minimum for Pope and Young record books is 18" even. Live weight on this bear is anybody's guess, but I could not physically move him to take self-timer pictures in the daylight. It took four strong adult guys over an hour to get him 200 yards to the ocean to be boated back to camp. I shot him at ten yards and I was perched on a tree root about 6 feet off the ground. He was very aggressive and was chasing and bluff charging another bear 1/2 hour before I shot him. After I got down and started field dressing him the other smaller bear (probably a 6 footer) was circling me and popping his teeth in the brush less that 20 feet several times. I was shouting and throwing sticks at the other bear and he would not leave and just got more aggressive. These bears on average are larger than most grizzly bears and seem to me to be very vocal and aggressive. This is probably due to the high bear population and the bears feasting on spawning salmon in close quarters with each other and constantly fighting to survive. All bears killed in our camp had several large scars throughout their bodies and face.
I will send some better pictures soon. You can count on me being in South East Alaska every Memorial Day from here on out!!

Mike

Nemont

 

[antlerrick]

Wow, Great Bear!
Tell him congrats!
That is strange about the rubs on their feet?
Thanks for the photos

 

[Ridge Runner]

Great story and great pics.

 

[mtnboy]

Good lookin' bear. Now there's a case for eating meat! There aren't many of our interior "vegitarian" bears that get close to that size, but give them some high protein sushi and watch 'em grow!!

 

[wyomingtim]

Double congrats from me. Heck, look at the equipment. Gotta hand it to him for taking it with a recurve and what appears to be wooden arrows. Looks like feather fletching too. Impressive.

Tim

 

[ELKCHSR]

That is some very nice bear that your buddy got, resize your pics before you send them out. Make sure they are 500 pixels on the large side. You will find it goes out faster and it won't take up so much room on the board.... Of course life size pics on the board are pretty cool....

 

[Ten Bears]

Now thats hunting.
Great looking bear too.