Fall 2009- Bear, Sheep, Moose & Caribou

Spring Brown Bear  Alaska Peninsula May, 2006

Dall Sheep, Caribou, wolf in the Brooks Range

Mule Deer and Elk in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, Idaho

Wisconsin & Saskatchewan Whitetails 2006

Wisconsin/Saskatchewan, Canada  Whitetail deer 2007

August, 2007  Northern Brooks Range, Alaska  Dall sheep, caribou, grizzly bear

September 2007 Central Alaska Moose

After sheep camp, I met up with a buddy of mine, TJ Shimunek, of MI. We had another friend of mine who lives in Alaska fly us out for a spike-camp moose hunt. We had only seen a cow until the morning of day number 4, when all my calling had finally paid off. TJ and I had a bit of a late night the evening before (we won’t go there), and woke up a little late. As soon as it was light enough to shoot, I gave some loud cow calls. Just as we were finishing breakfast a bull appeared 70 yards from camp! A minute later, TJ had a 60” bull on the ground, just 100 yards from out tent, and best of all, only 150 yards from the runway! I was going to try to shoot a bull as well, but with only a couple days of season left, and the fact that my pilot friend, Matt, was really busy at work, we decided to just get the bull out of the field and head for home. It was a blast to hunt with TJ, and I think viewers will see that on camera. After the moose hunt, I headed home for 10 days to resume work on our house that I had been building all spring and summer.

October 2007 SW Alaska Brown Bear

I returned to AK on the 27^th of September to the Alaska Peninsula for brown bear. I got in 2 days before season, and my hunter, Phil Keene of FL, came in the day before season. We suffered through some awful weather until day 6. We hadn’t seen many bears, so we decided to move. It was a GREAT move! We arrived into our new camp in the evening of Oct. 6. On the morning of the 7^th, we were spotting bears everywhere! Just after noon, I spotted a big bear feeding on a salmon stream heading directly to us. We got into position to cut the 10’ bear off, and waited for him to continue feeding his way down the stream and come directly to us. We waited for 7 hours through snow, sleet, and 80 mph wind gusts, until finally darkness closed in on us and the bear was still 270 yards away. We hiked the mile back to camp hopeful we would find the bear the next morning.

The next morning, we found the bear EXACTLY where we had left him the evening before! We moved to the same spot where we had waited for the bear the day before. As the 10’ bear was approaching, I spotted another bear 1,000 yards away that absolutely dwarfed the bear we were waiting for. I would guess this bear was over 11’ square. Phil and I agreed that if this 10’ bear came in that we would take him, and not take the chance on the larger bear. Lucky for the monster bear, the 10 footer came right in, and Phil dropped the 10’ 1” bear right in the river at 90 yards. It was a hard earned trophy that Phil and I were very thankful for. Phil was one of the funniest guys I had ever had in camp. He is a doctor and a lawyer! I tried to use the 3 big words I knew just to fit in, but we had a good time. After bear camp, I flew back home to try to finish up my house.

April 2008 Wisconsin Turkey

Stacia and I both had tags for the first week of the Wisconsin spring turkey season. I tried to film myself shooting a tom. I had 4 opportunities where I could have shot toms, but the combination of gun and camera was tougher than I thought. Stacia managed to get up early with me on 2 mornings. We saw a lot of turkeys, but could never get a tom in range for her. I think she likes evening hunting better than the 4 a.m. stuff.

May 2008 SW Alaska Brown Bear

May 6, 2008 found me back on the Alaska Peninsula for spring brown bear season. Dave Casten, IA, was back for a monster brownie. As always Dave and I had a blast together, and as we always have in the past, we had good luck once again. We spotted a lot of bears until finally on day 4 I spotted “Heavy.” It took about 3 seconds to judge the bear, and we were off. It was about a 1 ½ mile stalk. We had to move slowly the last 200 yards, as we were in the open. It played out perfect. We simply waited for the bruin to come to us for the last 100 yards. With 1 shot, “The Alaskan Assassin Dave Casten” dropped the bear in its tracks!! The bear had 9 ¾” front pads! The biggest I have ever seen! It squared 10’ 2” after we skinned it. It would probably go close to 10’ 6” after it was fleshed. We took pictures that evening, and came back to skin it and pack it to camp the next morning.

Dave flew out that evening. I stayed until another guide and hunter joined me in my camp on the morning of day 6.

Hunter Dave Newcomb, NM, and guide Sean Donovan had been seeing bears, but not as many as we had, so they choose to move. Dave was after a 10’ bear, so Sean had his work cut out for him. We hunted everyday where we could see. Some days we couldn’t see but a couple hundred yards, others the wind blew so hard that you could barely stand up. On the evening of day 15 the weather finally started to break. Sean spotted a MONSTER bear. There is no telling how big this bear really was. It looked like a giant woodtick with a swayed back. You could literally see the bear’s swayed back from 2 miles away through binoculars! It’s belly hung so low to the ground you couldn’t see daylight beneath it. We made about a 1 ½ mile stalk on the bear, but he went in the other direction and over another mountain.

We woke the next morning to more fog. We were able to spot a big boar as soon as it cleared. We made a 4-5 mile chase after the bear, but he managed to stay in front of us. We lost sight of the bear after he made a wide “U” turn and started heading back towards our glassing knob. We got back to our glassing knob as quickly as we could. As soon as we got there I spotted a nice bear just 300 yards below us. I quick stalk put us less than 70 yards from the bear. Dave did some off-hand shooting to put the bear down for good.

The bear had the most beautiful hid I have ever seen on a brown bear. It squared over 9 ½’. It was a fine trophy, especially when you consider it was shot on day 16 of a 10 day hunt! I actually think it was a different bear that we were originally after, as after reviewing the tape, the second bear was much lighter colored than the first bear, but it all worked out well.