30/06, honestly, probably will never go back there. Plenty of places with deer and far less bears

Well I got a A for effort when it comes to chasing the bears this year. For the life of me I couldn't get on one, always next year I did hit it pretty hard for moose though. Went up to TOK and hunted with Ted, helped him get one opening day. Spent a lot of time out with my buddies Crucible6 and Cory around here, then took another buddy out the last week to my moose camp and he connected on the last day on a nice 53 incher.

I passed on three different bulls. The one I couldn't 100 percent say he was over 50 and of course he was a 2x2 on the brow tines. One looked like a spike but he wouldn't budge from behind a willow for me to get a better look and when he did move it was with a quickness. The third one, well I might have screwed that on up. I had just walked back into camp. It had started raining and the wind had kicked up pretty good. It had blown the tarp off the tent. So as I was standing there fixing it I looked up river and there stood a moose looking at me! I grabbed the gun and ran over to a tree for a rest got it in the crosshairs as it started walking across. It was about 200 yards away and when I first looked I thought it was a cow. Then I saw that it had a button! I grunted and he stopped and looked at me. When he turned his head sure enough on the left side he had a spike! I decided that if he kept going I'd pop him on the far bank, if he turned around I wouldn't have a shot and he would walk. Well you can guess what happened

A few months ago Wolverine Hunter asked me to go on a Brown Bear hunt with him after he picked up one of those coveted Kodiak Brown Bear tags.
I never been there so I figured what the heck sounds like a great adventure and I get to shoot blacktail deer to 🙂 Well I bit off more then I could chew!
I have hunted brownies for a few years now and have taken a few. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of how they operated their habits and such. Make no mistake I respect those animals and the power that they have. I totally never realized their aggressive nature though especially when they are really hungry!
I met up with him and his son in Anchorage, flew to Kodiak, then hopped on a Beaver ( float plane ) that flew us to the head waters of a bay. It is pretty country there! Huge mountain ranges, snow capped, and tidal flats that were covered in grass.

The amount of ducks and geese we saw made me kick myself in the butt for not taking a shogun along! We got camp set up the first evening there, the second day it poured so we hung out at camp till the following day.
The next day we started scouting to find a good spot to glass and look for bears. We headed up one river drainage and there were bear track all over! Seemed like alot of 6-7 footers based on the size of the track.
From there we cut across the tidal flat. The amount of sign we saw was like none I had ever seen! Fish heads all over the bank as we followed streams that drained into the bay.

Once we crossed the flats we continued up another river drainage. There was a knob on the map that looked like it would be a good place to glass from. As we approached the knob I spotted a nice blacktail walking down the river! We held up and when it was 70 yds away I harvested it. It had dropped right beside a big log which was perfect for placing the meat keeping it outta the sand and getting it ready to be packed out.
When I started the butchering process WH and his son decided to go up the knob and look around. It was a good over watch of were I was at and honestly I had no fear of a bear coming around in broad day light after I had shot. That was a huge mistake on my part!

I had laid all the meat out on the log, the back straps, the quarters, and one side of ribs. I was working on getting the last rib section off when I heard a whistle. I looked up at the knob and seen WH and his son both pointing down river. I didnt know what they were pointing at. A deer, a bear? Well I figured I better hurry up and finish what I was doing.
From WH's point of view.... They saw the bear about a quarter mile down river chasing the zombie salmon. (spawned out and dying salmon). When all of a sudden it lifted its head and put its nose into the wind. Once it caught wind of the deer it went into a dead run following the smell! It ran directly below them headed towards me when they shouted at me the second time!

When I heard the shout I looked up the knob and all I could see was a big bear coming at me full tilt! The first words and thoughts were OH S***!! I dropped my knife, grabbed my day pack and gun and started running away from the deer. My thoughts were the bear had seen the deer and that it would go directly to it.
Well I was dead wrong. It went past the deer and kept coming right at me. It is a pretty scary feeling when you see an animal full of blood lust bearing down on you. The look on that bears face, the huffing it was making I knew it wasn't going to stop.

It was at that split second I knew I had to strand my ground or get balled up by this bear. I stopped and started yelling at it and at 40 yards it got its one and only warning shot. It feels pretty humbling when your standing there facing a 800 lbs plus bear with a little .223.
Well the warning shot worked. The bear stopped dead in its track realizing I wasn't a deer, turned and ran right over to the deer that I had laid out like a chef! It grabbed the carcass and made a bee line into the brush. I made a bee line down river from that dang bear 🙂

That's a better description of how it happened. I was hoping you'd tell the story, since you were the bears focus and had the most excitement.


WH said he had a bead on the bear and that if it had gone another 10 yds he would have shot. The season didn't open till the next day and I am glad he didn't shoot it then. Long story short the bear got my deer, and 3 knives.

The next day we went back to that same location and guess what was there, yeah the same bear 🙂 We were down wind and were able to get within a hundred yards of it. We waited for about a half hour until the bear gave WH a a good shot and he harvested the bear.
Now after what happened the day prior we decided that 2 of us would work on skinning the bear and one would keep watch. Sure enough WH's son was standing on that log scanning the river when out walked another bear! It made a bee line for us!

We all grabbed our guns and stood about 10 feet apart and started yelling and waving at that bear! At 60 yds it decided that there were to many of us and that we weren't giving up the chow so he lingered for about 20 minutes before he moved on. I am grateful and appreciative that WH's son stood watch and spotted that joker when he did. If it wouldn't have been for him that bear would have literally popped out 20 yds behind us due to the brush.
WH and his boy went back two days later to see if anything had messed with the carcass and sure enough about a 9 footer had dragged it up into the alder thickets and buried it!
We tried to hunt for deer the remainder of the trip but the thought of having another negative encounter kinda hindered that 🙂

Still got 2 hunts that are on the table, one for Montague for deer, and one up on the Taylor when the bou come in, in numbers.
Did a little beaver trapping, picked up a couple for bait.
I am all set for trapping season, traps are waxed and dyed, snares all set up and ready to go, and I have been collecting as much bait as I can. Now all I need is some freaking cold weather and snow!!!

Headed out in the am to do a little scouting. Be safe out there guys!