great info and pic, gulo, and an incredible painting Sharon, thank you both for sharing

Very nice

Great pictures as always! Thanks for sharing. I assisted with a Moose capture project here in Voyageurs NP probably 20 years ago. It appears that the MD500D is the ACETA machine of choice.

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Indeed, the 500D is my ship of choice for most work. The r-22 or R-44 (Robinson) piston is better for ungulates at lower elevations. I will use the 500D because of the maneuverability and more so, because I have a pilot with a 500-D that I trust implicitly.

Jack

Same on the mainland in N SEAK, as the ABC Islands. It’s kind of cool to contemplate how many bears may have placed their feet in those tracks.

The photos are cool. The dump bears I always feel bad for. That’s not how they are meant to live. But the viewing opportunity at the dumps in the smaller communities is nearly a sure thing.

There used to be quite a few high time 500 drivers around and most were VERY good. You couldn't get me on a Robbie even at gunpoint. When the drivebelt breaks on my Tundra I have to walk home. When it breaks on the Robbie you will just wish you were walking.

The time I spent in AK, I enjoyed hunting grizzlies the most. I like sitting and glassing with my 15 x 60 Doctor glasses miles and then coming up with a plan on getting within good shooting range. Up the Steese Highway four of us sat glassing one morning, at 0830 I spotted a grizzly bear. My BIL and I headed after it. about a half hour into the stalk I could see the thermals were switching with the warm up. We headed back up hill and drove up the road a couple miles and went up over the top above the bear. Thee was benches all the way to the bottom and we would stop and glass on every bench. From the top I had glassed up something that looked white and out of place. I kept looking at it, trying to figure out what it was. I was glassing over a mile and could not tell. Every time I got down to a new bench I would look at the white thing. When we were just over half way down the hill I* saw a flock of snow birds go through my glasses while I was looking at the white thing. It looked like they were over the white thing. Right after the birds went by a hind leg and foot stuck straight up in the air from the white thing. I had the bear spotted from the top and just figured out the white thing was it. We kept moving down one watching and the other moving. When we were about a quarter mile the bear got up and moved toward us and went out of sight into the bottom. I told my BIL we were not moving until we knew where the bear was. After about a half an hour I spotted the top of the bears head about 300 yards away. We move up to a small hump putting us about 250 yards and the bear worked his way up feeding on blue berries into full sight. My BIL shot and the bear spun in circles. IT ran quartering to us, down hill. I told my BIL to let him come and about 150 yards he stopped stood on this hind legs and turned to face us. I shot him between his right front leg and ribs angling to the hind left leg. It took him off his feet, and both back feet were sticking straight up. They sunk down slow and we never saw him again. After a wait and watch of a half hour, we head down and he was not there. We never saw him move much less leave. I went to the creek bottom and found where he crossed it and started tracking him up the other side. Once I got to where he was when I shot there was spots of blood as big as a saucer and bigger ever six to eight feet. I tracked him about 50 yards in thick alder and came into a small opening and he was laying on his back spread eagle. I stood and watched him a while and had my BIL come over. He had been off to my right 10-15 yards and I never saw him until he came toward me. It was thick. We shot the bear at 1100 My BIL and one two we left on the hill and the other one we left and BIL. The bear was a six year old male. In both pictures you can see how with the right light he looks white.

Checkout the face on this one from last May. I've never seen one quite like it. 10' 7" BTW.

Dang, Waggler. That bear looks like an oversized Newfoundland!

Neat bear, Wagg. Me thinks he'd do pretty well in a fuglybear contest.

Jack

Aaaannnndddd Ken hits it outta the park, again!

Post of the year!

Bravo!!

Awesome.Congrats

I don't really trust anything other than the 500D.....and a good pilot.
Did you ever fly with Tony Reece? He owned and operated a 500D out of Darrington Washington, HiLine Helicopters. He was a legend in the Pacific Northwest. The first time he flew for me was in 1981; the last time just a few years ago shortly before cancer got him in his 80's.

Jack thank you again for answering my questions . the Grizzly bears are showing up more frequently than ever before , the last I heard about was a adult grizzly with 3 sub adult cubs north of town roughly 17 miles away from the house .

Mike I agree grizzly bears have always looked way out of place when they're digging through a garbage dump .

Sharon that's quite a picture !

Allan

Great thread folks. By the way Jack, great book you authored. Couldn't put it down.