Northman999
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Yukon
So, I was out with my father on a much overdue moose hunt. I haven't been out with him in a few years and it was well past time.
We decided to hunt an area of the Yukon River upstream from Dawson City.
I was hunting with my accurized norc M14 and shooting 180 grain Win PP's over IMR 4895.
On the second day of the hunt we had to pass on a trophy sized bull standing broadside at 150 yards, as there was no way to retrieve him from where he was. But it was nice to watch him for a while and we didn't leave dissapointed.
A couple of days later, after passing on several decent black bears, I spotted a very large brown phase bear way off on the shoreline. After a couple of minutes of watching him through the binos, I decided to take him, and we motored towards him.
At around 100 yards he turned slightly uphill and I hit him solidly. He turned back towards the water and stepped along the shore a couple of steps and then returned to trying to get into the nasty thick bush that grows along these rivers. Not wanting to lose him in the brush, or carry his fat ass too far, I shot him again, this time between the should blades as he was moving uphill and away from me.
He tumbled on the spine shot into the water and never moved again.
The pic with me and the bear was brutal as the sun was scorching and right in my face. Tried several pics but no real good ones.
Good news is that's right where he fell; just levered him into the boat, packing is for suckers who don't know how to shoot!
You can see all the fat on that bear. Just LOTS.
The two recovered bullets are cool.
I never recoved a bullet from a hit on a bear that was not a straight on chest shot with 5+ feet of bear to stop the bullet, but both of these stopped inside.
The bullet on the right was the raking heart shot that stopped on the inside of the opposite shoulder. You can see it is deformed flatly where it stopped on an agle on the shoulder bone.
The nice mushroom bullet was the second shot, as the bear was running away from me up the steep bank and into some real #### bush, and I wanted to stop him right there. I shot him between the shoulder blades. That bullet came to rest partially sticking out of the center of his chest hair after passing though him. He fell stone dead on that shot, which was very quickly after the heart shot.
I took in the biological samples to MNR and they told me he was a twenty something year old bear and about to start declining, but was still in great shape. They strongly suggested I do something with the skull and not toss it, as it was very large. Apparently they'll have a full report I can access in several months.
The green hide measured exactly 80 inches from nose to tail; a couple of inches bigger than anything I've shot before.
As this may be the last bear I shoot with my father, and I've been hunting bears for 30 years and never had one professionally done, I'll get a nice head mount rug done up this time. The skull I'll get done as well while I'm at it.
Anyway, he'll be off to the taxedermist for professional work this week, and the rest of him is burger in my freezer!
*** UPDATE OCtober 1, 2016 - So a little update, the guy from Yukon fish and Game association came by and scored the bear. Took a good long while to be sure it was done exactly right, but in the end he scored 18 6/16 inches, which puts him in a tie for 14th overall in the history of Yukon Fish & Game Association. The bear is also the biggest this year so far.
So I guess I'm going to the annual big game dinner!
We decided to hunt an area of the Yukon River upstream from Dawson City.
I was hunting with my accurized norc M14 and shooting 180 grain Win PP's over IMR 4895.
On the second day of the hunt we had to pass on a trophy sized bull standing broadside at 150 yards, as there was no way to retrieve him from where he was. But it was nice to watch him for a while and we didn't leave dissapointed.
A couple of days later, after passing on several decent black bears, I spotted a very large brown phase bear way off on the shoreline. After a couple of minutes of watching him through the binos, I decided to take him, and we motored towards him.
At around 100 yards he turned slightly uphill and I hit him solidly. He turned back towards the water and stepped along the shore a couple of steps and then returned to trying to get into the nasty thick bush that grows along these rivers. Not wanting to lose him in the brush, or carry his fat ass too far, I shot him again, this time between the should blades as he was moving uphill and away from me.
He tumbled on the spine shot into the water and never moved again.
The pic with me and the bear was brutal as the sun was scorching and right in my face. Tried several pics but no real good ones.
Good news is that's right where he fell; just levered him into the boat, packing is for suckers who don't know how to shoot!
You can see all the fat on that bear. Just LOTS.
The two recovered bullets are cool.
I never recoved a bullet from a hit on a bear that was not a straight on chest shot with 5+ feet of bear to stop the bullet, but both of these stopped inside.
The bullet on the right was the raking heart shot that stopped on the inside of the opposite shoulder. You can see it is deformed flatly where it stopped on an agle on the shoulder bone.
The nice mushroom bullet was the second shot, as the bear was running away from me up the steep bank and into some real #### bush, and I wanted to stop him right there. I shot him between the shoulder blades. That bullet came to rest partially sticking out of the center of his chest hair after passing though him. He fell stone dead on that shot, which was very quickly after the heart shot.
I took in the biological samples to MNR and they told me he was a twenty something year old bear and about to start declining, but was still in great shape. They strongly suggested I do something with the skull and not toss it, as it was very large. Apparently they'll have a full report I can access in several months.
The green hide measured exactly 80 inches from nose to tail; a couple of inches bigger than anything I've shot before.
As this may be the last bear I shoot with my father, and I've been hunting bears for 30 years and never had one professionally done, I'll get a nice head mount rug done up this time. The skull I'll get done as well while I'm at it.
Anyway, he'll be off to the taxedermist for professional work this week, and the rest of him is burger in my freezer!
*** UPDATE OCtober 1, 2016 - So a little update, the guy from Yukon fish and Game association came by and scored the bear. Took a good long while to be sure it was done exactly right, but in the end he scored 18 6/16 inches, which puts him in a tie for 14th overall in the history of Yukon Fish & Game Association. The bear is also the biggest this year so far.
So I guess I'm going to the annual big game dinner!
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