Northman999
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Yukon
Wow, great pics and writeup for a great hunt!
Grizzly hunt -- pic heavy!
- Thread starter Neo
- Start date
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
Good on you to man up and go after a dream. Congrats on a beauty too!
heavyBullet
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Just off the island of MTL
Great story ! awesome bear.
My hat goes off to you for climbing that monster of a rock. It makes my little packing job look like child`s play!
In the end, I got four days out there. We flew in on Thursday Sept 17th, then had to wait until the next day to hunt (Alaskan law). The bear went down on Friday and was back at camp Saturday evening. Sunday was spent looking for a black bear or a wolverine, but the beautiful weather we had been experiencing on the first two days was changing fast. Visibility was getting hit and miss due to thick fog, and when that wasn`t a problem the high winds (gusting to around 80 km per hour I`m guessing) whipped across the tundra like they had something to prove.
In the end, I elected to pull out on Monday Sept 21, six days early. Having waited so long to get out there, I really didn`t want to come back early even if the weather was turning nasty. But I kept looking at the bear hide wondering if the 25 lbs of salt the outfitter had brought with us was enough (no criticism here, as I was well aware of the strict weight limit we had to work with on the float plane ride in, and 50 lbs of salt wasn`t an option.) The hair seemed to be setting fine except for a tiny bit of slippage along the back edge -- but as soon as I saw any slippage at all on a hide that pretty, I realized that it was time to it to a tannery. I had come for a grizzy, I had a grizzly, and it seemed foolish to risk the trophy by staying out there too long.
As it turned out, abandoning camp was the right thing to do. The day we left, an ugly weather system was on its way in and then stayed for several days -- low visibility, high winds, and a mix of steady rain and snow. So adding a black bear to the mix would have been a long shot at best.
A good bit of that size is simply hair. Which, in truth, is exactly what I was looking for. I had decided on a late September hunt knowing that success rates drop at that time of the year, but the hair quality is almost as good as a top-notch spring bear but without any risk of rubbing. Plus, a the hair on a fall bear is typically going to have a bit more sheen than one that`s just gotten out of the den. The way I figured it, I was going to have to live with this trophy for the rest of my life, and really was more interested in hair quality than the bear`s overall size. This was also the driving force in deciding to do a hunt for interior grizzly rather than costal brown bears -- as it`s the grizzlies that typically have more interesting and dramatic colouration.
That said, the bear `squared` just a hair under 7 feet -- but I`ve never really understood that approach to trophy measurement. I`m a simple man, and consider that bear a 6-foot and 1-inch grizzly, that being the measurement nose-to-tail right after the bear was skinned out without any attempt to stretch it. The skull, as measured by the US Fish & Wildlife office where we had the bear sealed was 19 inches and 7 eighths.
So as grizzlies go, it wasn`t anywhere near a record book bear. But that didn`t matter one little bit. I had hoped to find a well-coloured bear with excellent hair quality, and I found that in spades -- and got a wonderful hunt in the process.
- Location
- California (formerly from BC)
My hat goes off to you for climbing that monster of a rock. It makes my little packing job look like child`s play!
In the end, I got four days out there. We flew in on Thursday Sept 17th, then had to wait until the next day to hunt (Alaskan law). The bear went down on Friday and was back at camp Saturday evening. Sunday was spent looking for a black bear or a wolverine, but the beautiful weather we had been experiencing on the first two days was changing fast. Visibility was getting hit and miss due to thick fog, and when that wasn`t a problem the high winds (gusting to around 80 km per hour I`m guessing) whipped across the tundra like they had something to prove.
In the end, I elected to pull out on Monday Sept 21, six days early. Having waited so long to get out there, I really didn`t want to come back early even if the weather was turning nasty. But I kept looking at the bear hide wondering if the 25 lbs of salt the outfitter had brought with us was enough (no criticism here, as I was well aware of the strict weight limit we had to work with on the float plane ride in, and 50 lbs of salt wasn`t an option.) The hair seemed to be setting fine except for a tiny bit of slippage along the back edge -- but as soon as I saw any slippage at all on a hide that pretty, I realized that it was time to it to a tannery. I had come for a grizzy, I had a grizzly, and it seemed foolish to risk the trophy by staying out there too long.
As it turned out, abandoning camp was the right thing to do. The day we left, an ugly weather system was on its way in and then stayed for several days -- low visibility, high winds, and a mix of steady rain and snow. So adding a black bear to the mix would have been a long shot at best.
Good call. That skin is going to be beautiful. Where will you display it? Man room? Living room or ?
Climbing McKinley is easy enough when you are 19 and in the prime of your life
now at 38 I would need to quit my job and train for a year or more. heh.
death-junky
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Moose Jaw SK
Great pics and story good job!
Good call. That skin is going to be beautiful. Where will you display it? Man room? Living room or ?
Climbing McKinley is easy enough when you are 19 and in the prime of your life
now at 38 I would need to quit my job and train for a year or more. heh.
Good question! I`m leaning towards doing this one as a full body mount, in part because my trophy room (wood-paneled man room with a wet bar, fireplace and big screen TV in the basement
) is a bit shy on available wall space. Of course, I`m not sure how much available floor space there is either... I think I`m about one or two good hunts away from needing a new house... - Location
- California (formerly from BC)
Good question! I`m leaning towards doing this one as a full body mount, in part because my trophy room (wood-paneled man room with a wet bar, fireplace and big screen TV in the basement
The trophy room sounds good! I live in an expensive city and have 1000 square feet on the 30th floor. I need to move to the country some day. I grew up in Northern BC and loved the outdoors there.
