He did his polar bear killing in late fall and early spring, while taking his wife and kids on a 1000-mile round-trip in a snowmobile pulling a covered sled each year. He and his wife lived in Gjoa Haven, a village on Cambridge Island in the Arctic Ocean, and his wife had a sister who lived in Rankin Inlet, another village on Hudson's Bay.
As soon as the ice formed on the ocean, they'd load up and head out, dropping off fuel cans full of gas in caches along the way, with meat from caribou they killed. He'd also set traps for Arctic fox, wolverine, and wolves, but when he spotted a bear would make a stalk. As I recall he got a bear on most trips, but I don't know if he also brought along a .30-30 (his "big" rifle) in case of emergencies. He didn't mention it, but had killed polar bears with the .30-30, which is how he knew it made too big a hole in the hide, which cost him money when he sold the hide, even after his wife sewed up the hole neatly.
After visiting in Rankin Inlet for a while, they'd head back, using the gas and caribou meat cached on the way over, and pick up the frozen carcasses in the traps.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
