Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Spring Bear Success on POW

About a 18months ago, one of my favorite writers got a television show, and on it he hunts from his cabin on Prince of Wales Island. It was about then I started planning a hunt here with my Dad.

A couple of issues arose in our planning, my wife got pregnant (my fault) and my Dad had to have his hip replaced (not my fault). Luckily, both are healthy, but Dad has a little hitch in his get along. And I'll have a large to do list when I return.

We will be here till Friday, and will be hunting here in about 2 hours for my Dad's bear.

On to the story: We arrived worn out from the jet lag and time differences. Our plan was to hunt the west side of the island in the typical spot and stalk fashion POW is known for. However, we were beat and I asked our host if any of his guests had ever hunted down this particular river, and lake chain it was connected to. Jason said there's never been one of his hunters hunt there, so off we went. We saw two smallish bears, but that was it for the first night.

The second night, we made it over to our put in on the West side of the island and there were three other boats hunting out of that boat launch. At 3:00 we saw our first bear from the boat, and Dad dropped me off on an island between me and the bear. I crept to the other side but it was gone when I emerged on his side of the island. I made another stalk on a bear, but I was having trouble guessing the distance and I started my stalk about a three quarters of a mile away and it was gone when I rounded the corner.


On the third night, we spotted three bears but they were very boat shy. From 350 yards I could see one bear through my binos looking at us, and easing back into the woods. Another bear ran away with his pants on fire at about 300 yards. The last of the night just faded back. This was all in a quarter mile stretch from about 8:00 till dark (9:20).

Monday night we decided the boats were our enemies. We went back to the quarter mile spot, found massive amounts of bear poop, and well worn trails. Our plan was for my dad to sit near the flats where we spotted them and for me to make my way further up the creek mouth. After we unloaded, we discovered the vibrations from the prior days riding had loosened my dad's scope, so our plans changed and we decided to sit together. We found an amazingly soft spot under an over hanging spruce and I used my range finder to mark the various structures around us. My furthest shot would be 355 yards and the closest would be 93.

After about 20 minutes a blacktail doe, came out twenty yards to our left and meandered around us. (We've seen hundreds each night driving back--that hunt is being discussed already). About ten minutes later, a buck in velvet walks out about 150 yards away and while I am glassing it, Dad says,

"Theres a bear Andy, shoot it!"

The bear was following the path of the blacktail doe, and was almost in the woods when I spotted it. It looked like a big ball of black with no legs and two oreos attached to a black globe. I'd like to tell you I studied it greatly and found it big enough because I am great connoisseur of black bears and big game in general. The truth is I gasped, cursed, and maybe passed a little gas and sent a shot down as quickly as possible. My 180 gr Nosler Partition from a Tikka T3 Lite .30-06 was plenty of medicine. The bear spun around, ran and fell into the ugliest water on the whole dang island. I thought only moose did this.

It was crazy difficult getting it out of that creek and up the two foot bank. But we did, and we had a heck of a time getting it out of the boat.

It was 6'4" and guessed at about 310 pounds, and the final tally from the sealer was 20 1/4 inches.

I'd like to publically thank a couple guys who really helped me with this. First, Chesapeake pretty much helped me get all the logistics straight. He saved me tons of time and money. Ironbender, Calvin, and Ribka were all kind enough to answer my pms.

I've uploaded pics, hopefully they will show up.

Congradulations....

Congrats

Yep boat shy based upon my experience up there.

thanks for sharing

Congrats.

Well done.

Very cool, and props to the guys that helped you.

Cool to see it all work out. 20" is good sized. Muskeg runoff is special stuff.

Nice bear Andy! Congratulations!

A few more pics now that I've returned home



This is where I was sitting






That ledge was a real challenge pulling it over



catching my breath



Pulling it out



Lots of good meat

[img]http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc371/Scopolamine1/DSCN0160.jpg[/img]

Finally skinned

[img]http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc371/Scopolamine1/DSCN0192.jpg[/img]

Loaded

[img]http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc371/Scopolamine1/IMG_1547.jpg[/img]

Dinner

[img]http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc371/Scopolamine1/IMG_1582.jpg[/img]

Great story, and dinner looks very good too!

Congrats, SE is a special place.

Assuming it was a mount problem on your dad's rig, what mounts/rings?

I work hard to make it turn that color you know . . .

Good work there Scop - thanks for thinning them bears out.

Reminds me that I have 4 bear tag reports I have to file. Didn't hunt on any of them.

Muskeg--I sent that little blue hunt report card, and I look forward to hearing back from the fish and game. What kind of report do they send you about your bear?

I'm only reporting that I didn't hunt. But fin, fur an feathers doesn't like it when you don't file your reports on time. Don't ask me how I know . . .