yhc
WKR
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2016
- Messages
- 326
Last year I had a good fortune of drawing a Kodiak Brown Bear tag for the 2nd time in a several years. In preparation for the hunt I decided to try out my newly acquired Blaser R8 w/ .458 Lott bbl. I worked up a load for it and went to a local range to give it a go. And I figured this 3 shot group at 100 yards would be more than adequate for the hunt.
My friend and I flew to the City of Kodiak and spent a night. The following morning, after checking in with the local Alaska Fish & Game office he and I flew on a Beaver to our hunting area. The tag was for the same hunting unit that I had taken my 1st Brown Bear a several years prior so I was somewhat familiar with the terrain. My friend and I decided to focus our efforts on a smaller tributary to the lake that still held salmon in late October.
On the first legal hunting day, we eased our way to a spot that appeared promising on our map recon. We intentionally moved very slowly but saw only a couple of Sitka blacktail deer running away from us while still hunting.
After a few hours, we got to the spot and set up on a game trail on the bluff of the small river. From that spot we had a several hundred yards of clear view downriver and a couple hundred yards upstream. Within first 30 minutes, my buddy spotted a sow and a cub walking away from us ~500 yards downriver. Then after another 30 minutes he spotted this gigantic boar chasing after the sow. It seemed like a great trophy bear but it was just too far away and moving away with a purpose....
Another hour passed by when I caught a glimpse of movement in my peripheral vision upriver. It was a nice looking boar. He was ~120 yards upstream when I first saw him coming around a river bend. Then we watched him jumping into an eddy in an attempt to catch salmon. At that point he went out of sight and we only heard him splashing around in the river so my buddy and I moved forward to get a better look at him. As it was the first day of the hunt I wanted make sure he was the right bear to shoot.
A couple minutes have passed when he popped up on the river bank only about 50 yards away from us, shaking off water like a dog. Now he was on the same game trail as we were on and he started walking towards us, closing the distance in no time. We had our rifles trained on him at all times since he got on the river bank but there were a few trees between us, not giving us a clear shot. By the time he cleared those trees he was only ~10 yards away heading right towards us. At that point I said “hey bear” and he came to a screeching halt. He was oblivious to our presence until then and we could clearly see his facial expression change from a happy "country bear" who just had finished fishing to total surprise and confusion!! Luckily for us he decided to spin around rather than charge at us. I touched off my 458 Lott into his vitals. My buddy’s 300 WM roared as the bear was running away at around 20 yards. The bear started to spin around in place giving me a chance to finish him off with another shot. This all went down within a minute or two from the time he popped on to the river bank to the shooting!!
It was a short but exhilarating hunt to say the least.
My friend and I flew to the City of Kodiak and spent a night. The following morning, after checking in with the local Alaska Fish & Game office he and I flew on a Beaver to our hunting area. The tag was for the same hunting unit that I had taken my 1st Brown Bear a several years prior so I was somewhat familiar with the terrain. My friend and I decided to focus our efforts on a smaller tributary to the lake that still held salmon in late October.
On the first legal hunting day, we eased our way to a spot that appeared promising on our map recon. We intentionally moved very slowly but saw only a couple of Sitka blacktail deer running away from us while still hunting.
After a few hours, we got to the spot and set up on a game trail on the bluff of the small river. From that spot we had a several hundred yards of clear view downriver and a couple hundred yards upstream. Within first 30 minutes, my buddy spotted a sow and a cub walking away from us ~500 yards downriver. Then after another 30 minutes he spotted this gigantic boar chasing after the sow. It seemed like a great trophy bear but it was just too far away and moving away with a purpose....
Another hour passed by when I caught a glimpse of movement in my peripheral vision upriver. It was a nice looking boar. He was ~120 yards upstream when I first saw him coming around a river bend. Then we watched him jumping into an eddy in an attempt to catch salmon. At that point he went out of sight and we only heard him splashing around in the river so my buddy and I moved forward to get a better look at him. As it was the first day of the hunt I wanted make sure he was the right bear to shoot.
A couple minutes have passed when he popped up on the river bank only about 50 yards away from us, shaking off water like a dog. Now he was on the same game trail as we were on and he started walking towards us, closing the distance in no time. We had our rifles trained on him at all times since he got on the river bank but there were a few trees between us, not giving us a clear shot. By the time he cleared those trees he was only ~10 yards away heading right towards us. At that point I said “hey bear” and he came to a screeching halt. He was oblivious to our presence until then and we could clearly see his facial expression change from a happy "country bear" who just had finished fishing to total surprise and confusion!! Luckily for us he decided to spin around rather than charge at us. I touched off my 458 Lott into his vitals. My buddy’s 300 WM roared as the bear was running away at around 20 yards. The bear started to spin around in place giving me a chance to finish him off with another shot. This all went down within a minute or two from the time he popped on to the river bank to the shooting!!
It was a short but exhilarating hunt to say the least.
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