Got my first brown bear ever with my bow here on Kodiak this past November after 9 years of trying. I was hiking into the river and as I was approaching it I saw movement to my right. I knelt down and peeked around some alders and here he was coming right down the middle of the river. As he got directly in front of and below me, walking from my left to right I drew my bow. The movement must have caught his eye as he stopped and looked up right at me. My heart was in my throat as I let the arrow fly 18 yards towards him. Shot was a little too far back. Bear only lept forward about 10 yards, grunted and stopped and looked right back up at me. Don't remember actually nocking another arrow, but I had, and let it fly before I knew it. 2nd arrow actually caught the spine and dropped him. He ended up dying in the middle of the river which was thankfully only 2-3 ft deep. I hiked back out to the road and called some friends to come out and help me get him out of the river for some pics. Will post a couple more pics along with this thread. The adrenaline rush was off the charts. Unfortunately my shots were off also, but thankfully they did the job farely quickly. I have taken several big game animals before but nothing had my heart racing more than this hunt. I was still shaking an hour afterwards. Highly recommend to everyone that can afford it, to go and experience a brown bear hunt. Fortunately being a resident here the hunt cost me $25.00 for the tag plus my $58.00 hunting and fishing license. Only downside is I cannot do it for another 4 years here on Kodiak being that it's a one bear every 4 years area. Oh well, there's plenty of other animals to chase here.
Take care everyone and straight shootin. Wil
Congratulations on a great bruin.
I've been to your fine state four times and only this last summer had my first up-close encounter with a brownie. Flyfishing the Talachulitna for silvers I was just concluding my morning 'constitutional' in the alders on the gravel bar when I heard a rustling in the thicket about 40 yards away. Thinking it was my dad, I said "give me a minute!". It turned out to be a good thing I had just that minute finished voiding myself, as things might have got messy when the sow and 2 cubs popped out of the thicket. She looked at me, the cubs glanced my direction then started somersaulting with each other, and then with a grunt from mom they all just sort of faded away.
I figured I didn't need any further scrubbing with the alder leaves and would just retire that particular pair o' undies as required and get myself back to the boat and the 44 under the seat.
Nice bear, great story! Thanks for sharing.
Is it true that you could actually hunt again next year, by going to a game unit with a one year waiting period, instead of a 4 year period? I am under the impression that you only have to wait for 4 years if you want to hunt the same area.....do you know if that is correct, or did I get some bum info?
Jake
