Thunderflight's Alaska Bear Hunt
Ohio
When a hunter is asked of which were they dream to hunt the most the most common response is Alaska. With her thousands of miles of open wilderness, diverse landscapes, and abundance of game Alaska’s hunting opportunities are endless. Hunting the 49th state had always been a dream of mine and before I begin this story I think it is important to start with how it all began.
In 2006 I hunted caribou with a former Quebec outfitter. A few months later I began chatting with fellow bowsiter (Peyton in Fairbanks). Over the years our on line friendship grew and every year Peyton would invite me out for their annual black bear hunt. Since 2007 I have pretty much spent all my time being stationed overseas and regardless of the time and distance Peyton is one friend who never faded off. Peyton and his friend Bob run a pretty darn good bear hunting operations. Between the two of them I’ll bet they have 50 years of bear hunting experience. They have hosted several celebrity hunters (Jay Gregory, Lee and Tiffany, and Mark Goldsborough). This year was no different and a team from “The Crush” was there to share the adventure. This was not a guided hunt, per say, but more like a lower 48 deer camp that most of us can relate to; basically it was a buncha friends hunting together with no strings attached.
The journey from Iwakuni, Japan to Fairbanks, Alaska took about 23 hours and involved three train rides (one a bullet train), a 10 hour flight from Osaka, Japan to Seattle, USA, and a 3 hour flight from Seattle to Fairbanks. Peyton picked me up around 1630 and by 1800, after a stop at Sportsmans Warehouse, we were headed off to our hunting site.
Stocking up on bear spray. Would we need it? Only time will tell................
After several hours of driving we stopped for a break and took this picture at the start of the haul road.
I was REALLY hoping to see a moose on this trip. Peyton guaranteed me we would and a short time later these two crossed the road ahead of us. I have seen elk up close, but these two moose dwarfed them. Peyton later told me that those were both yearling calves that had probably just been kicked off by their mother.
The drive was pretty darn long; especially after 23 hours of traveling. Peyton and I were discussing bears and other types of hunting when I mentioned that I have only seen three bears in the wild and that was a sow and two cubs. A few minutes later he looks over and asked if I want to see one before we stop in camp? Of course I said yes and a short time later we pulled off the road and parked along some desolate trail on a back road in the middle of no were. Since I already had my bear tag, Peyton suggested I bring my bow and a couple of arrows “just in case”.
I was a bit concerned because I had not shot the bow I would be hunting with (Chaparral Alpine 57@28) since 2009. I had been practicing with a Chaparral Kiabab in Japan, but every bow shoots a bit different so I wanted to make sure I would be OK by shooting an arrow into a dirt clump. The clump was about 20 yards away and was quickly skewed by a well used Gold Tip 3555. Confident I grabbed my bow and two wooden arrows, made by two other good friends, and we headed down to the bait sight. As we walked down the trail I quickly started regretting this decision because the mosquitoes were just crazy. Folks, I have hunted in the skeeter infested swamps in South Carolina and they DO NOT hold a candle to Alaska! Needless to say my bug tamer suit would be getting a good bit of usage on this trip. As we closed the distance to the bait site you could hear several bears moving the 55 gallon drums around and breaking branches. Peyton was up front and told me that there were two bears, a black and cinnamon, on the bait and that the cinnamon was pretty darn good. As we both started to sneak closer the black bear took off. The cinnamon bear started to walk toward us, but later backed off and ran up a hill behind the site. At this point I figured the hunt was over, but to my surprise he started to come back and started hitting the bait again.
As I started to sneak into position to get a shot the bear once again started to leave, but turned around, came back, and this time started to walk towards me. At 15 yards we stared each other down for several minutes and as he turned to go back, I drew, picked a spot, shot, and hit him perfectly. I don’t think it would be possible to get a better shot placement as he only ran 50 yards; his death moan confirmed his demise.
Peyton and I just looked at each other in disbelief. Here we were, getting devoured by mosquitoes, in shorts and t-shirts, and I just killed a cinnamon bear! Now, for those who know me personally, they can attest that I am not the guy who is lucky enough draw blood on the first day. Normally I am the guy who is down to the wire before lady luck blesses me or sends me home empty handed. This time around the good lord was with us because I had not even been in Alaska six hours and I had already filled my bear tag!
With a bear on the ground we headed back to camp to unload the truck and then get the ATV. This time around though we would be using bug tamers and wearing pants!
A short time later, around 0100, Bob and his fiancé returned with more good news. Bob had just killed a big black bear and needed our help to get it out. Normally getting a bear out of the woods at night would be difficult, but this time of year it is daylight 24 hours a day. At 0100 it is more like dusk and a few hours later we recovered his bear and had it back to camp. As Peyton and Bob cleaned the bears the “The Crush” team (Nate Delong and Ainsley Beman) came back. They had seen several sows and cubs, but no boars large enough to shoot.
That was the end of the first day. I was exhausted by now and ready to hit the rack so when the last bear was cleaned, around 0430, it felt very good to finally lay down and get some much needed rest.
That's it for tonight. I need to start getting ready for my flight home. I'll post the rest of the story on Monday when I'm back in Japan.
thats is a sweet bear chuck! been a while since you spilled any blood man!!
Must have been the shirt. Nice bear!
congrats,nice bear and story...
Well done Marine and I like that OSTA shirt! :)
congrat's Chuck dang fine bear buddie !!
DAY II
Around 1030 am Peyton woke me up. I have to admit I was pretty darn tired, but the smell of fresh coffee and Bob’s fiancé’s moose and egg burritos added just enough incentive to get my butt out of bed. There was a lot of work to be done today. On the way to camp Peyton had told me that we would be really busy and would not have a lot of time to screw around. Needless to say he was true to his word and after breakfast we started loading ATV’s and bear bait into the truck.
The plan for the morning was to re-bait and pull trail cam pictures. I was actually pretty excited about this not just because it adds to the adventure, but I also get to drive an ATV. As a youth I never had an ATV and as an adult I have never lived any place long enough to warrant having one. So, with the ATV’s and bait loaded we departed for what would turn out to be a A LOT of work.
Peyton cutting holes in a fresh can of barley and chicken grease.
The ATV trails to most of the baits were pretty easy to get to, but Peyton had one bait that was across a tundra like bog that proved to be difficult enough that we both got stuck several times. In one case, while trying to get out, I actually backed over Peyton! Thankfully the perma-frost is soft and not real harm was done. Regardless I felt pretty bad about the whole deal.
After a morning of lugging 50 pound bags of dog food and 40 pound cans of chicken grease and barley we headed back to camp. I still didn’t have my second tag and wouldn’t be picking it up from the local distributer until after 1600. After a quick bite we spent some time shooting and getting equipment ready. Tonight Peyton would be hunting the same bait I killed my bear and I would be filming. After eating dinner (spaghetti with moose meat sauce) we stopped off at Pam’s and picked up my 2nd tag and headed to the bait. Here are a few pictures of Pam’s place. Her husband is a world famous dog sled racer. The dried fish is used for dog food.
Here is a picture of a walrus skull in Pam's house. I had just watched the Mounted in Alaska episode were they mounted a walrus skull for one of the local tribesman. I thought it was pretty darn cool and definitely worthy of being shared.
When we arrived the bears were already at the bait, but none were shooters. Most of the bears ran off, but one sow stayed and watched us put up the blind. Peyton told me that same bear bluff charged him and his son three nights earlier and not to take my eyes off her. I think she knew better than to cross paths with me (at least that’s what I’m telling myself) and she quietly went back to devouring the bait.
Over the course of the night we saw at least 12 different bears. It was just crazy and the longest there was not a bear on the bait was 15 or 20 minutes.
You will notice, near the bait, a metal stake with a white tip. This stake is used to gauge the size of the bear. A bear whose shoulders are at the bottom of the white will generally square around six foot. This tool was great because it can be difficult to judge the size of a bear and helps prevent killing smaller, immature, bears.
This one had a think for the trail camera. BTW this is about 10 feet away.
Around 0100 a large bear started to come down hill located about 20 yards behind the bait. Peyton thought it was another small bear, but I told him to take another look at how long his legs were! All doubt about his size was erased when he walked straight up to our blind (5 yards), gave us a quick once over with his small beady eyes, and turned to head to the bait. This guy was BIG! Once on the bait, Peyton drew down and sent a 100 grain Magnus Stinger Buzz cut through his vitals. On impact the bear growled and took off. We could hear him huffing as he ran through the woods and a short time later the sound of him crashing. There was no death moan, but the shot placement was perfect, you could tell when he was running that he was in bad shape, and the crash was pretty obvious of his death thralls. A few moments later Peyton and I set out to find him and when we did we both about fell over in shock. Bears look HUGE on the hoof and typically suffer from serious ground shrinkage; that was not the case here!
Peyton’s bear was a MONSTER! There was no way both of us could get him out so we headed back to camp to get Bob and his fiance’ to help. Bob and Peyton have bear recovery down to a science. Instead of trying to haul him into the back of the ATV they just brought the ATV rack to the bear, strapped him down, and pulled the ATV back up right! (Trust me it’s a lot easier on your back!).
A short bit later the bear was back at camp, cleaned, and measured. He squared 6’10” and had a green skull measurement of 20 3/4!
The Crush team came home a short bit later with no luck again. They saw plenty of bears and got some great footage of small cubs, but no boars worthy of sending an arrow down range on.
Here are a few pictures of our camp.
DAY III
The next morning Peyton took me around to show me some of the local sights. This giant fish wheel is something the native folks use to catch salmon. This contraption is put in the water and as the fish are caught in scoop, the wheel turns, and they are dumped into a troth were the owner could easily pick them out.
After shooting some more, taking showers, it was time to head to the baits we had filled the day before. The Crush team would be hunting a bait site about a mile from ours so we all headed out together.
Here are a few pictures of us helping (OK, more like watching) The Crush team setting up their blind.
A short time later Peyton and I were at our bait site, set up, and ready to hunt.
This site wasn’t as hot as the previous sit, so we killed time readying or playing iphone games.
Note: I know my fellow elitist are literally foaming at the mouth and ready to crucify me for not putting my broadheads all the way in the quiver. The reason I did not was because I did not have a file to re-sharpen them and the quiver was new. I was concerned about dulling them BUT, after the ATV ride in and out of this site I decided to error on the side of caution (for mine and everyone else’s safety) and use the dulled head from day one to make deeper and safer holes.
A while later a nice cinnamon bear came in on the bait. This bear was about the same size as the one I had killed and I will admit that part of me wanted to shoot him too! However, I already had a cinnamon phased bear and we had trail camera pictures of several larger bears hitting this bait.
Ever the ham, I couldn’t pass up taking a few action shots….. 8*)
The cinnamon fed for about 30 minutes and took off. A short while later we heard, on the other side of the river (about 100 yards from us) what sounded to be a moose calf in distress. I could have sworn I heard a couple loud bear growls too. This went on for about 20 minutes. It was pretty darn spooky because there are grizzlies in the area and black bears do take down moose calves. Shortly after that a large sow with two cubs came into our bait.
Bear cubs are absolutely fearless! It was not long before their curiosity got the best of them and they decided to come over and check us out. Every time they did the sow would start to walk over to make sure everything was OK. On one occasion she came up within five feet of us. Peyton handed me his Glock 45 and he broke out the pepper spray “just in case”. Every time though the bears would eventually wander back to the bait; it was definitely exciting!
Around 0100 we decided to call it a night. The Crush crew called, via radio, to say they hadn’t seen anything that night so we figured now was as good as time as any to call it quits. That was all fine, but the sow and cubs in front of us (at 15 yards) were not ready to leave. Peyton climbed out of the blind and yelled at the bears, scaring the crap out of the cubs, and sending them up the closest pine tree. The sow that had left when Peyton left the blind came running back with a definite purpose! She didn’t charge us, but her hair was standing up, ears perched, and she was definitely ready to defend her cubs! She didn’t charge us though, but instead guarded the base of the tree that held her cubs. This made taking the blind down a bit “interesting”, but in the end all was well. I have to say one thing for sure this trip has turned out to be quite the adventure.
The next day’s hunt would be held at the same bait site I killed my bear on. We would actually end up hunting this site quite a bit because it was just so active. Peyton told me that the reason this bait is so much more active than the others is because they believe it is positioned on the edge of several different territories. As usual when we arrived at the bait there were already bears on it. I couldn’t pass the opportunity to take some action photos.
Disclaimer: No bears were harmed in the taking of this picture.
The bears on this bait were no different than the others and of course had to come over and “check us out” several times.
As the night rolled on this bait site became more and more active. I will bet that we saw 20 different bears on this nights sit.
The black boar was right at being a shooter, but with three days left to hunt and plenty of bears I figured I'd hold out.
I have no ideal where that picture came from? Here is the correct photo.
This little guy got REALLY close!
Around 2200 (BTW notice how light it is at 10 pm) a mature sow came into the bait. Her sole presence was enough to run every bear out of the bait site. We hoped she had a large boar in tow (this time of year is the bear rut), but that was not the case. Instead she fed for a bit, meandered over to a large pine tree, and started clucking and popping her jawls. A few minutes later we heard scratching noises about 50 feet in the air and when we looked up we saw two baby cat cubs! We had been on this bait site for several hours and had no idea they were there.
It is truly amazing how fast a bear can climb a tree! Here are a few of the sow climbing up to help encourage her cubs to come down.
After wrangling her cubs she nursed her them and left the area. At this point the bait literally died off.
We had decided to sit until 0200 today just in case and boy did that pay off. Around 0100 the bears started rolling back in and one was another shooter candidate. We debated for several minutes about taking him, but in the end I decided to hold out. I already had a bear on the ground and if I were to fill my second tag I wanted it to be on a biggen (besides I can't afford two large taxidermy bills).
When we returned to camp we found out that Ainsley scored on a nice bear. She shot her bear around 2200 on a bait site about two miles from camp.
Day five started out pretty slow. After taking pictures of Ainsley’s bear, Bob and Peyton pretty much spent the morning skinning out the bear while we got our equipment ready for today’s adventure. Tonight I would be hunting the same bait that Bob and Ainsely killed their bears on. We had trail camera pictures of a large bear hitting the bait early so Peyton and I headed out earlier than normal. Around 1900 or so the early arrival paid off. Peyton leaned over to me and told me he smelled a bear and a short time later we could see a GIANT cautiously checking out the bait site before committing.
This bear was BIG! Not as big as Peytons, but pretty darn close. My heart was racing, my palms were sweating, and maintaining my composure was a difficult task. Peyton was also fired up which didn’t help to calm my nerves. At 15 yards the bear offered me a perfect broad side shot, I drew, picked a spot, and shot…………………….
What happened next is so unbelievable that to this day I’m still shocked. At the shot I heard a metallic pinging noise and watched in horror as my arrow flew three feet to the left; crazing the back of the hind quarters. My heart sank as he growled and took off. I could not believe I had just blow an easy shot so badly, but at the same time I was thankful that the arrow harmlessly went through the hair vise hitting him in the haunch or gut. I ran the scenero over and over and concluded that I must have aimed at the whole bear vise picking a spot (as I had previously thought I did). We got the shot on video and played it back several times to confirm the bear wasn’t wounded; which proved to be correct.
45 minutes later he came back…… This time I was focused and ready to make up for my earlier mistakes. However, when Peyton turned on the video camera the bear heard it and walked out of my life for good. The rest of the evening was pretty slow. A bear with a injured foot and a smaller bear visited us several times, but the giant never returned. For seven hours I second guessed myself. Peyton confirmed the metallic noise and thought that maybe the limb of my bow had hit my Sitka Ascent day pack. One thing that I did not understand though was how my arrow ended up just laying sideways on the ground (about 20 yards away) after bouncing off the bears back. When we walked up to the answer was clear……. There was no broadhead on it………………… The day prior, while fixing my quiver, I noticed a broadhead that came off one of my arrows. I didn’t have any hot glue so I re-heated the glue and stuck it back on. Everything seemed to be fine and this arrow was not the one I had re-glued. Also, the night prior I had heard a pop when I put my arrow back in the quiver. I meant to check it to make sure I didn’t break the tip and forgot. The metal ping I heard was the head coming off in flight, which changed the dynamics of the arrow, causing it to fly no were near my intended target. I felt a bit better about this, but still sick that a bear of this caliber got away. That said I was thankful he was not wounded. Back at camp I discovered another loose broadhead. Since I didn’t have any hot glue I broke out my carbon arrows tipped with Magnus Stingers; this would be my hunting combination for the duration of the trip.
Meanwhile Nate and Ainsley were hunting a different bait site. With Ainsley's bear on the ground it was Nate's turn to hunt. That night he passed up a super nice bear because of a small rubbed spot on it's left side. Back at camp he got a lot of grief because the bear was BIG and the rubbed spot was really small.
Day six found us hunting a bait site that had been just as hot as the bait I killed my bear off. The site was located in the bottom of a gully in terrain more similar to that of elk country. Another hunter’s son had killed a big black bear off this site three day earlier, but no one had hunted it since then.
Shortly after setting up a large sow with four cubs came into the bait site and began to feed. The cubs were from last year and Peyton told me that if that sow had four cubs still alive then she must be very tough; the battle scares on her face confirmed this.
Like every other time, when cubs are involved, the decided to check us out.
And this guy was no different than the others.
Sorry for the delay, but I'm waiting on a few videos to be uploaded on bow hunting tv.
Awesome pics!! Congrats on the bear!
Still waiting on the videos to upload. If they aren't up by this evening (my time) I'll just post links from youtube.
Really appreciate the photos and descriptions. Nothing in the world compares to having lots of quality pictures to view. Great job with the camera. Very nice looking bear, too!
Funny thing: I looked at the first picture on this thread and thought, "Hey...I've stood right there before. Spent some money there, too". Those are some fantastic rams on display. I'll be back in FB in exactly 3 months, and so will the frosts. The moose rut calls me every year.
OK, I'm tired of trying to get these dang videos up. I'll just post the youtube links instead. Sorry
Here is a video clip of the sow coming up to the blind. She was "maybe" five feet away. Needless to say we had the pepper spray ready to go.
This sow was pretty darn smart. She had the bait barrel figured out and had no problems getting more dog food!
This can was probably 1/2 full of dog food (roughly 125 pounds of dog food). I was amazed at how she just tosses the can around.
After an hour or so the bears had their fill and wandered off into the bush and left the bait site quite for about two hours. Around midnight the bear with the hurt foot, from the night before, came in and tried to eat for a bit. I really considered shooting him to put him out of his misery, but Peyton said that he would be fine and that there were several other gimped up bears around doing just fine.
When we returned to camp, around 0200, we were greeted to Nate and his bear. Nate lucked out and the biggen he passed the night before came back. Nate’s bear was the second largest of the week. The following morning he filmed the post kill dialogue for The Crush.
Here's a picture of him shooting the scene.
LAST DAY OF HUNTING
Today is the last day of the bear hunting adventure. Over the past two days the baits have really started to die off so Peyton decided to go on the sure thing and hunt the bait site we had been hunting all week. Ainsley bought another tag and they would be heading out to a remote bait that had yet to be hunted. The bait’s had really slowed down which was probably do in part to sows coming in heat and the spring green up.
Regardless, we saw a ton of bears on our last night. When we arrived we scared off a sow and a short while later a new cinnamon boar came in following a sow. Another small bear joined the party and they all dinned on dog food and chicken fried barely.
We had one bag of dog food left and dumped it on the ground. This cinnamon boar liked it so much that he rolled all over it.
This sow (the black bear) was in heat and a we got to watch nature in action as the boar mated her three different times.
Click on the link to watch the action on video.
After a while all the bears left leaving the bait quite for several more hours. Around 2200 or so a descent boar came in. We debated back and forth about shooting him, but his shoulders were just below the white line. This would happen again around 0030 with another bear, but once again we passed him up. A few hours (around 0300) we threw in the towel and called it quits.
Eating any tag is never easy, but in this rare case it was not a big deal and to be honest it saved me a lot of money (another taxidermy bill). When we arrived back to camp Bob, Jennifer, Nate, and Ainsley were back and stated that they had not seen anything and called it quits a few hours earlier than us. The next day was spent cleaning the cabin, packing gear, sealing bear skulls/hides, and heading back to Fairbanks. The trip and experience was more than I ever thought it could have been. Alaska is now in my blood and I hope to return again soon. I have always felt that good hunts are made by hunting with good people and this trip only confirmed my thoughts. Peyton, Bob, Jennifer, Nate, and Ainsley were great people and folks that I’m proud to call friends.
Peyton, thanks for a truly great time and I’m looking forward to chasing Ohio whitetails with you soon.
The End.
NON HUNTING PICTURES
I just thought I'd share a few other pictures from the adventure.
A few of the AK pipeline!
I have been to the North Pole! North Pole Alaska that is!
I asked for a 2013 Dal Sheep/Grizzly combo hunt....
Here's a road sign you don't see every day!
Forest fire in the distance.
I'm taking this as a sign from God. A sign that my next adventure should be a musk ox hunt!
Great thread. This should be moved to the main forum where more people can see it vs. buried on the state forum. Well done
GREAT post...love the narration!
It was well worth the wait! Thanks Chuck!
Great story, Chuck! Just awesome!!
Outstanding Chuck!!! Very cool!
Chuck,
Congrats and great story telling.
John
Sounds like you had a great time. Congratulations on your bear! MO
Great story and pics, congrat's! I need to get back to AK soon.
