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I just booked my ticket to Ottawa and my first hunting day will be May 5th. It's a little late in the season so the conditions will be quite a bit different than my Musk Ox hunt.

It'll be a 10 day hunt out of Hall Beach, Nunavut. Jake will be relaying messages for me to keep the thread moving while I'm out of cell service.

This will be a recurve primary hunt with the compound in the case as a backup.

Wheels up in 27 days..........

@Jake I dug up that post earlier. He was dropping 50 yards bombs with the longbow! Epic hunt to say the least.

Bojangles will be the greatest kill in bowsite history. Bar none - American

Richard will be the greatest kill in bowsite history. Bar none - non-American

Jake your bear still stands as the greatest kill in bowsite history. Bar none - by a guy with his D-loop tangled in is braces - any nationality.

See there is room for everybody here

This will be a SEASON FOR THE AGES....................as they say!

Looking forward to the story...................

Hope you have a great hunt. Please post as you can. I’m following. Looking forward to your recap.

Seeing how comfortable I was on the Musk Ox hunt takes a huge weight off my mind gear-wise. The temps on this hunt look to be much milder. I threw about 45 arrows today and they're still flying straight! I plan to shoot daily until wheels up on May 3rd.

@Overland, As far as my set up, I'm running a 58", 50# @ 29.5" Tall Tines recurve and shooting Black Eagle Vintage arrows with an Iron Will S200 up front. I use the cheap-o lighted nocks off ebay and IMO they're far superior to nockturnals or lumenoks. The on/off switch is much easier to use, they're super bright and they never come out of the pack dead like nockturnals. They're a fraction of the cost, are just as robust and overall just work better than the name brand stuff. I also shoot using a Bodnik speed glove which I really like!

Brazilian eh? Yeah, he looks a little chilly! ;-)

You must be “chomping at the bit” Eric..................

@Bou' it does suck that he's out of circulation. Maybe I'll get lucky and stumble upon his dad/granddad. We'll know more in 13 days......

He sounded excited and said he leaves for his adventure on Tuesday!

GOOD LUCK Eric! We’re pullin’ for ya! : )

Really hoping this all comes together!

That said, it is so cool to support your son on his hunts! You lit the fire very well! Hope Eric gets nice one!

…..GET IT ON VIDEO!!!!

@Bou, I land at Hall Beach tomorrow at 4:30pm. The outfitter purchased my tag for me so I’ll be hunting ice bears as soon as I can get changed. I can’t say enough good things about Joe. He’s been top notch throughout this entire process.

He was actually in the process of packing up to head back empty handed on the last day .

The guide started yelling outside that a bear was coming… he grabbed his bow and shot a bear they green scored at 26 8/16

Don’t wait that long

He was actually in the process of packing up to head back empty handed on the last day .

The guide started yelling outside that a bear was coming… he grabbed his bow and shot a bear they green scored at 26 8/16

Don’t wait that long

And Shrug, that is a whopper of a bear! Be curious what it ends up drying at!

We’re finally about to board to head up to Iqaluit. More to come…..

We’re finally about to board to head up to Iqaluit. More to come…..

First msg from Eric.....The hour we spent waiting is going to be one of the highlights of this trip! We're back on the trail and looking to make camp around midnight. Second msg.....three hours in we had a hiccup. Bad fuel filter. We had to stop and Enoki's son-in-law had to drive a new machine out. third msg.....we're two hours from camp and he's got almost no gas. This could get dangerous fast. fourth msg.....Well this is a mess. One of the guides snuck alcohol, dropped the bottle and went to look for it....at this point, his safety is a concern. Weather is cold and clear.

Just made it to camp. Several fresh tracks in the area. Enoki said that one was easily over nine feet! Super excited to see what a full day of hunting brings!!

White out conditions to me and the Inuits are two totally different things. The weather looks fine to me but the clouds make it hard to see tracks. They consider that a white out. My guide Joey and I set out to glass on a high point about 2 miles from camp. Not 20 minutes later we spot a sow with two cubs. Likely heading for camp. Dog food consists of fermented walrus meat. It STINKS but bears apparently love it. No doubt they're heading to investigate. Maybe poppa bear won't be far behind. Enoki said the last bear was shot near camp probably under the same circumstances. Winds picked up close to 40 mph so we are heading back to camp waiting for better weather.

Apparently. there is some "lag time" between some of Eric's Inreach messages....some more so than others. As a result, some of the comments are somewhat out of order, so you'll have to parse them together in your head.

"I was in your suit today. The wind was killer. 40 mph plus and I was snug as a bug. First day was clear skies and 27. I had my layer Kuiu gear and was comfy."

Sounds like some drama and haven’t even spotted a bear yet! : )

But I’ll let Jake take it from here.................

I have to chuckle....half of Bowsite knew about the kill the same time that I did.....I don't know why Eric had me posting his messages.....he was probably sending them to everyone....(I even texted him and busted his chops about it) LOL!! Congratulations on an expedition/adventure that you'll cherish for the rest of your life....

So you were “THE man!” ;-) Thanks for keeping us updated along the way!

Congratulations E pretty frikn cool

So COOL!

It's gonna be another great story and hopefully some great pics inspired by the last Wilderness Polar Expedition!

Randy of Safari Tuff traditional archery gear just killed a Polar Bear out of Griese Fiord with a recurve as well last month.

Add Nate Andersohn to the P&Y list of longbow polar bears posted.

Regarding stick bow killed Pbears, my old hunting bud Randy Cooling killed one with his Black Widow a few weeks ago.

Add Nate Andersohn to the P&Y list of longbow polar bears posted.

Just broke camp and heading back to Hall Beach. Weather looks solid. Should take about 9 hours.

Thanks for sharing. You as well Jake!

And I see a lifetime supply of Kuiu gear coming Eric's way.

The total trip took 7 days door-to-door and aside from Air Canada dropping the ball on my final flight home yesterday all the travel went off without any issues.

I'll pick the story up with my arrival at Hall Beach.

I arrive at Hall Beach around 9:30pm on the 4th. I'm greeted by my primary guide, Enoki and his wife Ruthie. We exchanged hand shakes, grabbed my gear and headed to the Inn's North hotel. Once I was there and checked in we got down to business. Enoki is an older fella. His hearing isn't the best and he preferred his native language to English. These two factors made communicating awkward at times. I told him I wasn't interested in using the compound but would if I absolutely had to and that any mature boar we encountered was going to fit the bill. I also told him not to put a bullet hole in the bear unless I was on the verge of getting mauled. More on that later. He said that getting on a bear wasn't going to be an issue and that he'd meet me at 9am the next day to get started. At this point I'm as giddy as a school girl! Enoki takes off and I start the business of assembling my bows and organizing gear.

I'm up the next morning at 7am. After my last shower for what could be 10 days I throw on my base layers and head to the kitchen for a couple of PB&J's and a coffee. Enoki shows up at 9am sharp. We walk over to the Wildlife Office which is right next door to the hotel to get my license. My paperwork had already been filled out and after a quick signature I had a Polar Bear tag in my pocket! Enoki took off to buy food for the trip while I got all my gear rounded up and checked out of the room. Around 11am it was game time. The other two guides, Joey and Ike had joined Enoki and we were ready. Ike took my street clothes and bow case to his place while Joey, Enoki and I set out to the edge of town to get the dogs loaded. Ike shows up 15 minutes later and it's go time! We've got about 125 miles to cover before we're in bear country and that translates into an 11 hour qamutiik ride for me. At one point I literally though I had cracked my teeth. It was the most brutal 11 hours of my life. If any of you guys are on FB or IG check out my videos. Just search Eric Bethune on FB or thejuggernock on IG and check out The Qamutiik Chronicles. I get all my gear secured and squared away and off we go.

The most dangerous part of this hunt wasn't being 25 yards from a 1000lb Polar Bear it was the Qamutiik ride to camp! Just brutal!!!

So we're under way and about 2 hours in when we stop. I jump out to take a leak and move my toes around. Apparently Enoki's snowmobile has a fuel injector issue. His son in law is going to have to drive another one out and swap it for the one that's busted. The couple of hours we spend waiting was one of the best times of the trip. Enoki told stories about hunting animals most folks only dream of; Narwhal, Caribou, Whales, Seals and Polar Bears. He told storied about the specific of the hunts and the details were amazing. Apparently Polar bears aren't very useful to the Inuit and therefore not hunted often. The fur is too thick and heavy to be made into clothing and the meat isn't as fatty and as useful as Seal meat or Caribou hides. That made sense to me. He lamented about the fact that he still has the passion for hunting but that his body wouldn't allow him due to injuries and age. He truly loved the hunt and I could tell this was a way for him to still take part in something he was passionate about throughout his life. I couldn't disappoint him.

Lunchtime came while we waited and things got pretty interesting. Joey and Ike break out this basketball sized lump of meat and start trimming off slices and eating them. I was instantly intrigued. "What are you boys eatin?" I asked and Joey hits me with it...."fermented Walrus meat". This thing looked like a ball of hell but I wanted some immediately! I'll try anything once and fermented Walrus mid-polar bear hunt with the Inuit was right up my alley. "Y'all mind if I take some of that for a test drive?" Joey cuts off a generous chunk and I throw it back. There's really no way to church this up, it tasted like chewy, greasy, rotten meat. It was not my favorite! I got it down but had fermented Walrus meat burps for the rest of the day. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and won't go back! No more walrus for me. Before long we had the snowmobiles swapped out and were back underway.

Is that dog food in that bag, or people food?

At this point we had crossed most of the land we needed to cross and were close to getting back on the ocean. Oddly enough the ocean was FAR worse than the land. I would have bet the opposite and I would have lost big! About an hour before we made camp we crossed the tracks of a good bear that were a few days old. It was the first bear sign I'd seen and it was mind blowing! The tracks were the size of a dinner plate. Unreal!! After getting my ass kicked for another 2 hours we made camp. I told Enoki it was gonna take a court order to get me back in that qamutiik for the ride home. Unfortunately my razor sharp wit was lost on him. lol

We set camp up on the carcass of a polar bear they had killed a couple of weeks back. There were lots of fox and raven tracks around the carcass as well as fresh bear tracks of a 9 footer by their estimation. Needless to say this was exciting! We unload the gear and start setting the sleeping tent and the outhouse tent. It was a little after midnight when we got done, the skies were clear and the view was unbelievable. I'm not sure what it is about the arctic but it has an appeal unlike any other place I've been. The Musk Ox hunt had the exact same feel. Of all the places I've hunted the arctic is the only place that I'm definitely going to go back to hunt. Once the tent was set up we had steak and rice for dinner and called it a night. The plan was to get up and at 'em after everyone was well rested and fed. Tomorrow was going to be the first day of actually hunting bears and I couldn't have been more excited!

The forecast for rest of the day didn't look great but I was still hoping to get out for a bit. Joey was a bit of a night owl and got up a couple hours later than Enoki, Ike and I. Once he was up he asked if I wanted to go out and scout for a bit. Does a fat baby fart?!? Of course I wanted to go out! At this point the wind had picked up a bit and some flurries had started but we set out anyway. We drove 2-3 miles from camp and found a good spot to glass. By the time we got there the wind had picked up considerably and thankfully I was in the coverall's Jake had loaned me. The weather was a little tricky on this hunt. High's most days were in the mid to high 20's. At those temps the coverall's were a complete no-go. I would have burst into flames within 10 minutes. On the days with temps in the 20's I ran a couple of base layers, my Kuiu Super Down Pro set with my Kuiu Yukon Rain gear set on top of everything. This really worked out well. It was a great combo of warmth and wind-proofing. Since we never got out in the mornings when temps were the coldest the coverall's didn't see much action. The wind on top of the knob was stiff! It made holding the bino's tough and the flurries had picked up as well. Nevertheless within a fairly short amount of time I see them! A sow and two cubs were walking single file and appeared to be heading in the direction of camp. They actually stood out really well against the ice. They appear as yellowish blobs and I picked them up fairly quickly. Not long after that the wind and snow had taken a turn for the worst so Joey and I pack up and head to the snow mobile. Halfway back to camp we were in a full blown blizzard. We could still follow the snow mobile tracks back to camp so navigating wasn't an issue. The blizzard persisted for the rest of the day and while no more hunting was going to happen I had seen Polar Bears in the wild for the very first time. This was super encouraging! The rest of the day was spent in the tent playing Mahjong on my phone and updating the weather on my Garmin every 26 seconds. We ended the day with chicken and rice and turned in around 11. The next days forecast was a carbon copy of today's weather. My anxiousness was growing.

The morning of Day 3 I was the first one up. I grabbed the Garmin to update the forecast and got good and bad news. The good news was the weather was supposed to break the next day and continue to improve for the next two days afterwards. The bad new is I was gonna be playing Mahjong for the entire day. My hopes were still high that a bear could stroll into camp and Joey was constantly providing reassurance that we'd catch a good bear. I tried to keep my anxiousness in check as best I could. Arctic Char and rice was on the menu for dinner. It was delicious!! I had a very "clean" taste to the meat and I really enjoyed it. Bed time came around 11 again. The Garmin was showing a break in the weather the next afternoon and I was keeping my fingers crossed that the forecast would hold up.

After an hour or so we find the first set of tracks, a sow and cubs. More than likely the same sow and cubs we had seen a couple days earlier. Not long after that we find 2 more fresh sets of tracks. Both were smaller bears and heading into the pack ice. There was a very clear delineation between the flat stuff we were riding on and the pack ice. The pack ice was like a minefield of jagged ice and deep snow. The machines couldn't navigate in that stuff at all so it was impossible to track a bear heading there. We ride parallel to the pack ice for another hour or so and then we see it....a huge swath of fresh tracks of what looked like a monster. Both Enoki and Ike said he was a 9 foot plus bear and the tracks were as fresh as a virgin's honey pie. Things just got serious!!! At this point they get on the trail and push the snow mobiles harder than usual. Every 10-20 seconds they'd stand up to be a better visual of what was ahead. Not 20 minutes later they stop.......and there he is! I put the bino's on him and he's a huge, yellow, lumbering beast that's totally unaware of us.

He's walking parallel to the pack ice with about 60 yards on his left between him and where we can't go. We're maybe 250 yards away. Joey readies the dogs, I get on the sled and off we go. Fairly quickly he stops and let's two dogs go. At this point we're maybe 100 yards away and the bear still doesn't have a clue we're there. My heart starts banging at this point. The two dogs he let go get within ~40 yards before the bear notices them. He had to hear them barking but made no visible sign that he noticed or cared. Once he did see them he didn't act overly concerned. He slowed his pace and made a move to the pack ice in between two sizable ice chunks and held his ground. By this point Joey and I were maybe 60 yards from the action when he cut the other 6 dogs loose. Once they were done pulling the sled their usefulness was over. They were utterly worthless after that! They paid zero attention to the bear and basically ran amuck the rest of the time. The 2 dogs that got on the bear stayed a good 20 yards from him and barked. This was enough to allow me to close the distance to around the 35 yard mark and nock an arrow. At that point the bear takes notice of us and is less than pleased with our presence. He commences to growl and make snorting noises and at one point lays down on top of the smaller of the 2 ice chunks. I recognized the defensive posture and took the opportunity to move a bit closer. I only took a few steps and the bear got off the ice chunk and made a move towards us which sent me into a retreat. The bear moving away from the dogs trigger a chase response to which the bear responded by taking up his original position between the two ice chunks and laid back down. Again I advanced. This time his attention was squarely on the dogs that had themselves out of my view in the pack ice. I could only assume where they were by their barks and where the bear was looking. Joey had my phone and was "videoing" the stalk (turned out he didn't slide over to the video tab and just took a pic). I got to what I felt was a doable distance and threw a quick range on the bear.........25 yards. I dropped the rangefinder, drew back and when the bear stood I released an arrow. Seeing the arrow in flight I got a flashback from Kugluktuk. The arrow looked a bit low and forward. I instantly see blood on his arm and my heart sinks as he bites at the arrow and heads deeper into the pack ice. I think I've blown the shot and immediately pull an arrow from the quiver and nock it on the string while advancing towards the bear. He travels ~40 yards, stops, sits down like a dog, turns back to where the arrow hit and falls over on his back with his feet straight up in the air stone dead! The arrow had grazed his arm but still cleanly hit his vitals, puncturing him low in both lungs with about 50% of the arrow penetrating. He died within seconds. It was the damnedest thing I'd ever seen.

With all the adrenaline and intensity of the situation I had tunnel vision to the point that it felt like I was looking through a toilet paper roll. After looking back on the situation I had put myself in a very unsafe spot. Joey never had a rifle and neither Ike or Enoki were closer than 150 yards. They could have had rifles out but hitting a charging bear at 150 yards with my life on the line seemed iffy at best. The dogs were as untrained as could be and I felt like they were mostly for show. In the moment all I could focus on was getting an arrow in the bears chest and had unknowingly put myself and a really, really bad spot. Luckily it all came together and everything worked out. Hindsight is always 20/20.

Of course once the smell of blood hit the air the other dogs were miraculously interested all of a sudden. I waded through the (at times) hip deep snow to the bear and I was blown away by 1) the blood trail and 2) the size of the bear. It was UNREAL!!! His paws were as big as my chest, his head was enormous and his body was tank-ish. I had just killed a Polar Bear with a recurve!!!!! The first thing I did was use Ike's satellite phone to call my Dad (from Alaska) and tell him I'd gotten my bear. He said I sounded off and not my usual self. I was legitimately in shock and the adrenaline dump I experienced from what had just happened took a couple of days to wear off to the point I was thinking clearly again. Sitting here now looking back it will forever be the most surreal experience of my life.

With the bear down, my dad called and Jake (and everyone else in my contact list) updated we got to work with photos and caping the bear out. Ike had to slowly maneuver the snow mobile to the bear as best he could and we drug him out onto the flat ice after a few pics from where he died.

Amazing accomplishment!

Congratulations on an accomplishment darn few are able or willing to do!

Most impressive sir.

I'm guessing Enoki took one look at you when you met and decided.....................................this [email protected]$$ don't need NO backup! ;-)

OUT-FRICKEN-STANDING ... big pat on the back, well done Eric!!!!!!!!!!!

Once the dust settled he put up a very respectable 25 2/16th and in the process put my name next to some absolute all-stars in the bowhunting community! With that score my bear is tied for 19th place all-time. To say that I'm thankful is an understatement.

This season has been a whirlwind!!!

Congrats on the 25 5/16 Kurt!!

Question: Why does P&Y not group the scores together by rank? By score my bear should be tied for 13th but the way they list trophies he'd fall anywhere between 19th and 22nd.

Example: Richard M. and Edwin D. both have 26 6/16th bears. Richard is listed as 2nd and Edwin listed as 3rd.......why? Shouldn't they both be second? I can't make it make sense. Are the placings on a "first come, first serve basis?" If so that's weak!

Say there were 3 animals tied as a world record. The next highest scoring animal would be # 4 then if number 5 had 4 scored the same the next highest would be # 9 if my math is correct…. Congratulations great stuff.

Either way I'm still tickled pink with the way the entire hunt unfolded and will cherish that trip for as long as I'm sucking oxygen!

THanks for posting it up and taking us along!!

Mark

Yes I’ll believe that when hunter names are left off. How many entries would there be then

That being said once Mark made his point, looking at how literally every other sport on the planet assigns placings and your comment "count all the bears bigger than yours and you have your answer" and I finally see the light.

Yes I’ll believe that when hunter names are left off. How many entries would there be then