Heart Pounding Black Bear Search - Alaska

 Why I Carry a Pistol While Bear Hunting!

Landing in Yakatut is like flying into any of the Alaskan costal village towns. Half the plane is freight and the other half is an odd mix of hunters, business people and a local or two. After exiting the plane and entering the small room size terminal I get a sense that the cargo is more anticipated than the new comers. All sorts of crates, boxes and products are unloaded prior to our gear. So we sit and wait. They must see a fair number of short timers here. Well, I’m only here for 6 days so I grab my gear off the rack and meet up with my outfitter after a good 30 minute wait.

Once the introductions are complete, we all head down to the docks with our gear. Rifle’s uncased and put into soft cases, anything that can be left behind is stored at the dock. We load 4 of us and provisions into the 18 foot v-hull aluminum boat and head up the Inland Passage to our tent camp.

Motoring back and forth from island to camp provides ample opportunity to site see and take photos. No bear for the first few days. Weather is nice but its early spring and things can change quickly up here. The 3rd day my guide SAM spots a big black bear across the inlet walking along the shore on the mainland. We scramble to the boat and fire up the pull start motor and start heading for a small island about the size of a tennis court. There is no sand up here just cinder block size pieces of broken granite. Walking on this stuff is comparable to walking the Olympic balance beam without the benefit of the stability. Each block you step on can be either locked in place or ready to shift at the slightest touch. Anyway, here we are pulling up on the south side of this small pile of rocks they call an island. One lonely tree has found a home here and it’s surrounded by tangles and junk. Mostly washed up stuff from storms and high tides. I can’t imagine being on this rock in bad weather. Back to the bear, he is still walking the beach headed our way. As I position myself for the shot, I hear a distant rumble of another outboard motor behind me to the right. I can’t believe this. A local has decided to go for a joy ride and is cruising the shoreline. Returning my focus on the bear, it appears that he’s also heard the sound and has turned around and is headed the opposite way away from the pesky human. This forces us to scramble back in our boat and move to north side of the island to try and head him off before he gets away. Getting in position again, you can’t believe my temper as I hear the sound of the boat again which has followed us to get a closer look at what we are doing. It did cross my mind to change from bear hunting to something more sinister as the bear does another about face and returns to his original course and direction. So just like the keystone cops, we again pile back to the board and return to our original south side shooting position. At this point I think our local has finally figured out what was going on and had the decency to stay away and allow us to get on without another interruption.

Back on arrival day, my guide Sam instructed me to take careful aim and make the first shot count. But, he said with a smile, “Not to worry, you shoot him the first time and I’ll shoot him next with my trusty 375H&H and we will leave him right on the beach with no need to track him up into this thick coastal brush.” Fine with me I say, if I can eliminate the need to face an upset 7 foot tall 500 pound black bear in bush so thick I can’t see more than 2 feet ahead of me, you won’t get any argument here.

As I track the bear ambling down the rocky shore, I pick the spot for the shot. Sam has positioned his 375 just off to my left. I increase the zoom on my 16 power Burris Black Diamond scope and fill the image with bear. A careful breath and boom goes my 338 Remington. The bear reacts immediately by rolling down the rocks headed for the water. To my surprise, he stops himself just before falling in. Boom, the 375 goes off. To my astonishment, I see the bullet hit the rocks just about a foot behind the bear. The sound of this bullet smashing into the rocks scares this monster bear straight up the rocks and into the thick tangle of bush, brush and evergreen trees. I can’t believe my eyes. I look at Sam, who with a concerned look on his face asks me “how comfortable were you with your shot?” After the shock wore off and my mind was able to process his question. I replied, “A heck of a lot more comfortable than I was with your damn shot!!” A sheepish look came over Sam’s face only to admit that he still gets a bit flustered bear hunting.

Now we’re in for a real treat I thought to myself as we packed ourselves into the boat and headed for the last spot we saw the bear. Upon arrival, we listened to hear if we had anyone awaiting our arrival. All quiet, so we land on shore with the same uneasiness that our WWII fathers must have felt when they landed unopposed on a foreign beach.
As we exit the boat I noted that with bush this thick, there would be no way I could swing a rifle. So I unloaded it and put it back into its waterproof soft-case. Reach down, I un-holstered, opened the cylinder and added the 5th 500 grain cartridge to my Smith and Wesson Model 500. It seemed to calm my nerves and little. I started to feel a bit more prepared for what was ahead.

After collecting ourselves on the shore, we began to look for blood sign to begin tracking. Again to my surprise, NOT ONE DROP of blood was found anywhere. How can this be, I rolled this guy on my first shot? How much more exciting can this hunt get, I thought! Now I have to go into this thick stuff and find this guy. I’m sure he’s not happy with the fact that I shot him and almost dropped him into freezing cold salt water. I didn’t want to think about what he would do to return the favor. Sam’s hand on my shoulder brought me out of these thoughts and back to the present. He recommended we wait, but since Sam had planned on leaving the bear on the beach with his shot, I suggest he earned the right to go first. Being a great guide, Sam agrees and headed in; I followed and branched off to the left as Sam went right.

Let me tell you, with the hammer cocked and my heart pounding in my ears, anything that moved in front of me was going to get at least two 500 grain bullets before I will even realize what it is. With one hand moving brush away from me and the other holding the Smith, it seemed like hours to go only 15 yards. Every leaf and every twig that moved got my fullest attention. Just then, to my total relief, I hear Sam yell out “Yahoo, dead bear”. I turned and made my way towards Sam’s voice. There he was, standing over a beautiful black bear, laying belly down just like a rug, on a worn path just inside the tree line. The 338 Win Mag. was a perfect hit, catching him quartering away and traversing the vitals. As I knelt alongside admiring the thick black perfect pelt, I remember saying to myself, even though I didn’t fire this pistol in self defense I’m sure glad I had it with me. Whenever I’m hunting dangerous game and I’m permitted by local regulations to carry it… you will find it in my holster.. until it’s again time to load that 5th round and face the next challenge in the thick stuff.