Luckily my guide, Scott McRae of Alaska Summit Guide Services convinced me into purchasing a brown bear license before departing Anchorage on our sheep hunt. Scott mentioned that we may get lucky and see bears walking the river in search of spawning salmon. To me the thought of hunting a huge bear with archery equipment was beyond intriguing, it was one of this archer’s ultimate dreams. But as in most dreams, they usually don’t materialize that easily. I’ve been to Alaska three times before and have never seen a brown bear or grizzly. Bear tracks…yes. Bears….no. I kept thinking you can’t win if you don’t play so I bought the license in hopes of actually having an encounter. Statistically speaking, the odds of seeing a bear had to finally be in my favor, right?
In the field, wet, damp and borderline miserable we switched our focus from trying to glass the peaks above to glassing the river bottoms below. We dropped elevation to get a better vantage point where we could see the river and surrounding marshes below. I bet it wasn’t more than an hour later when Scott said “Bear!” I couldn’t believe it. The words I longed to hear for so many trips finally rang true. Scott quickly got the spotting scope out and started sizing him up. After only a few short minutes of watching the bear fish the shoreline, Scott estimated the bear to be around 8 ft. To me, 8ft or 10ft, it made little difference, I was engaged and wanted to seize this opportunity. Scott studied the valley floor, carefully mapping our route. As in most mountain hunts, it took us longer to reach our destination than expected. Thick brush and wet marshes just added to the degree of difficulty on this hunt. Once we finally reached the river, we both began glassing, searching for the bear.
Taking pictures through the spotting scope before our stalk.
Within minutes I located the bear. He was about 400 yds down river on the opposite bank and working his way towards us. I honestly remember thinking “this is actually about to happen”. In hopes of getting a closer shot, we waded our way across the shallow river to a small sandbar. But just as quickly as all that adrenalin hit me; it started to dissipate even faster. The bear walked into the thick brush and was no longer in sight. I sat there waiting and wondering in a much more somber mood…is this going to happen? We waited 20 - 30 minutes before wading back to the river bank. We both figured the bear must have smelled us w/ the swirling winds. Seeing as we really didn’t have enough daylight left to do much else, we opted to stay put. Scott and I sat on a log and shot the breeze for an hour or so.
As the sun began to fade, I heard Scott whisper “Bear…. Less than 200 yds down river and closing quickly”. He apparently crossed the river and was walking right at us. Like a Chinese fire drill, we quickly moved to a sand bar about 40 yds from the river bank figuring the bear would give us a clean broadside shot. Obviously the bear didn’t get the memo as he jumped in the river and started walking right at us! I remember Scott saying “make sure the bear doesn’t see you”. Great, I’m basically behind a twig and a huge bear is walking right at me. How in the world am I going to be able to draw my bow without being noticed?
The bear is still walking right at me, head on 50 yds, 40 yds, 30 yds and then finally he starts quartering to me giving me a slight shot. He briefly looks away and I quickly draw my bow waiting for my opportunity. Still moving closer, I can’t take it any longer and let my arrow fly. At a mere 15 yds, I watch my arrow disappear into the bears hide and brace for the train wreck as he’s running directly at us. Sitting motionless, only tracking the bear with my eyes everything seems to be running in slow motion. The bear is definitely trying to figure out what just happened. He runs by us with blood pouring out his side, running into the river and then onto a small island 70 yds away. Watching the brush move back and forth we knew the bear was hit hard and was most likely going to bed down
A few minutes later Scott whispered, “Can you believe how close that bear got to us? I watched the entire event unfold through my rifle scope. I had pressure on the trigger and planned on shooting if the bear stopped”. I knew the bear was close, but seeing as I was on sensory overload I never really grasped just how close the bear really was until we walked over to look for the blood trail. My arrow passed through the bear and was dangling out the opposite side. When the bear ran by us the arrow fell out…..5 yds from me!!!! I had no clue the bear was that close. You could see the bear tracks and huge amounts of blood all over the sand. We were both confident that our trophy lay dead less than 80 yds away.
The Magnus Stinger Buzzcut is one of my favorite broadheads. Tremendous blood trail!
The bear ran by me at a mere 5 yds, note the arrow in the picture
We circled the island and slowly worked our way on shore. I climbed an old dead tree to see if I could get a visual. Working my way up higher and higher, I finally saw what I was looking for…..brown is down! After taking pictures and skinning the bear we started our long walk back to camp. Later, Scott pulled out a tape measure and the bear measured a legitimate 8’1 ft. Scott was right on the money! I couldn’t be happier scoring on a solid P&Y Brown Bear
Spraying Down the Hide with Wild Game Guardian
Gear used on the hunt
-Mathews Drenalin Bow
-Eastin Axis Arrows
-Magnus Stingers Buzzcut Broadheads
-Spot Hogg 7 Deadly Pins Bowsight
-Leica Geovids 10x42 Binoculars
-Trophy Taker Arrow Rest
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