Posted by: blessed got a story to go with that FINE Griz??
Yeah I do and I'll try to keep it short. This bear and I go way back.
He was killed May 18th 2001. The first time I spotted him was the May of 1992 while breeding a female. I filmed him for about ten minutes and tried to find a distinguishing mark on him to recognize him if I ever spotted him again.
The next time I spotted him was early June of 1994 and he again was breeding a female. This time the light was poor. It was two in the morning but I had enough light to see thru the spotting scope that he was the same bear from '92. He had a pinkish white scar on his left nostril and it was very evident when looking at him. It really stood out. That and the fact he is about a foot and a half larger than most arctic grizzly bears.
That was the last time I saw him. Now and then someone would mention seeing a big bear here or there and I'd always ask a couple things. Did it have a scar on his nose and were his ears blonde.
One time this guy looked at me like I was describing the bear he'd just seen so I knew he might still be around but this is big country and bears can go unnoticed or die of old age and just fade away.
Anyway I never saw him again. I kept looking and hunting for that one large male but no luck.
So fast forward to 2001. My partner was in Anchorage with a sick wife. She was in some kind of death grip that was kicking her butt and he was by her side.
Meanwhile our bear hunt was on standby.
It was our plan to have my buddy from Washington come up and ride with us and when we found a nice bear he was going to end up with the hide after my partner killed it.
This was back when you were only able to kill one bear every four years here in unit 22 and I'd already killed a bear two weeks prior.
So there we are. My buddy from Puyallup is here, we are riding the countryside having fun while the guy with the tag is sitting in Anch.
One afternoon we are crossing this lake near an excellent area for grizzlies and I see this big dark bear. He gave me about 15 minutes of video time as he hustled away from us. We really looked him over but never were more than a mile or so from him. I didn't want to push him at all so we just sat on the machines and watched him head up into the cliffs.
After he was out of sight I went to look at his track and knew then that he was a huge bear. His front track was seven and a half inches across and the back one was thirteen.
I was bumming that we were running out of time and my buddy was due back in Washington in a couple days.
After we got home that day I called my partner in Anchorage and assured him that his wife would be fine and he needed to get his butt back here because I'd found the King.
He said she was due to be released soon but his hands were tied. I thought there was a good nurse somewhere nearby and that she'd be in good hands but such is life.
So my buddy has to go home. Vacation is over and no bear to take home.
My partner arrives back in Nome with a healthy wife and we are at work one day talking bears.
He asks me when I could get away and I said lets go. He said where are we going and I told him Glacial Lake.
Well in two hours we were there and are glassing the tundra and cliffs.
I see this bear moving from open tundra to snow and just walking along.
When we were within a half mile I knew that this might be that same bear from the week prior. He was huge and dark and we needed to kill him.
So thats what happened. A .300 Weatherby with 200 noslers.
Three shots. Fairly close and the bear is dead.
My buddy is the first one to him and lifts his head up out of the snow and looks down the hill at me with a big smile.
I have been running around with this guy since 1992 and he'd heard all about this big scar nosed bear.
He said we got your bear. I got up to him and no way there is this bear laying in a heap with blonde ears and a pink and white scar on his nose.
I about fell over. What are the odds of first him living that long and two us locating him again? I was stunned.
My buddy said to me this is your bear. You have him.
Very cool. Not many guys would give the hunting partner a eight and a half foot grizzly bear with a 26 1/16 Boone and Crockett skull. Not too many I don't think. The bear was 17 years old and is currently ranked number 53 in the B&C all time book. I own him and my buddy is listed as the hunter.
A hell of a bear.
So then the bear comes back from Atchesons and the scar was not there, he'd painted it over but what the hell. It looks fine and I got the bear that had kept me awake many many nights over the years on my wall.