Prince of Wales Bears

[robb92]

Great job guys

[klikboom]

Wow that is awesome. How did you go about planning your trip? Can you share the details, ie transportation etc?

Thanks! Those are some BEAUTIES.
AA

[Pat/Rick]

Lots a smiles,that must of been fun! Congrats on some nice bruins.

[Austrian Hunter]

Congrats....  All three bears look absolute awesome!  Men, I which I could get my wife interested in my passion, to share something like this with you wife has to extra special.  Was that a DIY hunt?  If so, please share some you experiences with us. 

Again, thanks for posting that!  COOL really COOL

[klickman]

Man your wifes bear is a stud.  Too bad its rubbed so bad.  Man it would have made an amazign rug.  COngrats though those big bears are hard to come by.

Klickman

[Abolt338]

Guys...sorry for the absence.  I'll post up full details later today...  I've been running around like crazy!

RW

[Abolt338]

As many of you already know, my wife and I left for Alaska on June 5th in search of black bears and some real wilderness.  We took along her dad, Randy, and our  buddy Eddie.

Our goal was a do-it-yourself bear hunt on Prince of Wales Island, basing out of a US Forest Service cabin.

It all started on June 5 at about 5:00PM.  The truck was packed, all of our party was accounted for, and we hit the road.



It was a 20 hour drive to Prince Rupert, BC, a six hour ferry to Ketchikan, AK, and then another 3 hour ferry to Hollis on POW.  On the way to PR, we saw tons of deer, a few elk, a couple of moose, and a lone sow black bear with cub.  The drive through Canada was BEAUTIFUL!!!

Our initial ferry from Prince Rupert was delayed nearly half a day, so we started the trip shorted a day...but we chose to press on.

After unpacking everything in the Prince Rupert Safeway parking lot, we boarded our ferry, but not until we had acquired a few local brews for the trip.



Six hours later we arrived in Ketchikan.  It was midnight, and the town was hopping...or so we were told.  We ended up sleeping a bit in the Walmart parking lot waiting for it to open.  Afterwords, we headed to Bar Harbor to kill some time fishing for rockfish off the docks.



On our ferry to Hollis, we saw a HUGE black bear rummaging one of the island beaches just outside Ketchikcan.  The skies were blue, and our spirits were high.  On the way, we joked several times about how we should start the trip with a bear on the first night.

Little did we know that 20 minutes into our drive on the island, Eddie would spot a monster bear just off the main road.  I remember hearing Eddie yell, "Stop! Stop! Stop!  There is a BIG #$^$&& bear!!!"

After stopping, Eddie and I got out, unlocked the canopy, retrieved our weapons, and walked to where the bear had left the side of the road. 

...and there it stood.  It had gone only 40 yards into the bog, stopped to look at us, and then sat down for a second as if to give us more time.  Eddie asked if he was a shooter, and, after looking the bear over again - noting his tiny ears, boxy stature, and obvious boar-like characteristics, I responded yes.

That was all Eddie needed to hear, and he fired once from his Steyr .300WSM...dropping the bear in its tracks...deflating it like an air pillow.

One down...



Still in our traveling clothes with a fully-packed truck, I opted to stay behind with the bear and field prep it while the others went to the cabin and unloaded the gear in order to make room for the bear.

Several hours passed, but they eventually came back, and we all pitched in dragging the brute back to the road and into the pickup.



Eddie and I were up late into the early morning hours skinning the bear and pulling the meat without a hanger...  We ended up drying the quarters / carcass in game bags on top of my canopy.  The blood running down was a pretty sight the next morning....

[Abolt338]

Day two found Eddie and I de-boning his bear.  It was a lot of meat, and it took us a sweet little bit of time.

Meanwhile, Sara and Randy were back at the cabin enjoying a pretty lax morning.  The cabin was almost brand new, and the accommodations felt a bit luxury.



The deck overlooked a giant estuary which played home to a variety of wildlife, including Sandhilll Cranes, Seals, Orcas, Geese, black-tail deer, and...of course...black bears.



Later in the morning, Sara spotted a large bear from the cabin and ran up the trail to get me.  By the time we returned, it had tucked back into the woods. 

We took advantage of the low tides and ended up bagging some fresh clams and mussels.



Eddie sure does love his seafood...



After filling a bucket of shellfish, we sat down for a little breakfast.  From the table, Sara spotted another bear on the other side of the estuary, so we grabbed our guns and started running the 1.5 miles across the tidal flats.  We were able to get within about 200 yards of the bear - a nice one - but were unable to seal the deal.

After our return, we thought it would be a good idea to drive to Polk Inlet and set some crab pots / hunt the beaches for the evening.



On the way there, we came upon a LARGE bear on the road.  Sara and I jumped out of the car, went to the back for her gun, and attempted to put the old boar down.

He stood broadside at about 40 yards just long enough for us to load a shell into her chamber, then he ambled off into the bushes.  We ran over to see where he had gone when I noticed yet another big bear about 50 yards away.  I ushered Sara to come over, but she didn't understand.  By the time she figured out that I was watching a second bear, it, too, dodged into the thicket.

Missing out on two gimmies, we opted to keep driving to Polk to launch the boat.

We didn't see any bears on the beaches that evening, but it was more of a test run for the boat anyway.  We did manage a couple of crabs in the short time we were there, and Eddie was excited about the seafood buffet awaiting us.

On our way back, we spotted a young bear crossing the road at about 80 yards.  Sara was not picky, so we tried to get her on this bear before it cleared the roadway.  No luck here, either...

Oh well...seafood awaits!

[Abolt338]

Day three met us with blue skies and unusually-high temps.  It didn't take us long to figure out that the bears DO NOT like sunshine.  Where they were once plentiful, they had vanished.

Regardless, Sara and I dropped the guys off at Polk in the boat.  They intended to do some halibut fishing and scout for bear spots.

Once they were situated in the boat, Sara and I started driving the roads.  We drove every single spur between our cabin and Polk, but no sign of bears.  It was evident that they weren't going to show during the bright daylight hours.

...and just when we thought it was hopeless, we rounded the corner of an old logging road and came face-to-face with a GIANT bear at 50 yards.  Unlike the other bears from the previous day, however, this bear wasted no time in boogying off the road and into the thicket, leaving Sara and I with a vivid image of a huge black ass running down the road away from us.

On a positive note, Sara managed to get out of the truck and load up very well.  She opted not to shoot at the monster because of the shot options...very good girl.

With that as our only sighting, we returned as planned to pick up the guys.  Sadly, they only had fishing woes to tell of - broken line, a broken rod, the usual...

We loaded the boat back atop the truck and headed back to the cabin.  We saw many of these little buggers throughout the entire trip...



They were thick as fleas, and the fawns were tiny as bunnies.

We returned to the cabin, and we all realized that it was pretty early (about 7:00PM).

We decided to launch the boat on our own inlet, so that Sara and I could cruise the grassy areas around the cabin in hopes of bagging her first bruin.  She was growing frustrated with herself over all the missed opportunities from the previous day, and I could tell her hopes were not very high despite all the bears we had seen.

The first couple of inlets were empty, but as we passed the third, I noticed the distinct silhouette of bear on the beach.  I told her that I thought it was a bear, and she quietly replied, "ehh...I don't think so."

Without hesitation I raised my binos, and sure enough it was a nice blackie feeding on grass out in the open.  I quickly flipped the boat around and headed for a piece of shore about 150 yards down wind. 

Once we reached shore, I handed Sara her gun and said, "this is your bear...now go get it."

And sure as the sun rises, my 115lb wife grabbed that little .308, marched along the tree line over a series of knolls, knelt down on one knee, and placed an AMAZING shot directly into the bear's boiler room - lung, heart, shoulder...toast!

Nothing describes the feeling I had watching as my wife took charge of the situation, confidently put on a solo stalk, and dropped her first big game animal....and it was BIG!

7'4" and 22" green score BIG!



The picture doesn't do it justice...but we couldn't manage to reposition it for a better shot...it was that big!

The sealer / taxidermist in Craig said it was the second largest skull she'd EVER measured in the 8 years she'd worked on POW.  Needless to say, we were excited...

We ended that day with plenty of hugs, pictures, and food...and then the skinning began...

[Abolt338]

The next morning, Eddie and I found ourselves filling more bags with meat.  We were all feeling the strain of the last few days, but we still had one more tag to fill.

After some lunch, and relaxing, Sara decided that she would accompany me in the boat in search for my bear.

We headed to Polk so we could check our crab pots, and we intended to hunt late into the evening searching for more bears on the beaches.

Randy and Eddie were going to drop us off and then go looking for bears on the roads...a tagless scouting adventure.

After launching the boat, we decided to check the crab pots first so that we could rebait them if needed.  Pulling the first pot, I could feel the weight, but wasn't sure if we had seaweed or crabs.  To my pleasant surprise, we had 10 keeper dungies in the first pot, and we tossed them into the boat.

The second pot had nearly as many, and we kept all we could.

The crab literally took up all the extra space we had, as they crawled about the floor...



After pulling the pots, we took the boat and headed up into the inlet as we had seen several green beaches on our previous boating trip to Polk.

The first beach we checked was empty, but it quickly fed into another beach that was hidden by an island.  We couldn't see behind the island from the backside, but as we moved past the bend, I looked back and spotted another bear feeding on the grass.

Sara looked and confirmed that it was indeed a bear.  I checked my glass and noticed that he wasn't the biggest bear on the island, but he hadn't spotted us, and time was running short.

We decided to beach the boat on the back (downwind) side and make a stalk.

Sara stayed with the boat, and I leisurely walked the beach up, over, and around to a knoll from which I could clearly see the bear.  He was feeding away from me, slightly downhill, so I laid down and flipped my caps.

I could have easily closed the 80 yards as this bear had no idea I was there, but the knoll provided a great vantage point and a very comfortable rest.

When he turned broadside, I squeezed off a round from my .338, watched the bear buck up with both shoulders limp, and collapses onto the grass.  He let out 3-4 good moans, and it was all over.



Upon examining the bear, we measured him at about 6' and pretty skinny for his size.  His skull went 18 7/16 green, so not bad by WA standards.

My shot had caught him in the right shoulder, turned it to hamburger, and proceeded to repeat the process on his left shoulder, blowing it out the other side.  I now realize that a 210gr Partition might be a little much on a 225lb bear at 80 yards.

Nevertheless, we loaded him in the boat and headed back home to camp.

We spent the last day sealing hides, packing gear, and cleaning up.  Sara's dad, Randy, didn't buy a tag, but that will change the next time we all go.

Coming back from one of their town runs, Eddie and Sara spotted a hunter killing a bear about 1 mile from our cabin on the road.  They offered to help the hunter recover his bear, but after learning that he didn't want the meat, they promptly left.  I can't blame them.

About 600 yards further down the road, they spotted another bear.  This one was a stone's throw from our parking area...



Eddie got some great shots of this bear...and he would have made a fine shooter if someone still had a tag.

Maybe next year...

RW

[klickman]

Congrats again, thanks for the write up.  Great story and pics.  WHich cabin did you stay at.  I think I know but just want to verify.  Congrats again.

Klickman

[saylean]

Man, what a party. Your friend Eddies face says it all.

What can I say, I am jealous! I have got to get up there. What great looking bears. I was looking at the pic with your wifes bear and it popped into my head how people say, "I am 6 ft 200 lbs," etc, to give scale to the bear. I think your wife must be all of 90lbs soaking wet, so it would be funny to add that...

Anyways, great write up man, very cool pics. Grats to all on a fine vacation.

[jackelope]

that is an awesome trip. congrats  and great write-up.

[actionshooter]

Great write up!!
Congrats to everyone   

[Abolt338]

Man, what a party. Your friend Eddies face says it all.

What can I say, I am jealous! I have got to get up there. What great looking bears. I was looking at the pic with your wifes bear and it popped into my head how people say, "I am 6 ft 200 lbs," etc, to give scale to the bear. I think your wife must be all of 90lbs soaking wet, so it would be funny to add that...

Anyways, great write up man, very cool pics. Grats to all on a fine vacation.

Sara's about 5'4" and 110lbs.  I tried to get a picture of her leaning over the bear to show its true size.  You can see how big the head is in relation to her waist.  Once we get the official measurement, I'll post that up to.  Even after a couple weeks of drying, it's still a very solid 21+" skull.  Probably will end up a mid 21"er (it's pretty dried up now).

Also, the bear was pretty skinny for it's length.  I would never have guessed a 7+' bear until the sealer took a tape measure to it (not-stretched).  It was easily 7'4" and probably closer to 7'5" or even 7'6".  I think the skull score will speak the loudest once it's all done (end of July).

RW