2009 Bear hunt comes full circle

[littlemac]

Some time ago I wrote about my Vancouver Island trip for bears with a good buddy of mine from Iowa that I hunt with most every year.

For a number of years (since we hunted in Alaska for brown bear) he has wanted to go to Vancouver Island for black bear.  when in the Yukon hunting moose in 2008 we found out that a guide we enjoyed hunting with was a guide on Vancouver Island and we booked a hunt with his outfitter Sean Lingl.

Without retracing all the details, we had a great hunt and both took nice black bears.  Well, I took a nice one and my buddy took a HOG!!!!

It is always hard to judge a bear, especially one you haven't seen on the hoof, but it was a BIG bear by any standard.


Here's a refresher if you haven't seen the pics.  It even put a pretty good load on the one ton.

[littlemac]

So it has been over a year that we both have waited with anticipation for his full mount of his bruin.

I have had my rug for a few months now and while it was nice it left me with a bit of an empty feeling as it really wasn't a huge bear like my buddy hammered.

On the way home last night talking on the phone he told me his bear was arriving today by freight.  The wait was nearly over.

Somehow in my mind I figured he got a full mount of the bear climbing a log or in some ground pose.

He is not very adept at emailing pics so I told him to make sure his brother got a couple when they uncrated it.

Holy smokes, was I in for a suprise when I opened the email from his brother today and saw the pics below:

[littlemac]

Now those are some nice shots of a bear in a box.  Not very good to see how big the darn thing is.  Well it wasn't long until I had a real comparison to judge one gall darn big azz bear, when I opened the last pic.

My buddy is 5'10" and his bear was roughly seven feet.  Put that beast on a bit of a pedestal and do a very nice job of mounting it and look what you get.

(He asked for a non-scarey pose so the grand kids wouldn't get scared and not want to come in his man cave)  I think it's really 'cause his wife wouldn't let him bring it in the house if it was open mouthed.

So the wait is over and the circle of the hunt is closed except for the telling  and retelling of the story of the hunt.  Anyway, here you go:

[rb2506]

thats a big bear

[littlemac]

Turned out it was the biggest bear of the season out of Sean's camp.

I thought I was done travelling north for bears but that darn standing mount has me cranked up and ready to sign up for another crack at a monster bruin.

[ponyboy156]

Wow!

[NWWABOWHNTR]

That is huge! 

[PacificNWhunter]

Looks awesome!

[littlemac]

I'll be talkin' with him tonight.  He has to be one happy camper the way it turned out.  I'll find out if they got it down to his room. 

[rasbo]

nice bear there foresure,,,lots o smiles that day I bet...Closed mouth mounts always look best,,more natural

[runamuk]

that is awesome cool...and I prefer closed mouth it looks better to me...I really like that....nice bear

[mkcj]

That would be a center piece in any trophy room! Thanks for sharing.

[markts]

Holy smokes thats an awesome bruin. Closed mouth looks more realistic to me too. Mark

[machine]

That bears a monster.

[saylean]

Very cool mount and bear. Had a knarly gash on the snout.