My wife and I flew up to visit SaltWaterTom and his wife in Homer AK last week. We were greeted by warmer than normal conditions and fantastic hospitality.
On Thursday the 3rd, Tom flew us to our hunting spot and we set up camp for the night. The following morning we went for a walk and identified several good spots for possible bear encounters and then back to camp for some awesome vitals.
For the evening hunt(about 1 p.m.), we all went our separate direction. On the way to the creek in the picture, I spotted a smaller bear high tailing it out of the creek area. I thought...hmmm, maybe there's a bigger bear that sent the smaller packing.
I set up along a bear trail next to the creek and relaxed for a few hours. Knowing I was in for a long sit (never gets dark this time of year in Homer)I decided to lay down and take a little nap.
After about 30 minutes or so, the sun and heat took over and I woke. Upon standing and attempting to focus my eyes, I notice a black spot out of place only about 28 yards out. I couldn't believe my eyes as I confirmed it was a bear.
When he put his head down for grass, I picked up my bow and readied my self.
I watched and waited to confirm size and check for cubs.
Tom had mentioned several times that the area we were in was not known for big bears but there would likely be many.
Ok, I thought. Decent bear already in range and no cubs in sight. At 24 yards or so, he gave me a clear rib shot and I sent a "BigJim" broadhead through him and deep in to the ground. The bear struggled to run but ultimately passed by me at about 12 yards in his 30 yard death run.
I quickly nocked another arrow as he stopped but there was no need as he fell over at close range. All in all, from shot to death couldn't have been more than 15 seconds.
I quickly walked over to him and confirmed no ground shrinkage (very common when judging bears).
I'm sure he's not the biggest bear in the area, but he was mature and seemed as though he might be a fighter. His upper jaw was broken leaving one of his K9's just kind of hanging in there.
We figured him to be a very skinny 6 footer.
I used a Black Widow longbow....nah, I really used a BigJim Buffalo long bow of 64 lbs at my 31 1/2" draw and a full length 7595 gold tip heritage blemmished arrow tipped with a 300 g BigJim broadhead and pink feathers.
A couple days later, tom took a beautiful bear and two days after that my bride woke me in the middle of my nap on a different creek only to point out her bear before shooting it.
Maybe my snoring doubles as a bear call
What a fantastic trip!!! Thanks Tom and Sonya,
BIgJIm
Topic: Something I found in the woods (do you know this bowyer? ) (Read 1299 times)
