PAT'S BLACK BEAR HUNT - TANANA RIVER ALASKA 2007

After several years of changing spots we finally hit the jackpot. We had about 11-12 different bears using our bait regularly (Joe had already shot two from the stand).  We were putting out about 250lbs of bait a week and it wasn't lasting long.  That would get us through about 4-5 days according to the trail cam.  We studied the trail cam pictures and knew that there was a particularly large bear in there.  His face was scarred up enough that one of the scars was visible on the trail-cam pictures.  He had a large scar just above his left eye on his brow.  I had been trying to get my son Pat a bear for a few years now but we ran into problem after problem.  He was discouraged to the point where I could tell he had lost almost all interest in it. With this bait site though it was almost a sure thing.  We had two other bears come in the bait around 10:30pm once the temp started to cool down.  When the big bear showed up it was very noticeable how much larger he was than the other bears and they wanted no part of him.  We filmed him for about an hour.  At first he walked all around our stands trying to figure out what we were doing in there. Eventually he would feed a little and at the same time posture towards any other bear that was trying to slip in.  After an hour or so we filmed enough and gave Pat the trigger signal.  He maintained his composure much better than I would have as he squeezed the trigger.  The bear took off like he missed but fell down about 40 yards away where Joe could still see him.  He got up and moved about another 10 yards before finally expiring.  Judging by the way he ran out of there I thought Pat had missed him but Joe assured us he was down. We gave the bear about 15 minutes just to be certain and then went to where he had fallen.  By this time it was pretty damn dark so even though we were sure he was down it was still spooky.  Walking up to his bear you could see he was a nice ebony phase with perfect spring coat.  He ended up squaring a smidgen just under seven feet.  Definitely worth the three year wait!

Pat was shooting his .300 Winchester with 165 grain Nosler Partitions.
Shot right behind the shoulder at approx 30 yards.

(click to enlarge)