Bear Hunting Passion

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 10/18/2019 | P Atkins

[w1n1]

Bear Hunting can be Controversial, but this Sportsman Loves it - The thing they really can't comprehend is my infatuation with bears and the fact that I like hunting them. It hasn’t always been that way, but over the 20-plus years I’ve been here it has become so – even more this year – and it’s not only me. My best bud Lew has the fever as well. We just absolutely love it!
Yeah, it’s crazy and there’s really no simple reason why. I’ve tried to explain it, but can’t. Not really. I guess the passion came from a combination of time and places, and even certain circumstances that brought us to this serious addiction with bears.

IN THE OLD DAYS, spotting a grizzly was like seeing a ghost or some kind of alien being, especially during the spring months, when searching the hills and snow-covered tundra was the order of the day. Fall was a little different, as seeing a bear was a little more common, especially along the rivers and streams where the fish came to die.
Sometimes you’d see a bruin on a hill through binoculars, a brown spot on the orange and brown landscape. I remember how amazing it was for me personally to see a bear. It was usually from far off in the distance, but still notable.

With a boat full of gas and gear we made it across to the mouth of the Noatak River. It wasn’t long before we pulled into camp, which was in a different area this year, even newer than our trip a couple weeks before.
A gravel bar that sits higher than others and has a deep pool thick with fish out front would be our home for the extended weekend. It was almost dark – not to mention windy – and we already had seen two bears on the ride in, so we knew we were in a prime location. The big chums stirred more than usual and we were excited for what was to come.
We quickly got our tent up and had just sat down to a delicious MRE when we saw the first bear show up close to camp. We sat, ate and watched. Then two more. Before the end of the evening we had counted nine in all.
With all the activity going on, we knew the night would be a long one for the both of us. Like new tenants, we had moved into someone else’s house, took over their table and disturbed their eating arrangements. We had bears coming in all night. Lew sat and watch and I slept.
He had many encounters during the early-morning hours close to our tent. One of those was with a bear he described as the biggest he'd ever seen. I saw the track the next day and confirmed he was right. There were big bears here. Read the rest of bear hunting.

[MomwithHope]

here you go

[BuffaloJack]

How about hunting them with only a bowie knife?
Let’s make it fair, now.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yikes! He hasn’t expressed a desire (yet!) to hunt Grizzly Bear, thank goodness!

That 480# Black Bear he got in 2017 seems to be holding him for now, LOL!

He should be home in a few hours from CO. No one got any Elk; they were nowhere to be found. Too warm, no snow. He did see a moose, though, which was odd and rare for that part of the state.

He said it was 87 degrees in Nebraska, yesterday!

[Chuckster]

"Hunting" implies trying to find them. Too much work. Bears? .

More bears "Don't mind the gunfire"

[Paal Gulli]

Hunting is mere sport ...

... unless you're hunting something that can hunt back.

[MomwithHope]

A good friend’s son in law hunts elk in Wyoming. He got one last year - enormous and they had the head mounted.