Bubba Hunt

I suppose you may be wondering about the bear that terrorized my neighbor.
Lin and I sat out in my Prowler in pouring rain for several hours waiting for him to return.
He was down at the river getting into trouble. I heard three large rifle shots at 0530 AM. Don't know if he got himself whacked, but he has not come by the last two nights.
I left a pot of moose stew out to cool one winter. It's common for us to use the cold nights to cool things.
Old Hanner the bear liked the stew. I heard him gobbling it down in big bites.
I cooled nothing else until he went to sleep for the winter.
He did steal my garbage can one cold November night. I don't know why he was still awake. He picked up my can, squeezed it with his paws, and bit it with those large teeth. He took one look at me, who was yelling "bad bear" insults, and dove over the bank.
I went down to see if I could find the can. The thick alders caused me to chicken out. I figured he needed it for his garbage. At least that's the reason I gave for not going into the alders to fight him for it. A $10 can wasn't worth the amount of stitches that it could take to put me back together. Wrestling one bear was enough, and the remenbrance was still very clear in my mind.
Today I repaired all of my outside security and yard lights. Soon the long cold, dark nights will be upon us.
A dark yard is not a kool thing to have to come home to.
Just for giggles... I may be in the Bay Area for Thanksgiving. If anyone is interested, I could do a "Bear and Mountain Lion Attack Seminar"in the Red Bluff area for the locals. All I need is a conference room for two hours.
Drop a line in the "comments" if anyone is interested.
Bubba

Posted by Bubba Hunts at 09:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I hope tonight will be a bit quieter than last night.
About 10 PM last night my neighbor lady called and said a big bear was ripping up her yard. Her husband was on the "Arctic Slope" for his week hitch.
I grabbed my shot gun and jumped into my truck. I drove over and ran the bear off. It had torn up her garbage cans, knocked over a ladder and made a big mess out of everything. I'm glad it didn't break the sliding glass door with her and her three small children inside.
The bear came back and tore up everything in sight, but didn't break into the house.
Today I gave her my shot gun which was full of OO Buck shot followed with slugs. I instructed her not to shoot unless it broke the glass door.
In an hour I will go over and watch for a couple of hours to make sure the bear doesn't come back to do more damage. I have no intention of letting the critter do more damage. The local Fish& Game was contacted this morning and notified of the bear. They offered to write my neighbor a ticket for having garbage cans out where the bear could get into them. What are they supposed to do, bring them into the kitchen??
Well, I have a couple of things I could say about that...
When I was on the Fish& Game Advisory Board we done things much differently.
We have a DL&P policy up here where it states that you can kill a critter in "defence of life and property".
A bear broke into my shed a few years ago, and ripped the door from my freezer, eating my frozen meat supply along with a six-pack of coke.
The next evening the bear went to "Bear Heaven".
Well see how things go tonight.

Posted by Bubba Hunts at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Another moose season has come and gone. It was a lot different this year.
I must concede my "moose getting" ability to my little wife.
She got lucky on day 2 and shot a nice young bull. I roamed the hills for weeks and only managed to get into a bunch of trouble with huge bears and wolves.
We were lucky to get back home with no injuries.
This year the wolves have taken over. In an area where moose are usually quite abundant, wolf packs ruled. We heard a pack pull down a cow moose. She bawled for almost an hour before they finally killed her. I tried to get there to whack a wolf or two, but they were down in a big swamp where I couldn't get. I'll never forget the sounds and now my wife is a worse wolf-hater than I am. I suppose we don't "hate" wolves, we just don't particularly like the way they do business.
My feelings come from many years of dealing with moose and wolves. I saw a cow moose standing in the middle of the Tok River during the mid 80's. She had big chunks of skin and flesh missing from her hind quarters. She was standing up to her belly in the water at 30 below. Ice was hanging from her legs and sides. The wolf pack was laying on the bank waiting for her to weaken and fall.
I know, it is the way nature sometimes works, but I have found the wolf to be a wanton killer. They take down animals every chance they get whether they eat or not.
Wolf lovers overlook the facts for reasons that I can only imagine. I have only been dealing with them since 1969, so I guess it doesn't make me any sort of an expert.
This year I had wolves trailing me as I hiked the brushy ridges. No they didn't attack me, but I kept a close watch to make sure they didn't sneak up on me.
Two of the griz had tracks that measured 16 inch long by 10 inch wide. There were four big griz working the watershed along with at least 10 black bears.
My wife and Sister-in-law had black bears come into camp twice. Once they were playing cards by the fire and a bear came in and "woofed" at them.
All in all it was a very enjoyable moose camp. Lots of good nights around the camp fire and a time to visit with my brother, Gib, and his wife Linda. We always have a blast, but this year was special.
The weather was torrents of rain and wind. Mud was deep and a lot of water was standing everywhere. It kept me out of some good hunting areas where I usually killed moose.
I installed a cab on my Arctic Cat Prowler, with doors, wipers, heater, running lights, and two batteries. It worked very well, keeping us dry and warm. It was a lot easier to get Lin to go out on the trail. It kept the "skeeters" out too.
Only 11 more months till moose season. Can't wait!!

Posted by Bubba Hunts at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We just stopped in for supplies from our month long moose camp. So far my little wife is glowing in the fact she got the first and maybe only moose.
I have never had so many close encounters with bears and wolves. I know, you have heard that wolves NEVER attack people. Well, what is a hungry pack of wolves to do?
Between them and a hoard of grizzly and black bears, the moose population is at about 20% of what it was the last few years.
Two of the grizz measured at 16 inch long by 10 inch wide footprint. I think they are as big as they can get with an attitude to go with it. They certainly don't "shoosh" very well.

The wolves have footprints 7 inches long. This morning I took a little stroll and found that two wolves came into our camp .The critters will go at least 10 feet from nose to tail. I don't feel real comfortable hiking around with them following not far behind.
The black bears have visited at our camp twice. The first time was just after dark and it put the gals a bit on edge. The second time they were playing cards when a big "woof" sounded not more than 30 yards away. It could have been one of the medium sized grizz ( only about 700 lbs) that have been hanging around.
So far we have two huge grizz and two big grizz, along with a few large black bears hanging too close around.
Lin hasn't healed from her spine-fusion as of yet, so there are days when I have to go alone.
We are always careful, but some times the brush is thick with no room for war.
My brother, Gib, and his wife Linda, have been hunting with us until two days ago. Gib had to get back to the North Slope for work.
Lin and Linda drove up on a large sow grizz with three big fuzzy cubs standing in the road. All four scooted off into the brush without incident.
I suppose that it may have crossed your mind why we take some shaky chances to get the winters moose meat.
Lately I have had to question it myself. We still have a week of hiking the brushy trails and swamps. Packing out 200 lb hind quarters of moose in "hungry bear" country, will also make one take inventory. By the time you get the pack off, the bear can have both you and the pack in it's mouth, running off into the alder thickets.
Unfortunately bears don't just come into camp and prowl around looking for something to eat. They grab things and run into the brush. Sometimes the "something" is people.
During my "Bear Attack Siminars", I teach people to tie a "lanyard cord" or strap around their arm, and tie it to their weapon. At least if you get dragged out of your tent, your gun will be dragged with you. Then maybe, just maybe, you can defend yourself before the bad things happen.
I heard that last week a lady was mauled while jogging at the edge of Soldotna. When I say edge, I mean a few hundred yards from the busiest intersection. Several maulings have happened this summer within the city limits.
Tomorrow we'll be headed back to moose camp. Hopefully we'll bring home the moose, not some bad story of a disagreement with 1200 lbs of attitude with claws.

Posted by Bubba Hunts at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)