YUKON MOUNTAIN GRIZZLY-1999

Riding out from  a very successful dall sheep hunt with Mervyn's Yukon Outfitting by harvesting a beautiful 40 inch ram guide, Ken Bodally, and I spotted a Mountain Grizzly one ridge over.   Leaving our horses tied up we immediately began a stock on the Grizzly.  He was slowly ambling along and digging up holes in search of rodents.

Within 30 minutes we were able to get within 75 yards of the Grizzly who was still digging for rodents. I found a flat rock to put my backpack across making for a good rest for my rifle. I waited until the bear turned broadside. When he turned I made a well placed shot into the "boiler room" putting him straight down into the snow. Thinking he was down for good I jumped up and began to celebrate, when the Grizzly jumped up also. Reacting very quickly I placed another 180 grain Nosler behind the shoulder putting the big Bear down for good.

After taking a lot of pictures we skinned the Bear for a full life size mount, loaded everything on the pack horses and once again headed for our main camp at Lake Killerman.  The Grizzly was a beautiful Silver Tipped animal that measured 8 feet square. This is large for a Mountain Grizzly as they are the smallest of all the Brown Bear Species.

This had been a very successful and exciting hunt having harvested both a beautiful Dall Ram and large Mountain Grizzly. Both of these trophies became life size mounts and have provided me with memories that will last forever.

YUKON DALL SHEEP-1999

I was sitting in the Phoenix airport terminal waiting for my flight to Seattle for the first section of my trip to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territories. I had booked a Dall Sheep and Grizzly hunt with Tim Mervyn of Mervyn's Yukon Outfitting for September of 1999 and this was the beginning of a fabulous adventure.

After arriving in Whitehorse on September 2, I was met by Tim and immediately taken to a rifle range to check the accuracy of my rifle. I was using an ultralight 300 Weatherby Magnum, shooting 180 Grain Nosler Partition which had been sighted in to be 3 inches high at 100 yards. This allowed me to shoot dead on out to 450 yards without making any adjustments. My rifle was perfect after the trip.

Early the next morning after spending the night at the High Country Inn in Whitehorse we flew by small float plan to the main camp located at Lake Killerman. My guide Ken Bodally had camp all set up and was waiting for me to arrive. After making our plans for the next five days we had a great dinner of Moose steaks, corn on the cob and apple pie. It was lights out at 9:30 as we had to be up by 5:30 and get ready for a 3 hour horseback ride to our first spike camp which was to be our home for the next 5days.

After we arrived at our spike camp and unloaded all of our gear we took off on the horses scouting for dall sheep. We were able to locate 3 small groups of sheep all of which had at least one ram that was of legal size. The largest of which, as you quessed it, was in by far the hardest location to get to. We made plans to be at the base of the mountain the next morning before the sun came up. It was going to be a 2-1/2 to 3 hour hike straight up over rocky and slate covered ground, with very little cover to hide us from the sheep.

Seven o'clock the next morning found use on top of the mountain after what I would have to say was the most grueling hike that I have ever experienced in all my years of hunting. We had our spotting scopes out and we were viewing 3 small rams and 3 ewes, but the big ram was nowhere to be seen. We spent the rest of the day on the mountain top in search of the big ram with no luck. We did spot 3 other groups of sheep of which also contained no shootable rams. We left a little late for our hike back to the horses and had to hike in the dark down hill for approximately 1 mile. The hour ride back to camp was also in the dark and hair raising as we jumped a Grizzly that scared our horses. I quess that's why they call it hunting.

This pattern continued for 5 days with the same results. Lots of sheep and legal rams, but not the ram I wanted. On the sixth day of the hunt we packed our horses and headed back to the main camp for a much needed good nights rest. We also needed to replenish our supplies and get fresh horses before we set out for a new spike camp.

The next camp was called the Ruby Camp and was a seven hour ride by horses from the main camp. We reached the camp at 3 o”clock in the afternoon in the middle of a heavy snow storm with the wind blowing at 50 miles per hour. Hunting that day was out of the question. The next morning came with a very heavy fog cover with the viability being zero. By 2 o'clock the fog began to lift enough for us to take a ride up the valley in search of sheep. We had only gone about a mile when we spotted two large rams running up the mountain out of site into the thick fog. We left our horses at the bottom of the mountain and headed into the fog on foot in search of the big rams. The visibility was only 30-40 yards making the search extremely tough and dangerous as there were steep cliffs on both sides. We finally just sat down and waited for the fog to rise. In an hour the fog had risen enough for us to see under it and continue with our hunt. To our surprise while walking up in the fog we had passed within 40 yards of a group of 23 rams of which 5 were of trophy size. They hadn’t seen us and were feeding directly in our direction. We just laid down and waited for them to get within shooting distance. When they reached a distance of 100 yards, from a pron position and with a sold rest from my Harris bi-pods, I was able to make a one shot kill of a 40 inch Yukon Dall Sheep.

The trip back to the main camp the next day once again in a snow storm but for some reason the trip was a lot more fun with the beautiful dall sheep. On the way back I did harvest a beautiful Silver Tip Grizzly, but that is another story.