Butch Zens from New Mexico downed this monster 10 foot plus brownie on the third day of his hunt on Kodiak Island. As you can see below, the bear's last effort was a nose dive into a hole in a rock slide. We worked for over an hour, even skinning out his back legs to reduce weight, but still couldn't get him out of the hole. We took off our belts, wrapping them on him to get a hand hold for pulling. POP!! We now had broken belts and a name for the bear. "Broke Belt Bear." We decided to return the next day with a rope come-a-long.
You can see how his nose is rammed right between the rocks. The next day the weather wasn't too great so the other clients, Henry and Kurt with his friend Ekkehard, decided they did not want to go out and hunt. Their guides, Jon and Daniel, along with Butch's wife, Wendy, went back with us to get the bear out. We figured with all of the added muscle we wouldn't need to bring the rope come-a-long. After at least another hour of pushing, pulling, "One, two, three"ing and a few heave-hos we did finally get him out .
Let's head back to camp before the snow gets any heavier.The first hunt I came on with Gus and Koreen was a moose hunt on the Alaska Peninsula. I got a real nice 67" moose, only 400 yards from where we had parked the boat.
Would you like more information? Gus
Lamoureux |