japantiger

Saw him from about 3 miles away....saw two bears actually from the same spot. Both were hunkered down to get out of the wind. Winds blew 45mph and we had gusts to 70mph. Miserable in the wind. Winds were blowing left to right. The high wind worked in our favor.

In mid-August, went to Nunavut, Canada; Southampton Island; Coral Harbour community. About 800 permanent residents, mostly Inuit. Southampton and the area are home to large growing polar bear and Atlantic Walrus populations. If you look in the background (right side of video in the distance about 2 miles), you see another polar bear. On Walrus Island, you can hear them barking, snorting and hissing. What you can't tell from the video is the powerful smell. From a couple hundred yards off shore the smell is powerful. 20230823_155149.mp4 20230831_105023.mp4

This is a very big Coastal Black Bear; and old...had one eye, the other had been lost in a fight recently....squared measure 8'1"; skull 20 11/16. This is a top 25 bear. My guide is the best in the business on this...she's a bear whisperer.

Bears were prevalent on the island. In that second video, spent about 1.5 hours getting into the position where I could take a shot. Immature males and females. Backed away and got back on the boat. We were 1600 yds away when the guide spotted these guys. He was in shadows up an inlet you see in the photos ..I didn't see him until we were about 1250 yds...we cruised up until we got within about 200 yds of the Inlet...bear still about 500 yds away...the wind was all wrong as we couldn't just pull up around the point and stalk in. So we were going to have to go up the inlet, get past them and stalk back down into the wind. Cut the outboard off and let the current and wind push us into the inlet. The wind was a steady 10mph...nice and noisy and the water still a little choppy in the wide part of the inlet. I laid in the floor of the skiff out of site. The guide sat in the floor just peeking above the gunwhale steering... occasionally she'd kick on the trolling motor, but generally she let the wind and current push us silently toward the bend. This put us within about 200 yds of them as we mostly drifted past the bears on the far side of the inlet as they grazed. ..either unaware or uncaring about what was floating nearby. From the time we entered the inlet it took about 45 minutes to drift (South to North) far enough past them to be out of site. ( It was about 6:00 pm as we entered the inlet). The inlet narrowed substantially, only about 30 yds wide, as it took a big bend to the left (west) and we trolled into the bank, anchored the boat about 200 yds up this narrowed stream. The inlet went on another 500 yds before bending right again to the N and out of site. We loaded up and began the stalk into the wind back toward the South, the direction we had come. We we are about 500 yds as the crow flies from where the bear had been. We stalked the back side of the big bend point and came out on the bank of the main inlet...we couldn't see them as they were still about 200 yds away and around a couple of small points. The guide moved left back up the shoreline to get a view so we didn't just blunder around a corner and spook him. I was hunkered in the grass checking my 6. I hadn't seen the bear since I got into the floor of the boat. She was gone about 10 minutes....had gotten their location fixed and was firm that the boar was a boar and mature enough. He was grazing in grass that mostly covered his legs... We waded the shoreline to the 2nd point up that obscured them. We were just backtracking the inlet as it opened back up to our right. We left the water and got down and crawled in the grass out of site until we got to a point we could see as the shoreline bent further right. At this point we're about 80 yds...the boar was just grazing, head down and constant motion. About 10 yds further up was a nice big rock about 15 feet wide and terraced down right to left. I slowly eased my pack on top of the rock and laid my rifle on top with me in kneeling position...a great rest. The guide put the glasses on the boar (to verify again) and be sure we had the right animal. After about 5 minutes, she gave me the go ahead to get into position, safety off. He was grazing facing to the right. At this point we just talked (whispered ) about what I could (mostly could not) see and that as soon as I could get him broadside and see his shoulder to fire. Still very windy...nice and noisy . He milled about for another 10 minutes (they are constant motion as they eat) before he moved up a little rise facing toward us and eventually he turned to our left as I could see his legs and his shoulder stick up above the grass. He was about as perfect broadside as you could hope for. I took two breaths and fired. He spun and went down on his haunches facing to our right....he was hit well. I got back on him as I reloaded and fired again. He went down and didn't move. We waited about 10 minutes and walked up...

20230610_074849.mp4 VID-20230611-WA0083.mp4

Start of the hunt 20230610_150223.mp4 20230610_155808.mp4 20230613_125035.mp4

Alaska hunt in June was on Kuiu Island; flew into Juneau, overnighted before catching a small float plane ~150 miles South. From there, the plan was to hunt off the main boat each day in small skiff's along the coast and up the various rivers that empty into the ocean. The goal was to find bears after coming out of winter dens. Hunting started at noonish each day and would go until about 11:00 pm as the light fades. Hunting in waders and wading boots; rain every day. Mild temps, mostly in the 40's...winds blew pretty steady and that coupled with the ice cold water meant heavier layers. 20230609_152328_1.mp4

Started with a Barren Ground Grizzly hunt back in May in the Canadian NWT's near Inuvik and Tuk. In June I went to SE Alaska to hunt Coastal Black Bear. In mid-August I went back to Canada; but this time Nunavut, to Southampton Island and Baker Lake to hunt Polar Bear, Walrus, Caribou and Muskox. First set of photo's from the 1st hunt...temperatures never got above ~25 degrees and hovered ~10 degrees the whole time. Winds came and went; but in general it didn't warm up enough for the bears to come out during the 10 hunting days. Scenery is just like it says; barren ground. About half the hunting is done over the ocean; in the snowmobile photo, the flat plane in the distance is the Arctic Ocean. In the "midnight sun" photo, we were setting on a large lake when I took that at about 1:30 AM. One of the other photos where the ground is more churned up is a Reindeer herd. You might need to zoom to see them. We covered about 90 miles/day on snowmobiles and depending on where we were went we returned to a small cabin or back into the hotel in Inuvik.

The Elephant import permit is now approved as of this past week, so the elephant and kudu are on their way back to the US. That leaves only the lion still in permit limbo. Likely at least another 2 years on it.

Freeze said Thorne needs to be more consistent and “I do think Robby has to get his touches.” Why? In spite of all evidence to the contrary, what is he looking at that leads him to that conclusion?

Why credit to him for that? Keeping snaps away from your starter to make a malcontent happy is hardly courageous/winning leadership. RA is not a P5 D1 college QB. Maybe his is a slot receiver; I don't know if he can catch and run routes and block well enough. But I'd steer him there or to DB.

I'm ecstatic about the win...you turn it over 4 times on the road, just generally don't have good QB play and you still win...that's an absolute gift. Gotta hold onto the ball though...that's got to change quickly. Carry that damn ball high and tight...that's on the players 100%.

The only bright spot for Auburn out of all this is yesterday's game showed if you pressure Texas A&M and stop their run; they can't pass their way out of it...and their defense looked atrocious yesterday. A good Pop Warner team tackles better than they did against Miami. It's a down year in the SEC West...is about the only silver lining for Auburn.

Can we just finally end the "Robbie needs a package" BS. Holy crap...as expected, when he was in the defense loaded up to crush his predictable QB sweep lamely disguised as a RO and he cannot throw...made a beautiful rollout and then threw back across his body smack into the hands of a defender...who thankfully, dropped it. Stick with Thorne or not; put HG in; but just stop the madness. Ashford should not be taking away playing time from a real QB.

Why do we always start games in the hole....no matter who the coach is

Why is it not a cal TD?

Sorry guys, Robbie is a career below 50% passer (33% yesterday) who's thrown as many INTs as TDs. Put him in on the goal line against anyone that matters and you're gonna get outstanding athletes with a stacked box to take away the run and then you're depending on a guy with less probability than tossing a coin to make a play....that sounds like Guz Malzahn "Jeremy Johnson will win the Heisman" logic to me or Brian Harsin "I don't need to recruit, or coach, or, well, work" logic. I get it many of you guys like him...but he'd only get playing time with Vandy or maybe Mizzou with any other team in the SEC. You have a starter (in name at least) with good legs than can throw. Even Lane Kiffin math won't justify putting RA in.

I do not understand putting RA in when we did or the play selection. He's a one dimensional player. Thorne can run very well; you could have done anything with him yesterday in that situation that we actually did with RA; but we could also throw the ball with some expectation of a completion with PT in the game. RA is a good runner...and a well below average passer...WELL BELOW AVG. If you have a good runner as your starter (his YPC were basically the same as RA) why take him out to put in a one dimensional backup. Against the teams that matter; that crap won't work...we've seen this tape before....it was played out all last year. Get your new starter more reps in a game; and if you want to run it in on the goal line, let PT do it...he's got the legs. I'd be much more concerned with undermining my starter than making my well below avg SEC QB backup feel good. Got to love the run game; some serious speed....the passing game was better than we've had since Stidham was there. Seems like the defense figured it out after a slow start. Special teams...nice! Good to win big in a game we should win big in...and looked pretty good doing it.

Play your #1 QB so you get an identity and some rythm established. We haven't proved we can beat anybody yet...play around with backups after we're handily ahead.

Well, some crap doesn't change. Wasted TO because they can't get a play in...why in the hell would you change QB?

It is a dry Province...the Inuit don't like booze

Listening from Coral Harbour in the Canadian Arctic...the NIP is definately in the air here...freezing temps, 30 mph winds and rain/sleet

Please Fifty...never mention that coaches name again....I didn't think it possible but someone actually out-Barfielded, Barfield. Good luck to this team...it is a radically different (and more talented) lineup than what played at anytime last year. The staff is to be commended for their work. Here's hoping this group hits and gives the effort that the 1981 Pat Dye team did and believes like the 1993 team did.