Cliff, from Chicago, and I got this Arctic Grizzly in the Brooks Range.

We had spotted this bear about two miles away from our camp, across the Coleen from us. The last three quarters of a mile was an open stalk across the river bed and up the slope of a knob he was laying on. There was no cover on the river bottom and we would not have been able to approach him any closer without being seen. We waited under cover on our side of the river for him to move off of the knob. Finally he did and we hurried across the river and started up the slope.

When we were about 100 yards from the knob, the bear popped back up on top of it and busted us.. Cliff was a couple of steps behind me but we had been spotted and had no shot. The bear clambered back behind the knob and was out of view. Cliff had chambered a round so I whisper-yelled, "Open your bolt" as soon as he did I was off up the hill. "Come with me" I reached to a point just below the top of the knob and waited for Cliff, he was a few yards behind me. After a moment or two he joined me and we rested just a little while for his breathing to slow a bit.

When he was ready, we inched our way up the hill watching all around us. Cliff was just behind me and to the left a little bit. We made it to the top and inched over it surveying the landscape around us as we went. When we had gone far enough that we could see everything, we settled down, on our butts just behind the top of the hill so we didn't stick out like a sore thumb. We began to carefully pick apart the terrain. Cliff was abreast of me to my left. Down the slope in front of us, it was pretty clear, with a few chair sized willows and dwarf birches scattered around but mostly it was open.

At the bottom of the slope was a creek running from right to left and out onto the river bed we had just crossed to get to the knob. On the other side of the creek was slope of a side hill lifting up from the creek and away from us. That slope was equally as clear as the one below us. Again, there were small bushes here and there but mostly just grass tussocks and blueberries on the cassiopeia ground cover. The only place we couldn't see into well was the creek itself with its bigger brush and winding cragginess.

After a few minutes Cliff whispered "There he is" he gestured over the creek to the hillside across from us, a little lower than us and to my right some. "Over there on the hillside" I quickly found the bear and could tell right away that the he knew where we were and that he didn't like it. He was working his way away from us on the hill but not fast. "He's 504 yards away right now." then he added, "I think I can get him"

I reached back behind me and got my pack while he moved into the prone position. I set the pack down in front of him and settled it into the dirt and rubble on top of the knob. "See how that feels" I suggested. He put his rifle up on the pack and settled it in. He cranked his variable, compensating scope up to the highest power it had and peered through it. "Oh, I can do this!" he said confidently "How far away is he now?" I asked, Cliff raised his range finding binoculars and said "520 yards". He clicked his compensating scope up to the proper spot. Cliff was shooting a .308 Win. I had shot at a silhouette range in a prior lifetime and knew it to still be the most popular round for serious silhouette shooters.

"There's no wind" I said, "You can chamber a round, breath easy and take your time" these things were unnecessary, this wasn't our first hunt together and I knew Cliff was a shooter. I could do things with Cliff, I couldn't do with most other hunters. "I'm going to watch with my binoculars and tell you where to correct if I need to" The bear was moving slowly toward the left, broadside on the hill across from us. There was hundreds of yards of field of fire around him. "Wait for him to move out from behind that small bush and shoot if he stops" He moved more to the left to a spot with a clear view and a small bush below him on the hillside. He slowed to almost no movement and I whispered "shoot".

The rifle cracked and I watched for any hint of a bullet strike around the bear. There was nothing. instead the bears knees crumpled and the bear lay down right where he was behind the small bush. "He's hit, load again", "If he moves or stands up from behind that bush, shoot him again" After fifteen minutes and no movement from the bear I got up and said, "I'm going over there. You stay here and watch the bear, if he moves, shoot him" I continued, "I'm going over to the right for a hundred yards, I'll cross the creek and go up the hill to a point above the bear and approach him from above" I added "If he goes up, shoot him, if he goes left, shoot him, if he goes down shoot him, if he goes to the right and up, don't shoot." he said "OK" "Watch for me, when it's all right, I'll wave you over" I added.

Everything went off without a hitch and the bear was dead when I got there. The entrance wound was in a perfect place and the bullet was recovered from a bruise on the off-side shoulder about the size of a tether ball.

I later heard rumors that it was the biggest bear taken by our outfit that year and was green scored for B&C. I don't think it was entered though, because of the cost.