Fairbanks woman bags her own birthday present
Published Thursday, October 8, 2009
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FAIRBANKS — Breathe, Nadine Wilson thought. Be still.
The mother of two stood on top of a chair at the edge of a clearing, a rifle resting against her leg, and scanned her surroundings.
She was in the Alaska Range outside Tok, about 200 miles southeast of Fairbanks. It was sunny but cold. The leaves shone brilliant yellow and orange. Not a bad day for a 41st birthday.
“Everything was crisp and crunchy and brightly colored,” said Wilson, who lives in Fairbanks.
She likes to hunt, but it’s rare that Wilson makes the kill.
“I have lots of hunters in my life,” she said. “It makes them happy to provide for me.”
But the hunt last month was different.
“If the opportunity presented itself, I was going to shoot a bear,” Wilson said.
As she stood on her chair with her feet growing cold, she thought about how nice a warm campfire might feel. Then she remembered something her father told her when she was a girl.
“My dad taught me to be very quiet in the woods and patient,” Wilson said. “I told myself I’m just going to watch longer and see if anything comes out.”
Wilson could hear the five men in her hunting party, including her husband, Zane, talking and laughing as they prepared a moose dinner at their hunting camp about 75 feet away.
At her side was the .30-06-caliber Remington rifle that Wilson’s husband had given her on her first Mother’s Day 16 years ago.
“He told me that if something happened to him, I would have to shoot a moose to feed our children,” she said. “I thought it was a nice gift — something my dad would have done.”
History of hunting
Wilson, an unemployment auditor, grew up in Tok and has hunted throughout her life. She comes from a family of hunters and hunting guides. She learned to shoot as soon as she was old enough to hold a gun.
At the far end of the clearing where Wilson stood sat a gut pile from a moose kill days earlier. Wilson’s hunting party had taken two moose and two caribou. This was the last day of the 11-day hunt.
Earlier in the hunt, while some of the hunters stood on a hillside looking down at a valley, they saw a huge grizzly sow and three cubs. The frolicking bears turned and ran toward the hillside.
“I was shaking, holding my binoculars on them,” Wilson said.
She is not what you’d consider “bearanoid,” but she’s cautious, especially around young bears.
“I’m respectful of bears and their space,” Wilson said. “I don’t want to have an encounter with them where I don’t have a gun.”
Another day, Wilson was relaxing at camp, talking with her husband and combing her hair. She looked up and saw what she believes was one of the cubs about 50 feet away. She handed her husband a rifle. He shouted and fired off a shot. The bear ran away. That’s when Wilson thought to ask her spouse where to shoot a bear to stop it.
“He told me to shoot it in the front shoulder,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s cousin had joined the hunt and also wished to shoot a bear. He had been stalking a bear about a half mile from camp where ravens were seen squawking and circling, leading the hunters to believe something was probably dead in the woods. Wilson said her cousin was close enough to a bear that he heard it hissing and gnashing its teeth and he saw a flash of fur.
Wilson continued to stand on her chair, spying the clearing.
Patience pays off
The rest of the hunters had been teasing and encouraging Wilson that day, partly because it was her birthday.
“They kept telling me, ‘You’re going to shoot a moose. The big one’s coming for you.’”
Finally, Wilson’s patience paid off.
She heard something in the brush and saw a grizzly walk into the clearing about 25 yards away. Wilson brought her rifle to her shoulder. She sucked in a breath of air and pushed it out.
“I put my scope where Zane told me to aim, and I pulled the trigger,” she said.
The bear dropped, landing near the gut pile. It apparently never saw Wilson. The bullet snapped its neck.
“I wasn’t scared of the bear because it didn’t look at me,” Wilson said. “It wasn’t coming toward me. I had my gun ready.”
The hunters skinned the bear and brought it to Tok to show Wilson’s relatives.
Her father, hunting guide Jerry Lancaster, said he feels proud.
“She just stayed with it and was persistent,” Lancaster said. “She’s stubborn like her mother.”
Wilson gave the hide to her cousin, who she said bravely hunted bear on that trip, and the skull to her husband, who collects skulls of predators.
“I didn’t have a big bear skull,” Zane Wilson said. “I’ve kind of been wanting to get one.”
The skull measured 24 and 11/16ths inches. It will be measured again next month and the number submitted to the Boone and Crockett Club for possible trophy recognition.
Wilson kept the claws, although she doesn’t know what she’ll do with them.
“I think it was lucky,” she said. “Sometimes you shoot animals, and you shoot them four or five times and they don’t go down. It was my birthday, and it was my lucky bear. It was very nice to shoot a bear. Usually, I don’t shoot anything. It was the best birthday I’ve ever had.”
Community Discussion
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Congrats Nadine.. was fun to read something about someone I knew as a wee little girl now all grow'd up and now a bonafide bear hunter.. Something I have never done. Good job... beautiful animal! Loved the story!
a Tokite through and through!! (smile)
With all the killing going on in the world it is a sad day to hear that killing an animal makes someone happy. To show a picture of a dead bear is a statement of the state of mankind. Live and let live.
hush tree hugger!!! it is awesome!!!! and i'd be proud as well!
crzysgrl----why not be a real hunter and take the bear with your knife--that way the bear has a chance---instead you would choose a high powered rife and kill the bear sniper style---where is your sense of sport? You call me a tree hugger!!! Who was hiding behind a tree with a gun?
This is a state of hunters, outdoor people. We hunt, we fish, we trap, and we detest tree huggers. If you don't like us shooting animals, well move back to Mexifornia or wherever the h*** you came from.
I disagree with gdotz. I have no issue with hunting obviously, but I do have a question: this issue of using "bait." In this case, the moose guts are not purposely used to lure the bear as far as I can tell, but baiting does seem to be a regular practice. This bothers me, and doesn't seem very, well, sportmanlike. Am I wrong on this? I have only hunted with others as I say--I don't hunt personally. They didnt use bait. SO I just wonder what those of you who do hunt feel about this. SOmething about it just doesnt feel right. so, am I wrong?
Some times you get the bear and some times the bear gets you. Good Hunting!!
Way to go! Nice shooting, Tex. Yeehaw!
You go lady. I would love to be that lucky as to bag a bear like that. Something to be proud of for sure. I really like to hear stories about other "moms" hunting and providing for their families. I sure hope it makes Boone and Crockett.
Great job Nadine! Great story and awesome bear! I am sure Zane was proud!
"Wilson kept the claws, although she doesn’t know what she’ll do with them." Good thing you killed this animal and will put its bits in you junk drawer. If killing something makes your day you should re-examine what makes you happy. If you kill to eat that is one thing if you kill for trophies you are in fact lame.
It was killed humanly but not for food so I could go either way on this one. Bears kill, we kill, the govt. kills, our friends kill and our enemies kill so there you go.
steelrsrv:
Killing for sport is pretty lame. But grizzly bear meat is nearly unedible. It looks, smells, and tastes like crap. Literally. All they're really good for is hide, claws, and skull. And don't worry...there's ten thousand more where that one came from.
I sure hope it wasn't the sow they saw earlier... it's illegal to take a sow with cubs, isn't it?
gdotz: quit stinking up our state with your presence!
I wish some of you would go back to where you came from. Alaska is the LAST FRONTIER and we would like to keep it that way!
joeslankas, your right there are more, many, many more that need to be hunted!
Great job Nadine!! I am sure this was the bear that was hanging around camp last year. I wish I could have been there.
To all the negative posts, we should all try to refrain from imposing our personal values on others. I would hope that we could all agree that first and foremost the resource needs to be conserved. By all measurements, the grizzly population in this part of the world is strong, healthy and able to support a reasonable bear harvest.
If we are in agreement to this point, and as long as the bear is taken legally, then the hunter's motives in the harvest are not for us to criticize.
Frankly speaking, shooting the bear for meat or for the trophy has the same exact impact on the resource. For that matter, if he was hit by a car, speared, baited or fell off a cliff; the impact is still exactly the same.
My point is that we should confine our debate to the science, i.e. the bear population or the appropriate harvestable surplus. Attempting to push your values on others is a slippery slope. If we tolerate and practice this as a society, tomorrow you will find someone telling you what's best for you and your family. Recall how well this worked with respect to religion in the middle ages. And yes.....many hunters treat hunting like a second religion.
Ryan
Pinhead,
Baiting is only allowed when hunting black bear, and only in the spring. It's an effective way to harvest animals that rarely venture out in the open and provide opportunities to do the traditional "spot and stalk". Also, it's beneficial in that the animal(s) can be studied so that only mature bears, without cubs, are harvested. Sitting on a gutpile is just taking advantage of a "possible" opportunity to see a bear, it is in essence baiting but differs in that the hunter has not scouted the area specifically looking for bear habitat, nor are artificial scents/foods being used to draw them in, as with black bear hunting. Patience and luck is what it boils down to. That being said, great bear and great shot!
For you anti-hunters, wow are you in the wrong state. Man is a predator, just like the bear, get over yourselves.
thanks so much. I appreciate your thoughtful and patient response.
Great story and great shot. I would have loved to see a bear like that. All though the bear would have lived because I'm not as good a shot. Second thought I don't need to see a bear like that.
Wow congrats Nadine!!! excellent story I wish I was on that hunt with you guys sounds like you got the winter meat in! I love the way the anti's try to inject their fanatic philophy into every hunting, trapping or fishing story like it will change the way we and our ancestors have lived for 10's of thousands of years.
if you live here and are against our way of life, go back to your concrete jungle, the others who only write from their leather chairs out of state...stay there...your closed mind is not welcome to our great spirited state this is the reason most moved here and LOVE it~!!
To the people who have heartburn with those that hunt, fish and trap, if you don't like it, don't look at the pictures, don't read the articles, then that way you can keep your criticism to yourself! You won't change our minds about those things that we like to do and neither will we change your minds and your opposition to it! Mankind has done those things since the beginning of time, irregardless of whether you think it is right! So find something else more important for you anti's to B___H about! Time for me to fix a good moose steak for supper!
Nadine,
Good for you and on your Birthday too. Not many women can say they have had a 41 st Birthday like yours.
I have shot my Fathers 30-06 many times. Tell me were you knocked off of the chair you were standing on or not?
You go Lady !
Echo317 Wisconsin Rapids
First off, congrats on a successful hunt Nadine.
Second, to joeslankas: Have you ever eaten Grizzly or do you just believe every wives tale you hear? I totally disagree with your comment about grizzly meat being inedible. In fact, some of the best wild game I have ever eaten was from a blueberry fed grizzly I shot in the Brooks Range. As with any other wild animal, the quality of the meat depends on what the animal is feeding on, its age, its sex, how the meat was cared for after the kill, how the meet was prepared, whether the animal was rutting, etc. etc. Please don't mislead folks with blanket generalizations. I would guess (though I have never had it) that salmon fed grizzlies are about as inedible as a rutting male caribou, but I doubt you would say caribou are inedible.
Third, rdyork - right on.
When I first saw the photo I thought, "wow, what a huge black bear". I didn’t know a grizzly bear could get so dark. Does anyone know how to quickly differentiate the two?
gdotz, do you wear leather? I'm not a predator hunter, but for those that admire the pelt, go for it. It was a humane quick kill; I hope all my shots will be as good as that. Wolves eat their prey while they are still kicking, so yes I would consider it very humane, and the animal whose skin you wear gdoz most likely waited for hours sensing the anxiety of death in a slaughterhouse before it was killed so don't get on a high horse.
Pinhead you wrote: "I have no issue with hunting obviously, but I do have a question: this issue of using "bait." In this case, the moose guts are not purposely used to lure the bear as far as I can tell, but baiting does seem to be a regular practice. This bothers me, and doesn't seem very, well, sportmanlike. Am I wrong on this? I have only hunted with others as I say--I don't hunt personally. They didnt use bait. SO I just wonder what those of you who do hunt feel about this. SOmething about it just doesnt feel right. so, am I wrong?"
Lots of hunter use all kinds of lures to attract game. Duck decoys, dear decoys, calls, licks, other gamed, etc. Some guys in the lower 48 even plane fields for the deer and then sit in a stand. What's the difference? What about a worm on a hook? Why not just swim in after them? The only difference is terminology. One could call it "bear luring" or "dear baiting". Bear baiting is also regulated. There is a season and some other rules as well.
And just as a side note. Shooting a bear off a gutpile is not considered baiting since no attractant was carried into the field. Same principal but no need to haul in bait.
gdotz. Where is your "tolerance" and "acceptance of diversity" of lifestyles? You need to become more progressive in your thinking and your attitude. Or does that only apply to things you agree with?
We live in the Brooks Range in an area where there are no salmon runs. Brown/Grizzly bears, like pork, are excellent meat when eating vegetation....Legume roots, berries, and grasses. Bears that eat other animals are not as good, but are tolerable if made into sausage, that covers the slight off taste. Salmon eating bears have a strong fishy taste that is hard to cover, but some native cultures eat them. I have had soup of fish bear in a Kobuk village and it was OK after being in the cold, because of the high fat content.
Bears in the Alaska Range eat lots of moose, and calves. If you take moose and caribou as a hunter it is your obligation to periodically take a predator. High saturation of human hunters that do not do there part taking any predators, imbalances the ecosystems predator/prey relationship. Native cultures have historically taken off of both sides,... Prey...moose, caribou, dall sheep, deer..... AND bears, and wolves on the other side. This human harvest regime has been in play in Alaska for millennia. Those hunters who harvest only prey and no predators are a negative influence on the ecosystem. They are the ones who want the State to do do their job..... predator reduction.
Nadine here, offset her families moose harvest for this season, there needs to be more responsible "hunters" like her.
Jack Reakoff Wiseman, Alaska...... (Rural Alaska)
What a story! Congrats, Nadine! What a story to pass on in your family...
To those who don't understand or appreciate hunting, well, I've never understood your thought patterns. We are part of this web - and suggesting that we should fight a grizzly with our bare hands is ludicrous. Grizzlies use what they have been provided - massive bulk, teeth, claws, incredible sense of smell, etc. We use what we have been provided - our brains, and our ability to develop technology, etc.
While I can't stand those who slaughter animals illegally, leave them to rot, and don't respect nature, this was not the case in this story at all. While I personally only hunt things that I can eat, there was nothing wrong with this hunt.
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