River Bear and Bull

Story By: Mike Torres

Alaska Yukon Moose and Grizzly Bear | River Bear and Bull

My wife, Lee, and I had booked a river moose hunt with Deuling Stone Outfitters in the Yukon for September 2024. This would be my seventh hunt with Deuling Stone and Lee’s first trip to the Yukon. I asked Jarrett Deuling to put us in a river camp with big bulls, and he certainly came through.

On September 17th, we flew by floatplane to a remote alpine lake, offloaded our gear, and met our guides. They were Graeme Peters and his dad, Vern Peters. Graeme has been guiding in the Yukon for years, and Vern, in addition to guiding and hunting the Yukon for over 50 years, was the recipient of the 2024 Wild Sheep Foundation Jack O’Conner Writer’s Award for his article titled “Lofty Goals.” In his article, Vern described how he got into sheep hunting and started his son, Graeme, sheep hunting at 10 years of age. It was obvious we were in the hands of two experienced professionals.

We hiked down to our camp on the MacMillian River. Camp was a traditional log cabin right on the bank of the free-flowing river. The area was absolutely beautiful with bright green spruce trees growing to the water’s edge and backed up with thousands of glowing yellow and orange aspen, birch, and poplar trees. It had rained consistently for the previous 25 days, but our first day was clear and gorgeous.

After flying in, we had to wait six hours before we could start hunting. We checked the zero on our rifles. Lee was shooting her 30/06 with 168 grain Barnes TTSX, and I was shooting my old .338 Win. Mag with 225 grain Accubonds.

Graeme thought we should head downriver for the last few hours of daylight and do a little glassing and calling. It turned out to be a very good decision. We passed a huge log jam, tied up the 20-foot jet boat, and climbed a glassing hill. I immediately spotted a big bull moose across the river on a ridge about 1,500 yards away. The bull was interested in our calling and started down through the timber. We lost sight of him, and Graeme wanted to start back before it got dark. As we were headed upstream, Lee called out, “Bear, big bear!” She had spotted a huge grizzly climbing over the log jam. The grizzly hit the riverbank and started running along it as the bank was undercut and he couldn’t climb up it. Graeme was following the bear with the jet boat at about 40 yards. I couldn’t hear what Graeme was saying over the jet motor and river rapids. I could tell this was a big bear by the small ears, heavy, thick legs, and rear end that looked like a hairy Volkswagen. We were staying alongside the bear when things got very western – shooting offhand in a moving boat, wearing a life vest, on a running bear quartering away. I hit him, and he rolled, coming up roaring and biting his side. When he saw us, he looked extremely angry and started for us through the shallow water. I gave him another shot on the shoulder, and he went down.

He was a very big, dark boar grizzly. The four of us could not drag him out of the river and up the bank. We tied him to a nearby tree and opted to come back for him the next morning. When we returned to the bear, we took shovels and dug the riverbank down to the level of the river. By doing so, we were able to drag him out of the river and onto the shore for photos and processing.

While we were working on the bear, I looked downriver and saw a big bull moose standing on a gravel bar about 600 yards away. Graeme said he was a shooter, and the three of us scrambled up the steep bank to gain elevation. Vern stayed with the boat and bear.

The bull was walking through six-foot tall willows and was interested in our calling. Graeme set Lee up on a fallen log with her rifle on a tripod. I took a rest on a root wad off to the side. When the bull stepped out of the trees and turned broadside at 400 yards, Graeme counted to three and had us both fire on three. We both missed cleanly. When Lee reloaded and shot again, I saw her bullet hit just behind the shoulder. She had double lunged him. I gave him an insurance shot just as he was going down. It turned out that my shot was unnecessary. She had smoked him.

After high-fiving and celebrating, we returned to Vern and the boat. We were able to get the boat to within 100 yards of the bull. Graeme used a chainsaw to cut a path to the bull and clear around him. We found him to be a mature 60.5” bull with good pans and a lot of points.

We had only been in camp for 16 hours and had a grizzly and bull moose down. It rained most of the night, and we returned the next day to work on the bear and bull. It took two trips with the boat to transport the heavy loads. We worked on the two trophies for the next two days.

The priority on this hunt was to get Lee a good bull. The grizzly I got was an unexpected bonus. We were both successful and very pleased. We continued to hunt for another big bull, locating eight more bulls, three in one afternoon, but no shooters showed up.

On the last morning of the hunt, we were running the MacMillian River in a howling snowstorm and I told Lee, Vern, and Graeme that I feel sorry for golfers because they never have cool stories like this.

This was an exceptional hunt in stunning, pure wilderness. The outfitter, guides, camp, equipment, food, and accommodations were wonderful. In fact, I could spend a month on the MacMillian River just watching it flow by.