Topeka bow hunter Scott Hunsicker took down this 61/2-foot barren-ground grizzly bear in Cambridge Bay, Northwest Territories, Canada. Hunsicker endured temperatures as low as 22-below during the hunt. Photo submitted.
This article was printed in the Sunday, June 23, 2013 issue of the Topeka Capital-Journal on the front page of the Sports section.
Among an endless sea of white, a tiny speck of brown emerges from 100 yards away.
It’s a beautiful sight to behold, until the tiny brown speck in the distance suddenly becomes an 8-foot-tall, snarling blur of teeth and claws, and it’s coming in fast. A young Inuit Eskimo tries to fire up the snow mobile, but the engine won’t turn over. The beast is closing in now — 50 yards, 40 yards, 30 yards. Finally, the frozen engine fires up and the snowmobile flies across the frozen tundra, away from a hungry barren-ground grizzly bear that had just awoken from a long hibernation.
This was the type of thrill that Topeka bowhunter Scott Hunsicker, 51, paid good money to experience. Hunsicker, whose father, Gary, operates an archery shop from his basement, has been bowhunting ever since he can remember. He’s traveled the world chasing trophy animals from Alaska to Africa. He’s taken down dangerous prey before — such as mountain lions, black bears and buffalo — but nothing like this.
“Every single time, none of those animals knew I was there,” Hunsicker said. “In this situation, these bears know you’re there, and they know where you’re at.”
Among an endless sea of white, a tiny speck of brown emerges from 100 yards away.
It’s a beautiful sight to behold, until the tiny brown speck in the distance suddenly becomes an 8-foot-tall, snarling blur of teeth and claws, and it’s coming in fast. A young Inuit Eskimo tries to fire up the snow mobile, but the engine won’t turn over. The beast is closing in now — 50 yards, 40 yards, 30 yards. Finally, the frozen engine fires up and the snowmobile flies across the frozen tundra, away from a hungry barren-ground grizzly bear that had just awoken from a long hibernation.
This was the type of thrill that Topeka bowhunter Scott Hunsicker, 51, paid good money to experience. Hunsicker, whose father, Gary, operates an archery shop from his basement, has been bowhunting ever since he can remember. He’s traveled the world chasing trophy animals from Alaska to Africa. He’s taken down dangerous prey before — such as mountain lions, black bears and buffalo — but nothing like this.
“Every single time, none of those animals knew I was there,” Hunsicker said. “In this situation, these bears know you’re there, and they know where you’re at.”
RSS Feed