This was sent to me in an e-mail. I will start with a disclaimer. I know nothing of the origin of the story or it's validity. Just a good story and thought you might enjoy. It'll make yore butt pucker.
THE LONGEST MINUTE
September 16, 2006
We all have read about or seen movies entitled, 'The Longest Day', 'The
Longest Yard', or 'The Longest Mile'. Well, I am going to tell you
about "The Longest Minute" of my life.
Reed Thompson and I had been hunting hard for five days. The day was
Thursday, September 7, 2006. The weather had turned from beautiful
sunny skies to gale force winds and the blasting rain that comes with
fall storms.
Never has the weather dictated hunting time to us, so out we ventured
into the Alaska bush. Not seeing a single bull for several days, we
decided to hunt an area downstream that had always produced one.
Late in the evening, we were walking down a raised half mile long finger
of ground that was full of grass and alders. This turf was slightly
higher than the swampy tundra on either side of it. We had slogged
across the swamp as quickly as possible, during a sudden deluge, to get
to the downwind point. Our hope was that our passage would not be
observed with the sudden increased wind and rain. About halfway down
the finger, Reed turned to me and said, "I think there is a moose up
ahead. It looks like two white sticks in the grass. It would surprise
me if it was not a moose." I glassed the area about one hundred yards
ahead and to the left.
With Reed's help, I zeroed in on the two white sticks and watched them
for several minutes. With the slightest movement, the two sticks
transformed into a white paddle and then back to the two sticks. The
bull had moved his head ever so slightly.
I moved my scope out to ten-power and focused in on the two white sticks
as Reed moved about ten yards further down the high ground. Then as
Reed focused on the white points, I moved to his location for a better
shot.
Reed began moving toward our quarry as I watched for movement though the
scope. With nothing solid or high enough to rest my rifle on, I was
forced to aim free-hand. When Reed had taken a few steps, I saw the
horns rock to the right and then back to the left. The big boy then
stood up and was looking directly our way. Even with the forty mile an
hour winds blowing directly at us, he sensed our presence. I squeezed
off a round from my Browning .338 and felt good about the shot, but the
bull took two or three steps to my right and disappeared out of sight
behind some alders. Reed could still see him and shouted, "Do you want
me to shoot him?" I yelled back at him to go ahead because I did not
want the bull running too far. I heard his shot as I was scrambling
forward to get a better look. After a thirty yard hustle, I was able to
see the huge fellow still standing. I put another shot into him and
watched him drop. We both hesitantly, but with great excitement,
approached this giant and realized that he was dead.
This was a mature bull with a beautiful rack and the biggest body mass I
had ever seen. The fun was definitely over; now, the real work was
ready to begin. After consulting the GPS, we noted that we were a half
mile from the slough and boat. It was decided that both of us should
return to the boat to discard unnecessary items and return with the gear
needed to prepare and pack out the meat. We placed red and blue
handkerchiefs high in an alder bush so that the sight could be located
from the adjacent high ground. This was the easiest half mile hike of
the day. I was pumped up and excited beyond explanation.
At the boat, we left our heavy rifles. We gathered our pack frames,
game bags, ropes, and knives. After Reed repositioned the boat, to
compensate for the upcoming low tide, I asked him, with hand signals, if
he remembered to get the handguns. He did not understand my award
winning charade performance, but I let it pass after observing his
revolver strapped to his chest.
Upon returning to the moose, we were hot, sweaty, and wet. The rain had
abated for awhile, so we removed our rain gear and hung them in a small
tree about five yards perpendicular to the moose's belly. Reed removed
his revolver, hung it on a branch opposite his jacket, and brought to my
attention that it was hanging there.
With darkness approaching, we decided on removing the top front and rear
quarters, tie them to our pack frames, gut him out, and then roll the
behemoth over to cool through the night. We would return in the morning
to finish up. Two non-spoken traditions when hunting are: whoever pulls
the trigger 1) does the gutting and 2) hauls the horns out of the woods.
After removing the two quarters, it was time to remove the internal
organs.
After cutting, tearing, and ripping, I had removed all but the heart and
part of the esophagus. Darkness was settling in pretty fast and I could
barely move my arms. At this point, Reed said that he would trade
places with me. Instead of moving up behind the moose, I just scooted
to the rear leg area and watched Reed crawl up inside the gut cavity.
After a couple of cuts the ordeal was over. As Reed pulled the heart
out and tossed it behind us, a loud "HUFF" snapped us to our feet. Turning around, we
saw standing before us, on his hind legs a large, chocolate brown grizzly bear.
The next minute seemed to last an eternity. The term surreal is so over
used, but the next minute was dreamlike, bizarre, fantastic, and unreal.
The bear was standing next to the tree where the pistol was hanging. We
both started shouting and waving our arms back and forth, as we moved
somewhat to our right, toward the tail end of the moose. The bear came
down off his back legs, onto all fours, and started circling to his right
-- toward the head of the bull. My only thought was to get to the gun
so that we could scare him off. I sensed that he charged us from the
head of the moose as I broke for the gun. Reed commented later that the
bear vaulted over the moose and went straight for him. Halfway to the
tree, I tripped on a fallen log and went down on all fours. From my
peripheral vision on my right, I saw the bear going after Reed, who had
moved into the tall (5 foot) grass. It appeared that the bear had
knocked Reed down and was standing over him. My worst fear was that my
friend was being mauled.
I did not know how I would get him back to the boat and then home.
I grabbed the holster but was unable to remove the revolver, regardless
of how hard I tugged. As I looked up, I saw the bear charging toward
me. I started backing up as I continued screaming and hollering at the
bear. I was frustrated that the pistol would not break free from the
holster. With the bear almost on top of me, I fell over another log. I
did a back drop and felt him grab my left leg. His huge head was above
my lap, just out of reach of my holstered club. I tried to hit him with
the pistol but a crazy thought entered my mind that I could scare him
into thinking I was going to shoot by waving it back and forth. Unable
to remove the pistol from the holster, I tried to shoot through it, but
the strap held the hammer down on the single action revolver. Just when
I thought all was lost, the bear rose up, pivoted 90 degrees to his
left, and was gone. The grizzly had charged back in the direction of
Reed as he had jumped up and yelled once
again. Later, Reed stated that he had seen the bear knock me down and
thought he was mauling me. The thought entered his mind that he was
toast.
He was alone in the grass with no weapon. I was down and I had the gun.
When the bear started moving toward him, Reed dropped back down into the
low wallow area where he had fallen during the initial charge. Reed saw
the bear's face about a foot from his own. He could hear the bear
trying to sniff him out. At that point, the bear stood up, pivoted to
his right, and charged back to me.
When Reed distracted the bear from its attack on me, I had time to
concentrate on the holster. I saw a buckle with a strap running through
it.
I could not figure out how it held the gun in place, so I grabbed the
buckle and attempted to \rip it off. To my surprise, the buckle was
actually a snap and the strap peeled away. As I pulled the revolver
out, a sudden calm came over me, and I knew everything would be fine. I
looked in the direction of Reed only to once again see the bear charging
at me. He was about ten feet away coming up and over the initial log
that I had tripped over. That was when I pointed the revolver and fired
at center mass.
The .44 magnum boomed in the night and the boar fell straight down, his head
three feet away from where I stood. As he fell, he bit at the ground
and ended up with a mouthful of sod. I stood in a dumbfounded stupor.
I had no expectation that the pistol would kill the bear. My hope was
that the shot would sting the bear and help scare him away along with
the flame and loud report. As his head sagged to the ground, I shot him
three more times in quick succession, out of fear and anger.
My next sensation was hearing Reed's voice ask if the bear was dead. I
answered, "Yes". He then yelled at me to save the rest of the rounds
because we still had to walk out, and he did not have any more bullets
with him.
The minute was over. We hugged each other for a long time, before
packing out the two quarters.
