After a long flight over, I arrived in Stockholm to begin hunting Brown Bear with Per England & Patrik Eukland. Per was waiting for me when I arrived so we quickly headed out. We made the 3 hour journey to Per's house where I got to see two of the dogs I raised & trained. Kemmesabbe & Yankee. Kemmesabbe is a household name among the bear hunters in Sweden & Yankee is well on his way.
The next morning we got everything together & headed over to Patrik's house & I got to see two more of my dogs. Fancy & Tango. Even tho I sold them, I still feel a little bit of possession about these dogs.
The next morning we received word that a bear had been spotted over in Darlana County about a hour away. We quickly headed over there & got with the hunting team & laid out our plan. They took us where the bear had been spotted & we released the two dogs. Per, Sabastion & myself went with the dogs. Very rough country that is full of rocks & up & down moutains. The dogs trailed out & in about 15 minutes, jumped the bear. The race was on & the bear would stop & fight & then run again. After about 2 hours of this, we hit a road & tried to catch up to the dogs. We could hear Kemmesabbe coming & we were trying to get ahead of them. We could tell by the Garmin that Yankee had gotten behind. I was trotting down the road when Sabastian passed me up. He went about 30 yards ahead of me when the bear stepped out in the road & Sabastian gave him 2 quick shots & down went the bear. Kemmesabbe was right on him then & Sabastian had to make a quick follow up shot killing the bear. Yankee came in & we saw why he got behind. He had a pretty bad bite over his back & hip & could just hobble along. Kemmesabbe was bitten through the neck but did not look to serious. This bear was a monster & weighed in at 317 kilos or 699 lbs.
We got a call that afternoon about a bear that had been shot at but did not know if he had been hit. We took Fancy & Kemmesabbe & ran that bear for another 4 hours & the dogs just gave out. We only had 4 dogs & they only allow 2 dogs out at a time on a bear.
The next day Kjell Vidor shot a bear & it ran off. Patrik put Bayou Cajun Tango on the trail & he trailed the bear up & it was already dead. Good shot by Kjell & good trailing by Tango..This bear weighed 75 kilos or 165 lbs.
We got a call the next day from the Darlana group so we headed over there. We put Fancy & Yankee out & after some nice coldtrailing had the bear jumped. This bear was a running machine. He was shot at twice by standers & soon moved out of the area. Fancy & Yankee were on him for 3 1/2 hours before he started to bay. Patrik & another guy walked in a couple of times but the bear kept breaking & when they had the opportuntity, they caught Fancy & Yankee & put Tango in. He ran the bear another hour & actually ran this bear head on into Patrik. Patrik made a great shot hitting the bear in the head while it was running right at him. This bear weighed 77 kilos or 169 lbs.
That afternoon we got a call about a bear that was wounded. Another tracker had been called in & had tracked the bear but his dog did not want to go any further & the owner said the bear was very close. This dog did a amazing job & had tracked this bear about 2 miles. We put Fancy & Kemmesabbe on it & they left screaming. This was about 4:00 pm. We caught Fancy off at dark & finally caught Kemmesabbe off at around 11:00 pm. I dont believe this bear was wounded at all. No blood & he certainly could run.
Got to Patriks house & got to bed around 1:30.
We were going to take the next day off and sleep in & rest the dogs. Per had gotten a text around 7:00 am about a bear sighting but did not read it until about 10:30 or so. We called Patrik, & loaded up the dogs. Kemmesabbe was left at home as he was bitten pretty severely the night before in the back leg. We put Tango & Yankee out & they started striking right away on the road. We released them & they were moving pretty steady & opening good. We could not hear them jump, but all of the sudden the pace picked up quite a bit on the Garmin. They ran this bear for about a hour & we heard a shot fired. Got on the radio & found that one of the standers had shot at the bear & thought he hit it. We all regrouped & got the next area surrounded. Another shot was fired but the dogs kept running. After 2 1/2 hours the bear ran out by Per & he made a great shot on a running bear. He hit the bear in the shoulders, knocked him down & ran up & put the final shot on him just as the dogs were coming up. This bear weighed 78 kilos or 171 lbs. Yankee & Tango did a super job all week being young dogs. Yankee is about 20 months & Tango is a couple of months younger.
The next day, I was flying out & when I landed in the states, there was a text from Per where they killed another bear to Tango & Yankee. This was Aug. 28th.
On Aug.30, they killed another one to Yankee & Tango after a 3 hour race. This bear weighed 72 kilos or 158# & killed by a local hunter in Harjedalen.
The top four bears killed in Sweden since they begin keeping records in 1981.
1. 338 kilos or 743 lbs.
2. 329 kilos or 723.8 lbs.
3. 319 kilos or 701.8 lbs.
4. 317 kilos or 699 lbs.
I consider it a honor to be in the group that managed to kill the 4th largest bear in Sweden. The icing on the cake is knowing that I raised & trained all four of these dogs. Per & Patrik are hard core bearhunters that have done a excellant job with these Plotts.
