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Famous Hunters – Benjamin Vernon Lilly

Jed — Sat, 29 May 2010 04:17:13 +0000

One of the most famous hunters in history was a man named Benjamin Vernon Lilly (December 31, 1856 – December 17, 1936), nicknamed Ol’Lilly. He was a notorious big game hunter and houndsman; a real mountain man. To this day, he remains famous for hunting down large numbers of grizzly, cougars and black bears.

Lilly was born on December 31, 1856, in Wilcox County, Alabama. His family soon moved to Mississippi, but by the age twelve he was living with an uncle in Louisiana. This is where he learned to track, trail, and kill bears and cougars.

His 180th black bear was killed in 1906 as he was living in the Big Thicket country of Texas. President Theodore Roosevelt hired Lilly as a hunt master but Lilly proved to be a poor guide as he was only content in guiding only for himself. Lilly moved to Mexico a couple of years later and this is where he killed his first grizzly bear in Chihuahua, Mexico.

The years between 1911 and 1916 proved very profitable for Lilly; he was hired at $75 a month as a forest guard/trapper for New Mexico’s Apache National Forest. Each year Lilly killed up to fifty bears and lions. In 1916, Lilly became a government lion hunter in the New Mexico-Arizona District, but he was a “mountain man” at heart and did not like having to obey the early game laws. He was ultimately terminated in 1920 for spending excessive amounts of time killing grizzlies and not enough time killing lions and wolves.

In an attempt to wipe out bears and cougars, Lilly joined other early hunters, who rendered themselves and their lifestyle obsolete. Ben Lilly, and the other hunters like him, did their jobs well. Grizzly bears were eventually abolished in the Southwest.

Ben Lilly, a true mountain man and bear hunter, found his final resting place near the headwaters of New Mexico’s Gila River on December 17, 1936. He died a few short days prior to his eightieth birthday on land he had traveled and hunted for many decades

Check these famous Ol’Lilly quotes

“Anyone can kill a deer but it takes a man to kill a varmint” (bears,mountain lions, and wolves).

“Property is a handicap to man”

My favorite: “I never saw a man with his face shaved clean until I was a big boy. When I saw him I thought he was a dead man… walking about, and I was mighty scared.”

Maybe this quote is a little of all of us: “My reputation is bigger than I am. It is like my shadow when I stand in front of the sun in late evening.”

Here are some books about Ben Lilly if you’re interested:

Or (I don’t have an image for this one): Ben Lilly’s Tales of Bears, Lions and Hounds

Fall Brown Bear Hunt – 1994

Jed — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 06:53:14 +0000

In the mid-nineties I spent 2 weeks in the spring hunting brown bear on the coast of Alaska. My baby son, Jed was with me. I think he was about 13. We were told it rained approx. 350 inches a year in this area. By the end of our hunt we didn’t believe it rained that little! We spent approximately 18 hours a day waiting on a frequently used brown bear path and glassing the hill sides. Jed shot a respectable black bear (an amazing shot by the way) but we saw 1 small brown bear for 45 seconds. We were wet the whole time, slept in small tents and ate dehydrated food. It was a hard hunt, mentally. I believe we were in an area called Icy Bay.

That fall, still wanting a brown bear, I rebooked, at a discounted rate, with the same guy. I took a commercial airline to Yakutat (a fishing Indian town), then shuttled to Icy Bay via canvas covered light aircraft owned by the outfitter. That day, on his news radio, we had an Alaskan tsunami warning with a time of arrival. We didn’t know if the wave would hit us 100ft high or what. We started hacking a trail through the overgrown forest, up the mountain with urgency. The Alaskan coast is a jungle with alders, devil club and other inventions intended to keep humans out. We figured we made the 100 foot elevation we desired and packed many supplies up there. The owner took off in the canvas airplane to save it. The tsunami arrived–approx 4-6 inches of ocean rise.

Icy Bay is fed by multiple glaciers with floating, hanging and calving glacier chunks. There are seals, lots of birds and I assume gobs of fish. It’s a beautiful place in a very rugged way. After the tsunami scare the owner and guides were busy cleaning up and replacing our mountain stash. I, meanwhile, became more and more daring and ventured down the coast–first several hundred yards then several miles. The landscape was ocean to my right with a coarse sand beach. The beach was approximately 20 feet wide then a bank about 5 feet tall beyond which was a tundra plain of 100 to 1,000 yards deep to the forest. My thought was to walk the beach but hopefully sneak up on a brown bear, out on the tundra. I could quietly walk along the beach and peek over the bank every once in a while for the hopeful dumb bear.

A brown bear is really a grizzly bear that eats a lot of salmon and grows much bigger, so a respectable grizzly is 6 1/2 feet to 9 feet and a respectable brown is 9-12 feet. Browns are huge bears. They weigh approx 900-1800lbs–kind of the same weight as a cow.

I felt safe walking along the beach with the tundra to my left and the ocean to my right, and I kept checking the tundra as not to be surprised. The next instant is difficult to put on paper. My right peripheral vision picked up a massive animal coming at me from the ocean. I formulated in my mind, in that fraction of an instant, a killer whale beaching itself out of the ocean, having me as a meal. I’ve seen the movie where they do that to seals in South America. I don’t recall doing anything heroic to prevent my fate–a common reaction I have to scary events. I do remember how my stomach instantly felt as I turned to meet the killer.

Out in the ocean (it must have fallen off steeply) at about 15 yards, a car sized white whale again surfaced blowing steam from its blow hole. Another 20-30 foot white blunt faced whale followed the first. I was embarrassed that I had reacted with a death grip to such an innocent and beautiful animal, as I tried recovering enough to enjoy them. Since that occasion I’ve learned they were beluga whales.

The next morning I stood with my guide on the landing strip ready to go out and hunt brown bear. My guide, Mike, sucked down 3-4 cigarettes while we waited. I got brave–not a common Smith trait. I told him if he didn’t smoke for the week we were together I’d have a good hunt and tip him well. On the other hand, if he smoked, with us living together in a small domed tent in the rain for a week, I would not have a good hunt! Bless his heart, he borrowed a bunch of chewing tobacco and didn’t smoke that whole week. We were ferried to a gravel sand bar, given a tent, tarp and dried food and left for a week. It rained constantly, but we had fun. Again we saw little. We sneaked up on a small noisy stream one day thinking it was a bear fishing only to find 30 lbs salmon spooning in a 2 inch deep stream. We found many sites with fresh bear sign–fish bone and tracks.

Our terrain was a huge gravel glacial river bottom with alder (willows) and streams and a massive glacier behind us, it coursing up into the high Canadian snow capped mountains. I believe the mountain range behind us was Mt. St Elis (the tallest mountain in Canada).

We made it back to the protection of our tarp for lunch one day and while eating something very non-memorable we spotted a bear walking down a stream about 800 yds away. The hunt had been long and hard enough to know right off we wanted him, so we took off in pursuit. The bear’s pace was his pace and it was much faster than I could walk, probably about a good jog pace. After about a 1/2 mile, with us losing ground, we saw him dive into a stream and come out with a salmon. Sneaking up to approximately 250yds (before rangefinders) I lied down, got a rest across my backpack, and smacked him with two .338 bullets. He screamed, whirled around in circles and took off (remember it was raining this whole time).

We waited 30 minutes then approached the scene. We could see the partially eaten salmon, bear hair and bone fragment as well as blood splattering following his pie pan sized tracks off into the alders. The terrain was flat and quite open, mingled with patches of alder. We assumed he was done for as we slowly followed his track. Mike, also had a .338 win mag and both of us were ready. We left our packs at the fish site and planned on a short hike. About 100 yards of easy tracking came to a 9 1/2 foot brown bear behind a scant bush 30 yds in front of us. Without speaking I raised my rifle and gave him one in the chest. He was there, I assume, waiting for whatever hurt him to come. He was sniffing the air when I shot and without any pause came at us, around the bush, then head on. We each emptied our rifles as he came. I recall seeing the bullets hit him behind his head, on his back and noticing the water fly off his grizzly hump from the hits.

The bear died at 10 paces. Mike turned to me and said, “Go and see if he’s dead.” I said, “You go see if he’s dead.”

Mike was breathing in short jabs as if he couldn’t get any air. I didn’t think it was funny ’cause I was doing the same. We reloaded, caught our breath and the rest is a bear rug on the wall.

Baldy Mountain Outfitters – Spring Bear Hunt!

Jed — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:51:23 +0000

I try and always have a hunt booked in the future. This keeps me excited and involved. I can also gradually pay for the hunt without getting in as much domestic deep soup.
A disadvantage of advanced booking is the inability to be available for the unexpected good deal or an unexpected draw hunt.

Next on the agenda is a trip to Baldy Mountain Outfitters with a great friend, Harry Leuenberger. This spring I’ll be hunting grizzly bear with him in his great area, and I’m pumped. Harry, as a kid, helped his dad get this area going and when the time came he bought his dad out and has run the area for years. I met him first about 15 years ago on a goat/deer hunt on a November deep snow hunt. He hunts hard and seems to enjoy my success as much as i do.

British Columbia Goat

Over the years since, I’ve only missed a few years without a hunt to his area. I’ve been fortunate enough to harvest lots of bears, a great goat, a Shiraz moose with a bow, been chased by bears and had dozens of wonderful hunting experiences. Many hunts with Harry have involved my kids on thrilling hunts. One fall my brothers and I hunted deer on a late November, cold hunt and had great success and a great time.

My daughter and I on a spring bear hunt in BC.

His area harbors healthy populations of wolves, grizzly bears, black bears, elk, white tail deer, mule deer, goats and big horn sheep. His area is close to the continental divide just north of Glacier National Park.

Back to this spring hunt for grizzly bear. Harry offers one grizzly hunt each spring and with the grizzly permit I will have 2 black bear tags. We’ll spend our time glassing slide areas where the snow is just receding leaving tender shoots of grass the bears must like. On other spring hunts there, I’ve seen the great grizzled beasts on the slide looking like they own the forest. Grizzly bear hunting has been the object of much political debate in Canada and the U.S.A. This seems very political, as the actual grizzly population is healthy a in most places….a little too healthy.

Micah’s black bear. This is a great story for another time.

Other than the grand slam of sheep I place the grizzly bear on the very top of my trophy to have list.

If I can get Harry’s permission I’ll pass on the incident where he had a grizzly chew on him for a while. He did show me the place, Alder Nob, where the episode happened. I noticed for several years, after his to close of an in counter, he carried a shot gun with him. Below are some photos of some friends and me in our various trips to Baldy Mountain Outfitters. intimate sensual e cards

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Black Bear Overpopulation – Bear Hunting Perspective

Jed — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:15:03 +0000

I just read this article about bear overpopulation in the Ontario, Canada area. Here are some of my thoughts.

Some of the reasons I love bear hunting….I’m not sure I can number them without leaving out the most important or make it not sound like a political statement.

1. Bears have individual unpredictable personalities
2. Bears have personalities

3. There are bears pretty well all over the world (remember the bears of India—Major Jim Corbett; pandas, polar bears, grizzlies, browns, sun bears and the list goes on and on all over the world)
4. I can see them (if I keep my eyes open I see bears when I’m driving places, fall hunting, spring hunting etc.) lights brite glo colchicine percentage diarrhea
5. Bears, for the most part, are over-numerous.
6. Bears are quiet, loud, sneaky, shy, and aggressive and many times all at once.
7. With a little planning I can hunt them almost every year and have a great time doing it.

Articles like this one about Ontario, Canada bug me! I realize as hunters we’re stuck in a political mess and in many ways our neighbors to the north are worse off, like with gun laws and federal level laws.

I’ve been nervous as I’ve watched how our federal government handles issues like the wild horses and burros. Instead of making money on cowboys enjoying roping these wild animals we spend million of dollars on federal programs that do not work on capturing (with helicopters) and selling the horses to tree huggers.

We’ve (federally) acted similarly with the wolves, tree owls and even with our oil reserves. STOP ME! Anyhow, Canada in ways has a more difficult deal with national government than the USA has, but as hunters and bearbums we’re buddies. The Provinces of Canada have a huge resource with their bear population. Some of the lower States and Alaska have the same resource. I hope we can help out by sharing our excitement about bears and even our incomes as we travel and hunt in these locations. The loss of spring bear hunting in a Province like Ontario hurts us all.

Sorry about the politics. Take some time and read an old time story about hunting. See what we’ve given up and what we still have! Campfires In The Canadian Rockies or Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Major Jim Corbett.

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Plenty of Bears – Bear Stories

Jed — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 18:04:43 +0000

I guess when I’m writing I think I’m speaking to a bunch of bear hunters sitting around the fire after a good day. In reality many of us are forced to satisfy our burn to hunt big black bears with reading, dreaming and the like. To satisfy those of us that dream and may not have a grasp on black bear numbers here’s a few words on the bear numbers.

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Over the years I realize I have subconsciously selected and increased the likelihood of me being around hunters. Check out my today:

I was reminded, a past neighbor Kody, was headed to Blanding, Utah to start the dogs on bear tracks as the season opened this week end. The big problem with bear hunting in this area is too many bears. Dogs can’t stay on one track to the end without crossing other black bear tracks. Tough problem!? generic serevent

Then here shows up a young man whose camper got ripped up by some black bears. He had the photos to show me. He left his camper in an area called the Book Cliffs and now it has the doors torn off, the windows are out and the camper is a total loss. A 24 year old, my son Jed works with, today tells us he sees bears every year close to his place right outside Salt Lake City, Utah in an area called Hobble Creek. He shot a 19 9/16 incher there over bait.

I’ve seen dozens of bears and have been run out of two camps by the big bruins when I was with my family. It’s never surprising to me to hear about bear people interactions, because I realize the number of bears is so high.

Bears are very hard to count ‘cause they’re so stinking shy and stick to the thick stuff most of the time. It seems fish and game departments in most states, therefore, stay very conservative in the harvest numbers. Big boars, in my opinion, are the number one killer of bears and they do not hesitate killing smaller bears; especially cubs.

With the shear number of black bears, and the male bear prowess, taking of big males likely does not affect bear numbers much, if at all. When I go spring or fall bear hunting I expect to see bears, and not just a few.

Our trip to Prince of Wales Island in September will be like that. We’ve done enough research to know we’ll be in the bears. Not a cake hunt but the bears will be there. I’m pumped!

Photo courtesy of uncorrelated.com. This guy knows what I’m talking about.

Petersburg, Alaska – Black Bear Hunting

Jed — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:29:08 +0000

I mentioned briefly in a previous post that two years ago a group of five of us set out on a self guided black bear hunt in Petersburg, Alaska. We chose Petersburg as our black bear hunting location for multiple reasons, one of which was because there is a high population of black bears in the area and no brown bears to worry about.

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We were actually about a 40 minutes’ boat ride from the town of Petersburg in a little cabin so called Breiland Slough on Kupreanof Island. This was a spring black bear hunt and it extended from the end of April into the beginning of May. Turns out that many bears were still in hibernation because of an extended winter. Seasons are hard to judge especially when planning so far ahead of time!

For five and a half days we got pounded with the rain, snow and wind….non-stop. We had rented two boats to get from here to there and hopefully hunt the coastlines….the tides and ocean waters were an absolute struggle.

Saturday evening Frank, Nathan and I were dropped off on the Castle River Tidal Flats to glass for black bears. Where we were sitting we could see about 3 miles across the flat and for miles to our right and left. Within the first hour we saw a mid-sized black bear appear about 400 yards to our right. After some debate, Nathan decided to go with Frank and give the stalk a try. The winds weren’t favorable and as soon as they were about in safe shooting distance the black bear got wind of them and disappeared in the trees.

When they got back I decided to walk about 150 yards around the corner to where we were glassing. Once turning the corner I could see another 2 miles to the north on a different tidal flat. Because it was low tide at the time some tall grass could be seen 2 miles away across the flat.

In the grass I could see a black dot and my heart started beating faster. After watching the dot for a couple of minutes it was obvious that it was a black bear. The stalk was on! I sprinted back to Nathan and Frank and we decided that they would go after the black bear and I would stay and keep glassing the area.

Between the three of us we only had two guns. Frank’s had been rusting up and he decided not to bring it (bad timing!). So, Nathan and Frank went on the black bear hunt with a .338 Winchester Mag. I love that rifle.

The wind was favorable throughout the stalk. It took them about 40 minutes to get within site of the black bear. At that point they were at about 250 yards. Frank drew the long straw so it was his turn to shoot. The bear had a big old head so Frank got a dead rest and took the shot. The bear immediately jumped and darted into the trees.

After a few minutes of congratulating each other Nathan and Frank walked up to see the black bear lying a few yards from where he was shot. As Frank started walking up to the bear Nathan whispered in an anxious, urgent voice, “Give me the gun, Frank…give me the gun!”. Frank turned to give him the gun when he saw what Nathan was worried about. There was a nice sized bear staring at them 30 yards away. Because the bear was facing them, Nathan took the shot right in the middle of it’s chest.

When all was said and done we had harvested two nice boars. The black bear’s skulls were 19″ plus and 21″ plus.

Our Petersburg, Alaska bear hunting experience was once-in-a-lifetime and hopefully I’ll be able to have many more.

I’m sure I missed many small and exciting details of the hunt. Hopefully, Frank and/or Nathan can comment on the details of the black bear stalk that I neglected to mention.

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