On May 24th, 10-year-old Thomas Niles spotted a bear across Volcano River while hunting out of Wildman Lodge with Gary “Butch” King, on the Alaska Peninsula 500 miles southwest of Anchorage. It was Thomas ’s fourth day glassing the rugged Aleutian mountain valley with his father, Tim, and Wildman assistant guide Rob Bostater.
“We crossed the river, and it saw us and went down in the alders,” an excited Thomas explains. “We were looking around, and then my dad spotted these four more bears on another mountain. We saw that one was a big one! That one was mine, the one I ended up shooting. So, we decided to go get it.”
The bear was about 1,100 yards away, high on a ridge just beneath the snowline.
“We got geared up and started the hike, crawling on our hands and knees through the thick alders,” Thomas continues. “When we made it up to the top, we dropped our packs off and looked for it again. The bear kind of peeked over the hill and our guide said, like, ‘There it is!’ We dropped and watched it and when it looked down, we moved to another spot to see if there was a way to get up to an opening where we thought he was going to walk out. We sat there and waited for about five minutes.
“Then the guide said we had to move again over another little ridge. There he was right there! We set up on him. He turned and looked at us, and Boom!”
Thomas had rested his rife on Bog Pod shooting sticks and pulled the trigger. He then delivered two follow-up shots, just to make sure as Butch had instructed him.
The bear was 107 yards away, according to the rangefinder. Thomas’s first shot was right behind the bear’s shoulder through both lungs. After being hit, it tumbled over the ridge out of sight. They hustled up to the edge, looked over, and there he was “tangled up in the tag alders breathing his last breaths,” Tim says.
The bear, it turns out, was about 10 feet long and weighed 1700 pounds. Thomas stands all of 4’ 11” and weighs about 100 pounds. Both are destined for Safari Club International’s record book.
This wasn’t Thomas’s first big game trophy. Two years earlier, “Went to Africa,” he says. “I shot my kudu.” Nor is he the first of Tim’s children to contribute heads to the family’s home outside of Flint, Michigan. His elder sister, Taylor, killed a Cape buffalo when she was 14 and his other sister, Jenna, took an impala on the same trip, when she was 12.
All three used the same rifle, a custom Blaser R-8 in 9.3 x 62mm topped by a Leupold 1 x 6 scope. Tim’s ammo of choice: 286 grain Swift A-frame Federal Premiums.
While at an SCI show, “I sat down with Richard Barch of Michi-Gun and Kevin Wistner of Blaser,” Tim says, “and spec’d out a rifle for my kids.”
Today, they all practice together at a Michigan DNR shooting range close to home.
Hunting runs in the genes of the Nile’s family. Tim began taking his kids hunting when they were about 3, as soon as they could walk in the woods. Thomas shot his first whitetail when he was six and last year, nailed another with a crossbow. That’s about the same age that Tim’s dad took him deer hunting back in 1974.
Thomas ’s bear is destined to become a life-sized mount. Just where it’ll reside in their home is a matter of discussion. “We’ve got over 100 mounts in the house,” Tim says. “We’re getting pretty full up, and it’s gonna take the wife – the boss – to decide where it’s going to go. But I’m pretty sure it’ll go wherever her baby boy – Thomas – wants it.”
What’s next? Thomas is in love with Alaska. He has his sights set on a moose and a caribou. And there’s nothing that Wildman Lodge owner Butch King, would like better than to help out. Highly regarded for guiding hunters to trophy bears – seven over 10 feet and three more in the 9-foot class were tagged this year – Wildman is also known for salmon, steelhead, waterfowling, and ptarmigan. Bring your flyrods and a shotgun in mid-September.
ALASKA BEARS: Stirred and Shaken is a collection of 24 stories describing Jake’s personal experience hunting and guiding for all the species of bears in Alaska. Bear biology, hunting techniques, cabin depredations and avoidance thereof, and other aspects of bear pursuits are detailed. These are true stories except for the names of some of the hunting guests from Jake’s fifty years of living and hunting in Alaska. Buy Now
