RUSSIA: Kamchatka Brown Bear

[chonk34]

While my dad and I were getting the taxidermy done from our 2019 South Africa trip, we noticed that that Yuri, the taxidermist, had a lot of hunting pictures on his wall of large brown bears. A Russian native, Yuri told us that he took clients on hunts in Kamchatka from time to time.

My dad kept in contact with him, and last year Yuri told him that a client had canceled his hunt, forfeiting their deposit, and that we could take the hunt at a much-reduced price. Prices for Alaskan bears and full-priced Russian bears are well out of my budget, but this deal was too good to pass up and made a bear hunt accessible for me. I was a little concerned about the risks of traveling to Russia, but we heard several stories of hunters who had done so recently without issue, so we decided to go ahead with the plan. We did the preliminary work of getting our visas and plane tickets, and the trip was scheduled for early April, when the bears are starting to wake up from hibernation and haven’t rubbed all their winter fur off yet.

Because of the current world situation I wasn’t able to fly west to arrive at my destination, just a few time zones away, so I had to fly most of the way around the world to the east, from Boise to Seattle to Istanbul to Moscow to Kamchatka. It worked out to about 24 hours of flying and 24 hours of layovers. My dad was flying from Romania, so his journey was a little shorter. We met up in Istanbul and traveled to Moscow, where we were to stay the night before catching our connecting flight to Kamchatka.

We got through passport control, although I have no idea what the paperwork I signed meant. Because electronic funds transfers to Russia are blocked at the moment, we were carrying a fair amount of cash on us. Yuri’s son-in-law met us at the airport and took us to our hotel. On the way there he turned down a very foggy abandoned road in the woods that looked like exactly the place you would take a couple of Americans if you wanted to steal all their money and dump their bodies, but eventually the road re-entered civilization and we arrived at the hotel without being robbed and murdered. We met Yuri at the airport the next morning and flew to Kamchatka. Yuri is a fireball of a personality, and ran all around the airport, jumping lines, negotiating with the workers, and dragging us along with him on his wild escapades.

At Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky airport some police met us and asked us basically all the questions you get asked on your visa application – where you were born, where you’re from, what you’re doing in Russia, who you know in Russia, where you work, whether you have any military or government service, and things like that. The flight to Palana, the small town near our hunting area, was not flying, so we had to stay the night in Yelizovo. We went to dinner at a tavern done up to look like a castle and had borscht. The next day we boarded the oldest Yakovlev Yak-40 in the airline’s fleet, still bearing its 1960s upholstery, and flew a couple of hours north to Palana, where we would meet our guides and travel to the hunting area.

In Palana we were met by the hunting guide, Alexander. We changed into hunting clothes in his garage, bought some supplies at a convenience store, and drove an hour south in his truck to meet up with Vladimir, his assistant, and the snowmobiles. The snow was so deep that dogsleds, or their modern snowmobile-towed equivalent, were the best available form of transportation.

We loaded up in the sleds and headed for camp. It took about two hours to get to the hunting camp, a series of cabins in the wilderness. There was a dining cabin, a sauna/bath cabin, living quarters for the guides and hunters, an outhouse, and some other structures.

Hunting was also done from snowmobiles. My dad and I would get in the sleds and the guides would drive the snowmobiles. Yuri was supposed to be traveling with us during the hunting, but one of the snowmobiles had broken down on the way to camp and it was too much of a bother to ride double in one of the sleds, so he only went out with us on the first day of hunting. Most of the rest of the time my dad rode behind Alexander and I rode behind Vladimir. We became used to “our” sleds and grumbled a little when situations called for us to switch.

To hunt we rode around in the valleys and looked for bear tracks, occasionally stopping to use our binoculars on the hillsides to see if there were bears up high. On the first day of hunting we saw a female bear with a cub, and my dad spotted a bear in the trees that was deemed too small to stalk in on. Still, it was encouraging that we’d already seen several bears and could hopefully see more bears as time went on and more bears came out of hibernation and started moving around.

 

[chonk34]

The hunting part of the trip was pretty straightforward. Bears don’t wake up early, so we also didn’t have to wake up early. That’s the kind of hunting I like. After breakfast we’d load up on the sleds, cross the river, and ride around looking for big tracks and big bears. Sometimes we’d follow a trail for a while and the bear would wander into terrain we couldn’t cross. Sometimes a bear would turn out to be too small. Sometimes we’d find a big bear, and then see that it was a female with cubs. As the days passed, more and more bears came out of hibernation and we ran into more and more tracks.

On Day 4 of hunting we were lucky enough that a 2nd river was frozen over enough to cross on the snowmobiles and we got into country that usually isn’t huntable. We spotted a big bear above some timber on a hillside, but he dropped down into the woods and it was hard to see where he went. Alexander moved up to where we’d spotted the bear and started following the tracks down into the trees to see if he could figure out where the bear might pop out. Vladimir and my dad took off to see if they could head the bear off in the trees. Vladimir’s snowmobile got stuck and they couldn’t get it dug out. Alexander was pretty agitated, as the bear was getting away. After about 45 minutes, Alexander moved to where they were stuck and swapped the sled over to his snowmobile. A little ways up the hill, Alexander’s machine got stuck. He yelled out in anguish as the bear was getting further and further away, and they began frantically digging that snowmobile out of the snow. It took about fifteen minutes, and Alexander took my dad over to where he thought the bear should pop out. My dad waited and waited, but the bear moved off in the other direction. Alexander picked him up again and this time they were able to catch up to the bear in the woods. I heard a couple of shots and pretty soon Alexander came back to where I was sitting to grab me and take me to the site. My dad had gotten a beautiful big dark bear with a close shot in the woods. The hide squared out at 9’ 1” when we measured it back at camp.

While Vladimir started skinning my dad’s bear, Alexander took me back out into the valley to scout for another big one. We parked and started scanning a promising hill. Up at the top of the hill we saw a female with two big cubs. They walked around, the cubs rolled down the hill, and they generally did all the cute bear stuff you’d expect from bears. Another big bear came up from the bottom of the hill and joined them briefly before wandering off in the other direction.

Then we spotted a really big bear on the top of the hill. We decided to circle around and see if we could catch up with that bear on the hilltop. We went up the hill undetected and sat about 800 yards away to see what the bear was doing. He was really close to a drop-off that led into some inaccessible terrain, so we hoped he would move across the flat top of the hill instead of dropping down. After a while, he moved out across the hill and we rushed in on him. When we got about 40 yards away, the dog couldn’t take it anymore and he rushed the bear. I fired once and it was a good shot. The bear turned around and swiped at the dog with his claws. I waited for the dog to clear the bear and shot again. The bear lunged one more time with his teeth at the dog and then fell down dead. He was a wonderful big bear with a giant blonde head.

Back at camp his skin measured out at 9’ 7.5”, although we probably could have stretched it out to 10’ if we really tried. I guess that’s why the record books use skull measurements instead of skin measurements. You can stretch skins out quite a bit to exaggerate the size of your bear, but it’s hard to stretch a skull. Our bear’s skulls measured out at exactly the same total, with my dad’s bear being a little wider and mine being a little longer.

On Day 5 we were all hunted out and the broken snowmobile needed repairing so that we could return to town, so we spent the day in camp looking at bear skins and skulls while the camp staff worked on the snowmobile, processed the bear hides, and did other camp chores.

On Day 6 we mounted up on the snowmobiles and went back to Palana. The broken snowmobile broke down a couple of times on the way back to the truck, but they were able to patch it up enough to get to the truck. Weather wouldn’t allow the flight back to Yelizovo to take off, so we stayed the night in Palana and were able to fly out the next day.

 

[chonk34]

When we landed in Yelizovo, the police and an interpreter were there to meet us. They asked to interview us again, and took us into the police station in the airport. They asked us questions about which rifle we used and who owned it. We had borrowed Yuri’s rifle because we’d heard horror stories about hunters trying to bring their own rifles into Russia. In the other countries we’ve hunted in it is common practice to borrow/rent the outfitter’s rifle for a hunt.

Apparently is an Administrative Violation in Russia for someone to use a Russian citizen’s firearm. For this violation, the penalty is a $50-$100 fine or 5-10 days in jail, with the fine being the more likely option. After a couple of hours of questioning in the airport, we were taken to another police station where the questioning continued late into the night. After nine hours everyone was tired, so the police offered to let us go back to the hotel and come back to the police station to continue the questioning.

The next morning Yuri woke us up, said that he’d been on the phone all night with his attorney, and that his attorney had cleared everything up with the police, we were free to go, and we didn’t need to keep the appointment with the police. We argued all morning about whether or not this was valid, but he continually reassured us that his attorney had resolved the issue with the police and that we were free to head home. We went to the airport, checked in, dropped off our bags, and boarded the airplane for Moscow. Shortly after we boarded I noticed an unusual number of police getting onto the plane. They surrounded Yuri, talked with him, and then came over to us. Yuri said we needed to return to the airport for further screening, and we were escorted off the plane. Back in the airport, we saw the police captain from the previous night’s questioning and her entourage. They took us back to the police station. It turned out that Yuri’s attorney had not resolved anything at all with the police, and they still very much expected us to keep our appointment with them.

We spent the whole day being interrogated about the firearms charge, our relationship with Yuri, and our military/government service. It was the weekend, so we could not get a court date until Monday. We could have spent the weekend in a hotel waiting for our court date, but thanks to Yuri’s shenanigan we were now deemed a flight risk and were taken to a “Special Accommodation” aka county jail to wait for court on Monday. Late that evening we went through the intake process and went into our cell to await our time in court.

On Monday afternoon the police came to pick us up and take us to court. We each had a brief hearing, and given the facts of the case we were all sentenced to 10 days in jail, with credit for the time we’d already served. The judge also ordered the confiscation of Yuri’s rifle. According to our attorney, we were the first people in Kamchatka to receive a jail sentence instead of a fine for that particular charge. I think our inadvertent flight attempt probably led the judge to throw the book at us.

The police took us to a market to buy some snacks and hygiene supplies for our pending incarceration, then took us to a second jail to begin serving our sentence. We had our things inventoried, gave up our belts and shoelaces, got our mugshots taken, and were led to our cell. My dad and I were placed in a cell together, and Yuri was placed with other Russian inmates.

Jail is pretty boring. We had three meals a day, passed to us through a slot in our cell door. The food was okay, as long as you really like potatoes, cooking oil, bread, and fish. Luckily we only had about one fish meal per day. The fish was super fishy, like if you took the taste and smell of 10 fish, concentrated it, and injected that into 1 fish. Most of the fish got flushed down the toilet, but the other meals had pork, beef, and chicken in them and those were generally pretty edible. We also got about 15 minutes a day of time in the yard. Yuri was allowed to come to the yard with us, so he told us the latest jail gossip and translated for us to converse with the guards a little bit. We got 15 minutes on our phones each day, so we were able to call/text home and reassure our families. Each morning our cell would get searched. Other than those events, we just sat in our little concrete room all day and night.

I had brought a book with me, so we had something to read while we were in jail. Unfortunately, the book I’d brought was the Russian classic The Brothers Karamazov, which is the perfect reading material to make a 10 day jail sentence feel even longer. Nothing happens for the first 620 pages, then you get a few pages of action, and then 200 more pages of nothing much happening. My dad and I took turns reading and napping, and that kept us busy until the morning of Day 8. If you are ever incarcerated and want to punish yourself a bit more, I highly recommend reading Dostoevsky.

On Day 4 the police came and interviewed us about our relationship with Yuri. On day 8 we were interviewed by the special investigation police about our military and government service, trying to determine if we were spies of some kind. On the night of Day 7 another inmate was brought in who was going through detox. She yelled and pounded on her cell door for literally 2 entire days and nights, which was pretty disruptive to our sleep plan. I don’t know how she had the stamina to yell that much, but she sure did yell the whole time. We got to take a shower every few days. On Day 8 a new captain showed up during the room search. He ripped the drawstring in my dad’s nice coat, which led to a few tense moments. That pretty much sums up the highlights of our time in jail.

The guards and police we interacted with were all professional and polite. I think we were the first Americans most of them had ever interacted with. Almost universally they expressed to us that they hoped our experience wouldn't make us dislike Russia and Russian people. We were treated pretty well aside from being confined to a cell for 23-1/2 hours a day. The mattresses could have been better. I don’t know how a mattress can be that thin and still be that lumpy.

Once we were done serving our time, we were given back our things and released from jail. The police met us at the jail and gave us back our hunting knives. At that point we were reassured that no further charges were pending and that we would be free to fly without issues this time. The next day we flew to Moscow. We had about 18 hours to spend there, but neither of us felt like sightseeing so we went to bed. The next morning we went to the airport bright and early. Passport control took much less time than I expected, and we were able to board our flight without problems. Once we landed in Istanbul, we went to the food court and celebrated having survived our trip to Russia. Then we split up to catch our flights to our respective homes.

 

[DLSJR]

I’ve always been interested in hunting the Kamchatka Peninsula, though I’ve never done it. Reading this just confirms I never will.

Congratulations on 2 fine bears!

 

[Pondoro]

Nice bears..but I would not do this at the moment if you paid me for it.. FSB is overhysterical..

 

[Mekaniks]

When we landed in Yelizovo, the police and an interpreter were there to meet us. They asked to interview us again, and took us into the police station in the airport. They asked us questions about which rifle we used and who owned it. We had borrowed Yuri’s rifle because we’d heard horror stories about hunters trying to bring their own rifles into Russia. In the other countries we’ve hunted in it is common practice to borrow/rent the outfitter’s rifle for a hunt.

Apparently is an Administrative Violation in Russia for someone to use a Russian citizen’s firearm. For this violation, the penalty is a $50-$100 fine or 5-10 days in jail, with the fine being the more likely option. After a couple of hours of questioning in the airport, we were taken to another police station where the questioning continued late into the night. After nine hours everyone was tired, so the police offered to let us go back to the hotel and come back to the police station to continue the questioning.

The next morning Yuri woke us up, said that he’d been on the phone all night with his attorney, and that his attorney had cleared everything up with the police, we were free to go, and we didn’t need to keep the appointment with the police. We argued all morning about whether or not this was valid, but he continually reassured us that his attorney had resolved the issue with the police and that we were free to head home. We went to the airport, checked in, dropped off our bags, and boarded the airplane for Moscow. Shortly after we boarded I noticed an unusual number of police getting onto the plane. They surrounded Yuri, talked with him, and then came over to us. Yuri said we needed to return to the airport for further screening, and we were escorted off the plane. Back in the airport, we saw the police captain from the previous night’s questioning and her entourage. They took us back to the police station. It turned out that Yuri’s attorney had not resolved anything at all with the police, and they still very much expected us to keep our appointment with them.

We spent the whole day being interrogated about the firearms charge, our relationship with Yuri, and our military/government service. It was the weekend, so we could not get a court date until Monday. We could have spent the weekend in a hotel waiting for our court date, but thanks to Yuri’s shenanigan we were now deemed a flight risk and were taken to a “Special Accommodation” aka county jail to wait for court on Monday. Late that evening we went through the intake process and went into our cell to await our time in court.

On Monday afternoon the police came to pick us up and take us to court. We each had a brief hearing, and given the facts of the case we were all sentenced to 10 days in jail, with credit for the time we’d already served. The judge also ordered the confiscation of Yuri’s rifle. According to our attorney, we were the first people in Kamchatka to receive a jail sentence instead of a fine for that particular charge. I think our inadvertent flight attempt probably led the judge to throw the book at us.

View attachment 605031

The police took us to a market to buy some snacks and hygiene supplies for our pending incarceration, then took us to a second jail to begin serving our sentence. We had our things inventoried, gave up our belts and shoelaces, got our mugshots taken, and were led to our cell. My dad and I were placed in a cell together, and Yuri was placed with other Russian inmates.

Jail is pretty boring. We had three meals a day, passed to us through a slot in our cell door. The food was okay, as long as you really like potatoes, cooking oil, bread, and fish. Luckily we only had about one fish meal per day. The fish was super fishy, like if you took the taste and smell of 10 fish, concentrated it, and injected that into 1 fish. Most of the fish got flushed down the toilet, but the other meals had pork, beef, and chicken in them and those were generally pretty edible. We also got about 15 minutes a day of time in the yard. Yuri was allowed to come to the yard with us, so he told us the latest jail gossip and translated for us to converse with the guards a little bit. We got 15 minutes on our phones each day, so we were able to call/text home and reassure our families. Each morning our cell would get searched. Other than those events, we just sat in our little concrete room all day and night.

View attachment 605030

I had brought a book with me, so we had something to read while we were in jail. Unfortunately, the book I’d brought was the Russian classic The Brothers Karamazov, which is the perfect reading material to make a 10 day jail sentence feel even longer. Nothing happens for the first 620 pages, then you get a few pages of action, and then 200 more pages of nothing much happening. My dad and I took turns reading and napping, and that kept us busy until the morning of Day 8. If you are ever incarcerated and want to punish yourself a bit more, I highly recommend reading Dostoevsky.

On Day 4 the police came and interviewed us about our relationship with Yuri. On day 8 we were interviewed by the special investigation police about our military and government service, trying to determine if we were spies of some kind. On the night of Day 7 another inmate was brought in who was going through detox. She yelled and pounded on her cell door for literally 2 entire days and nights, which was pretty disruptive to our sleep plan. I don’t know how she had the stamina to yell that much, but she sure did yell the whole time. We got to take a shower every few days. On Day 8 a new captain showed up during the room search. He ripped the drawstring in my dad’s nice coat, which led to a few tense moments. That pretty much sums up the highlights of our time in jail.

The guards and police we interacted with were all professional and polite. I think we were the first Americans most of them had ever interacted with. Almost universally they expressed to us that they hoped our experience wouldn't make us dislike Russia and Russian people. We were treated pretty well aside from being confined to a cell for 23-1/2 hours a day. The mattresses could have been better. I don’t know how a mattress can be that thin and still be that lumpy.

Once we were done serving our time, we were given back our things and released from jail. The police met us at the jail and gave us back our hunting knives. At that point we were reassured that no further charges were pending and that we would be free to fly without issues this time. The next day we flew to Moscow. We had about 18 hours to spend there, but neither of us felt like sightseeing so we went to bed. The next morning we went to the airport bright and early. Passport control took much less time than I expected, and we were able to board our flight without problems. Once we landed in Istanbul, we went to the food court and celebrated having survived our trip to Russia. Then we split up to catch our flights to our respective homes.

View attachment 605029

WOW!! 10 days in a Russian jail, NO THANK YOU....

So what happened to Yuri??? Did he travel out with you or was he given a longer / shorter sentence??

Great bears for sure! Will be really interested to hear if the trophies make to the States???

 

[chonk34]

WOW!! 10 days in a Russian jail, NO THANK YOU....

So what happened to Yuri??? Did he travel out with you or was he given a longer / shorter sentence??

Great bears for sure! Will be really interested to hear if the trophies make to the States???

Yuri has some additional legal issues he will have to clear up, but he was released from jail with us and allowed to escort us to Moscow.

 

[JimP]

As much as I want to hunt a brown bear, the hunt would have to be free for me to head to Russia at this time.

Other than that congratulations on the trophies of a lifetime

 

[SETH RINGER]

SO GLAD Y'ALL MADE IT HOME SAFE. CONGRATS ON TWO GREAT BEARS! IF I KNEW I'D "ONLY" HAVE TO DO 10 DAYS AND GET TO TAKE HOME YOUR BEAR, I'D BE THE FIRST IN LINE. KUDOS TO YOU AND YOUR DAD.

 

[gillettehunter]

I gotta admit that this was a first for me. Never heard of someone getting jail time in a hunt report. Glad it wasn't longer. So do they expect you to take your own rifle over? Seems a little hard to figure. Glad that you were generally well treated. Nice bears. Thanks for the report........ I'd also be very interested in knowing if you get your trophies back to the USA.
Bruce

 

[Red Leg]

You were very, very lucky. The State Department posts those no travel warnings for a reason. You could still be sitting there as trade bait.

 

[LivingTheDream]

Congratulations on the bear!! Holy shit that is a story!! You are so much more badass than me.

 

[R eight]

All I can say is that you must have wanted a bear really bad .

 

[R eight]

I gotta admit that this was a first for me. Never heard of someone getting jail time in a hunt report. Glad it wasn't longer. So do they expect you to take your own rifle over? Seems a little hard to figure. Glad that you were generally well treated. Nice bears. Thanks for the report........ I'd also be very interested in knowing if you get your trophies back to the USA.
Bruce

I have images of the jail mugshots hanging on the wall right beside the bear skin.

 

[Cheesehead]

Those are great looking bears! That's a story you'll be telling for the rest of your life, glad you eventually made it back home?

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Congrats on the bears and for making it home and confirming I'll never go to Russia.

 

[McKenzie Sims]

Damn this is a wild report. Ive heard some stories, but nothing like this one, thanks for sharing.
Glad you made it out and things didnt get to wild. Congrats on the bears, i'm sure every time you look at them when you get them home or any pictuers you'll relive this crazy story.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Interesting tour add on to a hunting trip.
Congratulations on your hunt.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Heck of a story! Sell the movie rights!

 

[HankBuck]

When we landed in Yelizovo, the police and an interpreter were there to meet us. They asked to interview us again, and took us into the police station in the airport. They asked us questions about which rifle we used and who owned it. We had borrowed Yuri’s rifle because we’d heard horror stories about hunters trying to bring their own rifles into Russia. In the other countries we’ve hunted in it is common practice to borrow/rent the outfitter’s rifle for a hunt.

Apparently is an Administrative Violation in Russia for someone to use a Russian citizen’s firearm. For this violation, the penalty is a $50-$100 fine or 5-10 days in jail, with the fine being the more likely option. After a couple of hours of questioning in the airport, we were taken to another police station where the questioning continued late into the night. After nine hours everyone was tired, so the police offered to let us go back to the hotel and come back to the police station to continue the questioning.

The next morning Yuri woke us up, said that he’d been on the phone all night with his attorney, and that his attorney had cleared everything up with the police, we were free to go, and we didn’t need to keep the appointment with the police. We argued all morning about whether or not this was valid, but he continually reassured us that his attorney had resolved the issue with the police and that we were free to head home. We went to the airport, checked in, dropped off our bags, and boarded the airplane for Moscow. Shortly after we boarded I noticed an unusual number of police getting onto the plane. They surrounded Yuri, talked with him, and then came over to us. Yuri said we needed to return to the airport for further screening, and we were escorted off the plane. Back in the airport, we saw the police captain from the previous night’s questioning and her entourage. They took us back to the police station. It turned out that Yuri’s attorney had not resolved anything at all with the police, and they still very much expected us to keep our appointment with them.

We spent the whole day being interrogated about the firearms charge, our relationship with Yuri, and our military/government service. It was the weekend, so we could not get a court date until Monday. We could have spent the weekend in a hotel waiting for our court date, but thanks to Yuri’s shenanigan we were now deemed a flight risk and were taken to a “Special Accommodation” aka county jail to wait for court on Monday. Late that evening we went through the intake process and went into our cell to await our time in court.

On Monday afternoon the police came to pick us up and take us to court. We each had a brief hearing, and given the facts of the case we were all sentenced to 10 days in jail, with credit for the time we’d already served. The judge also ordered the confiscation of Yuri’s rifle. According to our attorney, we were the first people in Kamchatka to receive a jail sentence instead of a fine for that particular charge. I think our inadvertent flight attempt probably led the judge to throw the book at us.

View attachment 605031

The police took us to a market to buy some snacks and hygiene supplies for our pending incarceration, then took us to a second jail to begin serving our sentence. We had our things inventoried, gave up our belts and shoelaces, got our mugshots taken, and were led to our cell. My dad and I were placed in a cell together, and Yuri was placed with other Russian inmates.

Jail is pretty boring. We had three meals a day, passed to us through a slot in our cell door. The food was okay, as long as you really like potatoes, cooking oil, bread, and fish. Luckily we only had about one fish meal per day. The fish was super fishy, like if you took the taste and smell of 10 fish, concentrated it, and injected that into 1 fish. Most of the fish got flushed down the toilet, but the other meals had pork, beef, and chicken in them and those were generally pretty edible. We also got about 15 minutes a day of time in the yard. Yuri was allowed to come to the yard with us, so he told us the latest jail gossip and translated for us to converse with the guards a little bit. We got 15 minutes on our phones each day, so we were able to call/text home and reassure our families. Each morning our cell would get searched. Other than those events, we just sat in our little concrete room all day and night.

View attachment 605030

I had brought a book with me, so we had something to read while we were in jail. Unfortunately, the book I’d brought was the Russian classic The Brothers Karamazov, which is the perfect reading material to make a 10 day jail sentence feel even longer. Nothing happens for the first 620 pages, then you get a few pages of action, and then 200 more pages of nothing much happening. My dad and I took turns reading and napping, and that kept us busy until the morning of Day 8. If you are ever incarcerated and want to punish yourself a bit more, I highly recommend reading Dostoevsky.

On Day 4 the police came and interviewed us about our relationship with Yuri. On day 8 we were interviewed by the special investigation police about our military and government service, trying to determine if we were spies of some kind. On the night of Day 7 another inmate was brought in who was going through detox. She yelled and pounded on her cell door for literally 2 entire days and nights, which was pretty disruptive to our sleep plan. I don’t know how she had the stamina to yell that much, but she sure did yell the whole time. We got to take a shower every few days. On Day 8 a new captain showed up during the room search. He ripped the drawstring in my dad’s nice coat, which led to a few tense moments. That pretty much sums up the highlights of our time in jail.

The guards and police we interacted with were all professional and polite. I think we were the first Americans most of them had ever interacted with. Almost universally they expressed to us that they hoped our experience wouldn't make us dislike Russia and Russian people. We were treated pretty well aside from being confined to a cell for 23-1/2 hours a day. The mattresses could have been better. I don’t know how a mattress can be that thin and still be that lumpy.

Once we were done serving our time, we were given back our things and released from jail. The police met us at the jail and gave us back our hunting knives. At that point we were reassured that no further charges were pending and that we would be free to fly without issues this time. The next day we flew to Moscow. We had about 18 hours to spend there, but neither of us felt like sightseeing so we went to bed. The next morning we went to the airport bright and early. Passport control took much less time than I expected, and we were able to board our flight without problems. Once we landed in Istanbul, we went to the food court and celebrated having survived our trip to Russia. Then we split up to catch our flights to our respective homes.

View attachment 605029

Did your trophy bear hides & skull get “released” and make it back to your homes ?
I’ve met other Hunters that were UNable to bring their Bears home - were requested to “pay a Bribe” and refused….so the bear hides were confiscated, then they eventually released the hides. It sounded like a nerve wracking mess and convinced me to avoid Russia and go to Alaska for Griz