Last Thursday was the night of the long anticipated first bear hunt of the season with my favorite hunting buddy.
Although I have shot a boar the last 2 years I have had a really tough go locating bears locally. After living on the island and up in Terrace I couldn’t imagine a bear hunt where you didn’t at least spot a few bruins.
We packed up after work/school stopping at DQ for the ultimate bear hunting requirement….ice cream. Well in a 7 year olds mind any way. Because of the lack of sightings in the past I warned my daughter we may not see a bear but will give it a try and go for a hike to look for some fresh sign. Well we were not even 2 km up the road and a nice chocolate is standing right in the middle of it! Binos up and my first impression was sow. She stood on her hind legs, looked around and took off into the bush. I drove past a ways and parked the truck, we geared up and slowly walked back to where we sighted the bear. A small spur road took off in the direction the bear went so we started up it. Not 100 m later I could hear rocks moving. We crouched down and looked up slope, there it was tucked into the trees turning rock and logs looking for food. Visibility was not good around the bear and I wasn’t confident it was a boar. After 5 or 10 minutes of it walking in an out of view, huffing and popping its teeth 2 cubs popped into the picture. I told my daughter that this was the exact reason you wait to shoot a bear and make sure it has no cubs.
Back to the truck we headed up to a nice vantage point where you can glass a number of old cuts that were starting to green up nicely. Glassing didn’t produce any sightings and we had only seen 1 pile of crap on the road. I was starting to think the quick sighting was a bit of a fluke and maybe the bears were down lower where it had more greenery. I told Hailey that if there was no sign where we were heading next there won’t be much anywhere else up here. I planned to drive to a spot where some slash had been burnt and walk from there as you can sneak up on a few little hidden cut blocks.
On the way we saw one more pile of poop, looked pretty fresh. Just as we were rounding the corner to our parking spot I saw a black stump that didn’t look like the rest of them. Binos up and the stump suddenly sprouted a head and ears! This one screamed BOAR, I didn’t want to pile out of the truck and shoot it, mainly because I didn’t have enough time to study it to confirm is was in fact a boar. I told Hailey I was going to slowly back up around the corner and then we would sneak back into the area. She said “DON’T do it Dad” not listening I started to back up to which the bear took off running into the bush. I was severely scolded for not heeding her advice…..”I told you not to do it!”
We parked the truck and slowly started down the road, after a few hundred yards I caught a flash of fur as the bear popped back out onto the road and was plodding his way down the middle of it. I dropped to my butt and steadied my rifle, he turn and gave me a perfect broad side shot. I felt very, very confident this was a boar and pulled the trigger. The 140g TTSX passed through both lungs, causing the bear to spin a 360 and of course head downhill. Apparently the bear was supposes to drop on the spot like turkeys do as my daughter said, “Dad, why didn’t you shoot it”. We walked back to the truck to give the bear some time and drove back to where I shot. My daughter put up a serious protest for being left behind while I went to look for the bear. I couldn’t find any sign , but on my second pass I spotted the disturbance on the road where he did his spin. From there a steady blood trail lead downhill, I waded through the alder tangles and found the bear piled up under 2 logs….why do bears always die in alder SH&T tangles! I went back to the truck to retrieve my camera, processing gear and daughter. I was having significant trouble getting it in to a position for pictures. I apologize for the poor pictures, somehow I didn’t notice the blood while I was taking them. I think I was more focused on the work ahead. It took about an hour to skin him out and quarter him using the gutless method. My hunting buddy helped my skin, we even kept all our fingers when she was wielding the havalon. It was a bit of a grunt to get everything back up to the truck but we were heading home by dark. I had a tired little hunter in the back who slept the whole way home.
I was up till about 1 getting the meat prepped for the butcher to make some smokies and pepperoni. When I got to the hide I ran out of gas after skinning out the head….oh well, I guess some fleshing charges will be incurred at the tannery!
He turned out to be a nice mature boar, measuring 5’9 nose to tail. He has a massive set of paws on him though! I am going to head out again before the season is over, but will hold out for a 6+ footer.
In reflection the hunt turned out to be fast and furious, particularly for the areas I have been looking for bear! I was thrilled I could get a bear with my daughter in tow, she is hooked and is anxiously waiting till she can get her license.
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Originally Posted by elkdom
Originally Posted by Rackmastr
