caddisguy does Region 3 - bear hunting with the wind at your back!

[caddisguy]

It's been a while since I posted up a hunting story. I haven't really been out hunting this Spring other than some scouting which for the most part usually just turns into "camping with a rifle" and messing around with HAM radio stuff. I have been quite discouraged with the hunting close to home with all the access closures. I was able to find some spots with a bit of sign here any there, nipped grass and such, just enough to take the rifle for the odd walk.

Figured I better start finding some good areas in Region 3 and learning them rather than spending a bunch of time scouting Region 2. All the leg work gets undone really fast when you do find a place and then a gate goes up. Might as well take advantage of the extra 15 days of bear hunting Region 3 has to offer.

Headed out Friday afternoon and spent the rest of the day scouting the first area of interest. Not much in the way of sign. Some grass hits here and there, mostly older, along with some 2-3 week old scat piles. Hunkered down for the night and we decided to explore another area the next day.

Next morning we head out to the next area of interest, only about 14km as the crow flies but about an hour of driving. Started seeing quite a bit of scat on the road up which seemed promising. Found a good place we'd call camp for the night whether this spot was viable for bear hunting or not. I was able to hit all sorts of repeaters on the radio, so worst case I could geek out on the radio that night.

We walk a few km's in one direction. Some fresh grass hits, couple piles of scat maybe 5 days old. Back to camp. Walk a few km's in another direction, tons of fresh hits on the grass and some 2-3 day old scat piles. Finally, back to camp again, then walk a few kms in another direction. Same deal, fresh hits on the grass and scat piles. This is what I always look for in a bear hunting spot. A place to camp within a few kms of multiple feeding pockets with fresh sign to poke in and out of.

No bears spotted yet, but I am confident we will see something. It's not a question of IF there is a bear around, but is it more or less than a half dozen. Bonus we're seeing tons of wildlife in the mean time.







[continued]

[Harvest the Land]

Keep at it CaddisGuy - with all the relatively fresh sign around its just a matter of time before the stars align. Good luck man - you still have lots of time.


P.S. I shot my bear last weekend with a strong wind at my back - sometimes it doesn't seem to matter with bears

[caddisguy]

We continue making our rounds, poking in and out of the feeding areas. I'm surprised we have not run into a bear yet. In my experience poking in and out of feeding spots with this amount of sign, we should see 2 or 3.

Had a little break at camp for a snack. It's coming down to the wire on this one. We have just over an hour of light left which gives us just enough time to poke in and out of what we felt was the most promising pocket. Suppose there's always the next morning as well. Its the last weekend we'll be able to get out hunting for spring bear season, figure might as well make the most of it.

Off we go! We walked down the road from camp and we get about 300M and I look over up the slash to my right. I see this bear cruising up the ridge about 400M away. Caddisgirl is watches in through the view finder on her 60X zoom camera. Looks like a really nice boar. A few problems though. Having only hunted Region 2 mostly in valley bottoms, I've never even dreamed of shooting something more than 150 yards away, so I am going to need to quite wayyyy closer. Second problem is the wind is blowing our scent right over to that bear. Problem number 3 is he has already most definitely winded us and disappeared on the other side of the ridge, but still seemed to be heading up along said ridge.



Seemed like a virtually impossible stalk. Had to decide whether it was worth gambling the time or not. Figured what the heck. I'll run up the road about 500M then scoot up the slash to the top of the ridge and possibly cut him off. I was able to get up there without making too much noise. As I get to the crest of the hill I'm pretty much read to shoot. With my luck figure we probably walk right into each other.

As soon as I get to the top, I spot a different boar. It's a cinnamon and quite a bit smaller than the black phase bear I'm expecting to see any second. This cinnamon is also directly down wind from me. It's about 70 yards I would guess. I still want to get a closer look and get set up for a shot if I decide to go for it. The bear would look my way, then go back to feeding and I'd get closer, rinse and repeat. I'm in disbelief he hasn't run for the next time zone with my scent blowing right at him and my unavoidably noisy approach.

I get down behind a stump about 40 yards away and put my cross hairs on him. Still no sign of the other bear, and this cinnamon is about to head into a cluster of trees. Shoot the small boar while you have the chance or wait for the big one, minutes the season (for us) winding down....

BANG

I take the shot, bear runs about 10 yards into the cluster of trees and for the first time ever (I think this is bear #9 for us?) I hear the death moan.

And guess who comes into the picture? The bigger black phase boar walks right up as it nothing happened and starts feeding where the cinnamon bear was feeding.

[continued]

[caddisguy]

Keep at it CaddisGuy - with all the relatively fresh sign around its just a matter of time before the stars align. Good luck man - you still have lots of time.


P.S. I shot my bear last weekend with a strong wind at my back - sometimes it doesn't seem to matter with bears

Story is still going... I blabber so much I do it in chapters sometimes

[Harvest the Land]

Story is still going... I blabber so much I do it in chapters sometimes

10-4, pardon the interruption. Great story so far (nothing more relieving than hearing the death moan after the shot)

[caddisguy]

So now I'm thinking, what the heck is up with these bears?

I am not exaggerating when I say the big black phase boar scoots in and starts feeding where the cinnamon was feeding within 3 seconds of the 30-06 barking and only raised his head with slight curiosity when the cinnamon let out the death moan 10 yards away from him, all the while my scent blowing right at him.

What am I supposed to do now? I'm watching the big black phase feeding away. I honestly can't remember if I bought two tags or one LOL. Should I check? Naww, I even if I do have two in my pack I really don't want to shoot another bear even though I'm looking right after the one I'm after. I'll just take it for what it is and be happy with the younger small boar.

The black phase bear eventually works his way behind some trees so we aren't line of sight anymore. Figure I take the opportunity to slip out of there. My wife is probably wondering what the heck is going on up here.

I scoot back down the hill to where she's waiting. Told her I ran into a smaller cinnamon and took it, but the larger black phase is up there now if she wants to go shoot it. Naww, let's call it a night. We opted to wait until morning to recover the cinnamon. It was getting dark and with so many bears around figure we should play it safe. Temps were in the minus, so no worries there and it's going to be light in just over 6 hours. I did have some trouble sleeping worried about bears or other critters snacking on our bear.

Woke up the next morning and was eager to get our bear. It was cold enough we had water bottles freeze up, but I was still worried about critters getting to it, so we headed up there. Was relieved it was untouched. Here's a pic of the bear and yes, that is SNOW on the bear. Already looking forward to next Spring. I'm confident we can find a tank up there with a little more time

[Livewire322]

Right on, Caddis!

Way to get it done

[BeerMan]

Thanks, excellent story and pics.

[savage10]

Nice story! Congrats!

[caddisguy]

Thanks guys! Cutting it all up and vacuum packing now. Front quarters done. Seems like a decent amount of meat for a small bear. Will see when it's all done, but we should get some big batches of chilli and quite a few burgers out of this. Smells great too.