Spring Black Bear

[Ohwildwon]

Well our second time up this year we were going to head back to Boston bar as it was looking nice and green in a spot I like around the last weekend of April. The weather was calling to be pretty nasty so instead we headed up towards lillooet where a friend has a cabin we can use.

We had a nice drive up on Thursday after the work day and got up there in the dark. Had a fire and a beer and got some sleep. First day we covered a lot of road and glassed a lot but didn't see a spot of sign.

Day 2 I decided to drive up a different valley where I had got a deer last year. I was thinking things were looking dead and brown when the road started to green up nicely. As we rounded a corner my passenger who is a new hunter shouted bear! this guy was in the sun eating dandelions about 20 yards off the road. He sprinted towards the trees and I thought he was gone but I stopped and shut the truck off and told my passenger to hop out and load up his gun. Passenger didn't want to shoot and the bear looked pretty good to me so I quickly set up the bipod and the bear had turned back to check us out. He was about 125 yards broadside but slightly behind some trees. About 5 paces to go till he was in the thick stuff. He stepped forward and I put my crosshairs on his front shoulder, held steady and pulled the trigger. As usual didn't even feel the boom of the 338. He spun on a dime and ran back toward the road. It was about 60 yards to the road. I was quickly reloading as I had only thrown one into the chamber to make that shot. As he hit the road I knew he was hurting bad and slowed down a lot. I got reloaded and got back on him. He hit the ditch on the far side of the road and there was some trees there with an opening behind. I got ready for him to come through the trees but he never made it. He had dropped dead in the ditch. Perfect! The shot had shattered his close side shoulder and come out just behind the other shoulder taking out both lungs on the way.

I had 2 new hunters with me so I spent the rest of the afternoon teaching them to gut, skin, and process the meat. They loved the learning experience as both had never seen anything shot before. He had a beautiful coat and was about 5.5 feet long. He's already turned into pepperoni! Good start to the season with my grizzly hunt in 2 weeks!!

Way to go! Looks like spring Bear season is in full swing!

[Ohwildwon]

Checked out my spot in the low alpine north of squamish last weekend...

Unexposed road areas were impassible and the vegetation was still brown..

Same time last year it was a garden of eden...

Camped over night, went down to -4 c, although prepared, wasn't expecting that!

Hiked through the snow, to my go to spur road, the back pack loaded with trail cam, salt and cob...

Head back to hunt it hard for 4 days near the end of the month...

[caddisguy]

After a few weeks of passing a number of shots, caddisguy had himself a pretty crazy weekend. A few close encounters with a sow and cub... then a big boar moved into our spot last night. He did a number on some fir saplings. Didn't take me long to find him. Full story with pics and maybe a video or two coming up in the next few days. I'm 100% out of fuel.

[caddisguy]

I haven't got around to editing videos or anything, but had a little bit of time to write up the weekend story.

I headed up to bear camp solo on Thursday night. Got there around 10pm and off to sleep. The next morning I made my usual rounds and was a little bit disappointed with the lack of new sign. Still not much in the way of poop around, just lots of grass being eaten. I had a good morning sit anyway. I decided to cover ground in the afternoon and check a different place we saw a bear the week prior. No bear and no new sign there either. I checked in on one other place and there was scat everywhere, but it's not an area I am too keen on hunting for a number of reasons... figured I might check back in the evening... in fact I did, but reverted back to my usual stomping ground for the last hour of light.

Walking back into my spot, I smell a bear. I slowly creeped my way in and heard a snap or two. I creep along and see bear feeding on some grass close to the tree line. It was about 20 yards away downhill and now downwind with the thermals. It looked really small... I thought it might a cub from the previous year. It was all hunched up just staring at me. I could have shot it 20x over. I watched and filmed it for a little bit and then walked away. Later that night back in camp, I was looking at the video, comparing the size of the bear to stumps it was near. It actually wasn't a bad bear. By the way it was cautiously feeding on the edge of the treeline, I figured it might be a sow. Watched a few shows on my phone and went to sleep.

The following evening I headed back to have another look at the bear. Sure enough right after the sun tucked behind the mountain, it came out and started feeding in the same place... this little corner of a feeding area right by the treeline. I watched through my binos for about 20 minutes. A couple of times I saw a little black fuzz ball running around. Great... sow with at least one cub, maybe two. It was getting dark and I had to walk passed her again to make my exit. As I walked by, I couldn't resist the urge to stop and have a look (darwin award?) at this black blob staring at me with a face full of grass. Stood there about 5 minutes waiting for her move so I could just have a better look. Nothing. I turned to walk away and then saw her bolting in my direction a few yards before heading into the trees. I thought that was weird. She seemed ok with me. Maybe something else spooked her?

I went back to camp totally discouraged. I am hunting a place that is a few weeks behind in spring growth and sign and the little sign that I do see is probably from a sow.



...to be continued

[caddisguy]

I wake up the next morning. I couldn't decide whether to sleep in or go for a little walk. My brother said he might be showing up around 9:30AM so we can head out somewhere to sight in his new rifle (he just got his hunting license) ... figured I might as well take one last ditch effort. Plus I know if I come back one more time with bear stories but no shots fired boxhitch will poke fun at me lol. On my way into my spot, I smell something... smells almost like pine? I look over and notice this little fir tree has been snapped off. It happened over night. I have a closer look and see bear fur on it...



Now I am getting a little bit excited about my morning walk. I go and have a sit until I figure it is 9:00AM. Figure I'll head back to camp, make a warm sandwich and a coffee on the pocket rocket before it's time to go. As I am walking back out, I pass the sapling again and decided to take some footage of it, as I have been trying to take pictures of things to show new bear hunters what to look for other than tracks and poop. As I am taking some pics of it, I hear a snap... maybe the sow again? I better go check it out.

I walk back into my spot and look around... nothing... but one thing was out of place. I noticed something on the ridge of my mini-mountain that looks like any other of the many dark spots and shadows... but I have looked at that ridge hundreds of times and know when something isn't right. I have a look through the binos. It's a bear snoozing behind a tree. I see a head/chest, tree, then feet. I watched this bear while it snoozed and rolled around and stretched. It doesn't look like the sow but I want to make sure. I watched it and took pics/video for about 45 minutes. At this point I am confident there are no cubs around and I am pretty sure it's a boar. It's up on the ridge, probably 50-70 yards or so. It's still partly behind the tree, but I have enough for a lung shot. I am laying prone with the gun on the shooting stick and squeeze the trigger... boom! The bear starts bolting down the ridge closer towards me. I am somehow able to follow it with the scope at 9x magnification and squeeze off another and hit him on the run (I thought I already hit him once and wanted to stop him) and bang-flop. He piled up instantly. I only found the one obvious bullet wound later and it was right below where the neck connects to the skull. It was a lucky eastwood type shot I guess. I headed back to camp to grab my pack, knives, game socks, etc. I sent out a couple SPOT notifications to my wife (that means bear down and hey I could use some help) then went back to retrieve the bear. I was pretty amazed at how big it was. When I took the shot, I thought about 200lbs soaking wet but when I walked up to it, it was like reverse-ground-shrinkage. It was a really chunky feller. I will have some better pics when I go through the videos, but this will do for now:




Ultimately it was the breaking of the sapling that got him busted.

I rolled him off the ridge but he ended up landing in some crap on the next ridge, so I rolled him one more time and he landed on a flat area. I could hear this clacking sound off and on from where the sow hangs out. I had heard this off and on over the weekend. I think it's a jaw smacking sound, maybe trying to tell me to go away. I'd just yell over and tell her to calm down and I did her a solid, as if she understands English lol. I went to work and not too long after my brother and my wife showed up to help out. It was a hot morning with lots of flies and stuff. I didn't have a ton of ice either. We got the meat home and did 2/3 of the trimming and packing last night to get things freezing. The rest we put in the fridge and will trim and freeze that today. Hopefully nothing spoiled. Back to work!!

Update: Meat is all good, even the stuff that was warm for several hours yesterday and the fridge overnight. Now it's all in the freezer. We just used ziplock freezer bags for now but will vacuum pack when I have more time. I will also edit the video footage together to show some encounters with the sow and the boar snoozing and then me retrieving the boar.

[caddisguy]

Double post...

[tuner]

Congrats Caddis, good write up too.

[Salty]

adda boy caddis Glad to hear you could make it out to your spot OK - high water and all. ..

[snipersights]

Awesome jobs both of you guys good to here everyone is finally able to get er done with this crap weather we've had. I hope you guys are ready for this weekend. It's gonna be hot and awesome bears everywhere now seen some on the highway and heard more stories of them on the road

[scotty30-06]

Awesome story caddis....im layed up from having a surgery done so that story sure was nice to read....thanks again brotha