Bear down: Got one, but not "the one"

[Hugh Mann]

Congrats man, I just got my first bear yesterday, no record breaker, but I'm happy.

Yep. Spotted about 750m away, across a flooded field. Walked up to 180 metres, wind at our backs but the bears (there were two) did not give a damn about us. Picked the bigger of the two and waited for him to come broadside and fired, bang-flop, not a twitch. We waited around for 15 minutes while we watched to make sure he was dead. The other bear hung around for a good while before leaving itself.

Back at the truck I see movement and take a look back through my binos. This thing was trying to climb its ass up the hill behind it! Stumbling like a drunk, so I knew he was hit good. Mark it on the gps and drive down to a bridge to cross the river. Still have to pack the gear and wade across nut deep, glacial cold water, hike 20 minutes or so to the site. Get organized, and we head up the hill, looking through the deadfall and brush for tracks or a body. Found him laying across a fallen log about 100m up the hill, staring right at me. I was so close I could hear his very laboured breathing. Between him not running away and the shape of the head I knew it was the one, unfortunately I had to put a second round into him, he rolled off the log and died.

Field dressing while my buddy scouted for an access road via gps so we wouldn't have to drag him across the aforementioned nut deep glacial water. He found one 1.6km away that led 4.4km to the truck, so he takes most of the equipment, and takes the short way back through the nut deep, glacial water(which was now chest deep as he found out to his misfortune), while I, with half the bear stuffed into a backpack, the other half strapped over top proceeded to pack the 130+lb carcass 1.6km to the road.

Worth. Every. Minute.

[caddisguy]

Congrats man, I just got my first bear yesterday, no record breaker, but I'm happy.

Yep. Spotted about 750m away, across a flooded field. Walked up to 180 metres, wind at our backs but the bears (there were two) did not give a damn about us. Picked the bigger of the two and waited for him to come broadside and fired, bang-flop, not a twitch. We waited around for 15 minutes while we watched to make sure he was dead. The other bear hung around for a good while before leaving itself.

Back at the truck I see movement and take a look back through my binos. This thing was trying to climb its ass up the hill behind it! Stumbling like a drunk, so I knew he was hit good. Mark it on the gps and drive down to a bridge to cross the river. Still have to pack the gear and wade across nut deep, glacial cold water, hike 20 minutes or so to the site. Get organized, and we head up the hill, looking through the deadfall and brush for tracks or a body. Found him laying across a fallen log about 100m up the hill, staring right at me. I was so close I could hear his very laboured breathing. Between him not running away and the shape of the head I knew it was the one, unfortunately I had to put a second round into him, he rolled off the log and died.

Field dressing while my buddy scouted for an access road via gps so we wouldn't have to drag him across the aforementioned nut deep glacial water. He found one 1.6km away that led 4.4km to the truck, so he takes most of the equipment, and takes the short way back through the nut deep, glacial water(which was now chest deep as he found out to his misfortune), while I, with half the bear stuffed into a backpack, the other half strapped over top proceeded to pack the 130+lb carcass 1.6km to the road.

Worth. Every. Minute.

Holy crap that is an amazing story. I feel what you mean about having to put a bear down later with a second shot. This was the first year I had to do that in my hunting career. At the time it was instinct but the image stuck pretty good. It was up close. My wife says 3 yards but I felt like 5 yards... anyway, thinking about it a day or two later my eyes felt a little misty.

Crazy about the water chest deep. We just had a little drainage about a foot or so to walk across.... kind of refreshing lol.

You should post up a thread with this story. It's a gooder. Did you get any pics along the way? We can help you get those posted up on a thread if you need.

[caddisguy]

And thanks guys. Yes I will be back on the trail just taking a little fishing breather this weekend and maybe a good nights sleep next weekend at some point. Working and commuting 60-70 hours a week, averaging 4-5 hours sleep a night. I haven't really had a "day off" or even a 6-7 hour sleep in almost 6 weeks and I'm paying for it.

I'm sure that bear that I'm after sleeps 3x as much as I do and feeds of the carcasses of bears that I shoot. It's just not fair lol. Anyway, I'll update this thread when there are updates. caddisguy out.

[Hugh Mann]

Holy crap that is an amazing story. I feel what you mean about having to put a bear down later with a second shot. This was the first year I had to do that in my hunting career. At the time it was instinct but the image stuck pretty good. It was up close. My wife says 3 yards but I felt like 5 yards... anyway, thinking about it a day or two later my eyes felt a little misty.

Crazy about the water chest deep. We just had a little drainage about a foot or so to walk across.... kind of refreshing lol.

You should post up a thread with this story. It's a gooder. Did you get any pics along the way? We can help you get those posted up on a thread if you need.

Thank you, it was an amazing experience, far more rewarding than any of my fall deer hunts. It was honestly a little frightening seeing that bear eyeballing me from 30m away, but a still live one within spitting distance? That's not something to forget anytime soon I don't think.

Yeah, that water was cold, I heard him yelp from what must have been close to a kilometre away, I thought it was just from hitting the ol' dangly bits, as that was my reaction when crossing it. I'm glad he made it across safely. It's flooding like mad in our area, would've been home in time for dinner otherwise.

I did, but they're all on my partner's phone as his camera is far better than mine, I'm still waiting on getting them, and then I'll make a thread, thank you.