My buddy Swampman called me up and wanted to throw together a last second out of region trip for bears. I didn't have much time to decide or get ready for the trip but in the end I knew I needed some time away....and we made it happen.
Neither of us had put any bears in the freezer in a few years so we were due.
We ended up going light with truck and quad trailer and used Swampman's MSR Lean to.
After rolling into camp just at dark on Friday eve we quickly set up and hit the fart sacs.
After some mourning scouting we finally found some good sign and spent our afternoon where the sign was the thickest.
COming around the corner we saw the ass end of a nicely colored bruin booking it for the safety of the timber. This bear took a bit of time to get up to speed so we knew it was a decent sized bruin. I was able to get him to stop about 50 yards back in the timber and was able to sneak a 168 gn TTSX from the new-to-me Tikka T3 Lite in .300 wizzum.
The bear didn't go far and the recovery was perfect with a 75 yard drag out to the meadow.
He's not a big bear by any stretch but I have yet to see teeth as badly worn as this poor fella had.
Almost every tooth was worn to the gumline and his molars were hollow almost right down to the jawbone....and not an ounce of fat on him.