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Thread: Bear down! I got HIM: A story two years in the making

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    Langley
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    Re: Bear down! I got HIM: A story two years in the making

    One week later (Still August 2017):

    I am sleeping in the jeep. When I sleep in there I just put my seat back as far as it can go and put stuff under my feet enough so that my legs aren't making a 90 degree angle. This puts my head up against the rear plastic soft top side window. I woke up to the sound of something crunching through the reprod. Neat, there's a critter out there. Whatever, I didn't even up my eyes at that point. I'm not that interested, even though it's a bright full moon and I can see 50 yards or so. It was because the noise got closer and closer and then stopped that made me open my eyes. When I open them, this bears head is right up against mine. Only a couple inches and a thin layer of plastic in between. I think I screamed like a girl (edit: just remembered, "I said "WTF" quite loud) as I turned on the ignition. I'm not sure why but I also turned on the interior light (natural response to boogy man LOL) but that made it so I couldn't see out. I switched it back off and he was gone. I don't know which way he went either (couldn't hear because of the jeep running) ... took about an hour for the adrenaline to go away. I eventually fell asleep again, but it was one of those "light sleeps" with one eye open that happen from time to time.

    Just to give an idea, here is a picture of my hand on the outside of the plastic window (where bear face was) and camera on the inside (from my point of view) ... you will see "his" face later... so you can imagine it there in place of my hand. A face I will never forget. It's burned in my mind.

    Last edited by caddisguy; 04-13-2019 at 10:31 PM.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
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    In the bush near a lake
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    7,198

    Re: Bear down! I got HIM: A story two years in the making

    Type faster lol

  3. #13
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    Re: Bear down! I got HIM: A story two years in the making

    Late April 2018: It's bear hunting season 2018. I have had a year to think about that bear. With the combination of all that happened the year prior (walking through my camp 3 yards from my jeep running like it's no big deal, the charge, the night time window incident) I am thinking "that bear ain't right" ... I decided I'd make an effort to remove that particular bear. I'd feel a little safer and it might stop someone else from getting hurt. We put a few shifts into hunting him. One day we're sitting at camp right around 3:30pm, cooking some home made pizza sammies on the pocket rocket. I get that "we're being watched feeling", turn around and sure enough, there he is sitting up this knob about 150-200M away. There's a lot of trees in between and I am a crappy shot, especially standing / free hand, so I tried to get closer. The wind was just killing me. I'd try one approach, the wind would shift, then another approach and the wind shifts again. Decided on plan A using the old growth treeline as cover. I cut the distance a bit and tried to lay down for a prone shot off a shooting stick, but with the ground being uneven and I'm slightly down hill it wasn't going to work. Tried to get a bit closer... lay down prone again. Totally uncomfortable and practically laying in some sideways fetal position, I see the bear start to walk. He busted me, 100%. Thing about this bear is that he never runs. He walks, with a swagger... huge nuts dangling and proud. So he's climbing up the knob, I'm unsteady.... cross hairs all over the place. IF it was ANY OTHER animal (I don't care if it was 300lb 8x8 monster blacktail) I would NOT have pulled the trigger, but I threw some lead at him. My wife was watching. Didn't see where the shot went and the bear didn't really react. We climbed up to where he was and spent the evening doing a grid. Nothing.

    We came back the next weekend to wait for him. We knew the little spot he likes to hang out... where this drainage terminates in a gap between some old growth and a nob. Nice little hideout with some grass. We climbed up the knob overlooking it (where he was when I took a crack at him) but he didn't show. At this point I'm thinking I'll never get that bear. Way too smart, almost cat like. We made the decision that was the last shift we'd put in looking for him and next morning we'd just shoot the first bear we saw. And that's what happened. Woke up the next morning, wiped the cobwebs out of my face, stumbled out of bed and 5 minutes later shot a different bear and then our gears shifting to fishing for the rest of spring.
    Last edited by caddisguy; 04-13-2019 at 10:35 PM.

  4. #14
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    Re: Bear down! I got HIM: A story two years in the making

    That brings us to this year... Spring 2019. I'm not really even thinking too much about that bear, beyond the odd "wishful thinking" thought. We went out last weekend with no expectations for anything, let alone that bear. Just a camp-with-a-rifle type scenario. My goal this year was not to shoot anything, but try to set up my wife and/or brother for a bear. I would feel accomplishment from making it happen for someone else. Unfortunately, my wife broke on foot (damage to cartilage, tendons and broken big toe) ... kind of like a star hockey playing getting injured in the first exhibition game of the season.

    We went home the next day to get her some medical attention. I figured she was done for a few weeks, but same day they tell her it's broken and to take it easy, she's already telling me we're going to be back out there the following weekend LOL. Couldn't talk her out of it, so alight then.

    We headed up yesterday and got all set up at camp. She was going to sit in the jeep, do some drawings, etc with a rifle by her side in case a bear cruised by. I went out for a little walk to make my rounds. I had 3 spots I was going to poke in and out of. Decided to pick the one with the wind at my face. I noticed the grass was getting absolutely annihilated. Most patched I came across were chewed down to the ground with no brown.

    I was kind of disappointed I didn't get out earlier. Maybe I would have run into the bear that munched those patches. I walk another few steps. Holy crap. 10 yards down the hill , there he is. I immediately recognize the face, then the light body and the dark legs. He's broadside munching grass. Not a clue in the world I'm there. I was tempted switch on my head cam. I didn't have it running because when I tested it earlier it only had 2 bars. In my experience that means I could have 30 seconds left, or 10 minutes left. Anyway, definitely wasn't going to risk it because 1) he could bolt or 2) he could be munching on me in short order. I brought my rifle up, scope at 5x which was a bit much. Trembling a bit, figuring out where I need to shoot, trying to get steady... BOOM. He barely reacts at all. He stops, looks around and starts walking away. Now he is downhill walking away from me. I'm panicking. I know I hit him good, but if he decides to run 100 yards through some of the thickest nastiest crap you can imagine, I am 100% on my one with only a few hours of light left. I had another one jacked in ready to go. He's downhill and facing away, so I aim for the upper back/neck area, BOOM. He goes down, but then I remember last year one I shot went down but got back up and bolted (luckily a smaller bear that I was able to track, process and pack out pretty easy) ... third round jacked in ready to go, BOOM, again.

    Okay so I have just fired 3 shots in about 10 seconds (my wife might think that is SOS) so I call my wife on the radio to let her know I am okay and I got "HIM".

    This seems like a good spot to pause for a few pictures before I start wrapping it up



    Last edited by caddisguy; 04-13-2019 at 04:59 PM.

  5. #15
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    Re: Bear down! I got HIM: A story two years in the making

    So I radio my wife to get meat pack ready and start walking back to camp. I get back to camp and expecting I was about to do all this on my own but she's ready to go, broken foot and all. You can't talk a french woman out of things. Try it LOL


  6. #16
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    Re: Bear down! I got HIM: A story two years in the making

    I get busy cutting up the bear, boning it out. It didn't really go well at all. It turned out to be a hack and slash job and there was a lot of swiss cheese syndrome from shooting it 3 times. Lots of bone fragments, bullet fragments, some intestine involvement. It was a mess. I got about 70-80lbs of good meat but left a lot of damaged/contaminated stuff behind. Still a pretty big haul smells great. I was expecting this guy to be a stinky one, but I think the burgers will be excellent.

    Absolutely covered in ticks though. I guess that makes sense. He hunts the same area I do

    Last edited by caddisguy; 04-13-2019 at 04:39 PM.

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Jun 2018
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    North by North West
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    109

    Re: Bear down! I got HIM: A story two years in the making

    Good looking bear. You can sleep soundly in your jeep now.

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
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    1,676

    Re: Bear down! I got HIM: A story two years in the making

    Awesome story! Glad you were finally able to put him down! Nice bear for sure! What do you figure he measures at?

  9. #19
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    Re: Bear down! I got HIM: A story two years in the making

    Quote Originally Posted by whitlers View Post
    Awesome story! Glad you were finally able to put him down! Nice bear for sure! What do you figure he measures at?
    No idea. I've never measured a bear or even looked into how to do it. I have a few skulls kicking around... a backlog actually. Haven't even got around to cleaning up the 2017 one. I know a lot of people will think I'm insane, but I left that bears skull with the rest of the leftovers. I feel good about it too. He might have been a trouble maker, but I think he should stay part of the landscape.

    Definitely not the biggest bear, but he did have a bit of a pumpkin head thing going on. Yellow teeth and some missing too. Lots of larger bears with smaller heads cruising around.

  10. #20
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
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    6-09
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    Re: Bear down! I got HIM: A story two years in the making

    looks like a tanker! big scarred up noggin, if you got 80lbs off of a spring bear with lots of meat left at the site it was a big bear. the personal history makes it so cool

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