Well, I read enough of the stories on here, I figure it’s time I share one of my own. As an adult onset hunter, and mostly self-taught, I feel like I’m starting to figure out some success. It took me four years to get my first bear, and now I’ve added 5 more in the next four years.
Here’s my addition for spring 2019. This bear matches the longest bear I’ve previous taken at 5’6”, but he’s a tank and lived a tough life. I’m super happy with this one, love that I could find a nice region 2 bear just 30 minutes from home.
Sunday after lunch, my wife tells me she wants to go for a walk. I tell her it’s still bear season, lets add a short drive, a rifle, and a picnic to the walk. So, that’s what we did. After a short drive, we were able to walk the rifle to the end of a local FSR where we sat and enjoyed the view while eating left over bear pizza. My wife read some of her book to me while we soaked in the evening sun.
As the sun was going down, we got up to head back to the vehicle. I paused for a quick pee break, and look up just as I unzip and see this nice bear limping down across the cut we were heading through. He disappeared into a dip and didn’t reappear. I pulled out my fawn in distress and blew on that for several minutes to try and draw him back out, but saw nothing. My wife and I then backtracked to the nearest timber line and headed up along the edge of the cut in the direction that I had seen him travelling. Sure enough, halfway up the timber line we look into the cut and there he is standing up on his hind legs looking over at us. I quickly got set up against a tree and let him move across in front of us broadside. He stood up on a stump like he was the Lion King, showing a perfect angle on his vitals. One shot from 80 yards and right down immediately.
As he lay:
Bear only pose:
From the top:
Photo of me: