Headed out yesterday late afternoon. I asked the boss man if it was cool if I duck out an hour early to get some evening hunting in. It's nice working from home. Normally I have to commute from downtown to Langley, load up the jeep then go. This makes it pretty much impossible to get any hunting in first evening as we hit FSR at dusk at best and can't get to good bear turf until well after dark.
Cruising through the valley, first thing that hit me was all the campers. Along the river it looked like downtown Vancouver parking on a regular business day. Actually had to stop for half a dozen people parallel parking. People were camping in ditches, blind corners on the side of the road... just nuts. I suppose this is expected as the provincial parks being closed. It was like May long weekend times 10. I was a bit worried someone would be camping on the spur road we normally camp since they are camping in ditches, half on the road, etc.
With all that in mind, I was hoping to see a bear that we have seen a couple times on the way in. We're an hour earlier than normal though so my hopes aren't up, plus all the traffic. Sure enough, didn't see him in the pockets we bumped into him before. I didn't want to invest any time into it, as I wanted to figure out the camp situation.
Drove up our spur road, nobody there, except some garbage and lots of toilet paper thrown around the sides... enough for a few deposits from a few people over a few days. Mostly no stains, so probably a lady camper involved. Some shenanigans going on up there too! This week we found a tuna can with holes punched in it. Last week there were apples thrown all over the place around the camp with one cut in half "to get the scent out" I suppose. Definitely not a trailcam setup. I went and collected all I could find and they were thrown from the road and about 20M apart. The low-lives even littered the empty apple bag. I guess they figure they can just park the truck, throw some bait around and be ready with the headlights and rifle. I just don't understand that level of scumbaggery. Not only do you have pretty much 0 chance of outsmarting a bear doing this, it's a heck of a lot more effort and wasted time than just going for a walk around in a bear infested area. Anyway, we cleaned up your stuff, AGAIN... as human waste products are kind of unsightly and I don't need CO's walking up to my camp asking why there are apples thrown around everywhere among your scattered toiletries (you seriously thought a bear was going to fall for that? LOL)
Anyway rant over. It's just for every story there is a background story and some tone setting. Onto the actual story!
I walked into my primary pocket last night. Grass was getting taller and there were still lots of fresh hits. Found some respectable size bear poop as well. I sat for a while, other than a lot of skeeters and a few snaps and cracks, nothing happened.
I slept in this morning, still tired after a work week and knew it was going to be hot enough that I wouldn't be able to nap during the day, so I wanted to get as much rest as possible. I woke up around 8:45AM as caddisgirl had already been up for a bit.
Around 9:30AM we're walking into bear turf. Same deal as last week, where I saw what looked to be a small bear, but when I tried to sneak up on it, it appeared to be larger than I thought. Last week was still a good "pass", size aside, as I was unable to evaluate the situation. Is it a sow? Is it a 1.5 year old cub? It felt like the same situation playing out. It's only about 40 yards but hard to tell with the grass. Optics help. I figured out it was a bear laying down while munching on dandelions and grass, directly toward us. I still have to get closer before I decide. I gave caddisgirl my camera so she could film while I stalked in. I only made it to around 30 yards where the notorious swirling wind gave us away.
This time, it played out differently. The bear stood up head on, then turned broadside and looked at us. I think that 2 seconds was all I needed. I concluded it was a boar and around 180-200lbs. Quickly lifted my rifle, got the cross hairs fixed for the double lung and the 30-06 barked. I can't tell what is a good hit and what is not because of the recoil. It felt perfect, but all I saw was the bear running off and I wondered if I hit it at all. What the heck? After what seemed like 30 seconds (It was actually only 3-5 seconds when I checked the footage caddisgirl filmed) the bear slowed to a snails pace and went down, only about 15-20 yards from where it was shot. It was a perfect double lung, in one rib cage and out the other.
Still bad at guessing weight, but it was small enough we were able to drag it around 10 yards at a time just by gripping the rear ankles and lifting/pulling. Drag 10 yards, take a break, rinse and repeat. I am going with around 5ft and 180lbs.
Bear is in the fridge now. We'll grind it up and vacuum pack it all tomorrow.
The pics / video will stagger in... but spoiler alert for anyone who saw our 2019 threads. We got our target bear last year (after 2 years of chasing him) and hung a trailcam at the carcass. For anyone who watched that video, I THINK this bear was the "main customer" on that video, just with a couple new battle scars. I'll compare that footage later and should have some pics posted up later today or tomorrow, video maybe a week or two out.
This one should be tasty. I am glad my wife "panic bought" sloppy joe sauce
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