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Thread: Spring Bear 2022

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Burnaby
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    2,228

    Spring Bear 2022

    I've finally finished unpacking from my trip last weekend, so now it's time for the write up.

    I'll start by saying that I haven't gotten out as much as I might've liked to this spring, but what outings I've gotten have been fantastic in their own rights. In total I've managed 6 days in the field, with 5 bears sighted...

    Well, on my last trip the stars must've aligned, because I managed to connect with a dandy chocolate-tipped boar.


    With a favorable forecast for Saturday/Sunday, my wife and I headed out for a camping trip. I haven't taken her camping yet this year, so a trip was well past due.
    But, being the hunt-aholic I am, I brought my .30-06 and hunting kit along so that I could tag a bear if we happened to cross one.

    We left home late, around 730am, stopped for Starbucks and gas, and hit the start of the FSR around 930am (which speaks to how casual I was taking things, as I normally hit the FSR before sun up).

    On our way to the planned campsite, we took a detour up to a nice vantage point that I planned to glass the surrounding area from. It was 1130am, and I thought it might be nice to eat lunch with a mountain view. We didn’t make it… because a bear was walking the road. We first spotted it from about one hundred meters away - I think we both saw it at the same time - my wife's exact words were “oh s***” because I was already half out the door, and she knew what was going to happen next. The bear rounded a corner and disappeared from sight as I was getting out of the truck. I fast walked to get around the corner and was thankful to see the bear still walking along, again probably 100m away. He's moving along the road with a narrow clear cut downhill for 50m and thick timber immediately uphill.

    In my haste, I must've made some noise because the bear stopped and looked back at me. He obviously wasn’t too concerned though, because after a half second glance, he continued on walking down the middle of the road. Not feeling pressed for time, I start looking for a suitable spot to go prone so that I could take a stable shot. I found a suitable patch of dirt to lay prone and got ready for a shot.

    The bear was now 150m away, quartering away from me, and still moving at a slow-walk pace. I started leading my target and timed my first shot as he was bringing the leg closest to me forward. It hit and he spun broadside, biting at his shoulder. I sent another round into his vitals, and at that point, he really put the afterburners on and was heading down the road edge (60 degrees, loose gravel and dirt with a 40’ drop) for the clear cut. As he started to hit flat ground, I shot again and he stopped - I’m not sure if it was because he’d taken a third hit to his vital organs, or if he’d simply gotten hung up in the burn pile, because there were holes that I fell into there that were waist deep on me (I'm 6'2" and all legs...). He still looked mobile thought, with all four legs still under him and his head up, so it took one last shot, aiming this time for his head - he dropped. All told, from the first shot to the last, maybe 10 seconds had passed.
    My magazine only holds four bullets, so I quickly loaded the three rounds from my sling and chambered another round. I still wasn't entirely convinced that the bear was dead after the performance I'd just watched, so I settled in to watch for a minute. Thankfully, it didn’t move again, so I put the safety on, shouted to my wife to bring the truck up, and started walking towards the bear.

    When my wife caught up to me her first reaction was to ask “that was a lot of shots, what happened?” - she's been present when I've taken big game animals before, and has never seen one take more than a single shot. I explained what happened and we cautiously proceeded to the bear together.
    Once we got up to the bear I poked it with my gun to make sure it was truly dead, and the size of it finally set in. No 'ground shrinkage' with this bear. Not huge, but a respectable bear...

    After the tag was cut, it took us 3 hours to cape, remove the edible portions, and load the meat into the pickup. With some loose cuts in our camp cooler with ice packs and managed to stand the game-bagged quarters up in a 68L Rubbermaid tote (not ideal, but I hoped that fast moving air on the drive home would cool them off some). I kept a small square of hide to practice fleshing - if it pans out I might try tanning it at home - I also kept the skull to make a euro display. The mosquitos went to town on my right ear while I was breaking the bear down - only my right ear though, not my neck or face, both of which were also exposed ... My ear was swollen and twice as thick as normal the following day.

    Interestingly, we were visited by a lever gun wielding gent when we were part way through processing the bear. He walked up the way we'd driven and chatted with us for a short time. If you're on here, howdy! Hope you made out alright.

    We made a bee line for home. On arriving, we set to prepping our apartment for the large butchering task we had 'cut' out for ourselves. We filled a bathtub with cold water, ice, and icepacks and put the cooler and meat-filled tote into the water to help keep things cool. It was 630pm by the time we started making the first cuts. The meat was wrapped and in the freezer by 4am ... The yield was 80# of meat - there was a surprising amount of fat on him for a spring bear too.



    I hope by sharing this story I can remind people, new hunters and veterans alike, that it is important to keep on an animal after the first shot and to be ready for a follow up. I was shooting .30-06 180gr Federal Fusion soft-point, which evidently is not the be-all end-all for bear (or at least it wasn't for this one...). I recovered one bullet from the bear - it had stopped just under the hide on the far side - retained weight was 153gr and it expanded to ~.5"x.8"
    Time to do some load development with some TSX or TTSX bullets me thinks!

    And because hunting ain't all about the killing, here's a nice photo of a swampy lake we stopped at on the way to the bear.
    Last edited by Livewire322; 06-16-2022 at 11:02 AM.
    If it cant be done with one shot, it shouldn't be done.

    "grab large claw hammer - put against butt cheek , pry head out of ass with claws...then go back to school..."

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Victoria
    Posts
    14,123

    Re: Spring Bear 2022

    Sweet bear congrats

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2016
    Location
    Burnaby
    Posts
    325

    Re: Spring Bear 2022

    Well done! Great looking bear
    Check my Youtube Channel for fishing and hunting videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjN...AEGjPIUba3pn9g

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
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    Surrounded by Socialists
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    Re: Spring Bear 2022

    Awesome work. Great write up and congrats. Love the colour of his coat. Ain't it great when things go your way?
    "It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority." - Benjamin Franklin

    "The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it" - George Orwell

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    ladner bc
    Posts
    376

    Re: Spring Bear 2022

    Great work and thanks for the write up.

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
    Location
    Horsefly BC
    Posts
    2,253

    Re: Spring Bear 2022

    Kudo's on your persistence. Great bear and a wow butcherfest till 4am! Enjoy the meat.
    The challenge of retirement is how to spend time without spending money.
    The worst day slinging lead is still better than the best day working.
    Look around is there someone you can introduce to shooting because that’s the only way we will buck the anti gun trend sweeping Canada! "tigrr 2006"


  8. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Location
    Van Isl
    Posts
    358

    Re: Spring Bear 2022

    Congrats -- the spring bear I shot last year was really great meat. Enjoy the grub! It's a beautiful looking specimen.

    What do you plan on making? I'd love to try some bear jerky in the near future. I will have to do some digging in the deep freeze and see what I have left.

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2022
    Posts
    1,902

    Re: Spring Bear 2022

    Nice bear and good story tfs
    in your turkey zone?
    Glad to say I have hunted Northern BC

    Simon Fraser had pretty good judgement on what he found in BC

  10. #9
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Burnaby
    Posts
    2,228

    Re: Spring Bear 2022

    Quote Originally Posted by Jamesonm View Post
    Congrats -- the spring bear I shot last year was really great meat. Enjoy the grub! It's a beautiful looking specimen.

    What do you plan on making? I'd love to try some bear jerky in the near future. I will have to do some digging in the deep freeze and see what I have left.
    Bear meat is popular table fare in my household! My wife particularly likes bear stew, so there is a fair bit of stew chunk set aside.
    Half of the meat was set aside as trim for burger & sausage - coming up on summer grilling season
    We kept the two sirloin roasts intact to do a roast and Yorkshire dinner.
    And, new for this year - bear bacon! I’ve made peameal bacon out of goose and duck (with and without fat), and that has turned out fantastic, so I figure I’ll give it a whirl with bear.

    I have made mounds of jerky from deer and moose, but I can’t bring myself to eat bear jerky. Seems like a solid way to end up with trichinosis… I know how to make it safely, I just won’t do it. Add to it that I’d likely be the only person in my family that would eat the jerky, and my incentive to do so is even further reduced.
    Last edited by Livewire322; 06-16-2022 at 09:21 AM.
    If it cant be done with one shot, it shouldn't be done.

    "grab large claw hammer - put against butt cheek , pry head out of ass with claws...then go back to school..."

  11. #10
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Burnaby
    Posts
    2,228

    Re: Spring Bear 2022

    Quote Originally Posted by high horse Hal View Post
    Nice bear and good story tfs
    in your turkey zone?


    Must have me confused with someone else. I don’t have a turkey zone, sadly.
    If it cant be done with one shot, it shouldn't be done.

    "grab large claw hammer - put against butt cheek , pry head out of ass with claws...then go back to school..."

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