Help with getting 1st big game animal

[Imdone]

With the fresh pudd, it's there somewhere likely bedded in a cool location.
Best chances will be late afternoon evening, or early morning. But it can happen at any time.
Being a new Bear hunter, be sure to view the Bear for a good while, you don't want to rush your first and possibly not notice a cub or three.
You only want to harvest a lone Bear, and Boar if possible.
Take your time. Don't rush it. Be sure of your first shot, Bear are tough and a follow up is not a bad thing. Being your first big game animal, bears can be a challenge to dress. Get help if you can. In these high temps you'll need to be prepared to cool it asap.
Good luck to you.
Be sure to use wind in your favour or you will be wasting your time.

[HarryToolips]

Yeah good call on that. I found sows move differently too. With the larger rear and smaller front side while feeding, it often looks like watching a lopsided slinky at play. Mature boars often move with purpose and just walk in like they own the joint... crash crash snap crash snap, right out into the open, munch munch munch.

Much as I don't like saying it, your gut will tell you quite a bit as well. I watched a bear feed for 2 consecutive evenings, probably 4-5 hours total. I was confident it was a sow... but is it alone? I eventually did catch some glimpses of a couple football sized black fur balls messing about, probably 15-20 yards deep into the brush. It was only a few glimpses here and there after 4-5 hours of staring. Would it have been legal if I had taken the sow? Given the wording "accompanied by", maybe? But would I have felt like trash and considered giving up hunting? Probably. Definitely take your time and there is something about listening to your gut much as I don't like indefinitive things like that.

If I would define it, a bear that feeds in less optimal places it could be feeding, sticking closer to cover (20-30 yards) starts getting suspicious. Dang another 10-15 yards out is a way better bounty of feed? Like HT said, one can potentially pass up boars by being cautious... I probably pass on 80% for one reason or another (not the ideal shot, too hot out and too much uphill retrieval, etc) and it can be hard to tell... but 8 out of 8 bears I have harvested have all been boars, so there must be methods to my madness. I just wish I could articulate it better.

Just tracked down the video of that sow... here it is. Shaky video, sorry for that. I'd been watching for a couple hours about 100 yards away through the binos, but it was getting dark, had to walk passed the momma there and figured I'd film. No zoom here. I'm about 10-15 yards from her and I know there are a couple cubs 15 yards or so back in the brush there and my hands were covered in mosquitos. Not many people are dumb enough to stop to film in such scenarios but I am



It was actually the next day after I filmed that, boar snapped the sapling in the picture a few posts ago. Harvested that boar and it was a fine one. No doubt would have killed those cubs. Funny enough half way through processing said boar she was clacking her jaws at me maybe 40 yards away. I was just shouting stuff like "hey there calm down little lady, did ya a solid, happy mothers day". I think that's the only time "telling" a female being to "calm down" worked out well for anybody It's bad mojo in most cases, but jaw clacking is just "your too close, making me nervous", hollaring back anything just says "yeah i hear you. im doing my thing, dont care about you, get used to me eh, we'll keep this distance"

Great vid, and very good points as well... ya when they do that weird nervous jaw popping sound it's weird... oh and one thing I've read, though haven't spent enough time watching a sow with cubs is, they say she'll be looking around more often than a bear without..

[HarryToolips]

Thanks for the pm Harry, appreciate that.
I've had a couple of encounters with deer, that your adrenaline just spikes and want to shoot as they we're bucks. But one i bumped and was running so didn't want to take that shot! And the other was in any whitetail buck season, but 4 point muley season in September. That one i watched for about 10 minutes as it stood facing me in some thick bush was a 2 point, but my gut was telling me it was a muley so not legal. Finally it bolted, put glass on it when it finally stopped.... was a whitetail! But i was happy with myself that i didn't pull the trigger.
So i pretty much like to go with the gut feeling, even though you might not want to right.

I would honestly hate myself if i shot a sow, then cubs popped out. Can imagine that would be a terrible feeling!

I joined a live webinar couple of weeks ago, that hunters for B.C put on. Was a 2 hour slideshow and discussion on field judging the sexes on Black bears. Most likely watch some of that again tonight.
Ive read numerous books, listened to countless hours of podcasts on the subject. Obviously I'm not going to be a bear field judging pro, but i feel it's give me a good idea of what to look for when trying to determine the sex of a bear.

From all that info that I've digested, boars walk like they own the place, ears are smaller and appear more button like on the side of there heads. Can have a crease in there forehead and there chest hair seems to hang further down to the ground. Plus what you guys mentioned, and obviously more.

As for sows, they seem to walk a little more cautious, looking around more and there ears appear on top of there head and also bigger.
There butt seems to be more rounded, like they resemble a pear shape ��
An interesting point i heard was sows can have a ruffled patch of hair on the top of there neck where the shoulders meet almost looks like feathers, they described it as if they have had a bad haircut! If that makes any sense.

Pretty cool video there, and yeah i don't i would be recording in that situation haha!
A couple of years ago i was driving down an FSR up by Williams lake and had a bear run out in front of the truck across the road and upto in the verge.
I stopped to just get a look at it, turns out it was a sow with 2 cubs up in a tree behind her, she huffed a little bit at me which was interesting to see. But i left pretty quickly after that, i didn't want to piss her off anymore!

You're welcome, and you're an ethical hunter by the sound of it, good on ya for passing on that buck..

[HarryToolips]

So little update, 1st area on the way to Vernon.
Found some sign, but not enough to warrant me sticking around for to long.
2nd area i found some very old scat, but nothing real fresh.

3rd area this morning, found a nice series of medium ish size cutblocks. Road is de activated at top, with the road winding round the cut block.
Road from top to bottom has plenty of clover and the cut block some nice patches of green.
Found 7 fresh green scat piles about the size of dinner plates along the top of the road.
Question is.... should i set up tonight just outside but in view of that cutblock and wait for yogi to pop out?
This is the only real idea i can think of

Your strategy sounds good to me, if it's a deactivated road, then all the better, I find busy FSRs they'll get scared off, but then return eventually.. cover that ground with your binos a plenty..

[Lukebc86]

Thanks for the quick replys guys.
I'll be heading out shortly for a sit and some glassing

[caddisguy]

So little update, 1st area on the way to Vernon.
Found some sign, but not enough to warrant me sticking around for to long.
2nd area i found some very old scat, but nothing real fresh.

3rd area this morning, found a nice series of medium ish size cutblocks. Road is de activated at top, with the road winding round the cut block.
Road from top to bottom has plenty of clover and the cut block some nice patches of green.
Found 7 fresh green scat piles about the size of dinner plates along the top of the road.
Question is.... should i set up tonight just outside but in view of that cutblock and wait for yogi to pop out?
This is the only real idea i can think of

That sounds just about perfect... road deactivated at top and then some good cover. And those big green scats confirm.

I can't see the area, so I can't say what the best approach is (ie: sit and glass, vs poke in and out) ... is the area big enough you would need to glass to see bears? (just trying to get an idea how big and open the area is)

If you can figure out where they are actually feeding (nipped grass, dandelions, etc) that would narrow down the area to focus on.

When I find places where it is obvious bears feed, I really like to sneak into those areas and if I don't see a bear, sneak back out and try again an hour later, rinse and repeater. I find I bump into way more bears that way. But that's just me and the areas I hunt. Every person and every place is different.

Great job so for though, you narrowed down your area of focus to one that is quite viable. Now with the tricky part out of the way, it's a matter of luck and time.

Try to pay attention too what the thermals do in that area. Generally the "wind" (thermals) start going up an a couple hours after dawn and a couple hours before dusk, but there are all sorts of variables in different terrain... if you can figure that out and mental note it, it might help you figure out good times and approaches for sneaking in.

[Lukebc86]

Well, i got back yesterday from my 1st proper bear hunt. As in actually focusing and going for a spring bear, not just having a tag in my pocket. Was staying at a buddies place who is in Vernon. He's been hunting for a while now but mainly deer, not Bear. So perhaps more of a proper bear hunt for both of us for the 1st time.

I was thinking of sitting in the cut and waiting for something to come out and have a nose around, feed etc. As in my last post. Spoke to my buddy on his thoughts.
And we decided to go upto where all the sign was, where the road was de activated.

We sat for a while, nothing was happening. Curiosity got the better of us.
We crossed the road where it had been de activated. And walked up the road, with our* heads on a swivel. Well at least i thought mine was. Wind was in our faces constantly reminding myself....check the wind, walk slow and be quiet,
just slowly looking around looking down for sign.
Out of nowhere, buddy goe's bear, bear, bear! I'm looking around can't see it! Finally....i saw it! There was a bear to my right in the thick shit!
Only about 30 yards away, don't know how i didn't see it. I tried to get a good look at it but, by the time i did, it bolts about 100 yards over to the right uphill slightly but stops. Buddy starts wailing on a predator call....it stops! I push around and in a little, super thick bush with some openings but could hardly see it. Still wailing on the call, i continue to push round to get sight on it. Eventually when i do see it it just bolts outta there. Perhaps finally winded me. But was incredibly fun for a 1st time. And when it did kinda present a broadside shot, it was around 300 yards away. Not comfortable shooting at that distance. But was awesome!

So we regroup, decide to walk a little further up. Notice the road was super wet/moist with clover everywhere. Suddenly about 400 yards away another bear, head down just munching away on the clover. Again lucky with the wind in our faces... we decide to close the distance.
Hugging the rock face to stay out of sight, crossing a couple of creeks. Then eventually belly crawling into about 70 yards.
We watched it for about 15 minutes eating and working it's way closer to us.
But it was on the smaller side and we we're pretty sure it was a small sow. Thinner legs, bigger ass and the ruffed feathered neck. Also had more of a feminine face to it.
So he hit a predator call to get it's attention, bear looked up, and just took off down the slope and into the timber.

So we head back, couple of burgers and beers. And try to figure something out for tomorrow.

Following day, went and poked around some other spots. found sign no bears.
Decided to go back to this spot, have a sit and some lunch in the truck.
Was starting to get warm, it was around 28 degrees. So decided to leave and come back when it cooled down.
But not even a minute into our drive for a new spot somehow i spotted a black blob near a tree (normally a stump ) ��
There's a bear, so we watch it for a bit. There's no other bears/cubs around so it was alone, looked more butch aswell.

This bear was only about 50 yards away at most, didn't seem to care about us at all.
So after watching it for a little bit. Decided it was a boar, so we slowly went round to the side for a broadside shot, took a knee...deep breath and counted to 3 and slowly pulled the trigger! (We decided to both shoot it just incase) Bear just dropped in its tracks off the back side of this stump.
Very grateful to my buddy, who took the short amount of time, but seemed like a lifetime to calm me down, move the truck and make sure everything was good.... Rifle on safe and i was ok.

So we went slowly to check it out, gave it a poke with the barrel of my rifle and it was done.
Straight, heart shot and a decent exit hole is what we found, it didn't even go 5 yards. Just fell off the back of the stump.

But what with the weather getting hotter, we didn't want to waste anytime with pictures.
But with it laid out on the tarp it was roughly just over 5 foot long i would say.
We just had to get in there and get it skinned and gutted on a tarp i had.
Which was quite an experience for me as I've never done that, But it went well. And again the patience my buddy had with me to point me in the right direction on skinning and how to gut it the best way possible. Honestly would have been a tough one to deal with for a 1st time solo.

But it didn't spoil and i wasn't put off at all either by the process. I got in there with my hands removing the guts etc.
Got it into my cooler with ice, back to his place and got it ground up, wrapped and in the freezer the same night. Was a long day,but an amazing one I'll never forget!

We had a rough guess at age, at around maybe 4 years old.
Showed the head, teeth to a few family members who hunt and guessed it to be around 4/5 years old. (Not sure if this helps but the teeth we're about 2 inches long)
So not a monster but it was a boar not a young sow. So I'm super happy with it and our judement on it.


All in all, was a great trip. Learned so much from you guys on what to do, and not what to do. What to look for and just to get out there and explore. And also from my buddy, the patience, the awareness and reaction of me shooting my 1st big game animal. And in general just being a solid dude!

I'm extremely tired and a little sore,from the hiking and long days.
but wouldn't change it for the world!
Time to search for a bigger boar in the fall, along with perhaps a deer if I'm lucky.

Time to enjoy some bear meat!!
(I'll try to add some pictures of what i found from the trip)

Thanks again to everyone who commented on this thread, hope it can help another newbie bear hunter in the future.

[savage10]

Awesome story man congrats on the first bear!

[HarryToolips]

That's awesome Luke congrats! Look forward to the pics and, don't forget to enter it in the contest...

Cheers

[Lukebc86]

Thanks, story kinda went on and on hopefully i didn't make anyone bored haha!
I'll have to log on through my laptop tomorrow and upload some pics. Didn't get any of the bear as a whole, as the temps we're getting into the high 20's and was super paranoid about it going sour.
But got a good pic of the head. And various sign i found.
So I'll post those pics tomorrow
I'm officially hooked on bear hunting