Species: Black Bear Date of Kill: 2023-05-16 Region:6 Skeena Harvest method: 150gr Accubond from a 280 Ackley Improved
Short Story: I had a couple of days off and I was flat out of ground meat so I figured I would spend the day out chasing black bears. Unlike ungulate hunting, I woke up bright and early at the crack of 9am, ate about 17 lbs greasy mountain goat sausage (it's important to fuel for success), and headed out the door. We were in the middle of a heat wave with some flooding, so I spent the morning in steep country where I had seen bears previously wallowing in the small swamps created by runoff in the bottom of the various gulley's. Apart from a wayward porcupine, it was a quiet morning with no bear sightings.
I headed down to the lake to make some dinner and relax before heading back out around 7pm to go for the night bite. This time I decided to focus my efforts on a grassy powerline strip with some longer glassing vantage points. The heat of the day was starting to subside and I was optimistic that the bears would be moving once things cooled down. I spent the evening glassing and exploring some of the offshoots that went higher up the mountain, scheming for a summer goat hunt. There was plenty of fresh sign and lots of feed, but still, no bears. After glassing from dozens of vantages I decided the next vantage point would be my last. I hiked up to the vantage with about half an hour of legal shooting light left. After glassing for 20 minutes and seeing nothing, I was ready to pack it in.
I decided to take a quick peak down into the alder gulley directly below my glassing knob before heading home. As I glanced over the crest I was surprised to see a boar staring back at me 72 yards away. There were only 7 minutes of shooting light remaining. Both of us froze, eyes locked on one another. Slowly, I eased my 280 Ackley Improved off my shoulder, removed the scope cover and gently eased a round into the empty chamber. The bear was sharply quartering two me, twisted around in the way only bears do. I raised my rifle to my shoulder, steadied my cross hairs, and heard the bark of the rifle in my ears. the bear spun and ran off into the nearby alder thicket.
I allowed the bear 20 minutes or so to die and could hear it thrashing in the brush and moaning below. Finally, in the near dark using my headlamp to follow a generous blood trail, I waded into the alders. The thicket was dense, with only 3-4 feet of visibility, and I nearly stepped on my bear before I saw him. Fortunately, I was able to drag him back to the open easily and the ATV did the rest of the packout for me, with a brief stop to winch after getting stuck in the floodwater. A late night of butchering later and my ground meat problem was no more. An informal autopsy revealed the bullet had entered through the humerous and front shoulder, pierced a rib and the vitals, punched through a dandelion and grass stuffed stomach, and came to rest on the hide on the other side. Bullet weight retention was 69%.
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