Here's my entry:
My regular partner is busy with life these days so it's been me and the dog searching for bears.
We started our day by driving around some early season spots for south island bears. Mainly concentrating on roads with alot of fresh grass and slashes that had greened up. After seeing alot of country and many piles of scat, no bears were seen as of early afternoon.
We decided to turn the truck off and walk some deactivated roads and see if we could surprise a bear. Again, saw alot of scat on roads that were covered in green grass, but no bears seen.
At around 5pm we decided to stick to lower elevations. I figured it was a good idea because I'd been seeing alot of bears near the highway, which is near sea level around Renfrew.
We found a nice 4km long road that paralleled slashes that were facing south east. Almost as soon as we started glassing I spotted movement about 40yards ahead. It was a black bears ass end and he was taking off. Me and the dog jump out of the truck and climb into the slash to get some elevation and a good vantage on the running bear. I spot him about 70 yards away heading up a rock bluff, up goes the rifle and the sight picture tells me it a young bear (big ears, lanky) with a nice coat. Too young I say, this one gets to walk.
I corral my riled up dog and we head back to the truck to move on. We go for about 20 mins and run into a dead end. Turn the truck around and head back. Just as I was about to call it for the day I see a little spur road that I didn't notice on the way in.... what the heck I say.... one more road.
We head up and instantly I see another bear heading straight up the block, sauntering to the tree line. Dog and me bail out and I get a rest, rifle up... sight picture tells me its another young bear. I keep the scope on him until he disappears behind a stump.... wait a few minutes.... he still hasn't emerged. I figure, no big deal.... he was another young fella.
Go to get up and head back to the truck and out of the corner of my eye I see something big and black about 100 yards to the right of the bear that just disappeared. Binocs go up this time and sure enough... BEAR. The body looks a little lanky but the head looks nice and large, ears are small and on the side of the head.
I decide to get a rest and watch for a while through the scope. Had a hard time judging body size, but I figure the head looks mature and after three chances I better not get much pickier. If the bear gives me a shot, I'm taking it.
Eventually the bear stands quartering to on a fallen tree. Adjust the scope, chamber a round, squeeze one off, watch the bear go down. I look back at my dog and he's sitting right behind me and he's ready to go check it out!
Found the bear stuck under a deadfall (they always do that) and was pleasantly surprised at the size. He was about 200 yards from the road and the terrain was bad enough that I couldn't roll him out by myself.
Because I was by myself, this was going to be a quarter and hike out situation. I unloaded my pack frame to make room in the main bag for the meat. First strip I took two of the quarters.... way to friggen heavy and awkward.... the remaining trips had one quarter in the bag and one in my arms... much better. After taking the qaurters, straps and head and collecting all of my gear back up again, it was about 4 trips back and forth.
Scale back home indicated that the quarters were about 45 lbs each.... and the head was a decent size. The hide on the other hand was rubbish.... he had been rubbing bad already.... oh well I'll do a skull mount!!
This was the first animal taken with my new remington with my first handloads of 30-06 springfield: 168 grain nosler ballistic tips.
************UPDATE************************
Skull cleaned and dried - average of about a dozen measurements is 18 5/16"
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Originally Posted by greenhorn
Count your age by friends...not years. Count your life by smiles...and not tears.
