Dream Grizzly Hunt

[Rattler]

Well I managed to fill my Kootenay Grizz draw this year. Growing up in the Kootenays I have always wanted to take a good mature Grizzly and ideally it would be dark brown with silver tip. I have seen many over the years, mostly in the alpine and just started putting in again for Grizzly after a 16 year break (school and young family). This was my third Grizz draw and second one for this MU, so I knew where to go, just needed to put the time in. My goal was to take a mature boar, minimum 6.5' bear on the carcass.

Things were looking good this spring as we received a normal snowfall and we have had some really hot weather in early May, which melted a ton of snow. I told myself I wasn't going to start hunting them until the middle of May mainly because of costs ($1.42/l gas) and other time commitments.

May 17th I headed out with my G-bear partner for a day trip and put in a long day with no luck. Very little sign was found and we only saw one black bear. Day two I head out with another friend to spot where I was told a Grizzly was spotted and sure enough we get there and the bear was right at the bottom of the slide. After glassing him for a few minutes we figured he was around a 6' bear, which was close to a shooter for me. We were pretty certain it was a boar and he did have a good sized head on him with small ears. As we were watching him I quickly looked at my Back Country roads book and to my surprise this slide was just outside my MU by 200m. As usual the bear fed into some thick alders was wasn't seen again. We decided to go try another spot for the remainder of the day.

After a long quad ride and a 4km hike in we set up on a couple of nice slides. I was only there for maybe 45min and looked behind me and there was a Grizz slowly feeding towards me at 210yds. A quick glass confirmed this was not a shooter bear. He had narrow shoulders, bigger ears and appeared leggy. I decided to let him go, although he did tempt me because it had a beautiful hide. I managed to get a couple of pics, but unfortunately he had walked into the alders.





He eventually winded me and quickly vacated the slide. My partner and I decided to hunt back to the trucks and time permitting give that other bear we saw in the am another look, hoping it was in my MU.

We managed to get back to the slide with 20 or so minutes left of light and sure enough he was there again. Both my partner and I thought he looked bigger. I must say of all the big game I have hunted, bears are the most deceiving animals to judge. He unfortunately wasn't in my zone, so I took some pics through the spotter, all the while my partner was saying I sure hope that book is right. The next morning I got up and checked my BC Rec Atlas and to my horror that bear was in my MU!!! The Back Country Road book MU mapping was out 1.2km! I no longer have this book and suggest to all other hunters to not rely on this book for MU boundaries. Some pics of him:

Live to Hunt...

[Wild Images]

Was ( partner ) Bait-Boy ( Brambles ) ???

Congrats Ken, looking forward to the rest of the story

[358mag]

Well fire up the popcorn machine grab a few cold happy pops and wait for the rest of this adventure .Bring it on ......

[BCbillies]

Keep it going! I'll be up late tonight but try and wrap it up by 1 am.

[REMINGTON JIM]

HMM ! Waiting LOL RJ

[Rattler]

The following weekend after May long I went back to slide on the border of my MU with Brambles to look for that Grizzly, but he was nowhere to be seen. Brambles and I tracked a decent bear for 4+km in another area, but never caught up to him. I did end up seeing that Grizz on the border of my MU (dead in a pickup) and he was a 6' bear. I congratulated the hunter who was really excited and had a good bs with him and his partner.

Other commitments kept me at home for the first weekend in June, but plans were made for a 4 day camp hunt starting on Wednesday. We arrived at our camp spot shortly before 9:00 am and had camp set up by 10:00. We hunted hard all day with no G-bear sightings and very little sign observed. Did see a really nice chocolate brown black bear, but he was too far away. The next morning we hunted the same area because it just looked too good and again no G bears spotted. I decided we needed to change things up and hunt a different area for the afternoon.

We busted our way through the thick alders on our ATVs and hiked in to the slide where I passed on the G-bear a couple of weeks back. We weren't there an hour before I spotted a Grizz at the back of the slide. He was moving in and out of the alders and eventually disappeared. The wind was terrible, so we thought he might of winded us. After 10 minutes he showed up and worked his way into a small opening where I could see him clearly. He had a beautiful hide but unfortunately wasn't what I was looking for. This bear eventually fed in front of us at 100yards and I managed to get a couple pics before he winded us.

[Rattler]

Well after passing that bear up I thought the night was over because after all I felt it was served up on a platter there for me..lol My partner and I decided to stay until 8:00 and hunt our way out. The wind was terrible again and I said if a bear was going to come out it has to come out in an opening above us. After 20 minutes we decided that the wind was just too bad and we started to pack up. I just stood up and swung my pack over my shoulder when I spotted another Grizz in the spot they needed to come out. "Mcrae there is another Grizzly right here at 125 yards". I quickly sat down and glassed it and determined it was a sow and she was looking back and running up the slide. I said there is something coming when when out of the alders comes a big black Grizzly dwarfing the sow in size. Wow was the only ting running through my mind. Mcrae said "look at the melon on that bear". I settled in behind my 300 Win Mag and asked Mcrae if this was a shooter and he said yes. The bear was quartering away at 125 yards dogging the sow when I squeezed the trigger. The bear never knew what hit him and he flopped to the ground moved slightly and never moved for another 15 minutes. I couldn't believe what just transpired and in less than 20 seconds.

We gathered our gear and headed down. Just one obstacle in front of us and that was a river. Earlier I glassed the river and thought that is strange I can't see bottom anymore.....well all the warm weather had probably doubled the river volume. We couldn't cross where I planned and moved upstream. We finally found a decent spot to cross and we started in and things were okay until I reached the middle when the river went up to my waist. I nearly lost my balance and managed to scramble to the far bank.

We made our way over to the bear and I was pleasantly surprised at the size of him. There was no ground shrinkage here at all. When the bear died he fell into a hole, which made him appear small from where I shot from. Three hours later I skinned him out for a life size. It is now midnight and all I could think of was crossing that river in the dark. Loaded up we scambled back to our crossing spot which we never ribboned and got lucky finding it in the pitch black. I started across at knee deep probing with my hiking pole when I hit the middle and it reached my waist. I nearly lost my balance because the current was really fast. We both managed to scramble to the far bank and I breathed a big sigh of relief. We got back to our trucks at 2:00am had a few celebratory pops and went to bed at 4:00am.

He measured 6"8" on the carcass and skull goes 22 4/8. Super happy with this bear and look forward to lifesizing him...

[Lillypuff]

great job thanks posting

[BCbillies]

On the first photo on post #6, 1 o'clock to that sow looks like a good boar in the brush! You picky? Now I see the next post with a bear down . . . beauty! Congrats. Now you've got one up on the grizzlies.

[coach]

Outstanding story and pictures. Thanks for taking us along for the ride. Congrats on a great looking bear.