Ltbullken
05-11-2015, 10:03 PM
I got this brute near Blue River over the weekend while out on my griz hunt. I drew a griz LEH in the area. But when I saw this hog, I couldn't pass him up. My buddy and I were hunting in an area north of Blue River for the weekend. We saw plenty of porcupine and other black bears and we saw a hog of a black on a slide deep in one of the drainages! But there was no way we were going to catch up to him as he was on the move. On Sunday, we broke camp and were going to spend some time in another drainage before heading home. Along the way, we stopped to glass some clearings and slides. I spotted this guy munching grass in a secluded landing. It didn't take long to decide he was a taker! I told my buddy that I was going for him. I grabbed my range finder, radio and my Tikka 7RM, tested the wind - the bear was totally upwind of us - and asked my hunting partner to glass him while I made an approach. My initial range finder said we were about 500 yds off. I approached on a ridge line that offered some dead ground and stopped every once in a while to check the range. 320 yds -- 280 yds. I wanted to be a min of 220 yds, where my rifle is sighted. My buddy radioed me that everything was looking good.
Right about where I figured 220 yds, I stopped, checked and found that my range finder died!! But no matter as I knew was in good range at that time. But the bear heard me. I guess I brushed up against some shrubs a bit hard. I was a bit stoked! I quickly crawled up to a berm and went into the prone position and zoomed my Vortex Diamondback 4 - 16 HP to full power and took aim. The bear was looking in my direction, quartering to me. He was not spooked too badly. After a while, the bear lied down like a cat and faced off at me for about 5 minutes. Finally he stood up, squaring at me, again for several minutes. Then the bear stepped to his left, giving a perfect right broad side presentation. I let a shot go at his lungs. The bear looked like he reacted to being hit. The bear started running to the edge of the landing away from me, over some debris. I gave a follow up shot just as he stepped over the rise but didn't feel good about that shot. I radioed my partner and asked what he saw. He said he saw a good hit and the bear shudder. I told my partner to meet up with me at the debris pile where the bear stepped over.
I went to where the bear was standing when I shot him. I could see clear tracks of him running but no hair or blood. I followed the tracks to where I last had sight of the bear. As I approached, I dropped the scope down to 4 power and walked at the ready in case I encountered an injured bear. As soon as I got to the edge, I saw a splotch of blood on the ground - thank goodness! Just shortly beyond the debris pile, the ground drops into a heavily wooded ravine. I thought we were in for a hell of an afternoon at that point! As I stopped to look down where I could see some tracks, I saw the bear piled up against a tree about 25 yds down from me! I put one more into him to be sure he was down. Right after that, my buddy met up with me. I went down to check him and he was done. He was a brute for sure! I had a lot of trouble trying to move him around. I walked back up the embankment and my buddy and I high-fived. We made a plan to get the quads in, winch him out and get started on skinning for a rug and claiming the quarters and back straps. The meat was rich red and very clean! We got everything done in a couple hours. We then returned to the trucks and got everything loaded. The first shot was fatal, it was a complete pass through, having lunged him and taken out the off-side shoulder. And he still ran about 50 yds! I hit him with my 150 gr TSX handload coming out at about 3090 fps. I estimate it hit him at about 2600 fps with about 2300 ft/lbs of energy. I got home and started working on cleaning up the hide some more and cleaning the meat. Today, I called the taxidermist and a full bear rug is in the works! He's a keeper.
This is by far the biggest bear of my hunting career! I figured at least 400 lbs. His head was almost as wide as his shoulders too! Paw to paw, he was over 7 feet. I can't wait to score the skull! I included some more pics below. Enjoy!
http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j381/LtBullKen/BBear1_zpsknra8ygz.jpg (http://s1083.photobucket.com/user/LtBullKen/media/BBear1_zpsknra8ygz.jpg.html)
http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j381/LtBullKen/BBear2_zpsvb4yipza.jpg (http://s1083.photobucket.com/user/LtBullKen/media/BBear2_zpsvb4yipza.jpg.html)
One of the really great things about this hunt was that I was with my buddy since high school. He was my best man at my wedding, former army buddy and we've chewed a lot of the same dirt together over the years, though not always at the same time, mind you. Over the last couple years or so, he kind of re-caught his hunting bug and we've been on a couple adventures together. I can't imagine a better way to bag a trophy bear, at least in my mind, other than to be with one of your best and life long friends! What an amazing bonding moment. Thanks brother!
http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j381/LtBullKen/Robert_zpscrwbsmkr.jpg (http://s1083.photobucket.com/user/LtBullKen/media/Robert_zpscrwbsmkr.jpg.html)
http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j381/LtBullKen/Robert1_zpstghvlopw.jpg (http://s1083.photobucket.com/user/LtBullKen/media/Robert1_zpstghvlopw.jpg.html)
Right about where I figured 220 yds, I stopped, checked and found that my range finder died!! But no matter as I knew was in good range at that time. But the bear heard me. I guess I brushed up against some shrubs a bit hard. I was a bit stoked! I quickly crawled up to a berm and went into the prone position and zoomed my Vortex Diamondback 4 - 16 HP to full power and took aim. The bear was looking in my direction, quartering to me. He was not spooked too badly. After a while, the bear lied down like a cat and faced off at me for about 5 minutes. Finally he stood up, squaring at me, again for several minutes. Then the bear stepped to his left, giving a perfect right broad side presentation. I let a shot go at his lungs. The bear looked like he reacted to being hit. The bear started running to the edge of the landing away from me, over some debris. I gave a follow up shot just as he stepped over the rise but didn't feel good about that shot. I radioed my partner and asked what he saw. He said he saw a good hit and the bear shudder. I told my partner to meet up with me at the debris pile where the bear stepped over.
I went to where the bear was standing when I shot him. I could see clear tracks of him running but no hair or blood. I followed the tracks to where I last had sight of the bear. As I approached, I dropped the scope down to 4 power and walked at the ready in case I encountered an injured bear. As soon as I got to the edge, I saw a splotch of blood on the ground - thank goodness! Just shortly beyond the debris pile, the ground drops into a heavily wooded ravine. I thought we were in for a hell of an afternoon at that point! As I stopped to look down where I could see some tracks, I saw the bear piled up against a tree about 25 yds down from me! I put one more into him to be sure he was down. Right after that, my buddy met up with me. I went down to check him and he was done. He was a brute for sure! I had a lot of trouble trying to move him around. I walked back up the embankment and my buddy and I high-fived. We made a plan to get the quads in, winch him out and get started on skinning for a rug and claiming the quarters and back straps. The meat was rich red and very clean! We got everything done in a couple hours. We then returned to the trucks and got everything loaded. The first shot was fatal, it was a complete pass through, having lunged him and taken out the off-side shoulder. And he still ran about 50 yds! I hit him with my 150 gr TSX handload coming out at about 3090 fps. I estimate it hit him at about 2600 fps with about 2300 ft/lbs of energy. I got home and started working on cleaning up the hide some more and cleaning the meat. Today, I called the taxidermist and a full bear rug is in the works! He's a keeper.
This is by far the biggest bear of my hunting career! I figured at least 400 lbs. His head was almost as wide as his shoulders too! Paw to paw, he was over 7 feet. I can't wait to score the skull! I included some more pics below. Enjoy!
http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j381/LtBullKen/BBear1_zpsknra8ygz.jpg (http://s1083.photobucket.com/user/LtBullKen/media/BBear1_zpsknra8ygz.jpg.html)
http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j381/LtBullKen/BBear2_zpsvb4yipza.jpg (http://s1083.photobucket.com/user/LtBullKen/media/BBear2_zpsvb4yipza.jpg.html)
One of the really great things about this hunt was that I was with my buddy since high school. He was my best man at my wedding, former army buddy and we've chewed a lot of the same dirt together over the years, though not always at the same time, mind you. Over the last couple years or so, he kind of re-caught his hunting bug and we've been on a couple adventures together. I can't imagine a better way to bag a trophy bear, at least in my mind, other than to be with one of your best and life long friends! What an amazing bonding moment. Thanks brother!
http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j381/LtBullKen/Robert_zpscrwbsmkr.jpg (http://s1083.photobucket.com/user/LtBullKen/media/Robert_zpscrwbsmkr.jpg.html)
http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j381/LtBullKen/Robert1_zpstghvlopw.jpg (http://s1083.photobucket.com/user/LtBullKen/media/Robert1_zpstghvlopw.jpg.html)