Trigger Happy
05-22-2015, 12:57 PM
It started off as a family day at our favorite pit. It was my lil brothers birthday so we decided to go blown up some stuff with Tannerite. After a few hours of shooting and hollaring the wife mentioned we should take the kids and keep going down the FSR and see if we could fill our tag. I had been scouting for a month before the snow melted and was getting a little discouraged but knew i was out way too early. I kind of wanted to go home after shooting all day with the family, but the wife and I, our 10 month old, and two other daughters aged 4 and 6 hit the road heading towards the 98km mark of the FSR ( where it ends ). We sang our BEAR AWARE song i made up for them, ate snacks and had a jolly good time. At 98km we turned around and started to head back, telling the kids daddy always sees something on the way out. Its now about 7:00pm. At the 82km mark a large object appeared on the road about 2 km away. I started to slow down to 30km trying to avoid my dusty sqweeky brakes from startling this bear. The wife grabbed the binos and said looks like a grizz hun. I have a grizz tag but for 7-38 and was like ahhh really. She then says babe babe its just a blonde i can tell by the floppy ears. I then stopped the truck. I looked through the binos and was like yeahhhh baby thats our bear. I crept up the road another 100 yards and shut the truck down and pulled the keys out of ignition cause my truck chimes and scares everything away. I get out, load one into the chamber of my 30-06 and slowly walk down the side of the road. The bear is also walking across the road now but still 300 yards away at least. He sees me and begins to run up a large hill on my left ( right side is a ravine ). The hill is very steep so i begin to run down the road marking where i seen him run in. I get to the spot where he went in and hes already 200 ft up the hill and sneaks behind some shrubs. Hes gone! I pause and listen and can hear snapping of branches moving up hill but to my right. I then move right about 100 feet and there he is another 100 ft up and hidden behind a shrub only thing visible is his head, neck and front of chest. He thinks hes being sneaky but i can see him and looks like a good shot. I aim and control my breathing, felt like a minute or two but was trying to be as still as a table top. He is still looking at me and takes one step out and i sqweeze. Bang, right in the left shoulder. He jumps up all 4 off the ground and begins spinning and turning in circles on the spot like an over excited dog. I def got him where i was aiming. In all the mayhem of spinning and sqweeling in a dust cloud i lose sight but looks like he went down cause he didnt go uphill again. My wife jumps out of the truck and i yell i got him. She grabs the shotgun and comes walking up the hill to play as my backup to ensure the bear is down. We walk up the hill with truck still in site and get to the spot where he was spinning in one spot. Hes not there! He's gone? K now im in trouble. I dont want to stray us any further away from the truck so i escort the wife back to the truck for her safety. I then head back up to the killing field and go up about 25 more feet and there he was. Yahoooooo! Cinnamon bear down i yell to the wife and kids now hanging half way out the truck. We all cheer. I pull out my tag book and cut my day and month. DONE. Throw my Duz Cho reflective vest on the tree and lay my rifle down. So i can remember where i put my rifle. I say my thank yous to the bear and send thanks to my grandmother, " The Bear ". I begin to drag this heavy guy by the back legs down to the truck. If it wasnt for the large hill he would have been real heavy for me. The wife drops the tailgate and backs into the ditch and i slide him right in. We are still pretty excited and my two older daughters are happy, ( more because they dont have to sit in the truck for hours on end ) their happy its over. No tears for the bear either which was good. I jump back into the truck so excited i start to drive away and im like dammmm, my rifle. Had to walk all the way back up, grab my vest and gun. By now its 8:00 and getting dark. Got back to the house, took some pics, and put the kids to bed. Now the work begins, skinned and butchered in a few hours. I hit him in the shoulder and his heart was gone, so he actually ran up hill 30 ft before calling it quits ( with no heart ). By 3:00 am i was done, drunk, and tired as hell. Was a long day but paid off. Considering ive been hunting and scouting for the last month and could have bought a bear from a zoo with my fuel costs adding up. So happy to have had my children with me to share this moment, my first b bear and nailed a colour phase to boot. So proud and still smiling. Good luck to everyone this 2015 hunting season and thanks to everyone for their support and good advice :)
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