bochunk2000
06-07-2015, 09:17 PM
This story starts 4 years ago when out looking for new areas to bow hunt bears in the Spring. I saw an old deactivated road that lead up a hill into an area I had never been before. I parked my car grabbed my bow and hiked in. This tight little road looked like it would lead nowhere, but as many of us know those can lead to the best places. Sure enough it opened up into this large cut block filled with green grass on the road and salmon berries everywhere in the cut. Sure enough I saw a good sized bear out in the berries on the high side of the road. I studied him for a while as well as the area he was in, I needed to get ahead of the wind and look to come back to him. A really tough stalk later, he took off when the crunch of one of the bazillion branches snapped. He stuck in my mind and so did the nice white patch on his chest. I went back to the area the next year and saw him once early in the season, later I went back to the same area with my kids and we saw a smaller bear...once I confirmed no cubs we put the stalk on and I could not pass up a chance at another archery bear with my kids, plus my step son was with us for his first chance to see a bear.
Then we move to last year and I took my friend out in hope he could get his first bear with a bow, luckily we saw a bear in the lower cut and positioned ourselves to meet him on the road and put the kids where they could watch. He came out of the bush right where we though and at about 20 yrds...I looked away to see why he wasn't shooting yet and saw that he was so excited he didn't have an arrow on the rest, I look back to draw and see the same whit and man he seems big. He turns and slowly walks away down the road with me following behind. I never did get a shot as he faced away from me the whole time and the "Texas heart" is not one I will take.
This year my kids Abigail and Austin come back with me. For the first two times we went there we didn't see a thing and I wondered if someone else got him...Third time was the charm as we saw him on a rock outcropping way up the hill. There was no way to stalk him that day but he looked huge to us and sure enough my heart raced as I saw it was him, he was still here. Yesterday we all went out for a morning hike to look and see if we could find him. As we started out hike like so many times before this time it felt different I told my kids I had a great feeling about today. Checking the wind as we went it was light and headed from behind us and up the hill on an angle towards the back of the cut. Not great but not a strong wind and I hunched down and we talked the plan...we were going to creep along the low road and to the tree line in the back. Once there we would settle in and glass the hillside above and the cut below. I pulled off my pack to get the kids some water and a snack and saw the bushes move out in the lower bowl about 80 yrds. Up come the binos and sure enough its a bear coming towards us. I checked the wind and straight to us from him...perfect. I quickly pulled off my boots for a quiet stalk and up came the binos. Based on the scat we had seen there was also a sow with at least one cub in this same area and I wanted to be certain before I started a stalk. Well he popped out into the open for a second and Hell no that's no sow. My heart started to race a bit once I saw his head. I made sure my kids were in a good spot to watch and knew to keep still and quiet. I went down and paralleled him he was moving in and out of bushes stopping once in a while to eat something. I ranged him a few times as he moved around a large bush. 33 yrds and broadside. He stepped out from behind the cover and I came to full draw, in my head I talked through my pre-shot sequence as a calmer and settled the the gap between 30-40 on his chest behind the shoulder and waited for the near leg to move forward, when it did I toughed off the release and sent my arrow loose. A great hit with deep penetration. The bear barked and spun to bite it took a step and fell, got up and went about 10 yrds and fell over. He let out some fierce sounding growls that echoed through the valley and then nothing. Was not more than 45 seconds but seemed like forever. I looped around to keep a clear line of sight looked through the binos and saw no breathing. Just to be sure I threw a big stick and nope the bear was dead. WOOHOO soon echoed through the bowl and I waved my kids over. Cheering and hooting all the way. I didn't approach the bear and told them I wanted to share this approach with them...Holy Sh*t there was nor ground shrinkage. With me and my 10 year old son busting our butts and my eight year old daughter making a ton of noise and headed to the car to get water and a tarp to drag it on. It took us several hours to get it back to the car. At one point we got it to a shady spot and went to head in to the closest store to get more water and call a friend to help. My buddy came and helped with the last part of the drag and the insane task of getting this monster into the trunk of the most red neck Toyota Tercel you ever saw.
It felt so good that after devoting my spring seasons with my kids to this one bear I was able to connect, gutting it showed that I got both lungs, no heart and the arrow stopped in the far leg. I am not sure which part was better the fact I was able to hunt this bear and win or that both my kids got to watch it from start to finish and watched the shot, arrow fly, connect the whole thing and my son said this was better than Disney land. I just wish my step-son Jack could have been there too.
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Steve
Then we move to last year and I took my friend out in hope he could get his first bear with a bow, luckily we saw a bear in the lower cut and positioned ourselves to meet him on the road and put the kids where they could watch. He came out of the bush right where we though and at about 20 yrds...I looked away to see why he wasn't shooting yet and saw that he was so excited he didn't have an arrow on the rest, I look back to draw and see the same whit and man he seems big. He turns and slowly walks away down the road with me following behind. I never did get a shot as he faced away from me the whole time and the "Texas heart" is not one I will take.
This year my kids Abigail and Austin come back with me. For the first two times we went there we didn't see a thing and I wondered if someone else got him...Third time was the charm as we saw him on a rock outcropping way up the hill. There was no way to stalk him that day but he looked huge to us and sure enough my heart raced as I saw it was him, he was still here. Yesterday we all went out for a morning hike to look and see if we could find him. As we started out hike like so many times before this time it felt different I told my kids I had a great feeling about today. Checking the wind as we went it was light and headed from behind us and up the hill on an angle towards the back of the cut. Not great but not a strong wind and I hunched down and we talked the plan...we were going to creep along the low road and to the tree line in the back. Once there we would settle in and glass the hillside above and the cut below. I pulled off my pack to get the kids some water and a snack and saw the bushes move out in the lower bowl about 80 yrds. Up come the binos and sure enough its a bear coming towards us. I checked the wind and straight to us from him...perfect. I quickly pulled off my boots for a quiet stalk and up came the binos. Based on the scat we had seen there was also a sow with at least one cub in this same area and I wanted to be certain before I started a stalk. Well he popped out into the open for a second and Hell no that's no sow. My heart started to race a bit once I saw his head. I made sure my kids were in a good spot to watch and knew to keep still and quiet. I went down and paralleled him he was moving in and out of bushes stopping once in a while to eat something. I ranged him a few times as he moved around a large bush. 33 yrds and broadside. He stepped out from behind the cover and I came to full draw, in my head I talked through my pre-shot sequence as a calmer and settled the the gap between 30-40 on his chest behind the shoulder and waited for the near leg to move forward, when it did I toughed off the release and sent my arrow loose. A great hit with deep penetration. The bear barked and spun to bite it took a step and fell, got up and went about 10 yrds and fell over. He let out some fierce sounding growls that echoed through the valley and then nothing. Was not more than 45 seconds but seemed like forever. I looped around to keep a clear line of sight looked through the binos and saw no breathing. Just to be sure I threw a big stick and nope the bear was dead. WOOHOO soon echoed through the bowl and I waved my kids over. Cheering and hooting all the way. I didn't approach the bear and told them I wanted to share this approach with them...Holy Sh*t there was nor ground shrinkage. With me and my 10 year old son busting our butts and my eight year old daughter making a ton of noise and headed to the car to get water and a tarp to drag it on. It took us several hours to get it back to the car. At one point we got it to a shady spot and went to head in to the closest store to get more water and call a friend to help. My buddy came and helped with the last part of the drag and the insane task of getting this monster into the trunk of the most red neck Toyota Tercel you ever saw.
It felt so good that after devoting my spring seasons with my kids to this one bear I was able to connect, gutting it showed that I got both lungs, no heart and the arrow stopped in the far leg. I am not sure which part was better the fact I was able to hunt this bear and win or that both my kids got to watch it from start to finish and watched the shot, arrow fly, connect the whole thing and my son said this was better than Disney land. I just wish my step-son Jack could have been there too.
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w94/bochunk2000/IMG_27861_zpssgzi2aws.jpg (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/bochunk2000/media/IMG_27861_zpssgzi2aws.jpg.html)
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w94/bochunk2000/IMG_27881_zpsu7c9ozad.jpg (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/bochunk2000/media/IMG_27881_zpsu7c9ozad.jpg.html)
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w94/bochunk2000/IMG_27901_zpscfvpxswu.jpg (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/bochunk2000/media/IMG_27901_zpscfvpxswu.jpg.html)
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w94/bochunk2000/IMG_28001_zpst3qw8gf3.jpg (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/bochunk2000/media/IMG_28001_zpst3qw8gf3.jpg.html)
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w94/bochunk2000/IMG_28011_zpsebpx4nd8.jpg (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/bochunk2000/media/IMG_28011_zpsebpx4nd8.jpg.html)
Steve