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View Full Version : caddisguy's spring bear story and headcam footage



caddisguy
06-21-2015, 12:18 PM
I've been wanting to post the story for a while now. It's been over a month, but I finally got around to editing the video of the final moments of our spring bear hunt.

We started the trip by hiking a ways up the mountain in to one of our deer-cam spots to hang another camera where we had lost one--likely to a bear--a few weeks prior. We searched around for the camera for a little while with no success, so we hung the other camera. Rather than take our normal route, we decided to walk the ridges looking for bears or signs of the camera and perhaps see if we could find an alternate route back down. No bears or camera, but we did find another way back down and some great area with a lot of game trails that we will come back to in the future.

After keying in on two different grassy areas and one spot in the timber in between with a lot of sign--old, new and very new--we started making our rounds back and forth between the two spots, stopping for the occasional sit-down to cool off, brush off ticks and wait for a bear to come to us. We would sit for 20 minutes or so here and there. It seemed like we were always just missing a bear, with new sign appearing in these spots. We were having trouble sitting for too long and we were both tired from being up early after a short sleep and hiking around all day. The swarms of mosquitoes were getting to us as well. We threw in the towel pretty early and we were sleeping before dark.

Had a nice long sleep and we were ready to get back at it. Same strategy as the day prior. Hiking back and forth between the two grassy spots and the spot in the timber in between. Fresh sign, but we weren't seeing anything or hearing too much. It was late afternoon, nearing evening time and we knew calling it quits early the night prior was a mistake. Though it was still hot, we geared up in our thick hunting jackets/pants, mosquito nets. We decided to try hiking into another place near by where we thought the terrain would be favorable, but no dice. While walking through the brush, we accidentally jumped a bear that had been hiding close by. It sounded like it booked it and climbed a tree a ways away, but we couldn't see it. Incredibly hot and sweaty, it was now evening and we knew where we wanted to be. We went back to the spot where we had seen the most fresh sign and had the best view (the other grassy spot was a strange narrow strip surrounded by timber but had too much potential for a bear to come out of timber and be way too close, especially if it was a sow) ... we sat on a log and waited, but this time for hours rather than minutes which I think was key. Shortly after the sun tucked behind the mountain, approximately 7:30PM, we heard a bear coming. As the bear came into view, I flicked on the head cam and tried to position myself on the log (which was on a slant) for a stable shot. By this time, the bear was at 20 yards and broadside. It ended up being a head shot. No wasted meat, just bang-flop and not even a twitch.

Then the work began. Being our first bear, we had an idea what we were getting ourselves into, but it still turned into quite an ordeal. It became apparent that even with two of us, there wasn't any hope of lifting or dragging it, so the plan was to field dress it and quarter it. That plan was going along just fine... we had the bear opened up and everything out, except one problem... we could not get through the pelvic bone. We tried our collapsible bow saw with narrow sharp teeth, a folding saw, and a leatherman multi-tool saw. It wasn't happening. Either we need a real bone saw or we were doing it all wrong. So now it's dark, we're working under flashlights and headlamps and there is at least one other bear--and likely other critters--stomping around in the brush. The air horn worked the first time, a little bit the second time but had no effect after that. At this point, I'm skinning and removing meat as quickly as possible while caddisgirl stands guard. I'm was able to keep some fur attached to meat from each "quarter", but let tell ya... this meat didn't come out in quarters but rather hack-and-slash slabs. I've watched dozens of gutless/boneless method videos on youtube, but my working conditions certainly weren't allowing me to replicate very well by any means. A few trips back and forth to the jeep, we had all the meat in game cloth, in a 70L rough-neck rubbermaid with some ice left over from the cooler, chilling in the creek with water running down from the snowpack. It was 12:30AM and time for some sleep, but I would wake up every hour or two to vent the rubbermaid and drain the blood out.

We headed out early, and spent the next day cutting, picking out hairs and vacuum packing. The meat turned out great, despite being a midnight hack-and-slash job and not really "hanging". We've eaten it half a dozen times and haven't really put a dent in it. Tastes great (could have fooled me and told me it was beef) ... the only catch us consistency, as I'm not always quite sure what part I'm eating!!

It was tough, but we learned a whole lot from the experience. Next year will be a walk in the park. I was lucky to have someone with me. If I was alone, I would have been out there until sunrise and possibly eaten!! My fiancee is a trooper. Putting a ring on her was the right thing to do!! Here's the video... it's edited it down from 3 minutes as my head was moving all over the place while trying to reposition myself on the log and get a stable shot. The wide-screen fish-eye video is hard to work with, but I managed to get a decent/stable view of the bear.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_rimavcG8g

landphil
06-21-2015, 12:25 PM
Good stuff man, congrats to you!

Fella
06-21-2015, 12:31 PM
Awesome, hard work pays off! And that looks like a good sized bear too, happy eating!

ruger#1
06-21-2015, 12:35 PM
Good job Caddis. I think I might take a fall bear this year. I will try for a nice fat blackberry one. You like that Caribou lager?

caddisguy
06-21-2015, 12:40 PM
Thanks guys! Any idea on the age of the bear? I was thinking 3-4? Just guessing by the ears... they weren't too close together or pointy but fairly visible. Maybe the skull says something?

I'm not sure what it measured or what it would have weighed. Maybe 5' something and 230-250lbs or so? I could be way off either way though... just thinking about how heavy it was to try to lift even a portion of it, roll it over or drag it. Felt like 350 but I don't think it was that big ;-P I'd say the meat was around 80-100 lbs and the bear was still very heavy afterwards.

srupp
06-21-2015, 01:11 PM
Hmmm absolutley awesome..truly enjoyable read...video.
Cheers
Steven

HarryToolips
06-21-2015, 02:51 PM
Congrats!!!

Tīɡ
06-21-2015, 03:32 PM
Good job!! Thanks for the write-up and the vid!!

Sylus
06-21-2015, 03:57 PM
Awesome stuff man! Looks like he was a chunky fella.

yota
06-21-2015, 05:59 PM
nice job waiting for a clean shot and not rushing looks like a great bear and some great meals thanks for sharing

caddisguy
06-21-2015, 06:30 PM
nice job waiting for a clean shot and not rushing looks like a great bear and some great meals thanks for sharing

Thanks! It took longer than the video leads on. My head was looking down then up 20x over trying to get myself stable on the slanted log without making noise while watching the bear. I had to cut a lot out to make it presentable (no blair witch syndrome) but kept the raw footage incase one day I get better (or more patient) at video editing or find someone who is. I wish I was rich and could just hire someone for these things. One day... one day... in the mean time we have enough backlog I don't have to worry about getting bored this winter! I love making videos (have this weird glitch in my brain that my visual memory is poor, so videos really helps me re-live/remember things) but it is time consuming.

Bear Chaser
06-21-2015, 08:02 PM
Congratulations.
I really liked the hand signals from your fiancé when she explained where the bear went.

Downwind
06-21-2015, 08:19 PM
Nicely done. Bears are definitely a challenge to move once they're down and that pelvic bone is pretty tough but can be done with a saw. Now that you've got the first one out of the way the next one will be that much easier to deal with!

rides bike to work
06-21-2015, 08:46 PM
First bear and you've got it on film. That footage will bring you back for years great bear with a chevron to boot. Are you getting the hide tanned black powder tannery in langley is doing my bear for $65 a foot.

325 wsm
06-21-2015, 08:59 PM
Great story and neat video. the gutless method is kind of hard to learn overnight (pun intended) but it will get easier every time.

adriaticum
06-21-2015, 10:59 PM
I like that hand gesture

albravo2
06-21-2015, 11:15 PM
Great story, thanks for posting.

Gotta love it when it all comes together!

Gateholio
06-21-2015, 11:19 PM
Love the clips of dinner at the end! :)

boxhitch
06-22-2015, 07:06 AM
yeah , dinner and the freezer , looks tasty .
That skull is something a little glue could fix , just a minor wound :)

re the editting , don't stress over it , the as it happens is the real stuff

ElliotMoose
06-22-2015, 07:37 AM
Nice work! That's a healthy lookin bear. Should make for some fine eats

Goose
06-22-2015, 07:41 AM
I had to laugh at that story due to the fact we went through the exact same struggle with our bear we shot last year and the Pelvic bone. We used a saw from a swiss army knife, it was a PITA, but we got it done. Good job on your bear and all your hard work though

Pangaea
06-23-2015, 06:23 AM
Great hunt, great post! I love caddisgirl's sign language. She had no doubts!