gmachine19
05-02-2016, 09:22 PM
Hey fellas, I just wanna share my first successful hunt. Well... every hunt is a success for me as long as i get out of the city! :D
So my mentor (mid-60 yr old fella) picked me up at 4am Saturday morning. Nothing really stood out much till we reach the place we now call "bear paradise." Nothing really special about this place but there was a lot of bear droppings everywhere. Steep hills with thick brush. South facing slope, and a huge rock face with lots of possible burrows.
We got off the truck when we notice the bear dropping start to increase. Walked up the road for 1km and we were in bear paradise. It was a nice hot sunny day. Waited from 6am to 11am for a bear to cross our path but a truck comes blasting around the corner ruining our hunt. "Not much we can do now," says my mentor. So we headed back for lunch and to pitch up our tents. We were done setting up and eating around 1am. Now it was really baking. My mentor tells me to think like a bear and asks me, "so, if you're a bear, what would you do right now?" to which I replied "I want to sleep under this shady tree!" He nodded and smiled in agreement and we went for a "short" nap.
I suddenly woke up at 5:30pm by the noise of passing atv'ers. Woke up my mentor and we rushed to our spot. When we got there, we got out of our truck and started walking. As i was about to crest the road, I saw a "tree stump" on top of a huge boulder. I quickly told myself "that tree stump wasn't there this morn..." then I got a good look at a nice cinnamon coated bear! As I raised my rifle, I remember my mentor telling me to look for cubs first before shooting. So I hesitated and the bear got a good sniff of me and took off.
I started chasing for the bear but he was gone. Then I saw another bear (pure black) about 150 yards from me on a 60 degree incline. I scanned for about 5 minutes and decided to shoot him. I shot at him 3 times. Standing shot with nothing to stabilize my gun (using my tikka 7mm rem mag) between 2 trees. I thought for sure I hit this bear because he wasn't running even after I shot 3 times! So I went chasing after it. I ditched my back pack and my tikka and grabed my guide gun. Up 200yrds all kinds of side ways thru thick bush to where the bear was standing. No blood anywhere! Walked for another 300 yrds and found its tracks. We were down wind this time and saw him resting in the shade. He was sniffing the air and could not pick us up anymore. He was around 100 yrds when we got close to him. I guess my camo really helped so he couldn't see me. So we shot at him. He was dead before his head hit the ground. It's a decent size bear almost 6' nose to tail. And my hands (I'm a pretty big guy 6' tall 290#) look small compared to its head.
Enough rambling. PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! Oh and its a region 2 bear!
http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq15/gmachine19/firstbear_zpsf87uxli1.jpg (http://s429.photobucket.com/user/gmachine19/media/firstbear_zpsf87uxli1.jpg.html)
So my mentor (mid-60 yr old fella) picked me up at 4am Saturday morning. Nothing really stood out much till we reach the place we now call "bear paradise." Nothing really special about this place but there was a lot of bear droppings everywhere. Steep hills with thick brush. South facing slope, and a huge rock face with lots of possible burrows.
We got off the truck when we notice the bear dropping start to increase. Walked up the road for 1km and we were in bear paradise. It was a nice hot sunny day. Waited from 6am to 11am for a bear to cross our path but a truck comes blasting around the corner ruining our hunt. "Not much we can do now," says my mentor. So we headed back for lunch and to pitch up our tents. We were done setting up and eating around 1am. Now it was really baking. My mentor tells me to think like a bear and asks me, "so, if you're a bear, what would you do right now?" to which I replied "I want to sleep under this shady tree!" He nodded and smiled in agreement and we went for a "short" nap.
I suddenly woke up at 5:30pm by the noise of passing atv'ers. Woke up my mentor and we rushed to our spot. When we got there, we got out of our truck and started walking. As i was about to crest the road, I saw a "tree stump" on top of a huge boulder. I quickly told myself "that tree stump wasn't there this morn..." then I got a good look at a nice cinnamon coated bear! As I raised my rifle, I remember my mentor telling me to look for cubs first before shooting. So I hesitated and the bear got a good sniff of me and took off.
I started chasing for the bear but he was gone. Then I saw another bear (pure black) about 150 yards from me on a 60 degree incline. I scanned for about 5 minutes and decided to shoot him. I shot at him 3 times. Standing shot with nothing to stabilize my gun (using my tikka 7mm rem mag) between 2 trees. I thought for sure I hit this bear because he wasn't running even after I shot 3 times! So I went chasing after it. I ditched my back pack and my tikka and grabed my guide gun. Up 200yrds all kinds of side ways thru thick bush to where the bear was standing. No blood anywhere! Walked for another 300 yrds and found its tracks. We were down wind this time and saw him resting in the shade. He was sniffing the air and could not pick us up anymore. He was around 100 yrds when we got close to him. I guess my camo really helped so he couldn't see me. So we shot at him. He was dead before his head hit the ground. It's a decent size bear almost 6' nose to tail. And my hands (I'm a pretty big guy 6' tall 290#) look small compared to its head.
Enough rambling. PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN! Oh and its a region 2 bear!
http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq15/gmachine19/firstbear_zpsf87uxli1.jpg (http://s429.photobucket.com/user/gmachine19/media/firstbear_zpsf87uxli1.jpg.html)