Mike0834
05-16-2016, 10:25 AM
And congrats to the successful newbie hunters!
Two things off the bat, I hesitated starting another unsuccessful bear hunt post but then thought why not, I'll share my weekend experience. The other, I hope I don't come off as woe is me, I can't believe my first few hunting attempts I came up skunked. I'm learning as I go and as such I am going to have to be damn lucky to fill my tag this time. But man, hunting is tough!
So Friday, the family and I pack up after work to head up to my wife's parents place in Sunshine Valley. We stop just past hope to sight in my new 30-06 rifle that I bought a few weeks back at the Cloverdale gun show, an old Tikka M65. I was shopping around for a scope and settled on a Leupold VX2. It was just delivered last week so I hadn't had the opportunity to test out the new rifle yet.
sighting in did not go well on Friday. I borrowed a laser bore sighter from a friend but had a ridiculous amount of trouble seeing it in the setting sun. We were all getting eaten alive by mosquitos and not at all having a good time so we gave up a little early.
Saturday the in-laws offered to watch my 3 year old son so the wife and I took off for boston bar. We stopped in hope to pick up some cheaper ammo then headed down hwy 1. Up east anderson we went and intended to stop at the first dead end we came across to do some more practice shooting. The first route we took brought us up through some transmission lines and no dead ends. Somehow we ended up on a private road and back at boston bar a little east of where we started. We came across maybe 3 piles of scat along the way and if I wasn't so intent on sighting in the rifle we might have stopped to have a better look. Anyways back to east anderson and this time we hit a dead end right away. Set up the targets and 60 rounds and $100 later I'm completely confident and hitting 1" moa at 100 yards. We spend some more time driving around seeing basically nothing. Run in to another hunter looking down on transmission lines and talk with him for a bit. He says he's been hunting this area for 40 years but not seeing any game at all today, too hot! We wish each other luck and we're off again. I go to one offshoot that I scouted out a few weeks back that looked like it might be a great spot once it greened up a bit. No sign. So we decide to give up and head back. Admittedly we didn't spend a ton of time in boston bar, especially for how big that area is but we had to go and relieve the in laws from babysitting duties.
Saturday evening we head up the sumallo river FSR in sunshine valley. Some very old scat relatively low but that's all we could see.
Sunday morning I head out myself bright and early for Sowakwa FSR. I get to the road for about 5:45 and head up. Within a few KM I see some crap and get excited. Within about 100 yards there's an old overgrown road. At this point I'm excited to get out of the truck and walk so up the road I go. It was a nice little walk though the trees but after going up for 40 mins and all it is is thick overgrowth with no end in sight I turn around. Back to the truck and up the road for a few more k. Find a real nice clearing thats relatively flat and huge. Start walking, hugging the treeline. I bumped some mule deer so that made the walk worth it. As I circled back to the truck I found a huge pile of crap that looked relatively fresh to me. That made me think the area was worth another walk, so headed another way, bumped in to another deer but that was it. Back to the truck to try a new area. The rest of the day went pretty much the same way, drive a bit, walk a bit.... no success.
At about 1:00 I gave up for the day and headed back to pack up the family. We stopped off at the Hemlock area to do some more poking around, got there at about 5:30. Drove around on the Morris Valley/Chehalis roads but saw nothing.
Although I didn't come home with a bear in the coolers as I was hoping it was still a fun, somewhat successful weekend. Successful in that I am shooting good with the new rifle and learned some things about watching for sign. I'll be back out there next weekend working hard again.
I'm wondering though, whether I should head to Little Fort area. There's been a few posts recently about guys seeing lots of bears north of Kamloops. I had my mapbooks out last night scoping out those fsr's. I'll keep Drillbit's advice in my mind as I study them, looking for de-active roads that dead end at creeks.
Two things off the bat, I hesitated starting another unsuccessful bear hunt post but then thought why not, I'll share my weekend experience. The other, I hope I don't come off as woe is me, I can't believe my first few hunting attempts I came up skunked. I'm learning as I go and as such I am going to have to be damn lucky to fill my tag this time. But man, hunting is tough!
So Friday, the family and I pack up after work to head up to my wife's parents place in Sunshine Valley. We stop just past hope to sight in my new 30-06 rifle that I bought a few weeks back at the Cloverdale gun show, an old Tikka M65. I was shopping around for a scope and settled on a Leupold VX2. It was just delivered last week so I hadn't had the opportunity to test out the new rifle yet.
sighting in did not go well on Friday. I borrowed a laser bore sighter from a friend but had a ridiculous amount of trouble seeing it in the setting sun. We were all getting eaten alive by mosquitos and not at all having a good time so we gave up a little early.
Saturday the in-laws offered to watch my 3 year old son so the wife and I took off for boston bar. We stopped in hope to pick up some cheaper ammo then headed down hwy 1. Up east anderson we went and intended to stop at the first dead end we came across to do some more practice shooting. The first route we took brought us up through some transmission lines and no dead ends. Somehow we ended up on a private road and back at boston bar a little east of where we started. We came across maybe 3 piles of scat along the way and if I wasn't so intent on sighting in the rifle we might have stopped to have a better look. Anyways back to east anderson and this time we hit a dead end right away. Set up the targets and 60 rounds and $100 later I'm completely confident and hitting 1" moa at 100 yards. We spend some more time driving around seeing basically nothing. Run in to another hunter looking down on transmission lines and talk with him for a bit. He says he's been hunting this area for 40 years but not seeing any game at all today, too hot! We wish each other luck and we're off again. I go to one offshoot that I scouted out a few weeks back that looked like it might be a great spot once it greened up a bit. No sign. So we decide to give up and head back. Admittedly we didn't spend a ton of time in boston bar, especially for how big that area is but we had to go and relieve the in laws from babysitting duties.
Saturday evening we head up the sumallo river FSR in sunshine valley. Some very old scat relatively low but that's all we could see.
Sunday morning I head out myself bright and early for Sowakwa FSR. I get to the road for about 5:45 and head up. Within a few KM I see some crap and get excited. Within about 100 yards there's an old overgrown road. At this point I'm excited to get out of the truck and walk so up the road I go. It was a nice little walk though the trees but after going up for 40 mins and all it is is thick overgrowth with no end in sight I turn around. Back to the truck and up the road for a few more k. Find a real nice clearing thats relatively flat and huge. Start walking, hugging the treeline. I bumped some mule deer so that made the walk worth it. As I circled back to the truck I found a huge pile of crap that looked relatively fresh to me. That made me think the area was worth another walk, so headed another way, bumped in to another deer but that was it. Back to the truck to try a new area. The rest of the day went pretty much the same way, drive a bit, walk a bit.... no success.
At about 1:00 I gave up for the day and headed back to pack up the family. We stopped off at the Hemlock area to do some more poking around, got there at about 5:30. Drove around on the Morris Valley/Chehalis roads but saw nothing.
Although I didn't come home with a bear in the coolers as I was hoping it was still a fun, somewhat successful weekend. Successful in that I am shooting good with the new rifle and learned some things about watching for sign. I'll be back out there next weekend working hard again.
I'm wondering though, whether I should head to Little Fort area. There's been a few posts recently about guys seeing lots of bears north of Kamloops. I had my mapbooks out last night scoping out those fsr's. I'll keep Drillbit's advice in my mind as I study them, looking for de-active roads that dead end at creeks.