medic11
05-31-2016, 10:26 AM
I've been on this site since 2012, however, I mostly just read and learn. I've made 3 posts, this will be my 4th. I'll probably take some bashing on this post, but I understand. I have been hunting on and off since I was a teenager. Only in the last 10 years have I really taken this up and pursued it hard. My kids and I have been successful every year, and we love doing it. I have never really hunted bear, by choice. i don't really eat it, but this year I decided that I would start hunting bear. This website helped with that decision. I did my homework and felt prepared enough to do it. I was going to be a part of the bear hunting community and do my part for conservation.
On Sunday I decided to head out on an evening bear hunt. My best friend wanted to come along so I picked him up and we headed out around 1800hrs. We drove around, walked into a few cut blocks. We saw some bear scat on the road that was probably a day old. Came across an old decommissioned road that had deadfalls across it and was over grown. Since we had been in the truck for quite awhile, decided to head out for a walk. It was around 2030 hrs. As we walked down this road we marvelled at how much moose poop was on it. You couldn't go 10 steps without coming across it. Lots of green leafy trees for the moose to eat. Road was encroached with these trees and made for not very good view lines off the road, yet we continued to walk down it. All of a sudden, we could hear audible cracks of branches coming from up above us in the pines. No way of telling what it was, but we assumed it was a moose. We froze on the road and waited. The cracking stopped and a few minutes later a big cinnamon bear popped out on the road ahead of us at about 70 yards. It was lumbering away from us and the wind was in our face. What luck! I was carrying my Sako 375 H&H with a leupold 3.5-10. I raised the gun and had a look. I only had his back and head, as we were slightly elevated from him. Three times I had this view, but decided not to take the shot, even though, I was sure I could spine him, it still didn't FEEL right. We followed him down the road, losing sight of him a couple of times. It was exhilarating to be following this big bear down the road and he had no idea we were there. We lost sight of him after rounding a corner to a straight stretch. After a few moments, he popped out left to right, slightly quartered away. I raised the gun again, decided i didn't like the standing shot, so I kneeled. Didn't feel good there, so I saw a small 8 inch log to my right jutting up a few feet off the ground. I slowly moved towards it, all the while keeping an eye on the feeding bear. The shot had to be done asap, that there were trees that had overgrown the road he was stopped at and there was no way we could get through there without him hearing us. I was just over a hundred yards away. Two feet away from the log, I stepped on an unseen branch. CRACK! The bears head shot up and he moved to full side profile. I took two steps to log, put the rifle down on it, and pulled his profile into the scope. He started to move left to right, and I squeezed what I had as a center body shot. BOOM! Rifle cracked, shoulder shot back, saw bear spin towards back. Then it took off, to the right. It's 2050 hours. Knowing that we only had 20 or minutes of light left, we made our way down there after only 5 minutes of waiting. It was not a good situation to be in, as light had faded and we were in the shade of the mountain. Dense brush surrounded both sides of the road and there was no dead bear right on the road. No obvious blood. It was tense! I was the only one with a rifle and we know knew there was a wounded bear around. After a few minutes, we decided to back out as light was fading and this was not going to be a good situation. That was the longest 20 minutes of my life walking back to the truck, replaying everything in my head over and over and over again. My friends parents lived on 20 mins away, so we stayed there that night. We wanted to be back up there at the crack of dawn. His parents are avid hunters so they understood and were ready to come back up in the morning with us. I also called my brother in law, who is a guide, and has hounds. He agreed to come up there in the morning as well!
A very sleepless night came. I was pretty much up until 330, going over things in my head again and again. I was sick to my stomach about having possibly wounding an animal and having it suffer. I dozed off and woke up at 430. Up we got and after coffee, headed up to the road. Brother in law was on his way with the dogs, and I was hell bent on finding this bear. We got to the spot and began to search. Found some blood on area of impact and a hole through the bush where he went. Down we went! Drops of blood were evident over some logs and on leaves. Not a lot though, just enough to let us track. This worried me even more now. 80 yards or so down the bank, over deadfalls and under them, I found what appeared to be a chunk of bone. I was happy for a minute, thinking it may be a piece of rib bone. Maybe the bear was close by, as the blood we had been following was also bright red, meaning arterial, possible lung. Another 80 or so yards down, found another chunk of bone. This small piece didn't look like rib though, it looked like leg. I wanted to throw up! We kept going down. After going down about 600 yards, we decided to pull up and go back to the road and wait for the dogs, in case we were either pushing the bear, or in case in was lying down in wait. Got back to the road, and waited a VERY LONG hour for the dogs. When they got there, they got right on the blood trail and down they went. We watched them on the GPS as they went down, down , down, then started veering left, parallel to the road we were on. After they got 1.5 kms away from us, we started walking the road above them. I was getting sicker in my stomach. This just didn't feel right. Now they were making their way up and eventually crossed the road 1km ahead of us. The dogs were now above us. Something was wrong. Did they loose the scent? Were they on a cougar instead of a bear? WTF?????? Felt like peuking there and then!
Brother in law eventually had to break away from us and go find his dogs as they were 2 miles away now.
My friend and I headed back the scene and made out way down again. We went deep into the bush, following drops of blood. Sometimes we would stop and we'd have to do a grid search to locate them again.The bush was thick, the mosquitos were thick and the adrenaline was high. Too many places for a wounded bear to hide. 1.2 kms down, I followed four drops of blood on a log. 3 feet away, two drops on a log. A food past that, some drops on a few leaves and some on some pine needles. Then NOTHING! 1.5 hours of searching around the area yielded not a drop. Started looking in the trees. WTF? We looked and looked and looked. Nothing! What have I done? F###!!!!!!! It's now going on the 1400 hrs and we are exhausted!
The decision is made to stop the search. I am emotionally, mentally and physically drained. A zombie for the rest of the day, I contemplate giving up this sport I was desperately love. I'm feeling like a bag of shit for rushing a shot and wounding an animal. I pride myself on being smart and ethical about shot selection. I failed at this! I've never wounded an animal before. I've always finished the job. Last year a guy I never met before, wounded a deer with a bow, and I tracked that deer for six hours before catching up with it and finishing the job. I don't believe in leaving an animal wounded. This is what is eating away at me.
I know other people have done this before. Did I do enough? Should I head back up again this afternoon? Pack it in? I'd love some advice and would like to hear other stories like this.
Writing this has helped a bit. However, I know I'm going to take some negative comments. I'm prepared and willing to take the heat.
On Sunday I decided to head out on an evening bear hunt. My best friend wanted to come along so I picked him up and we headed out around 1800hrs. We drove around, walked into a few cut blocks. We saw some bear scat on the road that was probably a day old. Came across an old decommissioned road that had deadfalls across it and was over grown. Since we had been in the truck for quite awhile, decided to head out for a walk. It was around 2030 hrs. As we walked down this road we marvelled at how much moose poop was on it. You couldn't go 10 steps without coming across it. Lots of green leafy trees for the moose to eat. Road was encroached with these trees and made for not very good view lines off the road, yet we continued to walk down it. All of a sudden, we could hear audible cracks of branches coming from up above us in the pines. No way of telling what it was, but we assumed it was a moose. We froze on the road and waited. The cracking stopped and a few minutes later a big cinnamon bear popped out on the road ahead of us at about 70 yards. It was lumbering away from us and the wind was in our face. What luck! I was carrying my Sako 375 H&H with a leupold 3.5-10. I raised the gun and had a look. I only had his back and head, as we were slightly elevated from him. Three times I had this view, but decided not to take the shot, even though, I was sure I could spine him, it still didn't FEEL right. We followed him down the road, losing sight of him a couple of times. It was exhilarating to be following this big bear down the road and he had no idea we were there. We lost sight of him after rounding a corner to a straight stretch. After a few moments, he popped out left to right, slightly quartered away. I raised the gun again, decided i didn't like the standing shot, so I kneeled. Didn't feel good there, so I saw a small 8 inch log to my right jutting up a few feet off the ground. I slowly moved towards it, all the while keeping an eye on the feeding bear. The shot had to be done asap, that there were trees that had overgrown the road he was stopped at and there was no way we could get through there without him hearing us. I was just over a hundred yards away. Two feet away from the log, I stepped on an unseen branch. CRACK! The bears head shot up and he moved to full side profile. I took two steps to log, put the rifle down on it, and pulled his profile into the scope. He started to move left to right, and I squeezed what I had as a center body shot. BOOM! Rifle cracked, shoulder shot back, saw bear spin towards back. Then it took off, to the right. It's 2050 hours. Knowing that we only had 20 or minutes of light left, we made our way down there after only 5 minutes of waiting. It was not a good situation to be in, as light had faded and we were in the shade of the mountain. Dense brush surrounded both sides of the road and there was no dead bear right on the road. No obvious blood. It was tense! I was the only one with a rifle and we know knew there was a wounded bear around. After a few minutes, we decided to back out as light was fading and this was not going to be a good situation. That was the longest 20 minutes of my life walking back to the truck, replaying everything in my head over and over and over again. My friends parents lived on 20 mins away, so we stayed there that night. We wanted to be back up there at the crack of dawn. His parents are avid hunters so they understood and were ready to come back up in the morning with us. I also called my brother in law, who is a guide, and has hounds. He agreed to come up there in the morning as well!
A very sleepless night came. I was pretty much up until 330, going over things in my head again and again. I was sick to my stomach about having possibly wounding an animal and having it suffer. I dozed off and woke up at 430. Up we got and after coffee, headed up to the road. Brother in law was on his way with the dogs, and I was hell bent on finding this bear. We got to the spot and began to search. Found some blood on area of impact and a hole through the bush where he went. Down we went! Drops of blood were evident over some logs and on leaves. Not a lot though, just enough to let us track. This worried me even more now. 80 yards or so down the bank, over deadfalls and under them, I found what appeared to be a chunk of bone. I was happy for a minute, thinking it may be a piece of rib bone. Maybe the bear was close by, as the blood we had been following was also bright red, meaning arterial, possible lung. Another 80 or so yards down, found another chunk of bone. This small piece didn't look like rib though, it looked like leg. I wanted to throw up! We kept going down. After going down about 600 yards, we decided to pull up and go back to the road and wait for the dogs, in case we were either pushing the bear, or in case in was lying down in wait. Got back to the road, and waited a VERY LONG hour for the dogs. When they got there, they got right on the blood trail and down they went. We watched them on the GPS as they went down, down , down, then started veering left, parallel to the road we were on. After they got 1.5 kms away from us, we started walking the road above them. I was getting sicker in my stomach. This just didn't feel right. Now they were making their way up and eventually crossed the road 1km ahead of us. The dogs were now above us. Something was wrong. Did they loose the scent? Were they on a cougar instead of a bear? WTF?????? Felt like peuking there and then!
Brother in law eventually had to break away from us and go find his dogs as they were 2 miles away now.
My friend and I headed back the scene and made out way down again. We went deep into the bush, following drops of blood. Sometimes we would stop and we'd have to do a grid search to locate them again.The bush was thick, the mosquitos were thick and the adrenaline was high. Too many places for a wounded bear to hide. 1.2 kms down, I followed four drops of blood on a log. 3 feet away, two drops on a log. A food past that, some drops on a few leaves and some on some pine needles. Then NOTHING! 1.5 hours of searching around the area yielded not a drop. Started looking in the trees. WTF? We looked and looked and looked. Nothing! What have I done? F###!!!!!!! It's now going on the 1400 hrs and we are exhausted!
The decision is made to stop the search. I am emotionally, mentally and physically drained. A zombie for the rest of the day, I contemplate giving up this sport I was desperately love. I'm feeling like a bag of shit for rushing a shot and wounding an animal. I pride myself on being smart and ethical about shot selection. I failed at this! I've never wounded an animal before. I've always finished the job. Last year a guy I never met before, wounded a deer with a bow, and I tracked that deer for six hours before catching up with it and finishing the job. I don't believe in leaving an animal wounded. This is what is eating away at me.
I know other people have done this before. Did I do enough? Should I head back up again this afternoon? Pack it in? I'd love some advice and would like to hear other stories like this.
Writing this has helped a bit. However, I know I'm going to take some negative comments. I'm prepared and willing to take the heat.