Greenthumbed
10-25-2017, 10:44 PM
I shot my first big game animal today after work. It was a black bear.
My friend had shot a WT doe in the same area the previous weekend and had said he saw several deer there that day and lots of sign all around. I was pretty excited to get in there and see if I could get myself a deer too.
We got to the area and parked the truck and set off up a cut block to the tree line where my friend hike the weekend before. All up the clear cut there was plenty of deer sign. We hit the timber and headed across the top of the block with the intention of glassing for deer from above and across the block. Well we didn't get more than 50 m in the timber before we walked straight into a black bear. It was approximately 20 m away when my partner noticed it first. He quickly let out the word "bear" and I looked up and saw it too. I had the black bear tag. So it was mine for the taking if I wanted.
The bear was facing us and trying to figure out what we were. We had the wind advantage and with poor eyesight the bear was clueless as to what we were. We stood and stared each other down as I was waiting for it to move and show her broadside. After a few minutes of waiting and wondering if I really wanting to take this bear I finally started to talk to it tell it to move. All the while I had my wife's voice in my head telling me she didn't want me to take a bear. After about five minutes I finally said to the bear "move off quick and I won't pull the trigger, but if you turn slow and show me you broadside I'm going take the shot." Well at that moment it turned slowly to the left and I squeezed the trigger. It went down right away and I chambered another round. The bear then got up and started moving again and I let it have another. The bear went down never to move again. Both shots were lung shots but the first was the killer.
Twenty minutes later we had the bear gutted and we're dragging it down the 200m of cutblock to the road. By the time we got to the road the light was almost gone. I waited with the bear as my partner went for the truck. By the time he got back it was fully dark.
We loaded up and headed for my place where we hung and skinned for the next couple of hours.
Tomorrow I'll endeavour to process it further, but as for tonight that was enough excitement.
Im very happy to have had the opportunity to take that bear and provide some good and healthy meat for my family! Here hoping there's more where that came from.
Chad
My friend had shot a WT doe in the same area the previous weekend and had said he saw several deer there that day and lots of sign all around. I was pretty excited to get in there and see if I could get myself a deer too.
We got to the area and parked the truck and set off up a cut block to the tree line where my friend hike the weekend before. All up the clear cut there was plenty of deer sign. We hit the timber and headed across the top of the block with the intention of glassing for deer from above and across the block. Well we didn't get more than 50 m in the timber before we walked straight into a black bear. It was approximately 20 m away when my partner noticed it first. He quickly let out the word "bear" and I looked up and saw it too. I had the black bear tag. So it was mine for the taking if I wanted.
The bear was facing us and trying to figure out what we were. We had the wind advantage and with poor eyesight the bear was clueless as to what we were. We stood and stared each other down as I was waiting for it to move and show her broadside. After a few minutes of waiting and wondering if I really wanting to take this bear I finally started to talk to it tell it to move. All the while I had my wife's voice in my head telling me she didn't want me to take a bear. After about five minutes I finally said to the bear "move off quick and I won't pull the trigger, but if you turn slow and show me you broadside I'm going take the shot." Well at that moment it turned slowly to the left and I squeezed the trigger. It went down right away and I chambered another round. The bear then got up and started moving again and I let it have another. The bear went down never to move again. Both shots were lung shots but the first was the killer.
Twenty minutes later we had the bear gutted and we're dragging it down the 200m of cutblock to the road. By the time we got to the road the light was almost gone. I waited with the bear as my partner went for the truck. By the time he got back it was fully dark.
We loaded up and headed for my place where we hung and skinned for the next couple of hours.
Tomorrow I'll endeavour to process it further, but as for tonight that was enough excitement.
Im very happy to have had the opportunity to take that bear and provide some good and healthy meat for my family! Here hoping there's more where that came from.
Chad