andrew5
10-29-2019, 02:00 PM
I went looking for antlers and all I spotted were teeth and claws...
had a moose LEH draw for 7-12 this year and had high hopes. I was there from Sept 28 - Oct 6th. Prime time by most accounts. I had a great time. Felt like i did everything right, and had tons of fresh sign, paired with a beauty bull on trail cam, but didn't see a single moose or deer during shooting light the entire week.
I did come away with some pretty interesting predator encounters though.
Day one, we are set up on the edge of a lake with a marsh and alders. we see tons of fresh tracks, scrapes and droppings, and our hopes are high. after our morning sit, we decide to walk the perimeter of the moose habitat to confirm more sign. sure enough, this place was thick with sign. we turn to go back out to our ground blind, and i see what looks like a doe standing broad side, about twenty yards away from where our blind is. we had heard a stick break about 30 minutes earlier, which we thought was something coming in to our cow calls. i pull out the binos to see if this deer has antlers.
Wooow. Turns out it is a massive cougar, just standing on the edge of the lake, enjoying the warmth of the sun. we ranged him to 200 yards from where we stood. we had the wind, so we walked closer. got to 150 yards. The cat had no idea we were there, and he was huge. he sat down and started cleaning himself, again less than 20 yards from where our stools were. amazing.
fast forward to day three, and we set up on a ridge overlooking a valley that slopes gently downwards. there is a little ridge about 70 yards away, and them more valley. I try throwing a few cow calls out and only a few minutes later, a big, gorgeous white wolf pops over the ridge. he is weary, and starts to move away, popping in and out of cover to check on us as he heads up and over a ridge about 225 yards away.
The trip is still without ungulates, but not without excitement. Then comes day 5...
we do our morning sit in our honey hole, and decide to head back to camp mid day to clean up after 5 hard days of hunting. we stop off at the ridge where we had called in the wolf the day before, just for a quick peak. this place had moose travel sign, and there was a gut pile quite close from 5 days earlier, so we thought, what the hell, why not throw a few calls out.
I set up on the ridge, my partner heads across the road to pop up on the ridge behind me and glass. he has the bear spray, as we are both novices and were hunting together up until this point. this was the first time we had really split up, and we were still only 50 yards and within eyesight of each other. we are facing opposite directions to glass as much area as possible. I am better at calling, so after a few calls down my valley, i turn around to throw one in his direction too. after i finish the cow call, i slowly start glassing back around, from left to right, scanning the tree lines slowly.
all of the sudden, out of the corner of my right eye, I see a massive bear in absolute full charge down that ridge, only 70 yards away. I will never forget the sight of the hair on that huge frame shaking and reflecting the sunlight as she ran. just a massive animal that moved so fast, and with clear intent. Everything from here on out was pure instinct and adrenaline. I am low on hunting experience but very high on time in bear country and bear knowledge, so a very primal "hey bear" which was more of a "do or die" scream came out without even thinking.
from a full sprint doing downhill, 70 yards away (ranged afterwards), the bear put on the brakes and then stood up on its hind quarters. at this point I am shitting my pants, because at the bottom of this ridge, right in front of her, is a patch of 8 foot alders, all the way up to about 7 yards in front of me. if she goes in there, i won't see her until she pops out right on top of me. Thank god the bear turns and slowly walks up and away along the ridge line. I yell to my partner, who i can see up behind me. "BEAR"... with one in the chamber, I follow the bear with the scope for a minute until I am sure the episode is over.
It's been a while since I have felt an adrenaline dump like that.
Some key takeaways:
from now on, if i step out of the truck, even if its for a quick glass only 30 yards away, the bear spray is on me no matter what.
there was almost no chance of me getting a clean shot at that bear, let along killing it. if my life was on the line, I would personally go with spray, as i know i will connect with it, and I would rather have a sprayed bear mauling me than one that i non lethally shot. studies back this up that maulings are less severe with bear spray as well. Check out the now famous Todd Orr bear double grizzly attack for more on this.
This was not a bluff charge, and it was not s surprised bear. This was predatory. The bear did not have our scent, as we were calling straight upwind. It heard what it though was a cow moose, and was running at top speed, low to the ground with clear intent. I believe i am very lucky that the bear was willing and able to switch off the predator mode in such a short time. from what i understand, when a bear commits to predator mode, it is usually 100% committed. I figure she was about 3-4 seconds away from me, given her speed.
I believe this was a mature sow, as it had a slightly longer snout, and a huge ass. likely looking for a big protein hit ahead of hibernation and birth to new cubs in the den. I didn't see any cubs.
Luck was the most important factor.... I was glassing with my naked eye. If my eyes were in the binos, i wouldn't have picked her up in my peripheral, and I likely could have been mauled. Had I turned around a single second slower, i wouldn't have seen her, and she would have been into the alders and i wouldn't have seen her until 7 yards.
I was very lucky. I learned the different precautions needed when hunting in bear country, compared to simply hiking or camping in bear country.
Hopefully next time, i see more antlers than claws.
had a moose LEH draw for 7-12 this year and had high hopes. I was there from Sept 28 - Oct 6th. Prime time by most accounts. I had a great time. Felt like i did everything right, and had tons of fresh sign, paired with a beauty bull on trail cam, but didn't see a single moose or deer during shooting light the entire week.
I did come away with some pretty interesting predator encounters though.
Day one, we are set up on the edge of a lake with a marsh and alders. we see tons of fresh tracks, scrapes and droppings, and our hopes are high. after our morning sit, we decide to walk the perimeter of the moose habitat to confirm more sign. sure enough, this place was thick with sign. we turn to go back out to our ground blind, and i see what looks like a doe standing broad side, about twenty yards away from where our blind is. we had heard a stick break about 30 minutes earlier, which we thought was something coming in to our cow calls. i pull out the binos to see if this deer has antlers.
Wooow. Turns out it is a massive cougar, just standing on the edge of the lake, enjoying the warmth of the sun. we ranged him to 200 yards from where we stood. we had the wind, so we walked closer. got to 150 yards. The cat had no idea we were there, and he was huge. he sat down and started cleaning himself, again less than 20 yards from where our stools were. amazing.
fast forward to day three, and we set up on a ridge overlooking a valley that slopes gently downwards. there is a little ridge about 70 yards away, and them more valley. I try throwing a few cow calls out and only a few minutes later, a big, gorgeous white wolf pops over the ridge. he is weary, and starts to move away, popping in and out of cover to check on us as he heads up and over a ridge about 225 yards away.
The trip is still without ungulates, but not without excitement. Then comes day 5...
we do our morning sit in our honey hole, and decide to head back to camp mid day to clean up after 5 hard days of hunting. we stop off at the ridge where we had called in the wolf the day before, just for a quick peak. this place had moose travel sign, and there was a gut pile quite close from 5 days earlier, so we thought, what the hell, why not throw a few calls out.
I set up on the ridge, my partner heads across the road to pop up on the ridge behind me and glass. he has the bear spray, as we are both novices and were hunting together up until this point. this was the first time we had really split up, and we were still only 50 yards and within eyesight of each other. we are facing opposite directions to glass as much area as possible. I am better at calling, so after a few calls down my valley, i turn around to throw one in his direction too. after i finish the cow call, i slowly start glassing back around, from left to right, scanning the tree lines slowly.
all of the sudden, out of the corner of my right eye, I see a massive bear in absolute full charge down that ridge, only 70 yards away. I will never forget the sight of the hair on that huge frame shaking and reflecting the sunlight as she ran. just a massive animal that moved so fast, and with clear intent. Everything from here on out was pure instinct and adrenaline. I am low on hunting experience but very high on time in bear country and bear knowledge, so a very primal "hey bear" which was more of a "do or die" scream came out without even thinking.
from a full sprint doing downhill, 70 yards away (ranged afterwards), the bear put on the brakes and then stood up on its hind quarters. at this point I am shitting my pants, because at the bottom of this ridge, right in front of her, is a patch of 8 foot alders, all the way up to about 7 yards in front of me. if she goes in there, i won't see her until she pops out right on top of me. Thank god the bear turns and slowly walks up and away along the ridge line. I yell to my partner, who i can see up behind me. "BEAR"... with one in the chamber, I follow the bear with the scope for a minute until I am sure the episode is over.
It's been a while since I have felt an adrenaline dump like that.
Some key takeaways:
from now on, if i step out of the truck, even if its for a quick glass only 30 yards away, the bear spray is on me no matter what.
there was almost no chance of me getting a clean shot at that bear, let along killing it. if my life was on the line, I would personally go with spray, as i know i will connect with it, and I would rather have a sprayed bear mauling me than one that i non lethally shot. studies back this up that maulings are less severe with bear spray as well. Check out the now famous Todd Orr bear double grizzly attack for more on this.
This was not a bluff charge, and it was not s surprised bear. This was predatory. The bear did not have our scent, as we were calling straight upwind. It heard what it though was a cow moose, and was running at top speed, low to the ground with clear intent. I believe i am very lucky that the bear was willing and able to switch off the predator mode in such a short time. from what i understand, when a bear commits to predator mode, it is usually 100% committed. I figure she was about 3-4 seconds away from me, given her speed.
I believe this was a mature sow, as it had a slightly longer snout, and a huge ass. likely looking for a big protein hit ahead of hibernation and birth to new cubs in the den. I didn't see any cubs.
Luck was the most important factor.... I was glassing with my naked eye. If my eyes were in the binos, i wouldn't have picked her up in my peripheral, and I likely could have been mauled. Had I turned around a single second slower, i wouldn't have seen her, and she would have been into the alders and i wouldn't have seen her until 7 yards.
I was very lucky. I learned the different precautions needed when hunting in bear country, compared to simply hiking or camping in bear country.
Hopefully next time, i see more antlers than claws.