DannyO
05-22-2021, 08:20 PM
Howdy,
If any of you feel like reading a long winded hunting story about how I shot my first bear with some photos attached.
I love reading the hunting stories on this site and especially enjoy the bear hunting talk from the likes of caddisguy, srupp and 45freezer. Thanks for all the tips and motivation to go out and get my first bear.
https://i.postimg.cc/jdgrpX80/FD9456-EF-1328-4-F8-C-BE6-D-902211158-E8-B.jpg (https://postimg.cc/crnjYQyX)
it’s starting to feel like we are entering a bears zone. (I’ve heard guys talk about finding a bears zone before , not really understanding what they meant, both my hunting partner and I agreed this area met that criteria)
As we round a corner..bear sign, bear sign...bear! Well a black lump of fur 10 meters away from us obscured by a bush.. feeding toward us head down. We couldn’t make out much even at that close range. As slowly as I could I chambered a round in the event this was a bear we decided to shoot.. the metallic sound caught the bears attention, it paused, then as fast as it stopped it crashed off into the bush.
That was my first time being that close to a bear and seeing how fast they are first hand.. in hindsight I think I should have backed away and assessed the situation maybe we could have gotten a better look at the bear.
We had hunted this valley for two long days a couple weeks ago and felt we should have seen more sign, more bears (we saw two on our previous trip) this trip was starting off with a bang and it wasn’t even 7.30am)
We continued on this road, slowing moving through the overgrown sections uphill for a couple of hours . Finding less frequent bear sign the higher we went. A little later as the heat picked up we decided to call it for this area and head back to the truck to relocate to another valley. A quick check in on the area we spooked the bear.. wishful thinking.. back to the truck
We relocate to a valley 20km away that we wanted to check out on our previous hunt...enough time to enjoy the AC and cool off a bit.
After some glassing up in a higher cut we make our way down the hill to a road we want to walk.
We come down around the corner and bump a healthy looking chocolate bear off the road, he isn’t spooked like that mornings bear.. he is curious but knows somethings not right and just walks off into the trees. Dammit! All of this road walking has us bumping bears...walk slower? Cover less ground , see less bears? Or walk slower and have a shot at the bears you do come across..
https://i.postimg.cc/MGjxbQmk/0-A24-D038-BA2-C-48-A5-B19-E-64-A8-F7-CC4-E30.jpg (https://postimg.cc/hJgHKhYM)
We find bear sign every few hundred meters as we walk the road up.. looking good so far and what a beautiful valley, roadside waterfalls everywhere! We get to the end of the road which puts us at the very bottom of a large cut block that runs all the way up to the snow line.
We sit on our backpacks and we glass up with the wind in our face. We have a few hours of daylight left. It’s perfect.
I look back on the long windy road we had come up ...bear! Moving at a good pace and making his way up the road in our direct.
OK I’ve been here before, last spring... spotted a bear high up on a logging road , he is moving at a good pace..I’m at the bottom of the logging road and I ask myself.. should I set up the shot and wait for him to come into range or should I keep eyes on the bear and try close the distance? I choose to set up and wait. As I had watched him for 5-10 minutes steady moving down this road towards me. He never came out of the last bend in the road and I regretted my decision greatly
Back to this year, with last springs failings still heavy on my mind and the situations fairly similar, I instantly knew that I’m going to close the distance. Up and hustle down the road.
Picking each rise in the road as a vantage point to glass what’s ahead and where the bear is on the path. We go through this procedure a few times.. hurry down, glass..nothing in sight...move ahead.
By the 3rd or 4th vantage point I’m feeling like we should be here, he should be here. Then just like that there he is..my partner and I are standing in the middle of the road and I see the bushes shake and chocolate fur start to appear on the left hand side 30 yards in front of us. I try to lay prone, it’s too steep, I sit down and gesture to my partner...bear, Get down.
So we are now sitting in the middle of the road, obscured by the 2ft high bushes growing in the middle road.
The Bear stands up and scratches his back on a road side tree as I am finding him in my scope.. I find him just as he returns to all fours and I can clearly see his face in my scope now, 25yards, I lower my crosshair to his chest and squeeze, he looks to tense up then drops right where he stood. Wow.
We give him time ,take some steps back but he isn’t breathing and blood is gushing from his mouth.it’s all over very quickly.
I’m nervous to walk up on him, it’s a very different feeling for me than walking up on my first deer.
When I finally do approach him and run my hand through his coat I’m feeling accomplished, there is no sadness which I’m a little surprised by in hindsight. Feeling relief and justified in all the time I take away from my young family chasing this passion.
What a beautiful coat.. it’ll make a great rug or throw. The meat will mostly be chorizo, pepperoni and smokies. A friend recently gifted me some of these from his last bear and suddenly my wife is a supporter of my bear hunting.
For all of the days I spend out there feeling the frustration of trying to connect the dots of this hunting thing days like this are huge relief and a reminder to keep going. Learn from the mistakes and the non eventful days, it’s all good info, treat it as such. I’m grateful to be able to experience any of it.
https://i.postimg.cc/28zkR3rv/E708956-E-0681-4-AB6-A88-D-F30-DA8-F780-CE.jpg (https://postimg.cc/xq4DLfkT)
https://i.postimg.cc/QdzhTb5k/E1940492-7-F11-4-E66-A13-B-D4-CB56-DBDED2.jpg (https://postimg.cc/75SFvSKf)
https://i.postimg.cc/6pqBqS7p/FF7953-A3-CB5-A-42-B1-BB21-9-CEB151972-C6.jpg (https://postimg.cc/BXrrwmcr)
thanks for reading!
If any of you feel like reading a long winded hunting story about how I shot my first bear with some photos attached.
I love reading the hunting stories on this site and especially enjoy the bear hunting talk from the likes of caddisguy, srupp and 45freezer. Thanks for all the tips and motivation to go out and get my first bear.
https://i.postimg.cc/jdgrpX80/FD9456-EF-1328-4-F8-C-BE6-D-902211158-E8-B.jpg (https://postimg.cc/crnjYQyX)
it’s starting to feel like we are entering a bears zone. (I’ve heard guys talk about finding a bears zone before , not really understanding what they meant, both my hunting partner and I agreed this area met that criteria)
As we round a corner..bear sign, bear sign...bear! Well a black lump of fur 10 meters away from us obscured by a bush.. feeding toward us head down. We couldn’t make out much even at that close range. As slowly as I could I chambered a round in the event this was a bear we decided to shoot.. the metallic sound caught the bears attention, it paused, then as fast as it stopped it crashed off into the bush.
That was my first time being that close to a bear and seeing how fast they are first hand.. in hindsight I think I should have backed away and assessed the situation maybe we could have gotten a better look at the bear.
We had hunted this valley for two long days a couple weeks ago and felt we should have seen more sign, more bears (we saw two on our previous trip) this trip was starting off with a bang and it wasn’t even 7.30am)
We continued on this road, slowing moving through the overgrown sections uphill for a couple of hours . Finding less frequent bear sign the higher we went. A little later as the heat picked up we decided to call it for this area and head back to the truck to relocate to another valley. A quick check in on the area we spooked the bear.. wishful thinking.. back to the truck
We relocate to a valley 20km away that we wanted to check out on our previous hunt...enough time to enjoy the AC and cool off a bit.
After some glassing up in a higher cut we make our way down the hill to a road we want to walk.
We come down around the corner and bump a healthy looking chocolate bear off the road, he isn’t spooked like that mornings bear.. he is curious but knows somethings not right and just walks off into the trees. Dammit! All of this road walking has us bumping bears...walk slower? Cover less ground , see less bears? Or walk slower and have a shot at the bears you do come across..
https://i.postimg.cc/MGjxbQmk/0-A24-D038-BA2-C-48-A5-B19-E-64-A8-F7-CC4-E30.jpg (https://postimg.cc/hJgHKhYM)
We find bear sign every few hundred meters as we walk the road up.. looking good so far and what a beautiful valley, roadside waterfalls everywhere! We get to the end of the road which puts us at the very bottom of a large cut block that runs all the way up to the snow line.
We sit on our backpacks and we glass up with the wind in our face. We have a few hours of daylight left. It’s perfect.
I look back on the long windy road we had come up ...bear! Moving at a good pace and making his way up the road in our direct.
OK I’ve been here before, last spring... spotted a bear high up on a logging road , he is moving at a good pace..I’m at the bottom of the logging road and I ask myself.. should I set up the shot and wait for him to come into range or should I keep eyes on the bear and try close the distance? I choose to set up and wait. As I had watched him for 5-10 minutes steady moving down this road towards me. He never came out of the last bend in the road and I regretted my decision greatly
Back to this year, with last springs failings still heavy on my mind and the situations fairly similar, I instantly knew that I’m going to close the distance. Up and hustle down the road.
Picking each rise in the road as a vantage point to glass what’s ahead and where the bear is on the path. We go through this procedure a few times.. hurry down, glass..nothing in sight...move ahead.
By the 3rd or 4th vantage point I’m feeling like we should be here, he should be here. Then just like that there he is..my partner and I are standing in the middle of the road and I see the bushes shake and chocolate fur start to appear on the left hand side 30 yards in front of us. I try to lay prone, it’s too steep, I sit down and gesture to my partner...bear, Get down.
So we are now sitting in the middle of the road, obscured by the 2ft high bushes growing in the middle road.
The Bear stands up and scratches his back on a road side tree as I am finding him in my scope.. I find him just as he returns to all fours and I can clearly see his face in my scope now, 25yards, I lower my crosshair to his chest and squeeze, he looks to tense up then drops right where he stood. Wow.
We give him time ,take some steps back but he isn’t breathing and blood is gushing from his mouth.it’s all over very quickly.
I’m nervous to walk up on him, it’s a very different feeling for me than walking up on my first deer.
When I finally do approach him and run my hand through his coat I’m feeling accomplished, there is no sadness which I’m a little surprised by in hindsight. Feeling relief and justified in all the time I take away from my young family chasing this passion.
What a beautiful coat.. it’ll make a great rug or throw. The meat will mostly be chorizo, pepperoni and smokies. A friend recently gifted me some of these from his last bear and suddenly my wife is a supporter of my bear hunting.
For all of the days I spend out there feeling the frustration of trying to connect the dots of this hunting thing days like this are huge relief and a reminder to keep going. Learn from the mistakes and the non eventful days, it’s all good info, treat it as such. I’m grateful to be able to experience any of it.
https://i.postimg.cc/28zkR3rv/E708956-E-0681-4-AB6-A88-D-F30-DA8-F780-CE.jpg (https://postimg.cc/xq4DLfkT)
https://i.postimg.cc/QdzhTb5k/E1940492-7-F11-4-E66-A13-B-D4-CB56-DBDED2.jpg (https://postimg.cc/75SFvSKf)
https://i.postimg.cc/6pqBqS7p/FF7953-A3-CB5-A-42-B1-BB21-9-CEB151972-C6.jpg (https://postimg.cc/BXrrwmcr)
thanks for reading!