DannyO
07-01-2022, 01:28 PM
I managed to shoot my second ever bear this spring and want to continue sharing my hunting successes and my learning experiences here as I’ve learned so much from various members and their posts.
I’m sure like many, my hunting areas were greatly effected by the November rains so I found myself checking out new areas this spring. I had visited this area a couple of times before this particular hunt and seen some sign and saw some distance bears that were untouchable.
This hunt I had a set plan, which was to walk the road with the wind in my favour until the thermals shifted then spin around and repeat on the way back to the truck.
I started my walk in the afternoon with the dog by my side and the wind in my face. Not five minutes into my walk I hear a crash and see a black bear running uphill, it stops to look back at use. Looks small, and it’s only been five minutes! We’ll keep going. As that bear runs up hill and out of sight I turn my attention to the road ahead and just as I do that a cinnamon bear steps out at 30 yards. I freeze , tell the dog to stop quietly, put the binos up and I guess I didn’t tell the dog loud enough because the only thing I see through the binos is the bear raise his head and look in my direction and my dog running directly at him.
A bit of shouting and the thought of chambering a round to bring the dog out of her stupidity was enough for her to turn and come back. Bad dog!! Never has she bolted after an animal before. She is normally glued to my heel while hunting, this is out of character and a pain in the ass!
We walk up to where she ran the bear into the trees and the bear is uphill laying down watching us. We watched him.. but he moved away as I struggled with the decision to shoot or not. I instantly regretted not pulling the trigger because I’m there to put meat in the freezer and I’m very short on hunting time this season.
We walk a few more km and come across what I’ve had Caddis describe to me in the past but I’ve never truly found until now, a grassy patch absolutely hammered by bears. It Looked like a strimmer had beat me there and there was bear scat everywhere.. 20 plus piles in a 20 yard area. I’ll have to check back in here later this evening.
On I go and 100 yards down the road and another grassy patch in the same condition, hammered and covered in fresh scat. Ok I know where I’ll be for those golden hours.
I continue for a few more kilometres, lots of bear prints in the mud, some scat. It’s around 5.30pm when the wind shifts I start to head for the grassy patches again. I move slowly toward them when I get close , putting the binos up to scan after each forward movement. Nothing at the first patch.. creeping up to the second patch scanning through the binos and the back of a black bear feeding starts to come into view. I warn the dog and start to move in. I creep into to 17 yards and sit watch him, he isn’t nervous…he is in bulking mode.
Watching and watching..trying to judge him.. he doesn’t look small. But he doesn’t look big. I try to go through my checklist.. small ears? No..
Stove pipe like legs? Maybe
less daylight under the belly? Hard to say
Does he have a waddle when he walks? A little.
I get frustrated with myself because I’m realizing although I love hunting and especially hunting bears, I’m still a new hunter and I don’t have this dialled in. I couldn’t tell if this bear was a small or a decent bear.
So I decide to back out and check the other grassy patch. No bear there so i go back to viewing the black bear, very shortly after I get back to my seat watching blackie I see the cinnamon bear walking up the road toward me. I know it’s the same bear I saw earlier because of the rubbing on his face.
I lay the backpack out on the road and I lay down to watch him feed toward me.. I’m going to shoot this bear! I told myself after he ran off earlier in the afternoon that I was there to put meat in my freezer and he wouldn’t walk away again.
He is dipping in and out of view as he feeds toward me, he enters the same grassy patch blackie is in and he is at 60 yards. I wait for a broadside shot and pull the trigger. Bang! The dog jumps, the bear bounds for the tree line. Just as quick as he runs up hill and out of sight he tumbles back down the hill.
Brilliant! My second bear down in my third spring season and what an exciting day!
I walked up to him all piled up and I was a bit shocked at how small he looked.
I wrongly judged the size of this bear by a mile and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed or annoyed with myself in the moment, but that feeling didn’t last very long.
I had my first bear made entirely into pepperoni, sausages, salami. This bear I planned to have a batch of pepperoni made and the rest processed into ground and stewing meat.
We have been eating the meat for the last month and it is amazing. The family’s favourite game meat so far!
https://i.postimg.cc/BbjX8rvH/36-CB472-A-9-AA3-4-AC5-8-B1-E-FEEE08-EA83-E9.jpg (https://postimg.cc/1VZ92Yw3)
I’m sure like many, my hunting areas were greatly effected by the November rains so I found myself checking out new areas this spring. I had visited this area a couple of times before this particular hunt and seen some sign and saw some distance bears that were untouchable.
This hunt I had a set plan, which was to walk the road with the wind in my favour until the thermals shifted then spin around and repeat on the way back to the truck.
I started my walk in the afternoon with the dog by my side and the wind in my face. Not five minutes into my walk I hear a crash and see a black bear running uphill, it stops to look back at use. Looks small, and it’s only been five minutes! We’ll keep going. As that bear runs up hill and out of sight I turn my attention to the road ahead and just as I do that a cinnamon bear steps out at 30 yards. I freeze , tell the dog to stop quietly, put the binos up and I guess I didn’t tell the dog loud enough because the only thing I see through the binos is the bear raise his head and look in my direction and my dog running directly at him.
A bit of shouting and the thought of chambering a round to bring the dog out of her stupidity was enough for her to turn and come back. Bad dog!! Never has she bolted after an animal before. She is normally glued to my heel while hunting, this is out of character and a pain in the ass!
We walk up to where she ran the bear into the trees and the bear is uphill laying down watching us. We watched him.. but he moved away as I struggled with the decision to shoot or not. I instantly regretted not pulling the trigger because I’m there to put meat in the freezer and I’m very short on hunting time this season.
We walk a few more km and come across what I’ve had Caddis describe to me in the past but I’ve never truly found until now, a grassy patch absolutely hammered by bears. It Looked like a strimmer had beat me there and there was bear scat everywhere.. 20 plus piles in a 20 yard area. I’ll have to check back in here later this evening.
On I go and 100 yards down the road and another grassy patch in the same condition, hammered and covered in fresh scat. Ok I know where I’ll be for those golden hours.
I continue for a few more kilometres, lots of bear prints in the mud, some scat. It’s around 5.30pm when the wind shifts I start to head for the grassy patches again. I move slowly toward them when I get close , putting the binos up to scan after each forward movement. Nothing at the first patch.. creeping up to the second patch scanning through the binos and the back of a black bear feeding starts to come into view. I warn the dog and start to move in. I creep into to 17 yards and sit watch him, he isn’t nervous…he is in bulking mode.
Watching and watching..trying to judge him.. he doesn’t look small. But he doesn’t look big. I try to go through my checklist.. small ears? No..
Stove pipe like legs? Maybe
less daylight under the belly? Hard to say
Does he have a waddle when he walks? A little.
I get frustrated with myself because I’m realizing although I love hunting and especially hunting bears, I’m still a new hunter and I don’t have this dialled in. I couldn’t tell if this bear was a small or a decent bear.
So I decide to back out and check the other grassy patch. No bear there so i go back to viewing the black bear, very shortly after I get back to my seat watching blackie I see the cinnamon bear walking up the road toward me. I know it’s the same bear I saw earlier because of the rubbing on his face.
I lay the backpack out on the road and I lay down to watch him feed toward me.. I’m going to shoot this bear! I told myself after he ran off earlier in the afternoon that I was there to put meat in my freezer and he wouldn’t walk away again.
He is dipping in and out of view as he feeds toward me, he enters the same grassy patch blackie is in and he is at 60 yards. I wait for a broadside shot and pull the trigger. Bang! The dog jumps, the bear bounds for the tree line. Just as quick as he runs up hill and out of sight he tumbles back down the hill.
Brilliant! My second bear down in my third spring season and what an exciting day!
I walked up to him all piled up and I was a bit shocked at how small he looked.
I wrongly judged the size of this bear by a mile and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed or annoyed with myself in the moment, but that feeling didn’t last very long.
I had my first bear made entirely into pepperoni, sausages, salami. This bear I planned to have a batch of pepperoni made and the rest processed into ground and stewing meat.
We have been eating the meat for the last month and it is amazing. The family’s favourite game meat so far!
https://i.postimg.cc/BbjX8rvH/36-CB472-A-9-AA3-4-AC5-8-B1-E-FEEE08-EA83-E9.jpg (https://postimg.cc/1VZ92Yw3)