7mmWSM
05-29-2008, 04:06 AM
I’ll try and keep this short… basically we knew right from the get go that it was going to be a battle with the snow. The area we went into last year was locked in with snow, and we spent the first 3 days skirting our area, hunting the meager pickings around the margins. The good thing..the bears were definetly lower down as the slides had not slid yet, and we even spotted a nice 7’ footer right on the road who bolted pretty quick. We met a lot of the other hunters with LEH tags, as we had all been packed into the same small areas. After 3 days of road hunting (yuck), we were ready to explore any new options. We met a friend at a local lodge who suggested we might be able to access part of the territory by boat, which we quickly arranged. The next morning found us hiking up an old logging road, with 20 yr old firs on either side of the road. Not much for visibility. We hiked 12 km up this road, then turned back in total frustration, not having seen any fresh sign on the road, and not having found any areas to even glass. Lower down on the road however, we were seeing a lot of cabbage and fiddleheads, in tiny little openings in the clearcuts (about as big as a city front yard, not very big), and a nagging bit of advice that Steve Rupp planted in my head kept on coming up, “Find the green stuff and watch it.” Seems to be the unbreakable rule of spring bear hunting. Sure enough, as we all filed past one of these openings (being way to loud), my Dad goes into a spasm of unintelligible sign language and whisper – yelling, from which I deduce quite cleverly that there might be a shooter in the opening. I send our buddy after the tag holder, who was already 150 yards up the road. Dad and I wait on the road, rifles shoulder, in the rain and the mist. Mr. Tagholder comes up after what seems like an eternity and signals that he is ready to shoot, and that I should go with him a few yards back up the road to spot the bear in the opening. We walk 5 steps, when a large brown form materializes ghost like out of the mist on the road, not 25 yards away. We drop to our knees, and wait for him to go broadside. As soon as he does, the 180 grain Nosler kicks him over on to his back (clean heart shot), after which he roars loudly and takes off into the cut. Fearing a repeat of last year, and not finding any blood, we slowly fanned out into the cut, fingers ever on the triggers. After 5 minutes my Dad shows up with a big grin on his face, and the words, “We got him”. The rest as the say, is history and hard work. We spent the last day and half patrolling backwater swamps and meadows in a 12’ cartopper powered by an aluminum shovel and 2 paddles jerry rigged from cedar shakes, looking for moose (which we found plenty of) and black bear, (which we didn’t).
You have no idea how beautiful it was to pull down a beauty of a bear like this after the disappointment of last year, and the intial difficulties and frustrations of the conditions on this trip. It was a true victory, and a testament to what can happen when you stick to what you know and are persistent about it. Many thanks again to Steve Rupp, who put us onto the bear last year, and who gave us rock solid advice again this year. Your Weiser’s will make it to you eventually. We brought the bear to Wildlife Designs in 150 Mile House, who seemed to be very professional and had some beautiful work on the walls. The taxi called us on the way home and told us the bear would go 7.5’ claw to claw and nose to tail.
I had just returned from a 3 month trip to Africa (only picture safaris unfortunately) and am now in Germany working here for the remainder of the year so this 1 week trip will be my only hunting experience this season. Makes it all the sweeter, somehow, although I really don’t know how I am going to sit out an entire season. Might have to do some poaching here in Deutschland.
Signing off,
Paul
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee250/pfast5600/P1030917.jpg
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee250/pfast5600/P1030921.jpg
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee250/pfast5600/P1030924.jpg
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee250/pfast5600/P1030947.jpg
You have no idea how beautiful it was to pull down a beauty of a bear like this after the disappointment of last year, and the intial difficulties and frustrations of the conditions on this trip. It was a true victory, and a testament to what can happen when you stick to what you know and are persistent about it. Many thanks again to Steve Rupp, who put us onto the bear last year, and who gave us rock solid advice again this year. Your Weiser’s will make it to you eventually. We brought the bear to Wildlife Designs in 150 Mile House, who seemed to be very professional and had some beautiful work on the walls. The taxi called us on the way home and told us the bear would go 7.5’ claw to claw and nose to tail.
I had just returned from a 3 month trip to Africa (only picture safaris unfortunately) and am now in Germany working here for the remainder of the year so this 1 week trip will be my only hunting experience this season. Makes it all the sweeter, somehow, although I really don’t know how I am going to sit out an entire season. Might have to do some poaching here in Deutschland.
Signing off,
Paul
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee250/pfast5600/P1030917.jpg
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee250/pfast5600/P1030921.jpg
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee250/pfast5600/P1030924.jpg
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee250/pfast5600/P1030947.jpg