BiG Boar
06-08-2009, 12:00 PM
Hey guys,
I just got back a few nights ago from a two week grizzly hunt on the wet west coast with 2 other members from this site. One was my brother and the other was Elmer. Well all I can say is it was one heck of a trip. Thanks to all who helped me out in doing this once in a lifetime dream hunt. There were a lot of people who made it all come together, and it sure worked out well. Thanks to the man who lent me the jet boat, and a huge thanks goes to srupp and Mrs. srupp, who got a lot of things ready for the hunt while I was away in New Zealand the 2 weeks before that. It was logistically the toughest hunt I have ever undertaken, finding two sea worthy boats, getting gear that has to be built and tested to last in some of really tough conditions, and actually getting to a place so far from civilization, that isn't very easy to get to.
I have been dreaming of a grizzly hunt now for 2 years, and one of my hunting goals which I look at every day on the wall is to hunt and kill a grizzly bear by 2020. Two months ago I had applied for grizzly draws for my brother and I, not thinking either of us would get them. I checked his hunter number as I had it in an email, low and behold he had won the draw! I called him immediately from Florida to congratulate him on winning a draw like this. He asked if I had won also, and I said no probably not, there are so few tags given out in this region, the odds would not be likely. I didn’t have my number to check because I was out of town. 1 week later I was home anticipating, visualizing, and knowing I had won the draw. You got to feel it. First thing I did when I got home was punch in my hunter number on the website....I couldn’t believe my eyes, the hunt I had been planning in my mind for 2 years wasn’t just going to happen, I was going to be able to go with my bro! Woooo hoooooooo!!!!
Well the slightly unfortunate part was that I had booked my red stag hunt for the perfect time for grizzly hunting this year. However I knew I still had a good shot, was determined to make it happen, and decided I was going even if I was a little late.
I had found a 30 ft Grady white a buddy was going to lend to me for the trip. 6 days before the grizzly trip is supposed to start he tells me it’s a no go; it’s not fixed yet, and won’t be in time. I now need to find an ocean going boat to sleep 3 people in very short order. Low and behold I place an ad of desperation on craigslist and find a 24 footer that is for rent. I say I will take it and he says he will start to ready the ship. Well 2 days after its supposed to be ready it’s not, and we are delayed. Then an extra day driving to the pond and not wanting to challenge the longest hill in Canada, with 1000 foot edges, in the middle of the night we spend the night at the pond and head out in the morning, total drive time from van was 11 hours. We can’t leave because of the rough seas and decide to "make like a baby and "head out" in the morning.
However that night in Bella Coola, having dinner at the local diner we got to talking to an RCMP officer, he says we are way too late for bears, he was just at the hunting location the other day, and all the crabs have been fished out of the area also. However he did give us his cousin’s name that lived in the area and was having a bear problem. What do we make of this? I dunno.
So we jump in the boat and travel 1.5 hours through some very calm seas at 4 am. Unload the boats, set up camp, and head out for a morning hunt. The first corner we come around.... Bear!!! My brother yells. Got to within shooting distance and we passed on it. It’s too small we thought. On second opinion we decided it was around the 7 foot mark and should take it as it was a beauty. It had a really blonde face. But it’s long gone into the woods.
The next day we have a problem. I had just taken a dump into this creek that flows out into the ocean, maybe 50 yards from the water, sort of marking my territory. We get down to the boat which we had just parked at the beach while we had breakfast and the tide is out, our boat in this 12 inch wide little creek. Paddling wasn’t going to help, we were up sh*t creek.
So we decide to walk in. We start hiking up the trail and coming to the grass flats we see our blondie again. Get the spotter on her, really look her over good, get some video, she is right in the open about 400 yards away. I have decided to leave the ruppster in charge of two things. Open the video screen, hit record. I have decided to let my brother shoot first as I have right of first refusal, I am holding out for something 8.5 ft or bigger, and its only day 2 of 14. But as we both have tags I am going to back him up in case it should charge us, as we narrowed the gap between us to 200 yards. The bear decides that he is going to head back into the woods, or away from us. We lose sight of him as he goes behind a rocky out cropping. We get positioned behind a log lying prone. Expecting the bear to be walking away and over the next hill, I am shocked when I hear my brother say, “He’s right there!” “Where? Oh there!” I reply. He is walking towards us on a sandy bank, narrowing the gap to 150 yards. Broadside BANG, Bear starts running, BANG, bear turns around, BANG FLOP! Third shot with the bear running broke its neck and the bear piled up. Well after measuring 7ft nose to tail, we head back to our camera man. I mean this is awesome, a great bear and we got it all on clear video, no obstructions, no running into woods, nothing. It’s going to be great right? WRONG. Of the two instructions, one was not followed. It’s actually a poorly designed camera. There is a rec button on the screen. It says rec on the screen but really its second record button you can hit to start recording. So the record button was never pressed. Dang it was an awesome first bear for my brother, and one hunt burned onto our memory for the rest of our lives.
The rest of the week was filled with tones of bear sightings, 32ish grizz sightings, probably 15 different bears. 3 black bear sightings in that valley and about 10 on the drive in and out. One was a 6.5 ft shooter black bear, however because I didn’t want to screw up the valley I restrained my trigger finger. You see, you walk down these trails around the grass flats, the bears travel on them. You hear twigs snapping near you; wait to see what walks out. I was 10 yards sitting on the trail with the 416 when that blackie stepped out for a boo.
We saw bald eagles every day. Trapped lots of crabs, huge ones, and the smallest was ¼ inch over legal! Ate tones of crab, with freshly made garlic butter. Saw deer, otters, seals, weasels, and goats way up in the sketchy stuff. No bears came into camp; most of the food was left on the sleeping boat.
We paddled up the jet boat to a really nice 6 foot grizzly bear, got to within 70 yards. If you paddle straight at them I had heard that they can’t judge your distance too well. They see side to side movement better. Srupp got some great shots of him. He might post them later.
We got to within 100 yards of what I had spotted as my shooter bear from a mile away. Big, wide, belly draggin’, long, chocolate brown grizzly. But as got closer realized the bear had a 2 year old cub with her. The grass was 3-4 foot long in some areas so the smaller bears were literally sometimes only ears. It gives you a good judge on size though.
Story continued in the next post below....
I just got back a few nights ago from a two week grizzly hunt on the wet west coast with 2 other members from this site. One was my brother and the other was Elmer. Well all I can say is it was one heck of a trip. Thanks to all who helped me out in doing this once in a lifetime dream hunt. There were a lot of people who made it all come together, and it sure worked out well. Thanks to the man who lent me the jet boat, and a huge thanks goes to srupp and Mrs. srupp, who got a lot of things ready for the hunt while I was away in New Zealand the 2 weeks before that. It was logistically the toughest hunt I have ever undertaken, finding two sea worthy boats, getting gear that has to be built and tested to last in some of really tough conditions, and actually getting to a place so far from civilization, that isn't very easy to get to.
I have been dreaming of a grizzly hunt now for 2 years, and one of my hunting goals which I look at every day on the wall is to hunt and kill a grizzly bear by 2020. Two months ago I had applied for grizzly draws for my brother and I, not thinking either of us would get them. I checked his hunter number as I had it in an email, low and behold he had won the draw! I called him immediately from Florida to congratulate him on winning a draw like this. He asked if I had won also, and I said no probably not, there are so few tags given out in this region, the odds would not be likely. I didn’t have my number to check because I was out of town. 1 week later I was home anticipating, visualizing, and knowing I had won the draw. You got to feel it. First thing I did when I got home was punch in my hunter number on the website....I couldn’t believe my eyes, the hunt I had been planning in my mind for 2 years wasn’t just going to happen, I was going to be able to go with my bro! Woooo hoooooooo!!!!
Well the slightly unfortunate part was that I had booked my red stag hunt for the perfect time for grizzly hunting this year. However I knew I still had a good shot, was determined to make it happen, and decided I was going even if I was a little late.
I had found a 30 ft Grady white a buddy was going to lend to me for the trip. 6 days before the grizzly trip is supposed to start he tells me it’s a no go; it’s not fixed yet, and won’t be in time. I now need to find an ocean going boat to sleep 3 people in very short order. Low and behold I place an ad of desperation on craigslist and find a 24 footer that is for rent. I say I will take it and he says he will start to ready the ship. Well 2 days after its supposed to be ready it’s not, and we are delayed. Then an extra day driving to the pond and not wanting to challenge the longest hill in Canada, with 1000 foot edges, in the middle of the night we spend the night at the pond and head out in the morning, total drive time from van was 11 hours. We can’t leave because of the rough seas and decide to "make like a baby and "head out" in the morning.
However that night in Bella Coola, having dinner at the local diner we got to talking to an RCMP officer, he says we are way too late for bears, he was just at the hunting location the other day, and all the crabs have been fished out of the area also. However he did give us his cousin’s name that lived in the area and was having a bear problem. What do we make of this? I dunno.
So we jump in the boat and travel 1.5 hours through some very calm seas at 4 am. Unload the boats, set up camp, and head out for a morning hunt. The first corner we come around.... Bear!!! My brother yells. Got to within shooting distance and we passed on it. It’s too small we thought. On second opinion we decided it was around the 7 foot mark and should take it as it was a beauty. It had a really blonde face. But it’s long gone into the woods.
The next day we have a problem. I had just taken a dump into this creek that flows out into the ocean, maybe 50 yards from the water, sort of marking my territory. We get down to the boat which we had just parked at the beach while we had breakfast and the tide is out, our boat in this 12 inch wide little creek. Paddling wasn’t going to help, we were up sh*t creek.
So we decide to walk in. We start hiking up the trail and coming to the grass flats we see our blondie again. Get the spotter on her, really look her over good, get some video, she is right in the open about 400 yards away. I have decided to leave the ruppster in charge of two things. Open the video screen, hit record. I have decided to let my brother shoot first as I have right of first refusal, I am holding out for something 8.5 ft or bigger, and its only day 2 of 14. But as we both have tags I am going to back him up in case it should charge us, as we narrowed the gap between us to 200 yards. The bear decides that he is going to head back into the woods, or away from us. We lose sight of him as he goes behind a rocky out cropping. We get positioned behind a log lying prone. Expecting the bear to be walking away and over the next hill, I am shocked when I hear my brother say, “He’s right there!” “Where? Oh there!” I reply. He is walking towards us on a sandy bank, narrowing the gap to 150 yards. Broadside BANG, Bear starts running, BANG, bear turns around, BANG FLOP! Third shot with the bear running broke its neck and the bear piled up. Well after measuring 7ft nose to tail, we head back to our camera man. I mean this is awesome, a great bear and we got it all on clear video, no obstructions, no running into woods, nothing. It’s going to be great right? WRONG. Of the two instructions, one was not followed. It’s actually a poorly designed camera. There is a rec button on the screen. It says rec on the screen but really its second record button you can hit to start recording. So the record button was never pressed. Dang it was an awesome first bear for my brother, and one hunt burned onto our memory for the rest of our lives.
The rest of the week was filled with tones of bear sightings, 32ish grizz sightings, probably 15 different bears. 3 black bear sightings in that valley and about 10 on the drive in and out. One was a 6.5 ft shooter black bear, however because I didn’t want to screw up the valley I restrained my trigger finger. You see, you walk down these trails around the grass flats, the bears travel on them. You hear twigs snapping near you; wait to see what walks out. I was 10 yards sitting on the trail with the 416 when that blackie stepped out for a boo.
We saw bald eagles every day. Trapped lots of crabs, huge ones, and the smallest was ¼ inch over legal! Ate tones of crab, with freshly made garlic butter. Saw deer, otters, seals, weasels, and goats way up in the sketchy stuff. No bears came into camp; most of the food was left on the sleeping boat.
We paddled up the jet boat to a really nice 6 foot grizzly bear, got to within 70 yards. If you paddle straight at them I had heard that they can’t judge your distance too well. They see side to side movement better. Srupp got some great shots of him. He might post them later.
We got to within 100 yards of what I had spotted as my shooter bear from a mile away. Big, wide, belly draggin’, long, chocolate brown grizzly. But as got closer realized the bear had a 2 year old cub with her. The grass was 3-4 foot long in some areas so the smaller bears were literally sometimes only ears. It gives you a good judge on size though.
Story continued in the next post below....