BiG Boar
05-18-2010, 02:14 PM
As I walked leisurely along a green path with my trusty (actually never shot at an animal with) 356 Winchester lever action I felt confident a bear was in the area. I had just jumped out of the truck having driven into a new area never hunted by myself, and likely too thick and over grown of a path for most other people to hunt. The reason I had chosen this path was that I was hunting with three new hunters who had never hunted bears before. The hunting party consisted of my wife, my sister and their best friend. Hunting with women for bears went a lot better than I had before thought it might and we were all enjoying a nice sunny evening. This path was thick, too thick for someone not confident in their shooting abilities and too thick for some people who were previously terrified by bears! However as my sister had spotted a nice fresh turd at the beginning of this path I felt confident a bear would be using the trail, and a sneaky old bear at that. I took one of the new huntresses with me (the friend Alison) and headed into the thick sending the girls to hike a different spur, into a clear cut just opposite us.
When I heard the sound of the animal my ears perked up and I slowed to a creep to check over the edge of the slight embankment. The sound wasn’t 40 yards away and though we had spotted many elk in the area before today, I was fairly confident the elk would be easy to see over the deadfall and bushes. With saplings and bushes moving I could see the animal was heading almost directly at me. Alison having never shot this rifle or never having shot an animal I was forced to wield the weapon rather than hand it off and risk a possible charging shot. The scope was set at 1.5 power and I knew this shot was going to be close. I just wasn’t sure yet what it was. Maybe a cougar? Maybe a wolf? A coyote? No a coyote or a cougar wouldn’t make the crunching this guy was making. This had to be a bear.
At 12 yards I caught movement. Where was my bow? What about all the practice I had put in, this was a sure shot. But I was here with the joy of getting these girls into hunting and my first thoughts were about them getting animals. I had to be sure this was a decent bear, and I had to make sure there were no cubs with it. I was almost sure if their were cubs I would have noticed or heard them, this was a lone bear, and as he stopped at 12 yards I was poised and ready to shoot with the gun already up and steady and Alison standing safely behind me. I had 6 250-gr bullets in the gun and was very glad to have the scope down at 1.5 power. The cross hairs were on his shoulder and the bear stopped knowing something was strange. Hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as the bear took 2 more steps and turned to look right at us. His ears were of decent proportion and I knew this was a shooter. Exhaling half a breath and steadying, I pulled the trigger. Instantly I leapt 4 feet towards the embankment to shoot again. He was behind a bush when I first pulled the trigger so I was unsure of my shot as I leap up onto a giant old growth stump. Hearing the bear crashing down in mid air I ejected a shell and reloaded to see his rump heading away, I pulled the trigger again and reloaded again, however the crashing had come to a dead quiet and the bush was then filled with the dead quiet and calm as peaceful as it was not two moments before.
I looked back towards the damsel standing behind me and saw the fright and delight only ever discovered in a hunt for dangerous game. Especially when it is up close and personal. Excitement flashed across her face as she asked if we got him. With absolute certainty I told her that is a dead bear. And then the calm was broken by the sound of two very excited girls running down the trail towards us. “Did you get a bear!?” they shouted! Yes, come and help us find him. It was thick and swampy down below where the bear ran, and I walked the few steps forward to find splatters of bright blood where the bear was standing. The girls found us down searching for the bear. There was a ton of deadfall and I felt confident he hadn’t made it 20 yards. Below was a mountain stream running and I hadn’t heard him splash through that. Where was this beast though? Soon we were all spread out searching for this bear. It was thick and I was starting to wonder how soon dark would fall.
I went back to the first blood after 20 minutes and started slowly following the tiny droplets as they brushed salal and berry bushes. Following the weak blood trail I found where he did cross the creek and had obviously made it much farther than I had first thought. On we pressed through the thick timber and as I walked up a wind broken tree for a vantage point I spotted something large and black just ahead of us 20 yards further. “Here he is girls!” Slowly they made their way over to see the beast lying dead. One of the first questions new hunters ask walking up to a bear is the obvious, “Is he dead?” Looking him in the eyes I knew the answer as animals die with their eyes open, and should you ever approach an animal with eyes closed, beware! I poked him with my rifle in the hindquarters to be sure and yes he was very dead I assured the ladies.
Now it was picture time, as everyone was needing pictures for facebook and the likes. And the lip-gloss was applied and mirrors came out to check their looks. I chuckled to myself thinking of some of the guys on huntingbc who also probably carry mirrors and lip-gloss. After pictures it was time to lug this bear from the draw he had run into. Turning him over and seeing a 2-inch exit hole in his lung I wondered how these animals could leave so little a blood trail. I didn’t even get a quarter cup of blood from this bears blood trail. Which makes me want to encourage new bear hunters, if you find even the smallest amounts of blood; he is likely there somewhere. They just soak up the blood with their big spring coats! His coat was beautiful and his claws were long and sharp. His facial hair had been somewhat destroyed in the den by mites and so I wasn’t going to keep the coat. “Lets get dragging this bear out girls. It’s going to be dark soon.” So heaving, sweating and covered (I mean covered) in blood, the girls and I pulled this bear out. If their mothers could only see them now I thought! Not a complaint from them, we heaved this bear for 40 minutes up the embankment, under logs, over deadfall, and through bush. Exhausted at the tailgate, I wondered how we would load this 250lb monster into the back of my lifted f350. Heaving and pushing this bear onto the tailgate blood spewed from its wound like a whale’s blowhole covering the girls and I in blood and lung. Finally, the beast loaded, we were glad to get in the truck and start heading back to camp, the boys sitting round the campfire would be proud of these girls. We wondered if they had bagged anything and if we would all be cleaning animals tonight.
Showing my sister (paramedic not afraid of blood) how to clean the animal and de-limb it I was glad to have an extra set of hands doing the job. We got it done 150 yards from camp over a hill and I wondered what we might find on the carcass the next day.
The next morning coming over the hill to look for crows with the 22 my sister and I were disappointed to see nothing on the carcass. Then as we were leaving something caught my eye that was not where I would expect to see a black stump not 200 yards away. The saga will continue….
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http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/bigbore14/IMG_7286.jpg
When I heard the sound of the animal my ears perked up and I slowed to a creep to check over the edge of the slight embankment. The sound wasn’t 40 yards away and though we had spotted many elk in the area before today, I was fairly confident the elk would be easy to see over the deadfall and bushes. With saplings and bushes moving I could see the animal was heading almost directly at me. Alison having never shot this rifle or never having shot an animal I was forced to wield the weapon rather than hand it off and risk a possible charging shot. The scope was set at 1.5 power and I knew this shot was going to be close. I just wasn’t sure yet what it was. Maybe a cougar? Maybe a wolf? A coyote? No a coyote or a cougar wouldn’t make the crunching this guy was making. This had to be a bear.
At 12 yards I caught movement. Where was my bow? What about all the practice I had put in, this was a sure shot. But I was here with the joy of getting these girls into hunting and my first thoughts were about them getting animals. I had to be sure this was a decent bear, and I had to make sure there were no cubs with it. I was almost sure if their were cubs I would have noticed or heard them, this was a lone bear, and as he stopped at 12 yards I was poised and ready to shoot with the gun already up and steady and Alison standing safely behind me. I had 6 250-gr bullets in the gun and was very glad to have the scope down at 1.5 power. The cross hairs were on his shoulder and the bear stopped knowing something was strange. Hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as the bear took 2 more steps and turned to look right at us. His ears were of decent proportion and I knew this was a shooter. Exhaling half a breath and steadying, I pulled the trigger. Instantly I leapt 4 feet towards the embankment to shoot again. He was behind a bush when I first pulled the trigger so I was unsure of my shot as I leap up onto a giant old growth stump. Hearing the bear crashing down in mid air I ejected a shell and reloaded to see his rump heading away, I pulled the trigger again and reloaded again, however the crashing had come to a dead quiet and the bush was then filled with the dead quiet and calm as peaceful as it was not two moments before.
I looked back towards the damsel standing behind me and saw the fright and delight only ever discovered in a hunt for dangerous game. Especially when it is up close and personal. Excitement flashed across her face as she asked if we got him. With absolute certainty I told her that is a dead bear. And then the calm was broken by the sound of two very excited girls running down the trail towards us. “Did you get a bear!?” they shouted! Yes, come and help us find him. It was thick and swampy down below where the bear ran, and I walked the few steps forward to find splatters of bright blood where the bear was standing. The girls found us down searching for the bear. There was a ton of deadfall and I felt confident he hadn’t made it 20 yards. Below was a mountain stream running and I hadn’t heard him splash through that. Where was this beast though? Soon we were all spread out searching for this bear. It was thick and I was starting to wonder how soon dark would fall.
I went back to the first blood after 20 minutes and started slowly following the tiny droplets as they brushed salal and berry bushes. Following the weak blood trail I found where he did cross the creek and had obviously made it much farther than I had first thought. On we pressed through the thick timber and as I walked up a wind broken tree for a vantage point I spotted something large and black just ahead of us 20 yards further. “Here he is girls!” Slowly they made their way over to see the beast lying dead. One of the first questions new hunters ask walking up to a bear is the obvious, “Is he dead?” Looking him in the eyes I knew the answer as animals die with their eyes open, and should you ever approach an animal with eyes closed, beware! I poked him with my rifle in the hindquarters to be sure and yes he was very dead I assured the ladies.
Now it was picture time, as everyone was needing pictures for facebook and the likes. And the lip-gloss was applied and mirrors came out to check their looks. I chuckled to myself thinking of some of the guys on huntingbc who also probably carry mirrors and lip-gloss. After pictures it was time to lug this bear from the draw he had run into. Turning him over and seeing a 2-inch exit hole in his lung I wondered how these animals could leave so little a blood trail. I didn’t even get a quarter cup of blood from this bears blood trail. Which makes me want to encourage new bear hunters, if you find even the smallest amounts of blood; he is likely there somewhere. They just soak up the blood with their big spring coats! His coat was beautiful and his claws were long and sharp. His facial hair had been somewhat destroyed in the den by mites and so I wasn’t going to keep the coat. “Lets get dragging this bear out girls. It’s going to be dark soon.” So heaving, sweating and covered (I mean covered) in blood, the girls and I pulled this bear out. If their mothers could only see them now I thought! Not a complaint from them, we heaved this bear for 40 minutes up the embankment, under logs, over deadfall, and through bush. Exhausted at the tailgate, I wondered how we would load this 250lb monster into the back of my lifted f350. Heaving and pushing this bear onto the tailgate blood spewed from its wound like a whale’s blowhole covering the girls and I in blood and lung. Finally, the beast loaded, we were glad to get in the truck and start heading back to camp, the boys sitting round the campfire would be proud of these girls. We wondered if they had bagged anything and if we would all be cleaning animals tonight.
Showing my sister (paramedic not afraid of blood) how to clean the animal and de-limb it I was glad to have an extra set of hands doing the job. We got it done 150 yards from camp over a hill and I wondered what we might find on the carcass the next day.
The next morning coming over the hill to look for crows with the 22 my sister and I were disappointed to see nothing on the carcass. Then as we were leaving something caught my eye that was not where I would expect to see a black stump not 200 yards away. The saga will continue….
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/bigbore14/IMG_2599.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/bigbore14/IMG_7148.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/bigbore14/IMG_7176.jpg
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn5/bigbore14/IMG_7209.jpg
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