Intense first animal for a 10 yr old!!!

[willyqbc]

So it was kinda crappy weather here today but i decided to take my young fella out anyway. With lots of wind and rain I was not really into walking so we decided to cruise some good areas and glass some blocks. We saw a couple bears early but nothing came of it until we spotted a bear about 300yds down into a block right on the treeline. we both agreed that he wasn't real big but for a first critter he was "big enough!:-D". We start stalking down the block keeping the root ball of an overturned tree between the bear and us, wind was good so I was pretty confident we could get close. As we neared the treeline and hadn't caught sight of the bear again I figured he must have moved off into the timber so we eased into the treeline, only to find that it dropped off the block about a 100yds straight down! I quickly thought about how ugly it would be to get a bear out of this gorge and briefly considered telling the kid "oh well, must be gone!:mrgreen:" But the Dad in me kicked in and I started scanning the bottom of the gorge looking for the bear. Out of the corner of my eye out the side of my bino's I catch movement....close.....real close!!! I slowly turn and he is right there 15 yds away. Michael slowly drops down and gets his bipod steady but there is no shot due to the thick bushes. This stand off goes on for several minutes with this bear openly checking us out and i decide that there is going to be no shot in this bush anyways so I decide to try and take advantage of his apperant curiosity and we slowly back up into the block just out of his sight. Sure enough he follows and is soon watching us again from 15 yards. I start thinking...this just might work. again we back out and this time get back into the open block and use a small slash pile to get out of site. Michael gets set up to cover either side of the slash pile. Once again this bear comes out, only slightly off from where we expected him and he is now at 9 yards facing straight on. I was amazed at the composure of a 10 year old to wait for a bear at 9 yds to turn and offer a better shot. after 20 seconds or so the bear offered his shoulder and Michael put one in him.....bear only went 15 yards and piled up....thank god cause I didn't wanna pack him outta that gorge:-D!!! I was watching Michael during the whole stalk and was amazed at how calm he was the whole time, I know a few adults who would have come unravelled with a bear that close but every time I looked he was calm and composed and doing exactly what he should have been doing.....needless to say I am a pretty proud Papa right now!! This is a first animal I'm sure he will never forget!! Bear was 5' nose to tail (on the carcass)....perfect starter bear....gives him room to build!!:-D


http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/PIC_0357.JPG

Chris

[cloverphil]

right on, thats excellent, congrats

[tbear]

Hey Michael and Chris, well done. exciting story, Michael is a great kid, mature beyond his years, but that is not a surprise considering how great his parents are. You guys will have many great times hunting together.

Ted:-D

[d6dan]

Well done Micheal and Chris. Thats a real nice first bear and story.

[pg83]

Well done to you and your son. That's a first hunt to be really proud of for both of you.

[pnbrock]

congrats looking forward the first with my kids ,there will allways more firsts to enjoy.

[rocket]

way to go michael. congradulations. must get the cool under pressure from his mom.lol Just bugging Chris, know your very proud. Very nice picture by the way.. I'm sure michael will remember that bear forever.

[cavebear]

awsome way to go :-D:-D:mrgreen::mrgreen:

[Maxx]

Great Story!!! Huge congrats to you both!

[guest]

Cool way for the young fella to start, good on you both!

Congrats !

CT

[Bear Chaser]

Awesome adventure for a young hunter to have with his Dad. Way to go both of you.

[Schutzen]

Yep great for u guyz.
Nice team work and nice Bear.
Looks like promising hunting future there.

[deeks1989]

good job! great start.

[The Hermit]

EXCELLENT STORY AND GREAT BEAR!!! Thanks for sharing... we all love hearing about a young hunter killing his first big game animal! How did he do with field dressing and skinning?

[ROEBUCK]

well done to the young hunter !

awesome!!

[BCBear]

cloud nine no doubt... excellent work on a fine bear!

[hunter1947]

Father and son can't ask for anthing better ,congrats to the two of you ,well done http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif..

[oldtimer]

I think he takes after his "Poppa". Very Very proud of him and I think the Deer and Moose population had better be worried. The amount of meat him and his sister eats requires a good hunter. Poppa Mike

[BlacktailStalker]

Way to close the deal Michael :cool:
Hope he hits the old man up for a half mount ;)

[sawmill]

Good job! Real nice looking bear!Looking forward to this falls pictures.Congrats guys!:mrgreen:

[willyqbc]

Hermit.....he's been helping with the gutting, skinning and butchering for many years now that he's getting to be an old pro allthough this is the first one he's done on his own right from doing his own reloads and buying his own license through to grinding the burger himself. The hide was a bit ratty so we will probably just do up the skull but we may do a head mount with it and I will have him do all the prepping and fleshing himself.....might even walk him through mounting it himself!!!!

Chris

[valleycowboy]

huge congrats to the young fella and the proud papa.
i know the feeling,when my 10 year old shot his first deer last year.......one of the best days of my hunting life!!!!!!!
good for him for being so calm.......you have taught him well!!!!!!!

[snowhunter]

Congrats to both of you :)

What caliber and bullet was used ?

[willyqbc]

Bullet was a 120 grn Tipped triple shock sitting over 32grains of H4895 in his Remington model 7 youth in .260. We chose the tipped TSX due to the fact that they are designed to open at lower velocities and this is a somewhat reduced load (85%).

Chris

[Bow Walker]

Looks like the start of a great hunting career. Congratulations to Micheal and to dad. You guys have got a great story to tell and re-tell. One to remember for a lifetime. I bet both of you won't be forgetting that hunt any time soon.

[farside]

Way to go Michael and good job at the "dad" thing Chris. We need more pics!!

[jrjonesy]

Congrats to you both!!

[Muledeerjohn]

Good job Michael!! Congratulations on the bear guys well done!

[moose2]

Great story guys and good job Michael looking forward to more posts in the fall.

[Rackmastr]

Awesome stuff!! Way to go!

[6 K]

Awsome!
Good on you both.

[Camp Cook]

Great story and experience for you guys congrates on a nice bear young man and Dad of course he was calm he was with the one person that made him feel that way...

We're looking at moving up to the Quesnel area and my little is now 3 years old can hardly wait for his first real hunt where he is packing his own rifle.

[Archer]

Sounds like a wicked hunt... nothing like close range. Congrats to both of you!

[Blktail]

Awesome. He is one cool dude!

[todbartell]

congrats Michael! :D

[snowhunter]

Did you recover the tipped TSX bullets ? Did you have a chance to chronograph the load ? If so, what was the muzzle velocity ?

Thank you in advance :)

[GoatGuy]

Congrats to the young fella.

[BromBones]

Good first bear for the young fella.

Congrats!

[OutWest]

Awesome work Michael! The start of many great hunting memories!

[curt]

Now thats a cool story your son will be telling his sons and grandchilderen that story long after you are gone and thats what it's all about good on you!!!

[willyqbc]

Sorry snowhunter, have not chrony'd these loads, best guess is that they are doin around 2400 fps. The bullet went right through so we didn't recover it, however the 6 footer my buddy took with my gun this spring, the 168 grain bullet broke one shoulder and lodged uner the hide on the far side. When I put it on my grain scale it weighed 168.1 grains, with a little bit of weight for goobers i couldn't get from under the petals thats 100% weight retention, the few triple shocks we have recovered over the years all show similiar results so I would expect the tipped TSX would be the same.

Chris

[snowhunter]

willyqbc, you have more than good reasons to be owerwhelmed and exited over your "little mans" succesful hunt, and thanks for the ballistic data you provided from your 10 year old son's .260 (.264 caliber) rifle.

Those TSX bullets are indeed rewriting what we have learned about terminal ballistics the 100 years or so, :)

Your own gun is a .308 caliber rifle, shooting a 168 grain TSX bullet ?

[dutchie]

willyqbc, you have more than good reasons to be owerwhelmed and exited over your "little mans" succesful hunt, and thanks for the ballistic data you provided from your 10 year old son's .260 (.264 caliber) rifle.

Those TSX bullets are indeed rewriting what we have learned about terminal ballistics the 100 years or so, :)

Your own gun is a .308 caliber rifle, shooting a 168 grain TSX bullet ?


My 300wsm is sporting the 168gr TTSX, same with my dads and 3 of my friends rifles. (all 300 wsm's)

Dutchie

[snowhunter]

I find inspite of the "copper fouling reducing groves" in the TSX bullets, I still need frequent cleaning of the bore of my 300 Winchester, in order to avoid pressure signs as cratered or blown primers. However, not as bad as I experienced with the older type of "Barnes X" bullets, which did not shoot well at all, in my particular 300 Winchester.

I have settled for the 150 TSX in my 300 Winchester, since it produces the best muzzle velocity and energy of all 30 caliber TSX bullets for the 300 Winchester.

I am still doing some testing with the combination of the 150 TSX bullets and my 300 Winchester, and so far found that the accuracy to be acceptable for hunting.

I am also considering of using TSX for my 6.5 x 55 Swede, therefore I was also interested to find out of the terminal ballistics of the 120 grain TSX, comming from the 260 Remmington. However, this conversion to TSX bullets is still "up in the air", because since last hunting season, I succesfully opted to dispatch deer by shooting them in the neck with my extremely accurate, somewhat modified Swede surplus M 38, and find that regardless of bullet type used, any deer drop dead on the spot, when hit in the neck spine area.

[Mik]

Sounds like an awesome dad/son trip. Theres a lot of adults out there that would not of handled themselves as you did, Cool Calm Collective and a huge Congratulations.

[Marc]

That's awesome Michael! Way to show us how it's done!

Marc.

[willyqbc]

Your own gun is a .308 caliber rifle, shooting a 168 grain TSX bullet ?

30.06 168grn TSX over 58.5 grns of H4350, crimped
Chronies at a 2920 fps

as a testimonial to the TSX it punched a clean hole through 3/8" plate steel at 300 metres

Also we tested penetration of my load vs a 375 H&H shooting 240 grain acubonds. We shot them both at 100yds into a box of phone books with 2 layers of cedar shakes in the front of the box to simulate bone as best we could. The accubond penetrated 12 phone books (maybe an 1" thick each) and had 86% weight retention, the barnes penetrated 11 books and had 99.9% weight retention. I was pretty impressed that with the barnes my 30.06 almost performed as well as the 375.

Chris

[Phil]

That sounds like an amazing moment! Way to go guys!