Riverratz
10-14-2011, 02:48 PM
My wife and I traveled to the northern Rockies with my brother in law and a good friend for a horseback elk/moose hunt.
Strangely, for the first time ever, my wife expressed concerns over Grizzlies on this trip, which later proved to be very clairvoyant.
We arrived at base camp on Sept. 20, spending the next few days climbing and hunting the high ridges around the valley, familiarizing ourselves with the terrain, etc.
Elk sign was scarce in an area known to produce in the past, but we spotted lots of moose. On a few days we spotted as many as 10-20 moose feeding on far slopes. The moose rut was well underway, calling proved fruitless as the bulls we saw were already with cows.
One morning, after a one hour steep climb on foot, my wife and I managed to bugle in a fine bull elk to 280 meters across the valley, but just as I was trying to confirm 6 pts. through my 10X bino's, a dense fog rolled up the valley reducing visibility to less than 20 meters in under 30 seconds. Our bull disappeared back up the far slope that we had called him down for the previous hour.
(LESSON: never stupidly forget your spotting scope at base camp !!!!!)
There was lots of Grizzly sign around, we spotted several in valley bottoms and on the slopes over the first few days.
On Sept. 23 the four of us made our way to a mineral lick where we would spend the day, and set up for some calling. There was lots of game sign around, we had high hopes for success.
The lick is at the base of a narrow, steep valley, beside a shallow creek. We set up in the aspen/spruce/pine trees above the lick about 100 ft. up, looking down a shallow slope. On the other side of the creek, the land rose in a shallow slope, mixed with open grassy areas and the same trees. The weather was clear, temperatures down around +2C., the wind was in our faces as we faced downhill toward the lick.
My brother in law and buddy continued up the valley, leaving my wife and I at our ambush site, we agreed to meet in about 4-5 hours.
I commenced with moose cow calls hoping to draw a bull down from the slopes to our location.
After about an hour, my wife spotted something way up high on the opposing huge open slope/mtn side, around 1500+ m. away from us. It was very large, through the bino's at first glance appeared to be a moose. The spotting scope confirmed it was a huge Griz., somewhere in the 9 - 10 ft. range slowly feeding his way across the grassy slopes, through a series of rock slides. He was as close to a B&C Grizzly that we've ever seen in 45 years of hunting together.
It was evident he was feeding in berry patches unaware of our presence in the valley bottom. We didn't have the coveted single Griz. LEH offered in this zone, even if we did I estimated it would be at least a half day climb to get to his elevation.
I was glad that we had spotted him before he knew of our presence. My wife watched him through the scope as I cow called, he didn't react to us in any way so we felt fairly secure. We resolved to keep a close eye on him in case he decided to come downhill in our direction.
Another few hours went by with occasional calling and nothing came to the lick. The Griz. remained on the high slopes.
Around noon, we dug into our packs and enjoyed a jungle lunch in the warm sun trickling through the trees. Having been up since 5:00 a.m., I relaxed in a sunny comfortable depression in the moss. I just drifted off, and all of a sudden was awakened by my wife poking me, "MOOSE" !!!!.
She was pointing up the slope across from us to an open grassy area, we saw three smaller bulls moving together across the grassy slope about 800 m. away, heading downhill toward our location. After a couple of minutes they disappeared into the trees, we were confident they were making their way down to the lick. Another half hour passed and no action, then all of a sudden my wife spots legs moving through the trees across from us. Within a minute or so, they stepped out into the open....three perfect 2 X 3's...could have been "triplets", almost carbon copies of each other.
The light breeze was still in our favor, only about 20 m. from us they had no clue we were there. Initially we had high hopes for BIG moose, BUT never overlook a gift I always say......so......
I lined up on the first one, he dropped on the spot with one head shot from the Ruger 338. The other two just stood there, my wife's Browning 308 spoke once, and the second one was ours as well. The third bull stood around for a minute or so, finally wandering off into the trees when we broke cover and stepped out into the open.
We made the short walk down to the first bull at the creek, laying partially in the water on the opposite slope. The second bull was on our side of the creek, only about 50 feet or so from the first.
We set to work on the first bull, and had him gutted and skinned in about 45 minutes. Right about that time our partners re-appeared having heard our shots. Congrats all around, after retrieving the horses from several hundred meters away, we went to work on the second bull. Gutted and skinned, we started quartering/deboning the second bull for packing.
All this time, we had been keeping an eye on the Griz. up on the high slope, he was still in the berry patches, we were fairly certain he'd stay up there.
All of a sudden buddy yells GRIZZLY !!!! I looked immediately over at the first bull on the creek bank 50 ft away from us and there was Griz, his jaws clamped on the moose's head, tugging him uphill, moving the entire moose about 1-2 ft. with each tug up the embankment. The horses went berserk. We all started screaming at the bear, but he paid no attention. A horror show and worst nightmare come true. That bear came right in with no fear at all.
As this happened my wife was back at our ambush spot digging something out of her pack. Our rifles were laying on our packs, where we had placed them following the shooting. I yelled at her to grab the guns as I ran toward her. She met me halfway down the slope, passing my rifle to me as she shouldered her own.
Up went my 338, I had the Griz.'s forehead centered in the cross-hairs, his head completely filled the scope at 4X. Oddly, I didn't want to kill him, but I wasn't about to lose that moose without a fight either, and if he decided we were on the menu, there was no question he was going down. I'd answer all the questions later. Weird the things that run through your head in a mere few seconds.
The Griz. kept on pulling that moose up the hill, by this time he'd moved it about 20 ft. and was getting real close to the dense bush above him. He was facing directly toward me, fairly large about an 8 ft'er. Every time he quit tugging on the moose, he stared right at me, as if daring me to come closer.
I let loose with a 300 g. Barnes I keep on the rifle stock for just such encounters, aiming a couple of inches above his back. A huge clump of dirt and wood flew up behind him. No reaction, he just kept on tugging the moose. My brother in law shot over his back from a slight angle with a 180 g. from his 300 Win Mag., still no reaction. Now my right ear was ringing ferociously from the muzzle blast of his rifle. I sent another 300 g. over G's head, connecting with a tree behind him, my wife let one go with a 180 g. from hers almost simultaneously. This time he let go of the moose's head, staring head on straight at me as I had the cross-hairs centered between his eyes. At this point I was convinced he was going to charge and I was going to have to drop him. The Griz. turned his head to the side slightly, looking away from me, I was absolutely certain he'd charge at any second. The moose's left front leg knee joint was about 6 inches in front of the bear's nose, I lined up on it and a third 300 g. connected with it, showering the bear's head with bone splinters. The bear headed up the slope into the dense foliage, all this time the panic struck horses were rearing up, thrashing in the trees, tearing at their bridles as we screamed, yelled, cussed and swore at the bear.
The bear reared up and stood on his hind legs, staring over the trees at us, about 100 ft. away, then he dropped down. We saw the trees and bushes moving but it was apparent he was obviously circling around us.
After a very nervous 10 minutes of sitting waiting for another encounter, we decided we had to get that other moose.
Across the creek we went, while my wife and I stood guard, buddies attended to the quartering and deboning. We were certain that bear was still close. This was one gutsy bear and it was more than apparent he had absolutely no fear of us whatsoever. He was not emaciated and looked completely healthy.
After a very nervous hour or so we had the moose back across the creek to our side.
We no sooner had it across the creek when the Griz. emerged from the bush again, this time making his way through the willows beside the creek to where we had been working on the moose. Clearly in view of us the whole time, he grabbed onto the head, hide and guts and within 15 seconds disappeared into the bush with the remains in tow.
We hastily got our moose loaded up for the pack out and beat a hasty retreat for base camp, a two hour ride in the complete dark.
We've had a few Grizzly encounters over our many years of hunting, but this was the closest we've ever come to what could have ended very badly for us or the bear.
Unbelievably, my wife did attempt some photo's, unfortunately all that turned out was complete blur, can't blame her, as she later confessed she could hardly hold onto the camera, let alone operate it properly as all she could think about was getting out of there.
A few days later my brother in law connected on a nice 6x6 elk,, and we ended our trip with our two well earned smaller moose and the elk, not to mention the stories, etc.
Chalk up one more "adventure" to remember.
Strangely, for the first time ever, my wife expressed concerns over Grizzlies on this trip, which later proved to be very clairvoyant.
We arrived at base camp on Sept. 20, spending the next few days climbing and hunting the high ridges around the valley, familiarizing ourselves with the terrain, etc.
Elk sign was scarce in an area known to produce in the past, but we spotted lots of moose. On a few days we spotted as many as 10-20 moose feeding on far slopes. The moose rut was well underway, calling proved fruitless as the bulls we saw were already with cows.
One morning, after a one hour steep climb on foot, my wife and I managed to bugle in a fine bull elk to 280 meters across the valley, but just as I was trying to confirm 6 pts. through my 10X bino's, a dense fog rolled up the valley reducing visibility to less than 20 meters in under 30 seconds. Our bull disappeared back up the far slope that we had called him down for the previous hour.
(LESSON: never stupidly forget your spotting scope at base camp !!!!!)
There was lots of Grizzly sign around, we spotted several in valley bottoms and on the slopes over the first few days.
On Sept. 23 the four of us made our way to a mineral lick where we would spend the day, and set up for some calling. There was lots of game sign around, we had high hopes for success.
The lick is at the base of a narrow, steep valley, beside a shallow creek. We set up in the aspen/spruce/pine trees above the lick about 100 ft. up, looking down a shallow slope. On the other side of the creek, the land rose in a shallow slope, mixed with open grassy areas and the same trees. The weather was clear, temperatures down around +2C., the wind was in our faces as we faced downhill toward the lick.
My brother in law and buddy continued up the valley, leaving my wife and I at our ambush site, we agreed to meet in about 4-5 hours.
I commenced with moose cow calls hoping to draw a bull down from the slopes to our location.
After about an hour, my wife spotted something way up high on the opposing huge open slope/mtn side, around 1500+ m. away from us. It was very large, through the bino's at first glance appeared to be a moose. The spotting scope confirmed it was a huge Griz., somewhere in the 9 - 10 ft. range slowly feeding his way across the grassy slopes, through a series of rock slides. He was as close to a B&C Grizzly that we've ever seen in 45 years of hunting together.
It was evident he was feeding in berry patches unaware of our presence in the valley bottom. We didn't have the coveted single Griz. LEH offered in this zone, even if we did I estimated it would be at least a half day climb to get to his elevation.
I was glad that we had spotted him before he knew of our presence. My wife watched him through the scope as I cow called, he didn't react to us in any way so we felt fairly secure. We resolved to keep a close eye on him in case he decided to come downhill in our direction.
Another few hours went by with occasional calling and nothing came to the lick. The Griz. remained on the high slopes.
Around noon, we dug into our packs and enjoyed a jungle lunch in the warm sun trickling through the trees. Having been up since 5:00 a.m., I relaxed in a sunny comfortable depression in the moss. I just drifted off, and all of a sudden was awakened by my wife poking me, "MOOSE" !!!!.
She was pointing up the slope across from us to an open grassy area, we saw three smaller bulls moving together across the grassy slope about 800 m. away, heading downhill toward our location. After a couple of minutes they disappeared into the trees, we were confident they were making their way down to the lick. Another half hour passed and no action, then all of a sudden my wife spots legs moving through the trees across from us. Within a minute or so, they stepped out into the open....three perfect 2 X 3's...could have been "triplets", almost carbon copies of each other.
The light breeze was still in our favor, only about 20 m. from us they had no clue we were there. Initially we had high hopes for BIG moose, BUT never overlook a gift I always say......so......
I lined up on the first one, he dropped on the spot with one head shot from the Ruger 338. The other two just stood there, my wife's Browning 308 spoke once, and the second one was ours as well. The third bull stood around for a minute or so, finally wandering off into the trees when we broke cover and stepped out into the open.
We made the short walk down to the first bull at the creek, laying partially in the water on the opposite slope. The second bull was on our side of the creek, only about 50 feet or so from the first.
We set to work on the first bull, and had him gutted and skinned in about 45 minutes. Right about that time our partners re-appeared having heard our shots. Congrats all around, after retrieving the horses from several hundred meters away, we went to work on the second bull. Gutted and skinned, we started quartering/deboning the second bull for packing.
All this time, we had been keeping an eye on the Griz. up on the high slope, he was still in the berry patches, we were fairly certain he'd stay up there.
All of a sudden buddy yells GRIZZLY !!!! I looked immediately over at the first bull on the creek bank 50 ft away from us and there was Griz, his jaws clamped on the moose's head, tugging him uphill, moving the entire moose about 1-2 ft. with each tug up the embankment. The horses went berserk. We all started screaming at the bear, but he paid no attention. A horror show and worst nightmare come true. That bear came right in with no fear at all.
As this happened my wife was back at our ambush spot digging something out of her pack. Our rifles were laying on our packs, where we had placed them following the shooting. I yelled at her to grab the guns as I ran toward her. She met me halfway down the slope, passing my rifle to me as she shouldered her own.
Up went my 338, I had the Griz.'s forehead centered in the cross-hairs, his head completely filled the scope at 4X. Oddly, I didn't want to kill him, but I wasn't about to lose that moose without a fight either, and if he decided we were on the menu, there was no question he was going down. I'd answer all the questions later. Weird the things that run through your head in a mere few seconds.
The Griz. kept on pulling that moose up the hill, by this time he'd moved it about 20 ft. and was getting real close to the dense bush above him. He was facing directly toward me, fairly large about an 8 ft'er. Every time he quit tugging on the moose, he stared right at me, as if daring me to come closer.
I let loose with a 300 g. Barnes I keep on the rifle stock for just such encounters, aiming a couple of inches above his back. A huge clump of dirt and wood flew up behind him. No reaction, he just kept on tugging the moose. My brother in law shot over his back from a slight angle with a 180 g. from his 300 Win Mag., still no reaction. Now my right ear was ringing ferociously from the muzzle blast of his rifle. I sent another 300 g. over G's head, connecting with a tree behind him, my wife let one go with a 180 g. from hers almost simultaneously. This time he let go of the moose's head, staring head on straight at me as I had the cross-hairs centered between his eyes. At this point I was convinced he was going to charge and I was going to have to drop him. The Griz. turned his head to the side slightly, looking away from me, I was absolutely certain he'd charge at any second. The moose's left front leg knee joint was about 6 inches in front of the bear's nose, I lined up on it and a third 300 g. connected with it, showering the bear's head with bone splinters. The bear headed up the slope into the dense foliage, all this time the panic struck horses were rearing up, thrashing in the trees, tearing at their bridles as we screamed, yelled, cussed and swore at the bear.
The bear reared up and stood on his hind legs, staring over the trees at us, about 100 ft. away, then he dropped down. We saw the trees and bushes moving but it was apparent he was obviously circling around us.
After a very nervous 10 minutes of sitting waiting for another encounter, we decided we had to get that other moose.
Across the creek we went, while my wife and I stood guard, buddies attended to the quartering and deboning. We were certain that bear was still close. This was one gutsy bear and it was more than apparent he had absolutely no fear of us whatsoever. He was not emaciated and looked completely healthy.
After a very nervous hour or so we had the moose back across the creek to our side.
We no sooner had it across the creek when the Griz. emerged from the bush again, this time making his way through the willows beside the creek to where we had been working on the moose. Clearly in view of us the whole time, he grabbed onto the head, hide and guts and within 15 seconds disappeared into the bush with the remains in tow.
We hastily got our moose loaded up for the pack out and beat a hasty retreat for base camp, a two hour ride in the complete dark.
We've had a few Grizzly encounters over our many years of hunting, but this was the closest we've ever come to what could have ended very badly for us or the bear.
Unbelievably, my wife did attempt some photo's, unfortunately all that turned out was complete blur, can't blame her, as she later confessed she could hardly hold onto the camera, let alone operate it properly as all she could think about was getting out of there.
A few days later my brother in law connected on a nice 6x6 elk,, and we ended our trip with our two well earned smaller moose and the elk, not to mention the stories, etc.
Chalk up one more "adventure" to remember.