Sammy99's first bear!!

[willyqbc]

Well Tank, Sammy99, my little guy and i went out for a deer hunt this morning. The last thing we were expecting to see on October 22nd in Quesnel area was a bear. We were heading out to a deer area around 9 and as we come around a corner Tank says, "theres something big and black out in that block up ahead....pretty big....must be a cow", so we hop out and sneak up the road a bit until we see thats its actually a bear, and a good one at that. Sammy lays up against a bank and after about 3 minutes of checking the bear and finding a shot she liked she plowed a perfect double lunger into the big boar.....50 yds and a couple unessecary insurance shots and he was down. Very interesting thing about this bear was he had a cable snare cinched around his neck. It was so tight it had cut all the way through the skin and had caused a very nasty infection all the way around his neck, most likely would have died in the den as he didn't have nearly enough fat and his intestines were almost completley empty.....ugliest thing I've ever encountered on an animal and the smell was enough to gag a maggot!

Anyway on to the specifics.....bear was shot with her new Remington model 700 CDL in 270 win. Bullet was a 130 grain remington core-lok.
Bear was an honest 6 feet even nose to tail on the carcass. Preliminary measurement obn the skull puts it at a solid 19 1/2" after skinning it out. All in all a great interior bear for anyone, let alone for a first bear!

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Picture_004.jpg

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/sams_bear_in_barn.jpg

Chris

[todbartell]

excellent work! that new CDL has racked up a couple kills already 8-)

[Steeleco]

Well done, bigger than any bear I've taken :frown:
Is this late for your neck of the woods to see bears?

[Amphibious]

way to go Sam! :D

[Jagermeister]

Way to go Sam, should I forward the pictures to the boys at work??:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Will]

Awesome Bear ! CONGRATS 8)
You gotta like it that you did the Ol Bugger a Favour too;-)

[Caveman]

Great looking bear Sammy99, congrats. That's not bear bait behind you I hope:lol: :lol:

[Islandeer]

Good stuff!! Great bear!!:smile:

[willyqbc]

Jagermiester....Sam say's go ahead!!:lol:

Chris

[Jagermeister]

"Jagermiester....Sam say's go ahead!!"
I think I'll pass, I don't want them to get them green with envy.

[Jagermeister]

I was just reading your account again and that snare thing is rather unusual, have you contacted the CO about it. Was that in your neck of the woods, or were you in an other direction? Kind of explains why the bear had not denned up yet, still trying to get some decent groceries into himself. I guess Sam is his Divine Providence. 19 1/2 inches, that's getting up there.

[Marc]

Nice going Sam on a great bear. Glad you managed to dispatch him before he suffered anymore.

Marc.

[3kills]

great bear sam.....any video of it?

[bsa30-06]

congrats sammy99 nice bear......what no video.

[Tank]

great bear sam.....any video of it?

There were some technical difficulties during the filming process....and I don't want to talk about it:frown:

[dana]

Great first bear!!!! Way to go Sammy!!!!

[RiverOtter]

Nice bear for sure. 6' in the round is awsome, that translates into 7' plus skinned and squared.

I'm a trapper, so I am curious about the snare. Snares should have been removed/closed before that bear got out of the den, so barring a freakish accident, some ones ethics stink. Glad the bears ordeal came to a close.

RO

[willyqbc]

Riverotter....perhaps you could shed some light on the type/use of snare that was on the bear. It would be interesting for us to know! You state that the snares should have been gone before the spring? this wasn't on this bear for more than a few weeks at most...any longer and the bear would have been dead.

here's a couple pics of it

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/snare1.jpg

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/snare2.jpg

any info much appreciated

Chris

[RiverOtter]

The lock on the snare you posted is called a cam-loc. The cable appears to be 7x7 aircraft cable (7 smaller cables, each consisting of 7 strands, twisted together to make one cable) Can't tell for sure from the pick, but the 3 most common cable diameters are 1/16", 5/64", and 3/32". 1/8" is used as well, but mainly for wolves. The aluminum double ferrule that holds the cam-loc on the cable end definately appears to be swaged on, which tell's me either the snare was purchased pre-made or the trapper makes enough snares to justify the cost of purchasing a swager. The cable also appears to be dyed a brown color, which is something some trappers do to snares to help with concealment.

Snares kill by cutting off the CO2 rich blood from the brain so it can't reach the heart/lungs and get re-oxygenated. The animal loses consciousness and dies quite quickly, usually within a minute. The bear obviously broke the cable quite soon as it was not designed for bears. If it didn't break it on the first or second lunge, the cable would have been so tight around the neck the bear would have passed out and dyed. Cam-locs do relax slightly once the pressure is gone, (ie. the cable breaks or the animal quits fighting) and that would explain why your bear was still alive, albeit not doing to well. Was his head swollen up? You would have noticed a lot of watery jelly when skinning it out. Being that the cable was buried in the meat, that was most likely a result of the swelling.

I looked in the trapping reg's and coyotes and wolves opened on Oct. 15, so if it was a legally set snare, it could not have been on the bear longer than 7 days. I just assumed it was a snare from the spring because most trappers don't start serious trapping for another month or so when bears are all gone and fur is prime. Quesnel is further north than Vernon/Lumby but their fur is not a whole month ahead as fur primes with the photoperiod(amount of daylight in a day) and temperature is only a fine tuning varialble.

RO

[Elkhound]

Great bear Sammy......nice work

[BlacktailStalker]

Congrats on the bear, definitely a nice one! I just learned a lot from your post RiverOtter, thanks.

[Dieseldog6]

Congrats on the bear, definitely a nice one! I just learned a lot from your post RiverOtter, thanks.

Same goes for me. Also good to hear that 130gr Core-Lokts did the job decently on a blackie. I assume it is your deer cartridge - would you still use your 270Win but with 150gr if bear was your primary quary?

[farside]

Congrats on the bear Sam. Its a nice one. Other than the nasty snare, what kind of shape was the hide in? And thanks RiverOtter for the info

[bsa30-06]

Thanxs for the info riverotter, i learned alot from it.