Coop
05-22-2012, 12:58 AM
First a little background, I had spent a small amount of time as a teenager (mid to late 80s) hunting with my step dad. One cold Saturday in the late fall on Mount Ida, Salmon Arm we had a chance at a large 5x4 white tail. We both took a look at it through the scope while it stared straight back at us, neither one of us took the shot and my step dad opted out of hunting all together from that point on. Since he was out that meant I no longer had the option. Years later I'm raising a family of my own and in 2004 we relocate from the Okanagan to Chilliwack. Seems only natural to start fishing and once success begins I realize just how much my family enjoys eating the fish we catch. They had always fussed about it from the grocery stores. Noticing the dramatic difference between our fish and the grocery store's got me thing about the quality of the rest of our meat and so my brother and I got our PALS last November. We only got out for deer few times before the season ended and being rookies we only came across one doe. The two of us spent the winter getting in better shape and getting some gear together to take hunting much more serious this spring.
With this years bear season about to open we spend our free time scouting our local area and trying to determine where to focus our efforts for early bear. On opening day we are on it and we don't any indication anywhere. All of "prime" spots show sign of absolutely nothing. Challenged but not discouraged we decide it's too early and to wait a couple of weeks.
When we return to the mountains we are seeing deer like crazy and even though we're not hunting them it exciting to see how close we can get to them and it's informational to watch their behavior. No bear that day but we are feeling super optomistic that it will be any day. Later that week (Thursday) we decide to go for a good evening hike though a specific area. On the drive out we notice scat on the road and now we know for sure a bear is out of hibernation. Filled with enthusiasm we park and gear up for the hike. Sure enough once we get to the top we hear a bit of crashing in the bush. It is most definately a bear so we freeze and begin looking for it. My brother spots the bear but it's only partially viewable and does not present an ethical shot. We are overcome with a variety of feelings and emotions...excitement, anxiety etc etc etc as neither one of had ever shot any big game in our lives. We watched as silently as possible but ultimately we made a sound and he busted us. Gone! That's okay, we will be back Saturday. We camp the area for the first half of the day and nothing. No problem, we'll come back Sunday evening and find him for sure. Nothing, not a peep anywhere. It's dark so we head home, log onto to HBC and see the exact bear in the exact spot had been taken by another HBC member earlier in the day on Sunday. Damn we need a new plan!!!
Friend of mine who is an experienced hunter calls and invites us up to hunt with him in region 8 for May long. We commit to hunting and head up Friday after work and get an evening hunt in. Saw a beautiful brown colored Black bear on the way in but it was on private land. Nonetheless awesome to see at the start of our hunt and it certainly got us excited for what may be. A few deer and a moose would be seen before dark but no other bears. A few smokies and a quick sleep in the trucks and we're hunting by 4:30am Saturday morning. We see three moose by 5:15am and then a black bear at least a kilometer ahead of us further down the road. We run down the road on foot to gain a position but after a couple kilometers past where we last saw him we turned around. On the walk back to the truck we notice him in a field but upon closer inspection we see that he's terribly rubbed and not a shooter. Another 30 minutes of driving and another bear is spotted but gone before we can do anything about it. It's about 11:00am and time for a couple more smokies and a quick nap, there was very little shut eye caught by any of us overnight.
Back on the move we spot a boar chasing a sow across a cutblock but lose sight of them. Guessing where they may end up we drive to a position where we can easily glass the area. They finally appear again but on private land. Also the boar turns out to be the rubbed one we saw earlier. The sow is small but beautiful in color, really dark on the legs and rich brown over the back. We decide to put a stalk on and hope they move off the private land while doing so. After about a 3km hike we make a plan for our friend to loop around one way while we take another line. We are slowly walking on the outside of this field when we come across a different black bear. It was laying in some longer grass 97 yards away and was tough for us to verify if it was the rubbed one or not. Just as we were about to put him in the scope the bear busted our friend and stood up out of the grass. He was clearly a shooter but on the move fast now. There was no shot and as my friend yelled at us "why didn't you shoot" the brown sow came running right across the path in front of us less than 25 yards away. Again, not shot, things just happened to fast.
It was about 3:30pm now and we are driving in the truck, just covering ground and talking about all the what ifs regarding the last encounter. Started to think about the ride out as we were to head back to Chilliwack later in the evening and the thought of some food other than smokies was consuming my mind. My brother is starting to fade in the back seat and my friend is driving, we come around a gentle bend to the right and on the low side of the road we see and awesome bear (148 yards). My friend is yelling "shot it, shoot it, shoot it" and I'm just going through all the thing I need to before I can shoot. The bear has long since busted us and is moving towards the tree line, not running but certainly heading away. I squeezed the trigger at what I think would have been the last possible second before it would have been to late and the bear disappeared into the tree line. Even though it was the first shot I have ever taken at an animal I had never felt so on about a shot. Everything felt perfect but my partners seemed uncertain and of course due to my inexperience it was easy for me to believe I may have missed. In my mind I'm really starting to feel like I blew it and I am feeling like my partners are let down and blah blah blah. I can't wait even 5 minutes to go look and decide to walk to the last point of sight immediately. There's no blood at all but some evidence of his direction and upon looking the direction he appeared to be heading he was laying not 15 yards from where he was shot. He was hit in the boiler room with a 7mm rem mag 160g TSX and quite obviously died super quick.
Here he is, our first big game harvest and exactly what I dreamed of in a black bear. He even has the white diamond on his chest. The ground was marshy and there was no opportunity to clean him up better so I apologize for that. Also, we are not photographers and in the moment this was the best that we could do.
'http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh623/gordc/MyFirstBear.jpg
With this years bear season about to open we spend our free time scouting our local area and trying to determine where to focus our efforts for early bear. On opening day we are on it and we don't any indication anywhere. All of "prime" spots show sign of absolutely nothing. Challenged but not discouraged we decide it's too early and to wait a couple of weeks.
When we return to the mountains we are seeing deer like crazy and even though we're not hunting them it exciting to see how close we can get to them and it's informational to watch their behavior. No bear that day but we are feeling super optomistic that it will be any day. Later that week (Thursday) we decide to go for a good evening hike though a specific area. On the drive out we notice scat on the road and now we know for sure a bear is out of hibernation. Filled with enthusiasm we park and gear up for the hike. Sure enough once we get to the top we hear a bit of crashing in the bush. It is most definately a bear so we freeze and begin looking for it. My brother spots the bear but it's only partially viewable and does not present an ethical shot. We are overcome with a variety of feelings and emotions...excitement, anxiety etc etc etc as neither one of had ever shot any big game in our lives. We watched as silently as possible but ultimately we made a sound and he busted us. Gone! That's okay, we will be back Saturday. We camp the area for the first half of the day and nothing. No problem, we'll come back Sunday evening and find him for sure. Nothing, not a peep anywhere. It's dark so we head home, log onto to HBC and see the exact bear in the exact spot had been taken by another HBC member earlier in the day on Sunday. Damn we need a new plan!!!
Friend of mine who is an experienced hunter calls and invites us up to hunt with him in region 8 for May long. We commit to hunting and head up Friday after work and get an evening hunt in. Saw a beautiful brown colored Black bear on the way in but it was on private land. Nonetheless awesome to see at the start of our hunt and it certainly got us excited for what may be. A few deer and a moose would be seen before dark but no other bears. A few smokies and a quick sleep in the trucks and we're hunting by 4:30am Saturday morning. We see three moose by 5:15am and then a black bear at least a kilometer ahead of us further down the road. We run down the road on foot to gain a position but after a couple kilometers past where we last saw him we turned around. On the walk back to the truck we notice him in a field but upon closer inspection we see that he's terribly rubbed and not a shooter. Another 30 minutes of driving and another bear is spotted but gone before we can do anything about it. It's about 11:00am and time for a couple more smokies and a quick nap, there was very little shut eye caught by any of us overnight.
Back on the move we spot a boar chasing a sow across a cutblock but lose sight of them. Guessing where they may end up we drive to a position where we can easily glass the area. They finally appear again but on private land. Also the boar turns out to be the rubbed one we saw earlier. The sow is small but beautiful in color, really dark on the legs and rich brown over the back. We decide to put a stalk on and hope they move off the private land while doing so. After about a 3km hike we make a plan for our friend to loop around one way while we take another line. We are slowly walking on the outside of this field when we come across a different black bear. It was laying in some longer grass 97 yards away and was tough for us to verify if it was the rubbed one or not. Just as we were about to put him in the scope the bear busted our friend and stood up out of the grass. He was clearly a shooter but on the move fast now. There was no shot and as my friend yelled at us "why didn't you shoot" the brown sow came running right across the path in front of us less than 25 yards away. Again, not shot, things just happened to fast.
It was about 3:30pm now and we are driving in the truck, just covering ground and talking about all the what ifs regarding the last encounter. Started to think about the ride out as we were to head back to Chilliwack later in the evening and the thought of some food other than smokies was consuming my mind. My brother is starting to fade in the back seat and my friend is driving, we come around a gentle bend to the right and on the low side of the road we see and awesome bear (148 yards). My friend is yelling "shot it, shoot it, shoot it" and I'm just going through all the thing I need to before I can shoot. The bear has long since busted us and is moving towards the tree line, not running but certainly heading away. I squeezed the trigger at what I think would have been the last possible second before it would have been to late and the bear disappeared into the tree line. Even though it was the first shot I have ever taken at an animal I had never felt so on about a shot. Everything felt perfect but my partners seemed uncertain and of course due to my inexperience it was easy for me to believe I may have missed. In my mind I'm really starting to feel like I blew it and I am feeling like my partners are let down and blah blah blah. I can't wait even 5 minutes to go look and decide to walk to the last point of sight immediately. There's no blood at all but some evidence of his direction and upon looking the direction he appeared to be heading he was laying not 15 yards from where he was shot. He was hit in the boiler room with a 7mm rem mag 160g TSX and quite obviously died super quick.
Here he is, our first big game harvest and exactly what I dreamed of in a black bear. He even has the white diamond on his chest. The ground was marshy and there was no opportunity to clean him up better so I apologize for that. Also, we are not photographers and in the moment this was the best that we could do.
'http://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh623/gordc/MyFirstBear.jpg