Smithers
05-29-2012, 06:47 PM
Might be a little long winded but enjoy!
May 14, 2012
With our high snowpack this year, many of my favoured bear hunting spots are still under lots of snow. This makes grizzly hunting a little more difficult. I decided to check out a small area a little north of where I usually hunt because it always greens up first. I’ve never hunted there much because the huntable area is not very large and my other spots are better and closer.
Theres no hunting on the road for the first 13 km as it is private property. At about 11.5 km there is a large pasture clearing and its super green. I catch some movement out of the corner of my eye and whip my binos up just to catch the rear end of a bear ducking into the bush. First bear I’ve seen all year.
I continued cruising the area just looking for sign but not seeing much. I stopped off at one of the many lakes in the area and was just hanging around checking it out in the middle of the day. A couple pickups pull up with a boat on the back. One guy hops out his truck, sees me on my camo, and asks if I was hunting bears. I said I was and that I had a grizz tag as well. Then he informs me that they had seen a grizzly about 100 yards up the main road from the site, and it looked like a good size too. With that info I took off up the road and found the area they described and slowly still hunted my way down through the area but alas nothing.
Driving back out of the area I spotted a bear in the private pasture where I had seen the bears behind earlier in the day. I pulled out my binos and immediately knew it was a large bear. I pulled out the spotting scope and managed a couple pictures before he winded me in the pickup and wandered back into the timber.
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa332/Korhunter/IMG_3224.jpg
May 21, 2012
Having a day off work I headed back out to the same area, still after the grizzly. I unloaded my quad right near the beginning of the huntable area and proceeded to cruise the whole area. Heading up towards snowline I stopped at a downed tree across the road and walked in past it. I hiked to the top of a steep clearcut on a hill in the middle of the valley. I’d see the week before that it was green on top because of the constant sunshine so I figured I may find a bear up there. I didn’t find a bear but stalked to within 80 yards of a cow moose and just watched her feed then decided to continue on my way.
On my way off the hill I glassed down toward the lake where the guys had seen a grizzly last week. Can you guess what I spotted? Yup, a grizzly. Looked like a big guy through my binos. Guess where he was? Someones private ranch in the middle of the bush. Argh!! I quadded back down the road I was on and up the road toward the ranch, until I hit the gate that was posted with large no hunting/ trespassing/ private property signs. Double argh!! Oh well, I figured, theres always another time.
Heading out of the area and back for home I had to drive past the pasture I had seen the large blackie in the week before and who do I see but the big boy himself! He looked up as I drove by so I figured it best not to stop as I may spook him. After seeing him there the week before and talking to a couple people I had a good idea of who owned the pasture so I headed toward his place.
Pulling into his place I met him in the driveway and introduced myself and b.s.ed about people we both knew and I asked him about hunting in that pasture and he said I had 4 days before he put his cows in there.
Racing back up the road I again had to drive past the bear so I could stalk back towards him with some cover and the wind in my favour. I was hoping he wouldn’t spook but he didn’t even take his head out of the grass as I drove by. Parking my truck about 600 yards up the road I proceeded to quietly stalk back towards the bear using what trees I had for cover. I ran out of trees about 250 yards from the bear and had to crawl through the brush slowly to get to about 150 yards from him. With nothing to use as a rest I sat and set up on my knee, watching and waiting for the right shot. After about a minute of trying to calm my nerves the wind started swirling and the bear caught a whiff of something but he wasn’t sure what. The crosshairs settled just behind his leg and I let loose a 210gr partition sizzling out of my 338 at 3000 fps. I could hear the bullet hit and the bear started running obviously hurting. After that I let a couple more loose and he bailed into the bush on the other side of the road. Quietly stalked toward where I saw him go in, I saw him trying to climb a log out of a small pond/swamp. I put the crosshairs on his neck and let go the coup de grace. At the shot he simply slumped back down into the water.
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa332/Korhunter/IMG_3256.jpg
Knowing I had my work cut out for me I walked back to my truck and drove closer and unloaded my quad. I just managed to throw a rope over one of his legs as he was too deep to walk up to. I winched him out and drug him a little ways down the road to the pasture for picture and to make the loading easier. But after winching I didn’t run my quad long enough so after pictures my quad was dead. Shit. Loading a polaris 850 is no easy task but I managed to wrestle it and the bear into the back of my truck. Skinning the bear I discovered my last shot was a little too far forward and took out the base of his skull. I’ve just finished boiling the skull and it’s still mostly intact.
Stay tuned as I continue to pursue a grizzly! (might be a little slower as I sprained my ankle pretty severely Friday night :( )
May 14, 2012
With our high snowpack this year, many of my favoured bear hunting spots are still under lots of snow. This makes grizzly hunting a little more difficult. I decided to check out a small area a little north of where I usually hunt because it always greens up first. I’ve never hunted there much because the huntable area is not very large and my other spots are better and closer.
Theres no hunting on the road for the first 13 km as it is private property. At about 11.5 km there is a large pasture clearing and its super green. I catch some movement out of the corner of my eye and whip my binos up just to catch the rear end of a bear ducking into the bush. First bear I’ve seen all year.
I continued cruising the area just looking for sign but not seeing much. I stopped off at one of the many lakes in the area and was just hanging around checking it out in the middle of the day. A couple pickups pull up with a boat on the back. One guy hops out his truck, sees me on my camo, and asks if I was hunting bears. I said I was and that I had a grizz tag as well. Then he informs me that they had seen a grizzly about 100 yards up the main road from the site, and it looked like a good size too. With that info I took off up the road and found the area they described and slowly still hunted my way down through the area but alas nothing.
Driving back out of the area I spotted a bear in the private pasture where I had seen the bears behind earlier in the day. I pulled out my binos and immediately knew it was a large bear. I pulled out the spotting scope and managed a couple pictures before he winded me in the pickup and wandered back into the timber.
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa332/Korhunter/IMG_3224.jpg
May 21, 2012
Having a day off work I headed back out to the same area, still after the grizzly. I unloaded my quad right near the beginning of the huntable area and proceeded to cruise the whole area. Heading up towards snowline I stopped at a downed tree across the road and walked in past it. I hiked to the top of a steep clearcut on a hill in the middle of the valley. I’d see the week before that it was green on top because of the constant sunshine so I figured I may find a bear up there. I didn’t find a bear but stalked to within 80 yards of a cow moose and just watched her feed then decided to continue on my way.
On my way off the hill I glassed down toward the lake where the guys had seen a grizzly last week. Can you guess what I spotted? Yup, a grizzly. Looked like a big guy through my binos. Guess where he was? Someones private ranch in the middle of the bush. Argh!! I quadded back down the road I was on and up the road toward the ranch, until I hit the gate that was posted with large no hunting/ trespassing/ private property signs. Double argh!! Oh well, I figured, theres always another time.
Heading out of the area and back for home I had to drive past the pasture I had seen the large blackie in the week before and who do I see but the big boy himself! He looked up as I drove by so I figured it best not to stop as I may spook him. After seeing him there the week before and talking to a couple people I had a good idea of who owned the pasture so I headed toward his place.
Pulling into his place I met him in the driveway and introduced myself and b.s.ed about people we both knew and I asked him about hunting in that pasture and he said I had 4 days before he put his cows in there.
Racing back up the road I again had to drive past the bear so I could stalk back towards him with some cover and the wind in my favour. I was hoping he wouldn’t spook but he didn’t even take his head out of the grass as I drove by. Parking my truck about 600 yards up the road I proceeded to quietly stalk back towards the bear using what trees I had for cover. I ran out of trees about 250 yards from the bear and had to crawl through the brush slowly to get to about 150 yards from him. With nothing to use as a rest I sat and set up on my knee, watching and waiting for the right shot. After about a minute of trying to calm my nerves the wind started swirling and the bear caught a whiff of something but he wasn’t sure what. The crosshairs settled just behind his leg and I let loose a 210gr partition sizzling out of my 338 at 3000 fps. I could hear the bullet hit and the bear started running obviously hurting. After that I let a couple more loose and he bailed into the bush on the other side of the road. Quietly stalked toward where I saw him go in, I saw him trying to climb a log out of a small pond/swamp. I put the crosshairs on his neck and let go the coup de grace. At the shot he simply slumped back down into the water.
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa332/Korhunter/IMG_3256.jpg
Knowing I had my work cut out for me I walked back to my truck and drove closer and unloaded my quad. I just managed to throw a rope over one of his legs as he was too deep to walk up to. I winched him out and drug him a little ways down the road to the pasture for picture and to make the loading easier. But after winching I didn’t run my quad long enough so after pictures my quad was dead. Shit. Loading a polaris 850 is no easy task but I managed to wrestle it and the bear into the back of my truck. Skinning the bear I discovered my last shot was a little too far forward and took out the base of his skull. I’ve just finished boiling the skull and it’s still mostly intact.
Stay tuned as I continue to pursue a grizzly! (might be a little slower as I sprained my ankle pretty severely Friday night :( )