pg83
06-02-2012, 05:32 PM
With the weather looking good we decided there was nothing better than to head for the Cabin and find us a black bear or two. We got the hell out of Vancouver on Thursday afternoon and made it there by 1am. After a good Scotch and maybe a beer or three we went to bed with fresh air filling our lungs. Everybody slept in that first morning, but it’s bear season and we typically find them out more in the afternoons anyways. We glassed the hills over a cup of coffee and after seeing nothing decided to put in an hour of work clearing brush and cleaning junk. Tomorrow, we said, would be the bear day. After all it was my youngest brother’s birthday, 20 years old and on only his second hunting adventure. As it turns out we were wrong. We were enjoying life too much being out of the city for the first time since November. We did put in some more time glassing and walking the meadows, but nothing was out.
We awoke Sunday morning with a solid plan formed. We were headed for one specific South-facing hillside we knew held bears this time of year. Boy were we right. Mitch (youngest brother) had never been down this way before so we took our time and showed him the sights. On the way we glassed our favourite goat mountain and found a couple of billies basking in the sunlight of a spectacular day. It was approaching noon and we still had only seen one bear bolting off the road until we stopped near one old slide. Just as we were about to carry on we spotted something black moving out of the timber. Bear! I planned a simple stalk and off we went. Mitch and I took no more than 10 minutes to close the distance on the bear to 25 yards. We had help from our brother and friend down below to direct us the last bit. The bear never gave us a shot even at that close range as a quick change in wind gave us away. I was only slightly disappointed as this bear was on the small side and very lean. This was the closest Mitch had ever been to a bear and he was pretty excited.
We drove another 10 minutes down the road to a spot offering a scenic view of a river surrounded by snow-capped mountains and had our lunch. We spent our meal glassing and BS-ing with nothing new to be seen. Time to carry on to our ultimate destination we said. We crossed through a creek to give the truck a little rinse and were greeted with a gorgeous sow Grizzly with no cubs. She didn’t care one bit about us and just kept on feeding. We snapped a bunch of pictures of her and carried on our way driving within 40 yards of her. The road we were on is on a steep hillside with almost no hope of turning around and being hungover to start our day, we left the chainsaw at the cabin that morning. As luck would have it the road was all clear until we were within sight of the finish line. Big tree down, time to drive the road in reverse. :D
It took about 15 minutes of reversing to get to one section where a 7 or 8 point turn could be done. Mission accomplished. We are back to searching for bears. Not 2 minutes after were on our way again my brother Carl tells me to stop. Bear on the hill he says. No wait, two. The truck was almost out of sight so we stopped and got out to have a closer inspection. The initial bear was in fact a stump, but the second bear was the real deal. He was almost at the top of the hill feeding away in the afternoon sun. We were about 400 yards away from him and the wind was blowing solid across the hill. We planned to walk the road for half a kilometre and then head up the hill to come out on top of him. As soon as we set off we were out of sight from him, but we had a couple trees to use as landmarks and after 30 minutes we were catching our breath just on the opposite side of the crest. When we were all ready, we started to sneak in. As luck would have it the bear was almost in the same spot as when we had set off and we first got a glimpse of him at 60 yards. We backed out of sight again and made our final preparations. Carl got his camera ready, Mitch chambered a round, and I had the rangefinder in my hand. As Mitch and I snuck up to within 50 yards of the bruin Carl got into a position where he could get us and the bear on film. We only had to wait about 30 seconds for the bear to give Mitch a shot. I told him to shoot whenever he was ready and as I got the words out the 45-70 barked. The boar was hit hard and went straight down. He slowly rolled a few yards downhill and came to a rest. Mitch was stoked, as was I. The shot smacked through his right shoulder and through his lungs. We hollered and hooted as this was the first big game animal for Mitch. He only started hunting last fall while Carl and I grew up with the sport from a young age.
As we approached the bear he kept getting bigger. He’s not a monster, but definitely a bear to be proud of. After some photos on the hillside it was time to get to work. We dragged/rolled him down the hill to the truck and loaded him in. An hour and a half later we were back at the cabin and got to work. We skinned him out and deboned him for some pepperoni. Mitch loved every second of his first hunting adventure and Carl and I were thrilled to be able to share it with him. We now look forward to the rest of the season and many more to come. We have a couple friends who are green to hunting as well and we hope to get them connected on some animals this Fall.
Bear Down!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/petergutsche/Hunting%20Adventures/IMG_2192.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/petergutsche/Hunting%20Adventures/IMG_2215.jpg
Mitch and his bear
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/petergutsche/Hunting%20Adventures/IMG_2193.jpg
Group shot
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/petergutsche/Hunting%20Adventures/IMG_2219.jpg
We awoke Sunday morning with a solid plan formed. We were headed for one specific South-facing hillside we knew held bears this time of year. Boy were we right. Mitch (youngest brother) had never been down this way before so we took our time and showed him the sights. On the way we glassed our favourite goat mountain and found a couple of billies basking in the sunlight of a spectacular day. It was approaching noon and we still had only seen one bear bolting off the road until we stopped near one old slide. Just as we were about to carry on we spotted something black moving out of the timber. Bear! I planned a simple stalk and off we went. Mitch and I took no more than 10 minutes to close the distance on the bear to 25 yards. We had help from our brother and friend down below to direct us the last bit. The bear never gave us a shot even at that close range as a quick change in wind gave us away. I was only slightly disappointed as this bear was on the small side and very lean. This was the closest Mitch had ever been to a bear and he was pretty excited.
We drove another 10 minutes down the road to a spot offering a scenic view of a river surrounded by snow-capped mountains and had our lunch. We spent our meal glassing and BS-ing with nothing new to be seen. Time to carry on to our ultimate destination we said. We crossed through a creek to give the truck a little rinse and were greeted with a gorgeous sow Grizzly with no cubs. She didn’t care one bit about us and just kept on feeding. We snapped a bunch of pictures of her and carried on our way driving within 40 yards of her. The road we were on is on a steep hillside with almost no hope of turning around and being hungover to start our day, we left the chainsaw at the cabin that morning. As luck would have it the road was all clear until we were within sight of the finish line. Big tree down, time to drive the road in reverse. :D
It took about 15 minutes of reversing to get to one section where a 7 or 8 point turn could be done. Mission accomplished. We are back to searching for bears. Not 2 minutes after were on our way again my brother Carl tells me to stop. Bear on the hill he says. No wait, two. The truck was almost out of sight so we stopped and got out to have a closer inspection. The initial bear was in fact a stump, but the second bear was the real deal. He was almost at the top of the hill feeding away in the afternoon sun. We were about 400 yards away from him and the wind was blowing solid across the hill. We planned to walk the road for half a kilometre and then head up the hill to come out on top of him. As soon as we set off we were out of sight from him, but we had a couple trees to use as landmarks and after 30 minutes we were catching our breath just on the opposite side of the crest. When we were all ready, we started to sneak in. As luck would have it the bear was almost in the same spot as when we had set off and we first got a glimpse of him at 60 yards. We backed out of sight again and made our final preparations. Carl got his camera ready, Mitch chambered a round, and I had the rangefinder in my hand. As Mitch and I snuck up to within 50 yards of the bruin Carl got into a position where he could get us and the bear on film. We only had to wait about 30 seconds for the bear to give Mitch a shot. I told him to shoot whenever he was ready and as I got the words out the 45-70 barked. The boar was hit hard and went straight down. He slowly rolled a few yards downhill and came to a rest. Mitch was stoked, as was I. The shot smacked through his right shoulder and through his lungs. We hollered and hooted as this was the first big game animal for Mitch. He only started hunting last fall while Carl and I grew up with the sport from a young age.
As we approached the bear he kept getting bigger. He’s not a monster, but definitely a bear to be proud of. After some photos on the hillside it was time to get to work. We dragged/rolled him down the hill to the truck and loaded him in. An hour and a half later we were back at the cabin and got to work. We skinned him out and deboned him for some pepperoni. Mitch loved every second of his first hunting adventure and Carl and I were thrilled to be able to share it with him. We now look forward to the rest of the season and many more to come. We have a couple friends who are green to hunting as well and we hope to get them connected on some animals this Fall.
Bear Down!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/petergutsche/Hunting%20Adventures/IMG_2192.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/petergutsche/Hunting%20Adventures/IMG_2215.jpg
Mitch and his bear
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/petergutsche/Hunting%20Adventures/IMG_2193.jpg
Group shot
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/petergutsche/Hunting%20Adventures/IMG_2219.jpg