Barnes_270
06-01-2013, 09:37 PM
Posted this already on CGN, but thought I'd re-post here for the locals. :-D
The day started with my buddy's 14 year old son connecting with a nice blackie. I was off on another logging road a few clicks over and heard the shot, and found out at lunchtime back at camp that it was our group. All I saw that morning was a few mulie does. After a late lunch me and another guy decide to go for another walk. We arrive at a fork in the road where both forks pass through the same meadow about 500 yards ahead. He takes the high road, I take the low road, and sure enough, a few minutes later there's a shot. After a bunch of shouting to ensure I won't cross his line of fire I push bush up to him. So, he's hit a bear, knocked it over, but then it ran into the bush. He's a pretty new hunter and unsure of what to do, so I sort of take over and start tracking the thing. It's been about 10 minutes now, and he's unsure of where he hit the animal (but he says he was holding on the chest). He heard lots of cracking in the bush, but then nothing.
So, I start trying to pick up a blood trail. There's nothing at the site where it was shot. I finally pick up a blood trail about 20 yards into the bush, and off we go, about 20 minutes after the shot. The trail is good at the start, but gets more and more infrequent, and smaller drops as we go. Eventually, we're about 300 yards through the bush and the trail is gone. By now we're out in more open bush (some large trees, but more open) and still we can't see Yogi anywhere. I have the shooter stand on the last drop of blood I've found and I'm circling looking for more sign when we hear the bear huff loudly and CLOSE. I lock and load and now it's creep, creep towards the spot where we heard the noise - but the cover is open and there is nothing there. Finally the shooter sees the bear - 25 feet up a tree - a tree I walked under and put my hand on as I passed.
So, after some positioning, he shoots it down from the tree with a shoulder shot. Upon inspection we find the wound from his first shot - a clean hole through the left hind leg just above the paw. That's it http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/images/smilies/mad.png Either his rifle wasn't sighted in correctly or he really pulled the shot.
So, time to go get the guys to help yard this thing out of the bush. I drive back to camp and rally the troops, and off we go. One friend helps with the gutting and I decide, since I'm not needed, to take the other new guy out for a walk, since he's still hoping to connect with his first big game. There's another meadow above us (the one the 14 year old got his in that morning) so we decide to hike up there. The wind is blowing strongly in our faces, so we know we can creep in without being scented. He walks one treeline and I walk the other side.
This meadow has a bowl up in the top part that you can't see into until you're right up on the lip of it. As I crest the ridge, there's a bear, right there, cropping grass and oblivious to my presence. He's facing right, and quartering slightly away from me. I go down on one knee for a steadier shot, but then he drops out of view behind the lip of the bowl. So, it has to be a freehand shot (later paced to 65 generous paces). Since he's quartering away slightly, I tuck it in a few ribs back. He jumps at the hit, and somersaults backwards three times, spraying blood like a punctured water balloon as he goes. He piles up where the slope changes a bit, and then flops a bit, and then staggers to his feet. He's clearly messed up (and later autopsy would show the first shot shredded a lung with the entrance a few ribs back on the right side, and exit in front of the left foreleg, in the chest area) but I decide it's time for some extra insurance. The second shot is broadside / quartering away like the first. It went in next to the other and lodged in the front left shoulder socket. He didn't even twitch after piling up the second time.
So, before the second bear of the day was dressed out, we had number three on the ground, not 50 yards from where the day started with the 14-year old's bear. It was a first bear for all three shooters, but only mine was cinnamon colored. It's going to make a fine rug for the cabin as well as some fine eats. Rifle was a Browning BLR takedown in 308, shooting Barnes 110 grain TTSX over 48 grains of H4895. I had intended to work up a load with the 150 grain TTSX for this hunt, but ran out of time. So, I decided to use the 110 grain load I had already worked up, and which the BLR shoots very accurately. Seemed to work just fine.
http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g436/Dennis_Venema/P1020845.jpg (http://s1101.photobucket.com/user/Dennis_Venema/media/P1020845.jpg.html)
The day started with my buddy's 14 year old son connecting with a nice blackie. I was off on another logging road a few clicks over and heard the shot, and found out at lunchtime back at camp that it was our group. All I saw that morning was a few mulie does. After a late lunch me and another guy decide to go for another walk. We arrive at a fork in the road where both forks pass through the same meadow about 500 yards ahead. He takes the high road, I take the low road, and sure enough, a few minutes later there's a shot. After a bunch of shouting to ensure I won't cross his line of fire I push bush up to him. So, he's hit a bear, knocked it over, but then it ran into the bush. He's a pretty new hunter and unsure of what to do, so I sort of take over and start tracking the thing. It's been about 10 minutes now, and he's unsure of where he hit the animal (but he says he was holding on the chest). He heard lots of cracking in the bush, but then nothing.
So, I start trying to pick up a blood trail. There's nothing at the site where it was shot. I finally pick up a blood trail about 20 yards into the bush, and off we go, about 20 minutes after the shot. The trail is good at the start, but gets more and more infrequent, and smaller drops as we go. Eventually, we're about 300 yards through the bush and the trail is gone. By now we're out in more open bush (some large trees, but more open) and still we can't see Yogi anywhere. I have the shooter stand on the last drop of blood I've found and I'm circling looking for more sign when we hear the bear huff loudly and CLOSE. I lock and load and now it's creep, creep towards the spot where we heard the noise - but the cover is open and there is nothing there. Finally the shooter sees the bear - 25 feet up a tree - a tree I walked under and put my hand on as I passed.
So, after some positioning, he shoots it down from the tree with a shoulder shot. Upon inspection we find the wound from his first shot - a clean hole through the left hind leg just above the paw. That's it http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/images/smilies/mad.png Either his rifle wasn't sighted in correctly or he really pulled the shot.
So, time to go get the guys to help yard this thing out of the bush. I drive back to camp and rally the troops, and off we go. One friend helps with the gutting and I decide, since I'm not needed, to take the other new guy out for a walk, since he's still hoping to connect with his first big game. There's another meadow above us (the one the 14 year old got his in that morning) so we decide to hike up there. The wind is blowing strongly in our faces, so we know we can creep in without being scented. He walks one treeline and I walk the other side.
This meadow has a bowl up in the top part that you can't see into until you're right up on the lip of it. As I crest the ridge, there's a bear, right there, cropping grass and oblivious to my presence. He's facing right, and quartering slightly away from me. I go down on one knee for a steadier shot, but then he drops out of view behind the lip of the bowl. So, it has to be a freehand shot (later paced to 65 generous paces). Since he's quartering away slightly, I tuck it in a few ribs back. He jumps at the hit, and somersaults backwards three times, spraying blood like a punctured water balloon as he goes. He piles up where the slope changes a bit, and then flops a bit, and then staggers to his feet. He's clearly messed up (and later autopsy would show the first shot shredded a lung with the entrance a few ribs back on the right side, and exit in front of the left foreleg, in the chest area) but I decide it's time for some extra insurance. The second shot is broadside / quartering away like the first. It went in next to the other and lodged in the front left shoulder socket. He didn't even twitch after piling up the second time.
So, before the second bear of the day was dressed out, we had number three on the ground, not 50 yards from where the day started with the 14-year old's bear. It was a first bear for all three shooters, but only mine was cinnamon colored. It's going to make a fine rug for the cabin as well as some fine eats. Rifle was a Browning BLR takedown in 308, shooting Barnes 110 grain TTSX over 48 grains of H4895. I had intended to work up a load with the 150 grain TTSX for this hunt, but ran out of time. So, I decided to use the 110 grain load I had already worked up, and which the BLR shoots very accurately. Seemed to work just fine.
http://i1101.photobucket.com/albums/g436/Dennis_Venema/P1020845.jpg (http://s1101.photobucket.com/user/Dennis_Venema/media/P1020845.jpg.html)