Species: Black bear
Date: May 21/23
Region 4
Method: .338wm Barnes TTSX 210grain
https://imgur.io/a/94QaIZR
https://imgur.com/a/94QaIZR
https://i.imgur.com/70Emek7.jp
https://i.imgur.com/LCHtkMe.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/izg4mjb.jpg
https://imgur.com/a/WfUu6ho
This past weekend I took a nice black bear that I am very please with. This old warrior has scars across his face from past battles, but was well fed with good teeth and decent fat for a spring bear.
The hunt was very exciting and happened relatively quickly.
My partners and I headed into the area we intended to hunt mid-morning to check out the lay of the land and to work out how we might hunt the spot. This area is a huge flat treeless piece of terrain that I would estimate to be about 3 square kms in size. It is very good bear habitat with lots of lush grass forage surrounded on two sides by a cottonwood forest to the north and east and river to the south and west.
We entered the area through the forest from the east and within a short time we spotted a medium sized black bear. We observed it for a short time, but could not determine if it was a boar or sow with cubs before it winded us and slowly moved into the tree line. We continued on and scouted the area formulating a plan to come back late afternoon for an evening hunt. We pulled out and headed back to camp for rest, food and to wait for the evening.
Around 6:00pm we headed back out to the same spot and walked through the cottonwood forest. When we broke out of the tree line into the treeless terrain one of my partners right away spotted a bear at the far end of the clearing about 2 km away. I raised my binos and quickly identified the telltale hump of a grizzly. It was very dark brown, but no doubt a grizzly. This was obviously not the bear we were looking for, but interesting nonetheless. We watched him for a few minutes before we spotted a second bear. This bear was also a grizzly with the classic brown coat with grizzled tips. This one turned out to be a sow and after watching for a while we observed the two courting. The chocolate brown boar was very interested in the sow, but she wanted nothing to do with him. They spent some time between interacting with one another and sessions of grazing on the lush grass.
We decide to make our way to our predetermined glassing spot while keeping an eye on the grizzlies. When we got to the glassing spot two of us set up tripods and started glassing while the other two of us broke out the jet boils and started boil water for a meal of Mr noodles. I wasn’t behind the glass for more than 5mins before I spotted a bear to the north along the tree line. This bear was a black and he was a decent bear. He was solo and looked like a shooter. Needless to say I lost my appetite for supper and declared that I was going to make a play on this bear. A quick check with the rangefinder told me that the bear was 1300 yards away and moving to the west. I packed up my gear and grabbed my rifle to start my stalk across the wide open terrain. One of my partners joined me on the stalk.
We moved at a trot hunched over to keep our heads low working our way amongst the ancient stumps. At our first rest stop I ranged the bear and I was shocked to find that we still had 900 yards to go! We put our heads down again and continued to move toward the bear at a trot. The next rest spot put us 550 yards from our quarry. At this point we were breathing heavy from our efforts.
We now had a low rise between us and the bear that gave us cover, but also prevented us from see the bear. We made our way to the top of the low hill which put us within 450 yards. We needed to get closer. With the stiff breeze that was blowing I was not comfortable taking a shot from this range. Now that we were at the top of the rise we were running low on cover. From this point we belly crawled to a stump that gave us a bit of cover and put us at 350 yards. This was as close as we were going to get without completing exposing ourselves. This was going to be the distance I would attempt the shot. After drinking some water and taking some deep breaths to calm my nerves and get my breathing under control I set up my pack as a rest laid myself prone. My partner gave a check on the grizzlies to verify they were still in the same spot and busy with their own thing. I was now in position and gave one last sighting with the rangefinder to verify the range at 350 yards. 350yards translates to 3 MOA for my .338wm load so I dial my scope turret to 3 MOA and got behind the rifle and waited for the bear to present a good broadside shot. The bear was feeding and was moving about so I had to wait for my opportunity. after a while he turn broadside briefly and the safety came off, but he quickly turned back to presenting me with a head on view so I waited again. Another couple of seconds and he turn again an presented me with my shot and I squeeze the trigger. Bam!! The big magnum bucked against my shoulder. When I was able to get the scope back on him a millisecond later I saw that he was headed straight for us. I cycled another cartridge into the chamber, but didn’t need it. The bear turned back and piled up on the tree line not far from where I hit him. My partner announced that the bear was down and not moving. Safety back on my rifle we waited for my other two partners who were watching the scene unfold though spotting scopes to make their way to us. It seemed like forever for them to get to us, but we used our time watching the grizzlies and making sure they didn’t react to the report of the rifle. They didn’t react at all that we could see from that distance.
Once the other two arrived we made our way to the downed bear. He was one dead bear with a double lung hit with an exit wound that had a part of his lungs sticking out of the hole. After a few pictures and hand shakes three of us got to work breaking the bear down while the fourth kept his eye on the grizzlies. We worked fast as it was getting later in the evening and didn’t want to be out in grizzly country with meat on our back in the dark. We had almost had the work complete when the sow grizzly started to move to the east toward the area where we had come from. This was unsettling and we finished up and loaded our packs. By this time the sow started into a gallop and blocked our route back to the trucks. We had to come up with a plan B. Luckily I had worked in the area many years ago and knew there was an old trail to the north that would take us on a long route to the road. We marched for 2.5 km to the road where we dropped our loads and two of my partners did the other 3.5 km back to the truck. By the time they got back to us it was fully dark, but there was no sign of the grizzly sow.
We made our way to a nearby creek where we hung the game bags for the night off the road bridge where the wind was blowing strong and the air cool from the creek. Once this was done we headed back to camp.
As we pulled into camp we saw in the headlights a great big pile of bear turd in the middle of the road! Oh no! While we were out hunting my bear another of his mates ransack our camp, but that’s for another story…