S
Shadowstalker
Guest
LAST EDITED ON Jun-01-15 AT 04:03PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Jun-01-15 AT 04:00?PM (MST)
Im an idiot and cant upload pics.
We left on May 18th and thankfully got camp set up in record time, because the afternoon thunderstorm dumped on us the rest of the night. The next morning I got out on one of the ridges and was glassing the many hillside/drainage. After finishing that I moved down two ridges and got flagged down by my hunting partnerr because he had a bear in sight. Not a bad start to the first hour. We saw this guy and if I'm doing my math correctly, he was at 1640 meters.
We passed on making a stalk on him since it had only been an hour since hunting started. Over the next 2 days I only saw a Chocolate Sow with 2 Golden Blonde cubs from last year, and a small young bear. Lots of sights to be had with the wildflowers that seemingly sprouted overnight after the afternoon thunderstorms; and the endless beauty of the West Blue's Ridges and Valleys.
I was beginning to worry about passing on the first bear because we just weren't seeing the amount of bears we normally do on this hunt. The only thing I can come up with is that we had such a mild winter that the bears never went into a true hibernation and were feeding more than usual with our mild winter. Friday evening I was glassing this ridge and a steep drainage off to my right when I saw a chocolate down in the bottom of the drainage.
I watched it for a few looking for cubs and than started trying to get a good position to shoot to the bottom of the drainage. The range was 585 yds (very comfortable at the range) but I was having a heck of a time getting into a solid position on a bear that seemed to be feeding in hyper drive. The wind wasn't horrible but it wasn't optimal either. As I torched off the Handloaded 210g TTSX, I lost sight of the bear in the scope, but saw him heading downhill at light speed into the thick brush. There was another clearing below that, and he never exited that, but about 5-10 seconds after I'd last seen him I saw another bear the same color that was about 40 yes to the right and heading uphill through the brush. Could it be the same bear? When do shot bears go through the brush, turn up hill and ????. I decided it would be best to go down from the opposite ridge, but by the time I got over there darkness was vastly approaching and I figure it best to go the next morning, What a long night. ... and morning. The fog had rolled in and cut visibility to 25 yards and there was no way I was going to find the right finger with that low of visibility. When it finally started to lift I headed down while a couple of buddies watched from my shooting position. I tore through the brush and found some tracks but no blood.
After climbing back up that hole, I was looking for a nice ridge to recover at and spend the rest of the evening to glass. I ended up close to the ridge where we saw the first bear and settled in. After an hour or so I saw a brown spot where there had been no brown before feeding up the ridge. I glassed and found no cubs and ranged him at 552 yards. As I dialed the Leopold 4.5X14X50 CDS to 550, I got settled into a much more stable shooting position and center the crosshairs on his front shoulder. Just as I was ready to start squeezing; I got lucky. He turned his back to me and sat on his butt and front paws. I'm sure I was grinning as I settled the crosshairs on the back of his neck and squeezed. His legs went out from under him and he was done. No running down hill, No running wounded. I'm still grinning almost a week later.
I got down to him got a couple of videos and started capping.
I have big hands but this guy:
I was hoping to finish caping him out that night, but I had gone down with limited supplies (2 flashlights, 2 knives, saw, and a packframe) and left all the other non essentials (overnight stuff, first aid kid, AND BATTERIES) up top. After 1 1/2 hours into caping in the dark the flashlight started to dim and I figured I better get my rear up to the top of the ridge before the batteries went out on a moonless night. Thankfully 3 others went down with me the next morning g and after what looked like a knife fight between all of us, we had him caped, boned, and on packframes. The shot went right beneath the base of skull.
I owe a huge thanks to Darrel, Ken, and Todd for helping me pack him out.
Im an idiot and cant upload pics.
We left on May 18th and thankfully got camp set up in record time, because the afternoon thunderstorm dumped on us the rest of the night. The next morning I got out on one of the ridges and was glassing the many hillside/drainage. After finishing that I moved down two ridges and got flagged down by my hunting partnerr because he had a bear in sight. Not a bad start to the first hour. We saw this guy and if I'm doing my math correctly, he was at 1640 meters.
We passed on making a stalk on him since it had only been an hour since hunting started. Over the next 2 days I only saw a Chocolate Sow with 2 Golden Blonde cubs from last year, and a small young bear. Lots of sights to be had with the wildflowers that seemingly sprouted overnight after the afternoon thunderstorms; and the endless beauty of the West Blue's Ridges and Valleys.
I was beginning to worry about passing on the first bear because we just weren't seeing the amount of bears we normally do on this hunt. The only thing I can come up with is that we had such a mild winter that the bears never went into a true hibernation and were feeding more than usual with our mild winter. Friday evening I was glassing this ridge and a steep drainage off to my right when I saw a chocolate down in the bottom of the drainage.
I watched it for a few looking for cubs and than started trying to get a good position to shoot to the bottom of the drainage. The range was 585 yds (very comfortable at the range) but I was having a heck of a time getting into a solid position on a bear that seemed to be feeding in hyper drive. The wind wasn't horrible but it wasn't optimal either. As I torched off the Handloaded 210g TTSX, I lost sight of the bear in the scope, but saw him heading downhill at light speed into the thick brush. There was another clearing below that, and he never exited that, but about 5-10 seconds after I'd last seen him I saw another bear the same color that was about 40 yes to the right and heading uphill through the brush. Could it be the same bear? When do shot bears go through the brush, turn up hill and ????. I decided it would be best to go down from the opposite ridge, but by the time I got over there darkness was vastly approaching and I figure it best to go the next morning, What a long night. ... and morning. The fog had rolled in and cut visibility to 25 yards and there was no way I was going to find the right finger with that low of visibility. When it finally started to lift I headed down while a couple of buddies watched from my shooting position. I tore through the brush and found some tracks but no blood.
After climbing back up that hole, I was looking for a nice ridge to recover at and spend the rest of the evening to glass. I ended up close to the ridge where we saw the first bear and settled in. After an hour or so I saw a brown spot where there had been no brown before feeding up the ridge. I glassed and found no cubs and ranged him at 552 yards. As I dialed the Leopold 4.5X14X50 CDS to 550, I got settled into a much more stable shooting position and center the crosshairs on his front shoulder. Just as I was ready to start squeezing; I got lucky. He turned his back to me and sat on his butt and front paws. I'm sure I was grinning as I settled the crosshairs on the back of his neck and squeezed. His legs went out from under him and he was done. No running down hill, No running wounded. I'm still grinning almost a week later.
I got down to him got a couple of videos and started capping.
I have big hands but this guy:
I was hoping to finish caping him out that night, but I had gone down with limited supplies (2 flashlights, 2 knives, saw, and a packframe) and left all the other non essentials (overnight stuff, first aid kid, AND BATTERIES) up top. After 1 1/2 hours into caping in the dark the flashlight started to dim and I figured I better get my rear up to the top of the ridge before the batteries went out on a moonless night. Thankfully 3 others went down with me the next morning g and after what looked like a knife fight between all of us, we had him caped, boned, and on packframes. The shot went right beneath the base of skull.
I owe a huge thanks to Darrel, Ken, and Todd for helping me pack him out.
