Feedback from guys who know what they are doing :)

[Heetor]

I wouldn't say it was inevitable, but after all of this advice it sure became possible.  To all of those who responded thank you so much for the pointers and the detailed advice, I have taken all of it to heart, and funny enough almost none of it is contradictory.  Got this guy on Friday night, not the biggest picture on the site by a fair stretch, but I am definitely very happy with him     

I scouted the spot a few days before, when I was driving some old cuts and there were two fairly recent piles of scat on the approach leading to the cut.  I walked into the cut looking for sign and I could see there was a pretty wet gully with a berry patch on the far edge of the cut, right along the tree line.  I glassed it from the trail for a few minutes and it looked pretty good.  The patch was about 400 yards from the trail I was on which ran along a ridge on the top side of the cut, with the gully/tree line at the bottom, it was a very steep cut.  I didn't see any more sign on the trail, but that gully and berry patch on the tree line looked promising. 

I wrestled with climbing down the cut and checking the berry patch for sign, but I didn't want to make  a bunch of noise and leave scent, so I decided to risk an evening on it and come back and sit.  Probably a rookie mistake, but I cut my teeth on whitetail and if you make too much noise or scent they may not come back to an area for a long time, so I figured discretion was the better part of valor on this spot.

I didn't end up making it back over to the spot for a few days, but I walked in a couple of hours before dark on Friday with the plan of sitting on the spot and calling for the evening.  There were a couple of black stumps around the berry patch, so I glassed them for a few minutes to make sure, when one of the stumps turned its head at me.  There was already a bear in there, and he hadn't picked up on me coming in.  He was standing in some bushes about 10 yards from the tree line.  I was about 150 yards uphill from where I had planned to setup for the evening.

I crouched down and watched him for a few minutes, he looked big and my heart was starting to beat pretty hard.  I put my range finder on him and got a couple of readings between 367 and 370 yards.  I had to think pretty hard about that one for a while.  300 yards and I wouldn't have thought twice, 400 yards I have shot quite often over the summer at paper but my longest shot at an animal was a moose at 320, so this was pushing it.  I knew the tables for my round and knew I could make the shot, but had to be very careful, that is not a poke to be taken lightly.  I mulled over trying to stalk in on him to get it down to 200 yards, or trying to call to see if he would come in a little, but in the end decided to take it.

Since I wasn't setup yet I had to ditch my gear, dig the bi-pod out of my pack and get it attached, then get stretched out to take the shot prone, (I was up above him so I cold see through the grass lying down).  With a lot of adrenaline flowing I went painfully slow, but in my head I made about as much noise as a semi careening off a cliff, (especially the damn zippers and velcro), but he never paid me any attention.  I got setup and the scope dialed, and for painful seconds I couldn't find him, but then I saw his head move out from behind a thick patch.  I watched him for a good 2 minutes, (felt like a week), waiting for him to step out in the open, and when he finally did he was standing broad to me with is head down.  Wind was next to nothing and coming into my face, so I only had to deal with the drop.

I took a lot of time with the trigger, slow-slow-slow squeeze!  He immediately flopped forward onto a pile of rotting sticks and didn't move.  I watched him in the scope for a about a minute, and he was sprawled out and looked dead, surprised me a little.  I could make out the black patch without the glass so I sat-up to give him a few minutes before I started climbing down, man I felt good.  I am sure for some guys getting their bear is almost automatic each year, but I have put so many hours into this since I decided to get into bear hunting last fall, and I was struggling to trust it was over.

I started to stand up, not sure if he heard me or it was a fluke of timing, but just like I was being paranoid about he jumped up and ran down into the trees at the bottom of the gully.  I couldn't believe it, it didn't make any sense!  At that point he had been sprawled out for probably 1-2 minutes before I stood up, never had an animal sit stunned for that long and then jump up and run. 

I started creeping down the cut slow-slow-slow rifle up with my spidy senses on max.  I heard a loud wailing sort of noise come out of the bottom, then nothing.  I got to the tree line and looked down, and he was laying there about 40 yards from where I had shot him.  I guess he had enough left in the tank to make a break for the bottom, which surprised me, man those bears are tough.  Of course he shrunk a little without a 12X scope on him, but I was pretty happy with the way it unfolded.  Clean pass-through shot through the lungs, about 2" behind the shoulder, only meat loss was in the rib cage. 

Anyway thanks again guys, a lot of you put some real time and effort in with the pointers, and I appreciate it, I don't think I could have done this without the help.  I don't think I have room for another one in the freezer, but I think I will make it out to do a little practice calling before the big nap .

[Heetor]

With pic attached

[h20hunter]

Sweet. Nice job all tbe way around. Good shot placement...good hunt....pretty darn cool.

[Machias]

Awesome, congrats!!!!!

[crschralping]

Nice job dude!!!

[Doc Sauce]

Awesome post!  I've been trying to figure this stuff here (Kitsap/Mason counties) on my own and asking guys I know in the area these kinds of questions.  I should have just posted.

Side note... Where in Tennessee did you move from?  I came from Knoxville, my wife from Cookeville...

Thanks for the wisdom being shared here.  I apreciate it!

[RadSav]

Dang fine bear, shot, hunt and write-up Thank you for sharing it with us.

I wouldn't worry about the ground shrinkage.  I've been involved in a lot of bear kills and they still shrink on me the majority of the time.  I think it is the excitement of seeing bear that makes it happen.  Few other animals give a hunter that level of excitement.  The reason I like watching and hunting bear so much.

I'm very happy for you.  Congratulations!

[Machias]

Bear shrinkage.  I've seen alot of bears, up close and far away.  I pride myself as a pretty decent judge of bear size.  A few years ago while watching an elk wallow, I was sitting on a big log, leaned up against a fairly big tree.  I was bow hunting.  Heard a faint noise to my right and sloooowly turned my head to see a nice 250 pound chocolate bear walking up at 9 yards.  It walked up and stood directly in front of me on the log I was sitting on at maybe 9 or 10 yards.  It looked away and I drew and double lunged it, rolled around and let out a roar and came up running right at me.  Literally could have slapped it on the butt when it ran past me.  Piled up 35 or 40 yards away.  I walked up and I'm like WTH, where's my bear???  This bear was a 110 chocolate sow.  Serious ground shrinkage!!!  Nice pack out though!

[RadSav]

Bear shrinkage.  I've seen alot of bears, up close and far away.  I pride myself as a pretty decent judge of bear size.  A few years ago while watching an elk wallow, I was sitting on a big log, leaned up against a fairly big tree.  I was bow hunting.  Heard a faint noise to my right and sloooowly turned my head to see a nice 250 pound chocolate bear walking up at 9 yards.  It walked up and stood directly in front of me on the log I was sitting on at maybe 9 or 10 yards.  It looked away and I drew and double lunged it, rolled around and let out a roar and came up running right at me.  Literally could have slapped it on the butt when it ran past me.  Piled up 35 or 40 yards away.  I walked up and I'm like WTH, where's my bear???  This bear was a 110 chocolate sow.  Serious ground shrinkage!!!  Nice pack out though!

    At least you got the "Chocolate" part right

The wife and I took a break from bow hunting elk on a hot day.  Found a nice shady spot on the edge of a road right above a creek.  As we ate lunch we threw rocks down into the creek.  I caught some movement 200 yards directly across the creek on an old skid road..."Big Bear!"  I ran back to the truck and grabed the wifes 257 Bob.  She had not seen the bear so I took the shot on what I was thinking was a 300-350# grizzly colored bear with a big shoulder hump.  He dropped right in the middle of the road.  I held the cross hairs on him for about a minute and saw no movement at all.  As I dropped the gun to my waist I said, "How you like that off hand shooting?  "  At that exact moment the wife yells, "He's running!"  Sure enough he is full bore cruising down towards the creek.  I had one clear shot about 10 yards from the creek and put him down for good.  Thought we were going to drive right up to him and now we had a 250 yard back uphill 

He ended up still having a shoulder hump, still grizzly colored, still one of my favorite bear of all time, but only about 250 - 275#.

[BOWHUNTER45]

good job heetor  nice bear !

[Heetor]

Those are some classic ground shrinkage stories  

Almost identical story to what happened to a friend when we were on our annual moose hunting trip to Canada last year.  We were walking down a trail back in the bush when we saw a bear in the grass off to the side, about 200 yards.  He was a lumbering monster and he started walking across the trail calmly. 

My buddy took the shot, and the bear ran off into the bush, we waited a bit and went in to look for him.  We walked into a little clearing about 40 yards back, and there is this much smaller bear laying their dead.  I still get ribbed about this one from my friends, but the first thing out of my mouth was, "there must be another dead bear around here somewhere, that isn't the one you shot"  

Yeah right, of course we just happened to stumble across a bear that had died of natural causes 40 yards from where he had shot "the monster".  Anyway it was still a good bear, maybe 125 but he was a pepperoni and ham bear not a hanging on the wall bear...  There is a good lesson here on how much experience it takes to judge the size of a live bear, I would have sworn up and down that bear was 250 - 300 before we walked up on him.

Thanks for the comments guys, I was pretty happy with this little adventure.  Looking forward to firing up the Bradley to make some ham

[Machias]

 

"at least you got the chocolate part right"   

[bearpaw]

congrats on getting your bear, sweet... 

[JackOfAllTrades]

As Bill Engvall would say:
 
"Here's your sign."
 

  I heard a loud wailing sort of noise come out of the bottom, then nothing.

  Sometimes that can go on for minutes. It is blood curtling to me.
 
Heetor, you done well!   (Tell yer wife there are much closer places to hunt bear next season.)
 
-Steve

[deadwoodbuck]