50Cal Passes on Decent Bear

[Wea300mag]

After spending the last four weeks in 9 different states for work, I was very happy to finally come home, grab the 300 Weatherby, and do some bear hunting yesterday. 50Cal and I met in Darrington and proceeded on to one of his favorite spots. Within 3 minutes of setting up the spotting scope 50Cal says "I got one". I swing the binocs around and see this bear. This view is at 18X with the camera,




These views are through the magic of the computer.






The bear was tearing the crap out of some bee boxes that were placed out in the middle of nowhere. We were about 800 yards away and could have easily closed within 100 by dropping down behind a finger ridge. The big debate between 50Cal and I was on whether this would be considered baiting? They weren't our bees and we were on public land many miles from civilization. What are your thoughts? Either way, we just sat and watched him tear apart bee boxes for 30 minutes until the clouds rolled in at the view turned to this.



Later on, after the fog opened for a bit, we walked down through the brush to survey the damage. The rain was pouring the whole time and we ended up totally soaked. It reminded me why I hate hunting the west side. We both fell on our arses a half dozen times.

The huckleberries (both red and blue) were definitely ripe and ready for harvest in that area.



 

The clouds/fog pretty much dominated the rest of the hunt but we did manage find four grouse even with very limited visibility, just 3 days too early.

[poulsbo]

find out whos land it is through county courthouse , i'm sure the beekeeper would love it if you centerpunched a bear or two there

[50CalJim]

Well all I know is that I'm taking off in about a 1/2 hr & if he shows up again i'll have a "Honey Bear " story to tell.

[poulsbo]

if the bee keeper catches ya with that bruin tipped over you better be careful, he'll probably try to kiss ya.

[Ray]

A lot of those bee boxes I have seen have motion sensor alarms. I hear it works for a while until the bears figure out that they are just alarms and nothing more. I don't have any problems with bee farmers using land for their stuff and I would not call that baiting unless you took part in placing them there. The bee farmer would thank you.

[M_ray]

I say shoot him ... bee boxes are not placed with the intent to bait bears and as others have said the bee keeper would thank you! Now if there was a pile of doughnuts down there weather you placed them or not I think you would have a problem. 

[Ray]

I forgot to mention. I hope you get that bear 

[DeKuma]

Would be rough to punch that bear there though!  Think of how many bees would be all over you during the dressing process!  At least the ones I have seen have had them swarming all over them!

[tlbradford]

   .

[PWN Kurt]

Nice looking bear.  My $.02 is that its close enough to baiting that I'd pass on it.

Kurt

[robb92]

Nice looking bear, I would wait till he is a little ways away from the boxes to shoot it, so the bees are not swarming all over you.

[Ridgerunner]

thats not baiting come on.  no way, should have killed it imo.

[boneaddict]

Pretty pissed off beekeeper out there somewhere.  THATS ALOT OF MONEY

[Big10gauge]

And I thought Honey Bears were only in South America!!

[Bscman]

Hmmm...I'm about 99% sure I know where that's at.

I'm also going to agree with the majority...I wouldn't have hesitated to take the shot--after taking closer look to better judge the bears size.

You didn't place the bees there...you just stumbled across them...and the bee keeper would probably be glad you were helping to protect his property.
Makes sense in my head.