Rufous' 2013 Oregon Spring Bear Hunt

[Rufous]

Yes there are wolves in the area but I suspect it was a coyote. It was pretty small overall. Sure was scary looking.

[xXLojackXx]

Looks like somebody dropped a wolf

[Rufous]

My hunting partner that drew with me went out bear hunting today with another mutual friend. The mutual friend called in and shot a smallish cougar. I will post a pic when I get one.

[270Flat]

👍

[whacker1]

My hunting partner that drew with me went out bear hunting today with another mutual friend. The mutual friend called in and shot a smallish cougar. I will post a pic when I get one.

I hate to be that guy, but I got to ask - Is cougar open in that unit? I thought it was closed in all units by 3/31 or earlier? 

[smdave]

 Hunting Cougar in Oregon
 
The General Statewide Season

•The Season is Jan. 1 - Dec. 31 or until Hunt Zone Quotas have been met, whichever occurs first.

[whacker1]

Hunting Cougar in Oregon
 
The General Statewide Season

•The Season is Jan. 1 - Dec. 31 or until Hunt Zone Quotas have been met, whichever occurs first.

Oops - my bad, I forgot this was Oregon.

[Rufous]

Saw my first bear of the year this afternoon. It was a chocolate phase, probably about 3 years old so I passed. Looking for a decent sized blonde or a mature boar of any color. It was great though to put the first bear on the boards. Covered a bit over 3 miles in quite steep country.

[Rufous]

My brother joined me last Saturday for a hunt in the same area that I saw my first bear of the year. We covered about 4.5 miles but saw no bears.

Yesterday my buddy Ben and his 13 year old daughter joined me in the same area. Ben has been out on many bear hunting adventures with me but not as a tag holder. He has never been with me when I shot a bear though. Well I thought that was going to change because I saw a decent blonde bear that I planned to shoot. Problem was Ben and Hannah were up the ridge behind me several hundred yards and I had left my pack about halfway between us as I worked my way further down a ridge. It was about 530 pm when I left my pack and after a bit I noticed some really fresh digging. My alertness increased and I poked along down the ridge very slowly. Finally I saw what was probably a 3 year old blonde bear feeding on the ridge top below me. The wind was in my favor and it had no clue I was there, only 130 yards from it. I decided to call Ben on the radio because I wanted him and Hannah (who got into hunting a couple years ago, killing her first deer) to witness the taking of the bear and I wanted him to get my pack so I could video the event. Well eventually, despite trying to talk quietly the bear heard us and took off. I am not too bummed though because my hunt is not over and maybe I can get an even bigger bear. I would have been happy with this small blonde one though since I have never taken a blonde phase bear. It was a good day on the mountain and we covered about 7 miles, starting at 4600 feet elevation then dropping to about 3200' which is where the bear was before working our way back to the truck. We got back just at dark. Planning to go out this afternoon with my buddy Mike who drew this tag with me.

[pd]

Rufous, that is a great story.  I am sure that father Ben and daughter Hannah felt bad for you, but in the end you all had a wonderful time (which is at least half of why you were there).  You are THE man when it comes to bear hunting in the Blues, and you will prevail eventually.  We are all looking forward to that photograph (and maybe a video, too).

[Rufous]

My hunting partner Mike and I went out yesterday evening and again today, both to the same place. Yesterday we covered about 3.5 miles on foot and ended up seeing 4 bears. I saw a lone bear way down in the canyon that looked pretty big and Mike and I saw a sow with cub and then we also saw a decent sized lone jet black bear which is pretty rare for the Blues. Mike was tempted to shoot the black one but it was 8pm and it was on a very steep slope. We did not think it likely that we would be able to find it last night if he had shot it so we decided to try for it today. Well today we got in there at about 9am and glassed the area for a bit but did not spot it immediately. Mike headed off in another direction and I headed down the main ridge. It wasn't 5 minutes after we separated that I saw the jet black bear. I called Mike on the radio to hustle back and while he was returning I got this photo:



Just before Mike got back the bear fed into some timber and out of sight. I was still not sure it was big enough to meet my goal but figured it would meet Mike's- he would be happy with a boar of 250# or bigger. Well we decided that I should do some calling with my Woods Wise Bear Blaster call to see if we could lure Black Bart out of the Woods. After several minutes of calling Mike, who was about 50 yards down hill from me and out of my vision, fired off a shot. I was quite surprised because I had not seen the bear coming in and while I have called in quite a number of bears over the years I do not necessarily expect to succeed. Anyway the short of this part of the story is that he missed. We saw the bear working its way up hill a few minutes later and it appeared unhurt. We looked for blood and saw none as well. The bear was coming in but for whatever reason suddenly decided to exit and Mike took a quick shot at it on the run but missed.

We spent the rest of the day in that major canyon area and ended up seeing a total of 8 bears, 4 of which were repeats from yesterday. Late in the day we saw a sow and cub and then another sow with 2 cubs. The sow with the 2 cubs was a gorgeous cinnamon red. I really like the blonde phase bears and have yet to take one. I am hoping to accomplish that this spring which would complete what I am calling the Lower 48 Color Phase Slam. So far I have taken black, chocolate and cinnamon  Even though I really want a blonde one  I find the cinnamon most attractive to me. At the very end of the day we saw the same sow and cub as yesterday and I was able to get this photo of them from 130 yards away.

We had a great day and it is awesome to finally be seeing the bears out.

[bucklucky]

Awesome Rufous, keep us posted .

[KopperBuck]

Nice pics. Going to be a few years before I draw that tag. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the write ups.

[Rufous]

I got out Thursday with two of my hunting buddies, both named Mike. Mike D is the guy that recently got a cougar when he and Mike C were out bear hunting. Mike D does not have an Oregon bear tag but Mike C and I do. Anyway I call Mike D Mad Dog and Mike C MC Blammer to keep them straight. Mad Dog took us up to a beautiful chunk of private property that he has permission to hunt. We only saw one bear which required a bit of a hike to get into position. Once we got over there we could no longer see it but Mad Dog fired up his FoxPro and after several minutes of calling I spotted the blonde bear working its way up the ridge that it had been on. MC Blammer took the shot at my suggestion since he was the one who first spotted the bear. Unfortunately he missed and the bear got away. I sighted his rifle in for him later that evening and it was hitting low. Hopefully next opportunity he will connect.

Yesterday fellow forum member Gramps and I went out and covered a bunch of ground on his 4 wheeler. We had a great time and saw some awesome country but only one small bear was spotted briefly by Gramps.

Today MC Blammer and I went out to the same area that we hunted last weekend. I saw a sow and cub and another saw with two cubs. Mike saw the sow and cub and another lone bear but is was too small. One the way out we cut fresh tracks of what looked to be a big bear. So far we have not seen any obvious monsters.

I did have a cool encounter with a couple coyotes. They were working their way up the ridge I was going down so I sat down, got out my predator call and camera and called them in to about 10 yards away. Got a great photo of the first one that came in.

[bucklucky]

Nice picture !!! Thanks for the update !