Rufous' 2013 Oregon Spring Bear Hunt

[ShaneTyTrey]

Congrats....a very pretty bear for sure

[pd]

Rufous, that is a beautiful hide in the making!

By the way, how do you like the Peltor ear plugs?  With a .300 WinMag you surely need plugs, but the average review on that product is horrible (they say that the ear plug system is too small for adult men).  I like the design, but the reviews make me wonder.  What is your opinion?

[gramps]

Congrats again !!
Enjoyed working on the hide with you.

[Rufous]

PD, I do not (to my knowledge) use the Peltor plugs.

Gramps, enjoyed hanging with you as well. Spent about 4 hours on the hide today and still have more fat/flesh removal to do tomorrow before I can get any salt on it. Hoping to give it the first salt application tomorrow.

[pd]

PD, I do not (to my knowledge) use the Peltor plugs.

Rufous, the picture of you and your boar shows some type of ear plugs (I thought that they were Peltor, but I was mistaken).  Which brand, what do you think of them?

[Karl Blanchard]

Outstanding bear my friend!  Way to get it done!  You sir are the bear whisperer!

[Rufous]

PD, I was using this product and like them quite well. I wish I could afford a good set of the electronic ones though. Sometimes one just does not have time to insert a plug and if they were comfortable and already in the ear but you could still hear well that would be the best bet overall. The ones I use are I think much better than two separate plugs that you would carry in a pocket and then insert because the ones I use are so much faster to get installed. They do not actually go into the ear very much but I find that they work well for the occasional shot on game. I bought them at Sun Rental:

http://www.howardleight.com/earplugs/qb2hyg

[pd]

Thanks for the information on the earplugs, Rufous.  I have very sensitive ears (excellent hearing, and want to keep it that way).  Ear plugs are a big issue for me, and I will try your suggestion.

[Rufous]

My buddy Mike and I went out yesterday evening and saw 6 bears. There was a blonde sow with 2 baby blonde cubs, another small blonde bear, probably a yearling pictured below and then we saw a black one being courted by a big blonde boar. They were 800 yards away across a canyon and by the time we got over there they were gone. Going to try again tomorrow.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Very nice bear right there! 

[Rufous]

Another glowing testimonial for Barnes bullets. I shot a male black bear a week ago after calling it in from about 300 yards away. It weighed approximately 225# and was about 50 yards from me when I shot it. The bear was mostly facing me and my bullet hit the bear in the chest to the left of its neck and between the neck and shoulder joint, completely broke the arm bone just below the shoulder blade then exited at the back of the ribs then penetrated into the hind leg muscle. When I was skinning the bear I noticed a hole in its rear leg and there was a wad of hair in the hole. I was fairly confident that I would find the bullet during butchering and did just that a bit ago. The bullet, a Barnes 200 grain LRX, was fired from my 300 Win Mag with a muzzle velocity of about 2930 fps. After cleaning the meat and hair out of it I weighed it at 199.0 grains.

[Rufous]

We got out yesterday and were out all day but only saw a couple of bears. And I mean a couple- the same 2 bears that were courting each other Thursday night. We had hoped to find them and take the blonde boar but they just did not give us a long enough chance to get a shot off. Good day on the mountain though. We plan to go out again tomorrow but in an area a couple miles west of where we have been hunting and in fact in the area where I filled my tag in 2008. Hoping tomorrow is the day for Mike to fill his tag!

[Timberstalker]

That is a dandy blonde bear.  Hope you guys kill one tomorrow.

[Rufous]

I just weighed the bear meat that is in the freezer. I ended up with 8# worth of various roasts and 42# of scrap meat to be ground for burger and sausage. Heading out soon to try to fill Mike's tag.

[Rufous]

Well my buddy Mike filled his tag a several hours ago. We left town at about 1pm and hiked into the general area where I got my spring bear back in 2008. We split up to be able to glass more territory. After about an hour we both saw bears but they were different bears. The one I saw was across the river where Mike shot his spring bear back in 2008 and was much to far to get. But the bear Mike saw was on a ridge between us and lower on the mountain. After he told me where it was over the radio I also saw it. It looked big. I saw it stand up on its back legs with its back against a tree to scratch its back. So we met up on that ridge and worked our way down to where he had seen the bear. We got down there and saw the bear again. I saw it stand up and scratch its back again. Then it was moving away from us and was about 480 yards away. I started calling with just my voice and brought it in closer but then we lost sight of it due to the slope. After a while we saw it again but it had worked from our right to our left and seemingly had lost interest in my calling. It was now 300 yards away down the slope from us but still moving. It went into some brush and we hoped it would come out so Mike could get a shot off. It did but on the other side of the brush but Mike was able to put a killing shot into the big boar with his 7mm Rem Mag (shooting handloaded 160 Nosler Partitions). The bear ran away from us for about 25 yards then dropped and cartwheeled most spectacularly down the hill. Fortunately it lodged up in some brush. We worked our way down the tremendously steep slope and got some photos before breaking it into pieces. We left the meat and hide because we realized we can get the quad down quite close to it. So we have to go back in tomorrow for all of that. Feels good to both be tagged out! We figure that his bear weighed about 315# based on its girth of 46" and length of 71". I got some video that I will try to get on Youtube tomorrow later and post a link.