So after 3 weekends and 18 bear sightings later we finally made things happen...
May 25th I took this bear in NE corner with "Wanda" (coop2424's .338RUM) at 950 yards with a 250 gr berger... Been trying to get the stars to align for a long range shot for a while now and luckly got it done on first try...
We sat on our stand (with everything ready to go) for around 5 hours that morning with no movement below... So we decided to move further up the mtn; as soon as we had all the gear loaded back up in the 4runner we glanced down range and spotted a nice Boar making his way along the timber line at around 1435 yrds... We quickly grabbed all the gear back out of the rig and got on the move to close the distance but by the time we reached the next ridge he had dissapeared... Heads hanging low and hearts pounding hard we headed back up the mtn... We glassed and moved, glassed and moved all day trying to time the rain showers and scattered sun hoping a bear would show himself... Nothing was going right as the day was changing to evening, so we decided to head back to the original stand where that bear had been (thinking he might make his way back out of the timber)... On the way to the stand we were caught off guard by a sprinting black bear barreling down the hillside, over the road, and down the thick canyon dissapearing without giving us a chance to even judge the thing... We are always in disbelief as to how fast they can cover ground... Around 6:30pm we made it to our stand and were just about to get out the gear when my brother yells out BEAR!... we look down to the bottom of this clear cut and there, walking an old skid road was this good looking Black bear... Like many times rehearsed before we all grabbed what we needed... between the gun, spotting scope, rangefinder, wind guage, iphone ballistics program, ear plugs, video camera, tripod, binos and bullets we had layed out enough gear to have a yardsale! Everything was where it needed to be when i noticed somehow through the day i had shattered the cameras tripod into 100 pieces... The one thing that i was really hopeing to do was film the whole thing but without a tripod i figured we better just concern ourselves with the shot... Im now laying down with "WANDA" (i know it sounds dirty but its just the name we gave coop2424' beautiful rifle) with my brother inlaw to my left bino'd up and my blood brother to my right with the rangfinder calling out 950, then 952, then 952... then he called out -10 degree target sight angle, then, and finally 19.4 moa no wind... I was lucky enough to have a break in all the spiratic weather right when i needed it... I dialed the needed Minutes and made sure they all had a good view of the bear... He made two steps forward opening me up for a wide open broadside shot... Breath, breath, hold, half out, squeeze, BANG! The pushing recoil bumped my scope of target for a split second leaving me clueless as to how the bullet traveled... I sat up waiting for one of my brothers to say something, but all i got was silence... Then i looked back at my bro inlaw and saw the biggest grin i had seen from him... they both stayed in there optics, but literaly at the same time said, HOLY SHI%!!! they both had seen the same thing... As they replayed it for me from there views; we heard bang, then with over 1.1 sec of flight time they saw the bear drop out of sight... Both are now calling hit! I didnt want to get too excited but i can tell you my heart was pounding... We loaded up our gear and headed down the mtn... We knew it would take us at least 10 min to get there and we planned on giving him another 20... The time inched by while we kept replaying all the numbers, calculations, and what we had seen... Finally the time came to look for the bear... We walked the same skid road he had been on and finally found the spot he had been standing... We could see no bear but could see heavly digging front paw/claw tracks leading up to the timber about 50 ft away... we looked up to the shooting perch to try to get the angle of impact to look for exit blood or hair... nothing! I thought how the heck did i miss this bear? But why did he dissapear like he did?... just as my heart beat began to slow my brother yelled HAIR! We all dropped to our knees and began combing the surrounding area and found more hair, then meat, then blood! Now having a confirmed hit we started into the timber... Slow and steady looking for ground disturbance, blood, tracks, anything that would help us to his wereabouts... after 25 ft or so the blood went from droplets on leaf pedals to huge strings of lung colored red... we stopped at the edge of this tall timbered line of replanted trees, and decided to leave me on trail and both brothers to either side to increase our chances of finding the blood once the terrain got too thick... Without making it 5 steps my brother spotted the bear... HES DOWN! I made my way to the piled boar with loaded gun in hand making sure to stay alert... one barrel poke to the eye had confirmed my kill!!! All three of us had killed bear before but never at 950 yards and never did they make it such a short distance without at least a follow up shot... But after close examination i noticed a fist sized exit hole low but behind the front shoulder... We rolled him over and saw i had hit him right behind the shoulder but at a -10 degree angle had left the bear low armpit... it took out everything it needed to and the bullet devistation still shocks me...
Best and most memorable bear hunt to date! Im officially hooked to long range hunting now!
