Compliments of 140 GR Hornaday Interlock ! And now the 180 gr (UP DATED TODAY)

[robertsjd]

cool pix man !! and awesome stories love the story about your 2 buddys not staying put haha funny stuff !

[BOWHUNTER45]

O.K I had a hot day at work today So now I have a ice cold drink in hand I can continue my bear hunting journal ... I will tell the story of Kyle's 1st bear at the age of 9 if I remember right !
 
Kyle was excited when he got his license ..I told him if he could pass his hunters ed. class I would take him bear hunting ..well after missing 0 on his test and the instructors a little in shock I had him there they finally told me that Kyle was ready to go hunting without a doubt    O.k So anyway we head out early and start hiking at daylight ....it takes us about an hour to get where I wanted to be ..my sweet little perch over looking what I call (the hell hole ) Literally ! I knew if we got one here it would be a scary recovery and no need to tell mom  We are sitting there for about 15 minutes or so and I hear brush breaking below us and grunting sounds ..I tell the boys to be real quiet and do not move ..they can now hear it and I could hear both of my boys hearts just pounding away ..The problem the bear was against the ledge we were sitting on and we could not see him ..We had to wait until it fed back down the hill below us ...he was feeding on Oregon Grapes and this was the end of September and most of the Blueberries were gone in this area by now ..after about an hour of hearing the bear and not seeing him he finally popped out on a huge dead cedar tree and starting tearing it apart ...I was trying to get Kyle settled in while the bear was occupied ..final Kyle is settled in on my pack and tells me he was solid and not moving ..I tell him to wait until he gets broadside and put the crosshairs on his shoulder ...Well now the bears hears us and turned right at us ...he stands there just looking pretty and he has a huge white V on his chest  I told Kyle to put the crosshairs dead center in the white V of his chest ...He is around 200 down hill ...Kyle then tells me I am ready dad ...I just kept whispering Squeeze squeeze squeeze and POOOOOW ... the bear flips over on his back - feet in the air and rolls off the log  I mean nice shot I said to Kyle ...it really was an awesome time to see him roll his 1st bear ...But now it was time to head down into hells Canyon without killing my boys ...to be truthful I do not think anything would of stopped them from getting to that bear ....it was hell coming out because I had the whole damn bear on my back and they could not help ...was not bad as far as getting all the boned out meat and the hide ..it was the climb back up that about killed me !

[h20hunter]

The grin tells you everything you need to know. Worth it!

[saylean]

Holy cow....look at that skinny dude with the bear!

I like these old pics...very cool.

what do you mean?! he's at least 300 lbs...

Great pics and stories/advice...fallen trees are bear highways.

[johnnyaustin44]

Awesome stories. Love bear hunting in a big way!!

[BOWHUNTER45]

Here is another story for you ..So as you can see my boys were with me most of the time from about 5 yrs old on ..they loved being with pop and chasing bears ...Bears and turkeys are there most favorite thing to hunt ..I know some wonder my I am telling all these stories but what if I was gone tomorrow ? I want us to be known as hunters and this it what we live to do ..So That's why I am sharing this with everyone ...take everyday as your last and just enjoy what you love to do ! So on this particular day we hike in and spend most of the morning freezing our butts off ..it was cold with the fog hanging over us all morning ..I even made a small fire because we goy a little wet walking threw the blueberries on the way in ..Survival mode  About 11am the sun finally start popping threw the clouds and I could start to see down the hill ...Basically following the fog line as it slowly disappeared ...Nothing that I could see at this point ..After lunch it starting getting warmer out and now we were just sitting back glassing every inch of brush we could ..I was looking So hard I was seeing double of everything ..about 1:30 I set my glasses down on a stump and looked toward the timber to our right ,,and  Bam ..there he was ..just as black as an ace of spades... They prettiest brightest black ball of fur you ever seen  By the time I got the gun and got turned around he was gone  but I knew he would pop up again ..and he did ...I see him coming threw the berries and no shot and then he stands up on an old cedar stump and 5 ft round and looking down the hill from us ...I told the boys get ready I going to shoot so watch where he goes if he heads down the hill ..They told me go a head dad I see him good ...I put the crosshairs right between his shoulder blades ..this was a little poke but I knew he was dead  I squeeze off and pooooow .. He folded right where he stood ..just dropped like a rock ..and thank god he did because he would of rolled for a mile before hitting the bottom ..the boys were so excited ..just yelling dad you drop him ...I just love it ...that all !!!!

[BOWHUNTER45]

You can see how steep of a mountain we were on ..if they rolled off , it would be a long ride to the bottom 

Just remember all compliments of a .270 and a 140 gr .Hornaday interlock  tell me when you get bored and I will stop ...

[nocklehead]

impressive bear hunting legacy! keep the pics and stories comin! 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Here is one of my easy bears ...When I say easy I mean I was prepared for a good hike this particular morning and ended up back at the house before 7:30 am ..all the years bear hunting I got lucky twice by running in to them before hiking my tail off but it is nice to get an easy one here and there .. So anyway I wake up about 5am and get all my stuff loaded in my truck and tell the wife I will be back about dark So have me some dinner ready  I should have told her to have breakfast ready  I head out before daylight and head up around Mt.Baker as I am heading up the road I am looking down at the creek on my left ..thinking I may catch one getting a drink right at daylight ..as I come around a corner I am still looking at the creek and when I look back at the road I see a dust cloud going around the next corner ..I get up there and seen where something jumped in the brush ..I get out and put one in the chamber and sneak up the road looking in the timber ...all the sudden I see 2 black ears peaking up over a log then his eyes ...I pull up and wait for him to give me his neck and Poooooow ... lights out ....65 yrds from the road  I look at my watch and it said 6:15 am ...I went over to the bear and put a rope around his neck and yarded him to the road ...took me a little time to get him in my truck but I did .... When I got home at 7 my wife is like WTH . you said you would be home at dark .... Birrrrrr dirrrrr ...I got one honey ! 

Check out the old NWTF Hats ....I look like a dork 

[Sportfury]

Sweet, love the stories. Keep them coming.

[Curly]

Sweet, love the stories. Keep them coming.

 
 

[BOWHUNTER45]

O.K Time for another bed time story ..I can not remember how long ago this one was but I still had hair ...Lmao !

I get off of work one evening and decide I need to go for a ride So I threw the trusty .270 in the truck and headed out ..all I think I crabbed a knife and picked up a buddy ..This was back when I could freely roam around the hills around my house without GATES ... So my buddy and I decided we would split up and he would walk one grade and I would take another ..I dropped him off and I parked the truck so we were both within walking distance if one of us got back sooner than the other ..as I am walking out this old grade I could see the blueberries were thick and I am getting excited about what could be ahead ...I started seeing bear poop after bear poop along the grade and it was fresh ...I slowly work my way down the grade stopping a lot and I hear something in the brush about 50 yrds from me ..it has to be a bear  I stand there for a few minutes and I can hear it coming to me ..then I see his back and his head pop up ..he is looking right at me but has no clue I am there ..he starts feeding quartering to me ..Then I could see his shoulder so I layed the crosshairs just in front of his shoulder and his neck and squeezed the trigger ...Pooooow ... no movement what so ever ...I get to him ...about 30yrds and he never took another step ...My buddy heared me shoot and was there to help shortly ...his words were ..wth you sent me down the wrong grade  then he said ...I never seen that much bear sheet in my life ....well he only went bear hunting twice before this trip 

I dedicate this bear to my good friend Wayne Mackey ...He used to own Riverside archery & taxidermy ...He has now passed and I sure miss the old fart ! 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Here is one I had to pass up ....just to fat and with cubs 

[h20hunter]

Holy big bertha...

[BOWHUNTER45]

So here is by far my longest shot I ever took on a bear and seriously made me a dedicated Hornaday believer ...Not that I was not one already 

This will be my longest story yet . My buddy and brother in law and  I were headed out on a deer hunt over around Grand Coulee ..We hunt around a few days and the only bucks we seen were all on private land  So after 3 days of deer hunting we decide to head home ...We come threw Winthrop and pulled over to take a break from driving ..we had a sandwich  and off we go again ..I am in the back seat of a Toyota king cab and only have a little side window to see out of ..as we come to the top of the pass at Blue Lake I look up on the ridge to my right and see a bear ... it looked like a black little dot moving along the rocks ....I tell them to stop ...I just seen a bear ...Where they say ...We get out and I am trying to tell them where it is but they can not spot it ..after a few minutes they finally see it ...they can not believe I just spotted this bear at that distance out of the back seat of a Toyota    anyway I tell him to get out his range finder and he ranges it ...he tells me it will not range it because he is maxed out at 400 yrds .. So I told him to range something at 400 so I can judge it from there ..he is like ...your crazy ..that bear is way out of range  I told him I was going to take one shot at it and if I hit low you will see it hit the rocks ..they are O.K ..WHATEVER  after giving me a mark at 400 I decide it was waaaaaay out there ..but I know my gun and I have faith in my reloads  ( Hornaday of course ) I find a stump just on the other side of the guardrails and lay my pack on it ...I get all settled in and tell them I am putting the bears back at the bottom of my scope ..they are just laughing and thinking I am nutz  I tell them to watch closely to see where I hit ..the bear is broadside So I lined up his front leg with the center peg of the crosshairs and raised it up until I had just a little hair above the bottom of the scope and squeeze ...POOOOOOOOOOOW ......the bear does not move ..they are telling me , we did not see anything you missed !! I am like what ..you never seen the bullet hit ...NOPE !! The bear is still there and when I decide to jack in another the bear just takes off like someone slapped it in the butt ...  Mind you ...we talked for like a minute before the bear decided to take off ..So we talk it over and decide I flat out missed ...we load up and head down the pass ...after going a couple miles I kept thinking to myself why did he just take off like that ..especially way after I shot ...no why he knew what was going on and that distance ...I tell them to turn around I need to go take a look ...they are freaking out ...your nutz ..you did not come anywhere near that bear ...I said you maybe right but something seemed weird to me when he took off like that ....They beach about it for a minute or 2 and take me back ..after looking at it again ..we are shaking our heads knowing this was one shot that probably should not have taken place ...but I know I have pulled some long shots in my time and this one was definitely  the longest ....I load up the mag with 4 bullets and head out while they sat on the road guiding me up the hill and threw the timber ...I had my orange on so they could see me good ...once I broke threw the timber I looked at them in my Binos and they are pointing me in the right direction ...they look like peese ants sitting on the tailgate .. it has taken me about 25 minutes to get to where I was standing and I had about another 250 to 300 to go up hill  I remember the bear being on a ledge and it was standing in front of a big flat face rock ...I look up the hill and I see it ...I get there and work my way threw a harry spot and as I pull myself up onto the ledge I see the flat faced rock is seriously splattered in blood  I get up on the ledge and see blood everywhere ...I just sit there in awe ! To be truthful I do not know how long of a shot this was but it was waaaaay out there ...I know my .270 loaded with a 140 gr Hornaday shooting about 1 1/4 high at hundred using the center of the bottom peg is pretty much on at 500 yrds ...I done my experimenting back in the day with a 50 gal drum ...did not have all this high tech stuff back then .... So what I am saying it was around 6 to 7 hundred  shooting groundhogs in PA as a kid paid off and of course I need to thank my dad who taught me how to run a rifle ...This is why I am a varmit hunter ! If you want to shoot long distance get your rifle and start hunting ground squirrels - rock chucks and coyotes ..it will definitely make you a better shot ...here is a prime example why I am a hardcore hornaday fan ...I hit this bear behind the front shoulder and it blew right threw him at that distance ...I do not know if it was the bullet weight or how the bullet was made ..or both ...but it has been the perfect combination for me and I will never change ...I just love the 140 gr out of a .270 ...I load 54grs of IMR 4831 and I never had any problems with bullets holding up and any distance ...