Here's the story:
The past two weekends i've only been able to get out until 1PM then had to head back. Those days were discouraging, rained hard all day, not a lot of sign. I did find that a bear had poo'd in the same place on a road two weeks in a row. So i hung my cam there last week. I went back to pull the card in the cam and see if I got anything. There was no new sign there so I did not have high hopes. I hunted through the area all day, did some loops through the big timber, third growth looking for peels.
As far as spring bear tactics, Wooltie and i discovered sign in this place the first week of the season and I've been coming back ever since. There hasnt been a ton of sign here but there is definitely a bear in the area and that was more then i found anywhere else. I did what most people seem to do for spring bear, walk down ditched logging roads, look for poo in the grass. Ripper messaged me his lesson learned which was, when you find sign stay there. So that's pretty much what i did.
Anyhow, i had tried calling 3 different places all around these third growth areas. I used fawn in distress on my foxpro. Called in 1hr sets. Never got any takers. I swore off the area at around 530PM and decided to find somewhere else. I went down the road and was checking out a new gate. I was walking through some slightly more mature timber with lots of evidence of previous years peels. I found a horse trail and walked it and found one pile of bear poo so i figured i would set up the fox pro. I pulled the caller from bag and realized i had forgotten my remote at the last hunting spot. At first i figured i would just run back on Sunday with my kid and find it but decided i better just get back there as quick before dark. So i bailed and got back to the other spot around 715pm. I found the remote in the middle of the road and then i decided i should probably sit on the side of the road where i had my cam the previous week and see if anything came out. I was slightly less discouraged at this point because the sun had broken out.
At this point however, my heart was not in it. I'll admit, i was facebooking and other such nonsense (got to love LTE in the hills). I saw it was past 8 and decided i better get home to the fam'. Not an instant after i stuff the phone in my pocket does a black object trot across the horizon in front of me. I'm looking down the road about 50y and there was a large ditch dug across the road. The bear was passing across the road in the ditch, I dialed my zoom up to about 5 and he crested the ditch looking in my direction. I was concealed well in the trees and i put the cross hair directly on his chest. This is a shot i've considered much (considering its likelihood when calling a bear) and I've always been conflicted. In addition, the one bear i've shot i lost do to i rushed the shot and took a less than optimal shot the instant it was provided (head/neck). So i was cautious, and while i was deciding she must have winded me because she bolted back towards the third growth. Instantly i had decided to take a running shot on her, but the good lord blessed me and she emerged from behind the berm and ran up the other side of the road then stopped and looked back. This was perfect quartering up and away. I immediately aimed for the opposite shoulder squeezed (safety was on) removed safety and dropped the hammer.
She was hit hard, tumbled back into the road but was sheltered by the ditch/berm. I racked another round determined to not let this one get away. I could see she was doing donuts like a top in the ditch next to the road now, and she was moving away from me as she was spinning. She turned the corner of the road and i could no longer see her. I got up and sprinted down the road, as i crested the turn i could see she was still going nuts. I fired a 2nd round down the back at the whirling mass of fur, 20yards.
That quieted her, she took her few final breaths as I walked up to her from behind. When i noticed she was likely not going anywhere i reloaded another 2 rounds in the mag. I was extremely cautious in making sure she was dead then i took my first dead bear selfie and relayed through facebook that this was the only appropriate selfie for a man to take.
Second order of business was to insure the Huntwa community knew of my success. Took care of that then called Sled and Turner to see if they were around to help me drag this thing back to the truck. Oh and also as Im standing over the dead bear Wooltie texts me how i did today, i says well as a matter fact i just killed a bear. Turner said he had the phone in his hand to text me also. He graciously brought a snow sled up and rope, we tied it to the sled, hooked up ratchet straps and drug back to the truck through 4 ditches and over a log pile to the truck. After some necessary discussion our of past hunting adventures, i left the gate at 1030PM. Got home with some ice around 1130. Got to skinning at midnight, had the meat boned and hide packaged up on ice by 445 am. I used the 180gr TSX and it sure did some damage. AFter using it knock down and elk and a bear this spring and it being easily sub-moa, I'm sticking with it.
What a day. I've been trying for a bear for 6 years, seen about 7-8 of them. Finally put one in the truck. I had the tenderloins the next day (after 4 hours of sleep) and they were amazing. Better than blacktail thats for certain. She was somewhere in the neighborhood of 140lbs with guts. I dropped the hide to get tanned by Moro. Hope it comes out pretty soft, his sample was really rigid, and i was hoping to let my little one use it as a blanket. Sorry for the novel! Man I never wanted that ride home from the logging hills to end. I had a bear in my truck, the windows down, the sky was clear, moon was bright and jack johnson and bluegrass was rocking in my truck (and I knew the work would start once i got home).
Thanks to all of you who helped out with spring bear tactics and intel and for helping / offering to help with the pack out. Good bunch of hunters we have here.
