Spring Bear

[watty22]

Hey guys,

Just got back from a bear hunt several weeks ago and I thought I would share my story. I backpacked into the area I planned on hunting on a Saturday afternoon with several of my buddies. We were hoping to get three bears. We hiked up a ridge and spotted our first bear around 3pm. It was a average sized cinnamon bear but it was in an area that would be hard to make a stalk. While we were watching the bear feed a deer took off across the hillside below. Not soon after we saw it a wolf came flying out behind it and cornered the deer into the creek. It was pretty cool to see, hopefully the deer made it out alive.

We kept going up the ridge and spotted the next bear around 6:30. It was around 1300 yards so we put a quick stalk on the bear. We made it to a little bench that was about 300 yards away from where we previously saw it. As we making our way to the edge we jumped a buck so we made our way to the edge to see how the bear reacted. As we did this the bear popped up like 20 yards away and started blowing at us. My buddy had never used my gun before and this was his first time hunting with rifle. I clicked off the safety for him and he still couldnt find it in the scope. The bear took off and made a sound with my lips stopping it at 40 yards. This time my buddy put a bullet right in its shoulder. The bear died a few minutes later and only made it a 40 yards. Turned out I left my scope on 16x, no wonder he had trouble finding it at 20 yards. The bear had very nice color that I have personally seen before. I believe its considered cinnamon.

[watty22]

We took care of the bear and made it back to camp by dark. My other buddy ended spotting several other bears across the valley when we were taking care of our bear. After unloading our gear two of us forgot to bring extra water. Big mistake because we did not know of any springs or creeks in the area. We glassed at first light and spotted another chocolate bear. We decided it was in the wrong direction so we did not make a stalk. The plan was to side-hill across some valleys so we wouldnt lose elevation and we would hopefully find water. After crossing two valleys there was no sign of water or bears. We ended up making our way to the bottom of the main valley to guarantee ourselves water. We rested and hydrated and decided to head up another valley. I decided to jump over an creek and landed on a mossy log and fell right on my face. A few minutes later I noticed blood on my knee through my pants. Turns out I got a pretty nice gash on my knee so we duck taped it up.





I followed a trail in the thick valley bottom and started noticing some bear sign. Within a couple hundred yards a bear popped up its head only 15 yards from us. We about crapped ourselves and so did he I think. We stared for what seemed like eternity and he took off. Both guns were secured to our packs so I ripped my gun out quick and took off after it in the bushes. Like usual there is no way I could follow it in the thick brush. I got back to my buddies and noticed the bear trying to make its way around us on the hillside. I gave my buddy the first shot and he missed so I took a shot and hit it. The bear jumped off several rock ledges straight into the brush. The shot was approximately 80 yards. We waited 2 hours and went to track him. We found it about an hour later, it had only gone 200 yards. It ended up being a nice chocolate boar.

[watty22]

It was 6pm on Sunday so we hiked until we found a place to camp. We ended up running into some rattlesnakes. We killed one because we figured we would try to eat it. We had bear backstraps for dinner and caught some fish for breakfast the next morning. I used the exo 3500 for the trip and it worked out awesome. For all those on the edge of pulling the trigger for the pack I would commit. I used the kuiu ultra and the exo. I ended up choosing the exo. I fit 5 days of gear plus the full hide of my bear in the load sling. It is quite a bigger than it puts off yet still could be easily used for a daypack. I will be doing a write-up on the pack and posting it in the backpacking forum.











That was the end of the trip. I asked my other buddy if he wanted to try to get his bear and he said he was tired of hiking around so he wanted to relax so I didn't fight him on that. All in all it was a good trip. We ran into rattlesnakes, poison ivy, ticks, and my buddy even got a spider bite but we made it out alive. We also packed in some whiskey and decided to polish it off on the last day. It didn't take me too long to take a dirt nap so my buddies buried me in sand. I wasn't too happy after waking up an hour later but it was all in good fun and thats what I get for passing out.

[carpsniperg2]

Great write up

[HUNTNORTHWEST]

Seems like the sort of trip i would love to be a part of. Good Work.

[Machias]

Awesome write up and photos, congrats on a great hunt!

[ICEMAN]

How long did it take to pack out the meat?

[Eli346]

Great write up! Keep it up.

[watty22]

Thanks guys, I had a blast. And it just took one extra trip to get the meat out.

[pd]

Good fun with friends.

[Decker]

What an awesome adventure! Really appreciate you sharing the photos and taking the time to give a great write up!

[derk3687]

Nice bears...but that hair wow

[Mxracer532]

Unit??

[watty22]

Nice bears...but that hair wow

Haha I am guessing you are talking about the guy with the red afro. I have tried to convince him to cut it but he is very partial to it.

[Wea300mag]

Nice work, well done!!!