Bearpaw Season - Fall 2014

[7mmfan]

Great stuff! Love seeing the fawn killers hitting the dirt. There really are a ton of predators in that part of the country. I guided on the Upper Columbia for The Evening Hatch for years and watched the number of deer in the area drop and the number of bears seen daily along the river sky rocket. Do you think they need to change it to 2 bears a year in some of those NE units?

[Duffer]

That really is awesome Dale!

Did Baker get one? On camera?

[bearpaw]

That really is awesome Dale!

Did Baker get one? On camera?

Baker had to leave 1/2 day short and did not kill a bear. He wounded one that got away, missed another one, we passed a 306 yard shot on a big boar and they got at least five other bear, turkeys, the cougar at 40 yards, and lots of deer all on video. He incorporated another bear hunt into the show and said it would make a great show. I think he's going to try and come back for a fall turkey hunt and if there are any bear around we'll try to fill the bear tag then too.

The group from Tennessee all filled their tags, one guy got his bear the second day a nice boar, the young guy in the military who had missed a couple bear got the big boar in the end, it was sorta like it was meant to happen that way. His boar was probably 300ish, the hide measured 6'8". The dad killed a barren sow that was about 5'10", definitely one the biggest sows we've taken, her teeth looked like she was probably 12-15 years old.

It was the guy from Kansas that killed a bear last year who didn't see a bear this year, his dad wounded one that got away, but neither of them killed a bear.

Brett decided to stay another couple days so we still hope to get him filled out.

Duffer, your bear is still 2nd largest for the season. 

Here's another bear taken by Bryan, he started hunting on the 3rd, we killed his bear the next day. Duffer, I posted him on the same farm exactly where you shot your bear, I took Baker to the top and we hiked in. Just before dark we heard Bryan shoot and we headed back to the truck to go down and help him. We got to Bryan and he explained that he had watched a sow and two cubs for a long time and then another bear showed up which he shot, it ran off but he was sure he heard it rolling down the hill in the thick brush about 10-15 minutes after he had shot. We were looking for the dead bear long after dark and ran head on into the sow and cubs at only 30 feet, the sow was mad and huffing at us, her cubs ran up a big fir tree only 30 feet from us, Will the cameraman got it all on video. I didn't have a gun so I pulled out my hunting knife, I wasn't going to face a mad sow with no weapon at all. Finally we ran them off and continued the search for the bear that had been shot. We could not find the dead bear after hours of searching so had to go back in the morning to search and found the bear in thick brush about 75 yards from where we had been the night before. Gladly the night was cold and we salvaged everything except the rib cage. Bryan was very happy to get his first bear plus we added a lot of good content to the TV show, I love it when a plan comes together. 

[bearpaw]

Brett just shot a bear, guide Daniel is waiting a few minutes then going to look for it. 

[bearmanric]

Heading over tonight or tomorrow. Nice bear. Rick

[Duffer]

Brett just shot a bear, guide Daniel is waiting a few minutes then going to look for it. 

Excellent! Tell him congrats from his one time roomie 

[bearpaw]

Bad News:
The bear was missed, bullet recovered from the ground, does not appear to have hit the animal, no bloodtrail at all, they are out hunting again this evening! 

Good News:
Rick you should find some good hunting, local taxi is taking in way more bear than last year and we have been seeing more bear everywhere than we did last year.

[bearpaw]

Two nice 5x5 bull elk that guide Nick spotted while scouting for an upcoming archery elk hunt. Top bull shows up good, the bottom bull is tough to see.

[pd]

Dale, tell us about "barking a bear up a tree."  I am very interested.

[bearpaw]

Dale, tell us about "barking a bear up a tree."  I am very interested.

 

More than anything it's something that's fun to do. We happened onto the idea many years ago and since have barked many bear, coons, and even a bobcat up a tree. The idea is that animals are afraid of dogs, so when you see an animal at close range run straight at it waiving your arms and barking loud like a dog. It works real often on sows and cubs but will also work on an occasional lone bear too, maybe one in ten times, such as the bear that Brian barked up a tree the other day. I've treed numerous raccoons when I saw them in my headlights and even a bobcat one night. Have fun with it! 

(Warning: Sooner or later you may get a dangerous reaction from a sow with cubs, some of them get pretty upset, I've been charged a couple times, if that happens you need to stand your ground, it would probably be a mistake to run, so far they have all been bluff charges, but one day it might get real! So be careful with those sows!)

[JackOfAllTrades]

(Warning: Sooner or later you may get a dangerous reaction from a sow with cubs, some of them get pretty upset, I've been charged a couple times, if that happens you need to stand your ground, it would probably be a mistake to run, so far they have all been bluff charges, but one day it might get real! So be careful with those sows!)

Women are always so unpredictable. They can be such teases!   
 
(Sounds like a great bear season on the east side!)
 
-Steve

[bearpaw]

Joshua (another H-W member) arrived last night hoping to make his first archery kill. This isn't a long story, 10 minutes into the hunt this morning Joshua made his first bow kill, a 3x3 whitetail, congrats and nice shooting, the buck only went about 100 yards leaving a blood trail a blind man could follow! I love it when a plan comes together! 

[Greenhorn]

Great stuff Bearpaw, love the pictures and stories!

[RB]

Way cool! 

[bearpaw]

A little story about the buck:

We had a fawn two summers ago that got hung up in a fence and ripped his flank open he ran around here for weeks with a 8 to 10 inch flap of bloody hide hanging from his side. Eventually we quit seeing him and I had thought the coyotes got him. Joshua's buck had a healed up flank and a ripped up nose, check out the picture of his nose, you can see the nose bone through the hole. It's amazing how resilient wild animals are and how well they heal up and survive. He also had some large growths which did not appear to affect the meat at all, they seemed to be growing on the outside of the hide.