Bearpaw Season - Spring 2015

[bearpaw]

Turkeys are still going down at Bearpaw Outfitters. This morning Eric and guide Daniel left extra early so they could get set up in the dark on a flock roosted the night before. The hunt worked out and Eric sacked up a nice jake. The guys came in for a few minutes gobbled down some breakfast (pun intended) and headed back to the turkey woods. They weren't out long and Daniel was singing in a tom on a string. The bird hung up behind a big rock so Eric had to peek over the rock, at first he didn't have a shot, but the big tom moved and Eric smoked him. Another morning double, great going guys!

[bearpaw]

A dandy 3 year old bird that was called in yesterday afternoon, had 9 1/2 beard and near 1" spurs, congrats to Bill on a great shot on a fantastic bird.

[quadrafire]

Any Spring bear hunters?

[bearpaw]

Any Spring bear hunters?

Yes, but I hunted 1.5 days a week ago and didn't see any fresh sign so we are holding off.

[ribka]

Nice toms taken!

[bearpaw]

Erin who is sponsored by Kill Cliff Drinks & Bars is a world champion in Lumberjack Sports and also co-owner of a Northwest Crossfit gym. This weekend Erin and Baker, who is one of the co-owners of Kill Cliff, hunted turkeys with Bearpaw Outfitters. We had some close calls on Friday and then on Saturday Erin scored. This morning Baker tagged out shortly after daylight and the hunt was complete. All the action was captured on film and will be shown on KillCliff Outdoors. Congrats to Erin and Baker, awesome shooting, it was our pleasure! 

[Romulus1297]

Thanks for the great service and thanks for Ray's hard work also

[RadSav]

Thanks for the great service and thanks for Ray's hard work also

Ray giving good service and hard work?  I don't believe it.  Guy just sits around with not a single word to say...

[wsmnut]

Ray being quiet?!  Now that I'd like to see!

Wsmnut

[RadSav]

 

[bearpaw]

1st Bear Hunt - Day 1
Actually I had one hunter come up for 1.5 days but it turned cold so we decided to hold off on his hunt for a couple weeks. A week passed, we killed a few more birds, and my next bear hunter arrived. On the first day we hunted some of the same areas I had tried a week earlier, the grass has grown a little, some bear were definitely out now, we found fresh bear scat, lots of it in two little areas, one bear looked to be a little larger than the other by the scat size and the tracks, but we could not find either bear or any other bear in the flesh the whole day.

Well into the morning we heard a turkey gobble, in fact he gobbled just about every time I called so we went after him. We worked our way toward the bird, a couple hundred yards away I decided he must still be on the roost. We worked within about 80 yards and settled in as we didn't dare go further. I don't like talking to roosted birds, I would rather they fly down first. We waited a bit but this bird had more time than we did, we needed to to do this and get back to bear hunting, so I began calling. He gobbled and gobbled and gobbled, but he wanted us to show ourselves and finally flew down and took off the other direction. So back to bear hunting we go.

From a different area we heard the turkey again, he was gobbling good again so we went after him again, it was going well until we got close, then he shut up. OK that's enough of that, back to bear hunting again.

We checked some more areas but didn't find any fresh bear sign. Finally about mid day we spotted a strutting gobbler and Johnny put the smack down on him with one well placed shot. Great shooting!

Next we went back to check on the bear at the two little areas. Again no bear was spotted so we decided to go grab a late lunch and clean the bird. After lunch we headed back out to the two areas with all the bear scat, we still didn't see anything so we went and watched another area that had potential for the last hour of daylight. We saw nothing but a few deer! So day 1 ended with one bird down and lots of bear scat, some of the scat was pretty decent, the knife in the photo is 5 inches long, but no actual bear was spotted.

[bearpaw]

1st Bear Hunt - Day 2 - The Insult to Injury Bear
My wife was up at 3:15 am cooking breakfast, she woke me at 3:40, I woke Johnny and Jim up at 3:45, we had breakfast and were headed out hunting before 4:30. Jim had arrived the night before for his annual turkey hunt, Jim was going hunting with Daniel and Johnny went with me bear hunting.

The first place I headed for was the two areas with all the bear poo. I pulled into the first area and there it was, another pile of poo right in my tire tracks from the evening before. I told Johnny, this bear is messing with us, this is adding insult to injury, the bear pooed right in our tire tracks after we left!

Worst of all, the bear likely pooed in the middle of the night, what if the bear is only moving in after dark in the full moon? 

We looked over both areas with poo closely, no bear!

I checked numerous other spots, we covered a bunch of ground, saw some fresh bear tracks, saw deer, saw a bull moose, saw a cow moose, but no "live in the flesh" bear. We were coming out of one area and found a turkey hunter walking back to his truck and give him a ride. He told us he had called in two cougars while turkey calling, he had a good look at the one cat and heard the other cat calling back and forth with the cat he saw, so he figured it was a female and a kitten. Definitely too many cougars in our part of the state, last year we saw 10 cougars while out hunting.

By now it was lunch time, we had a few snacks and headed back the the two poo areas. I planned to keep checking these areas until we found one of those two bear. We were just pulling up to the first area and I spotted another pile of fresh poo on the side of the road. 

I told Johnny this bear is really messing with us it pooed on the road after we left! 

We moved along slowly, in my mind I'm trying to form a plan on how/where to best watch this area without the bear knowing we are here. Every time we leave the bear leaves poo, we need to stay and watch so we can catch this bear in the act of pooing "while it thinks we are gone"!

Suddenly I spotted something, "BEAR" I whispered to Johhny, he got down on his shooting stick immediately, but the bear moved behind some limbs, we moved a little but still couldn't get a clear shot, we moved several times and still no clear shot. I had thought this would be a boar as it had been leaving good sized poo and had nearly a 5 inch track, but looking through the binos the nose looked narrow even though it had a decent sized head with some distance between the ears, I still wasn't sure if it was a boar or sow, but I could see it was definitely a good sized bear. Suddenly the bear started moving to the right away from us. I whispered we need to move, so we moved about 30 yards or so, suddenly the bear was in clear sight, Johnny quickly aimed using the shooting stick, "BOOM", the bear dropped like a sack of potatoes. OH YEAH, BEAR DOWN! 

The bear was still alive but couldn't go anywhere, I said I thought it was a spine shot "which later turned out to be at the base of the neck at the front of the shoulders", so we moved in close and Johnny finished off the bear. We took photos then hid under the trees for a short hail/rain shower to pass, then we gutted and halved the bear and packed it out.

The bear ended up being a large old sow, maybe the largest we've ever taken. She had pooed right near where we killed her, she was probably the same bear we had been looking for. Her nipples were tiny and hard to find, looked like they had never been sucked, she probably never had cubs, a barren sow. Her ultra thick black hair is probably about 4 inches long and the hide measured 5'10", she will make a stunning rug. Congrats Johnny, it was our pleasure meeting you and getting to know you during the hunt! 

[h20hunter]

Nice recap.....good pics and a dandy rug. Well done.

[Gringo31]

You killed the "poo bear" 

[Duffer]

Excellent! Congrats!!!