Wenaha bear hunt begins!

[WAcoueshunter]

Wow, what a beauty!  Congrats TH!  Looking forward to the story....

[Prime Time]

Awesome looking bear!

[Backstraps]

Congrats trophy! Looks like a nice bear. Great memories with your Dad!

[trophyhunt]

Thanks guys, trying to muster enough energy to unpack enough of the important stuff. Story will have to wait, after being gone for almost a week if the wife see's me look at the computer I will be fubar! Thanks for the compliments, it is my best bear to date. Gonna be hard to beat, damn full rug mount is around 1,000.00 not including the meat possessing and the skull cleaning! Got real lucky to on the way home, we drive over 1,000 miles this week total, my fuel filter went bad just after I dropped the bear off. From graham to past Bonney lake it wouldn't go over 2,000 rpm, w my trailer.  Fun times in deed. Story later and it's pretty good.

[CAMPMEAT]

About time....... Did you use your ATV ?

[MuleDeerCrazy]

What sort of elevations you guys been seeing the bears at?  Taking the wife over this weekend to see if we can fill her tag, she's excited to maybe get a crack at her first bear!

Thanks!

[Timberstalker]

Job well done Trophy. Cannot wait for the story.

[Karl Blanchard]

Congrats on a great Bear Trophy!!!!  I was in Lick Creek this weekend and saw 3.  Rained like hell on Saturday night! 

[fillthefreezer]

nice job, way to stick with it. waiting on the story 
make sure you can some of that bad boy up!

[scottfrick]

Great job!! Very nice looking bear!!!

[Machias]

What a beautiful bear!! Congrats!!

[trophyhunt]

Ok, I'm not the best at telling stories but here it goes.  Our trip started off not well, trying to take my 26' trailer into the wenaha was not a good idea, especially when it rained a ton before we arrived turning the roads to complete mud in places.  After barely turning the trailer around, after unhooking it twice from the truck to get into position. We decided to just camp at the shilo inn in Troy, Or.  Nice place on the Grande Ronde for RV hook up's.  Any way, back to hunting.  The next three day's I hunted hard on foot covering many miles in the back country, my dad did all he could do with his heart condition, mostly watching an area that we have killed a bear before.  Poor guy had to sit and watch the same area for hours, I felt bad about that but he said he was just fine.  I would have been bored to death.   After 3.5 days we hadn't even seen a bear, lots of deer, elk, turkeys but no bear.  Till Saturday evening, we saw our first bear, deep in a hole about two miles away.  I told my dad if I saw that bear in the morning I was going after him, thankfully we did not see that bear the next day.  Sunday morning my dad was ready to go home, so we decided to do a last morning road hunt.  Drove up the road to a point and turned around to slowly head back.  A little ways back down my dad spots a bear, I look and see a Big chocolate bear in a small opening.  We stop the truck and get out, the bear had gone in some brush where we couldn't see it.  A few seconds later a black bear pops out, at first I thought it was a cub but as it reviled more of it's self I noticed the size was much bigger than a cub, and right behind the bear was a much bigger chocolate bear that I saw first.  So we had a female black and a mature chocolate on her tail like a rutting buck.  For several minutes we watched the female go in circles, up and down with the brown on her tail.  I'm shooting a .300 win mag topped with a huskamaw scope and have a leica 900 range finder, I put my pack on the ground, layed down, ranged the bear at 650 yards and waited for him to stop.  He stops broadside and I pull the trigger.  Now I have to say, I was nervous and shaking a bit. The morning coffee did not help my trigger pull.  I knew when I pulled the trigger that it wasn't a good shot, you know when that happens.  I shot again because he just stood there, the seconds shot only sent the female running into a patch of timber and scrub brush.  15 minutes later I found both bears walking just fine out of the timber patch, I was glad to see the brown bear looking healthy!  So for the next 15 minutes we watch these two go in and out of cover, slowly getting closer in range!  These bears were across a deep canyon, thick at the bottom and open spots with steep terrain.  After my second shot and the bears were going in and out of cover, I spotted another bear!  This bear was 350 yards away looking into the cover of where the other two bears were.  I asked my dad if he wanted to shoot the bear, he has never shot a bear before.  He passed, the bear was small, probably the females cub from the previous year.           So, after my dad passed the small bear, the two love birds come back into view.. And she is bringing him closer by the minute.  They are heading for the base of a rock and I range it at 500 yards, YES, I'm pretty sure I can seal the deal at that range.  My dad is watching and the bear stops broadside at 500 yards, Boom, through the scope I see him flinch.  He takes off and I get one more shot, it makes him summer sault over cause of the steep terrain.  But his movement carries him into the timber and we lose sight of him.   I waited a half hour to see if the bears would show, they never did.  So down the canyon I went, and up the other side.  Found blood on the rock's where I first shot, no tracks or other blood.  I was looking in the timber for 15 minutes and talking to my dad on the radio when I noticed two black ears looking down at me, 80 yards away.  It was the black female the brown bear was with, and she was looking down at me.  She pokes her head up and looks around sniffing the air.  I'm not sure if she has cubs with her or she is sitting with the wounded bear I shot.  I legally could shoot her because my dad is a disabled hunter, after talking with him about it he says it's up to me.  I decide I need to find the brown bear and don't really want to pack two bears out of this hell hole.  I told my dad to get ready cause I was going to spook the bear out and when she got to the clearing to shoot her.  Well, when I started yelling at the bear, she stood up and started woofing at me.  She was huge, and must have stood at 7' tall.  She was not worried about me at all, my hair was standing up!  She continued to huff and pop her jaw at me for at least a minute, I walked toward her to see what she wanted.  Luckily she slowly walked away into the thick brush, popping her jaw and woofing the whole way.  I never saw her again, neither did my dad watching from the road above.  100 yards down the hill I found my bear, dead next to a tree.  The job at hand at that point will only be understood by those who have experienced skinning, deboning and packing out animals by themselves.  In very steep terrain after about 4 hours after finding the bear I was on my way out, it sucks getting good pic's by yourself.  I could only get the bear meat and hide down about 100 yards before I needed to split the pack into two loads, just couldn't do it.  I shot the bear at 9:30 in the morning and got the last load in the truck at 5 O'clock.  What a feeling to put that last load on the tail gate, you guys know exactly what I'm talking about!  I'm not a super religious guy, but, you definitely feel religious in those situations.  I was praying for the will and strength to get this most beautiful creature off the mountain, my prayer was answered.  I told my dad that this was the last bear I would ever kill, I respect the bear and I have killed 9.  But, after thinking about it, I want to get back to the wenaha or any bear country and do it again.  Thanks for reading and sorry for the length.  Keep at it guys, your bear in coming! 

[GBoyd]

Great write up and great bear! Congratulations!

[HUNTaHOLIC5]

Great write up and great bear! Congratulations!

Sounds like a great hunt!

[jrebel]

Super cool....and you got to do it with your dad which makes it all the better.  Congrats.