It's about time!! Gutpile bags a fatty!

[Gutpile]

I get a call from my old buddy Nyles to see if I want to chase bears and thankfully I was able to do it. He had been scouting a lot and had a few choices. I could tell which he really wanted to do by the excitement as he described the sign he'd seen and just the lay of the land. It's private ground that adjoins USFS land where he chases turkeys and there has been quite a few sightings from the landowners.

I wake up at 2:20 a.m, grab some grub, drink some coffee and hit the road in time to make it to his house and then take the 2 hour trip to the spot which we wanted reach around 6:00. On the way up we are passing a pasture with some cows munching on grass and out pops a cow into the road and starts running up the road in front of us. Wait!! It's a HUGE bear. Jet black and jiggling like a bowl full of jelly. This bear was just a slob. It could barely get up the cut bank on the side of the road but made it and ran off into the timber. Talk about getting the juices flowing. This bear was really a sight to behold.

We arrive at our spot and discuss a plan of attack. We decide on calling which has been successful for both of us in the past. I'll skip through all of the non essentials here but we did about 4 sets of an hour each adjacent to areas we figured the bears would be bedding and/or feeding in the heat of the day. We probably walked a total of 8-10 miles while hoping to perhaps see a bear and find good calling locations with a break in the middle back at the truck for a bite to eat and to cook up a plan for the afternoon hunt.

For the afternoon we decided to walk a logging road and call into a couple of old clearcuts with a beaver pond on the edge. It's thick, mucky, deep dark swampy area that looks nice and has got to have a big fat juicy bear cooling off in it. Nyles is on one side of the cut and I'm a few hundred yards further down the road calling. I can barely hear him calling so I figure we're spaced perfectly. After about 25 minutes I see ears pop up over the cut bank below, directly between Nyles and me. I see it hears both of us calling. It looks like a really good bear, with ears to the sides of the melon head and as it clears the bank I can see that it's pretty good size and very fat and round. As any experienced bear hunter knows, these things are very hard to judge but this dude looks good.

What happened next is pure luck but I think I'll make sure to tell Nyles it's all about my superior calling skills.  The bear clears the bank and starts walking slowly (as they always seem to do) right towards me but suddenly it stops and looks in Nyles direction and starts towards him. Nyles can't see this bear but I'm watching it walk up to him disappearing several times in the brush for what seemed like hours and then reappearing and disappearing again. I'm super stoked at this point that Nyles will soon see this thing and get his bear. Just then the bear stops turns hard left and heads back towards me! It slowly ambles through the brush, just taking it's time. Nothing like coyote hunting where those damn things run the whole way. Ahead of him there is a huge Ponderosa pine right on the edge of a clear area at the bottom of the cut. The distance is 104 yards. I raise the rifle anticipating when the bear will pass that tree into the clearing. My heart is freaking POUNDING at this point. I haven't shot a bear since 2012 and my spring hunt was unsuccessful although I did damn near smack a brute but it busted me. Back to this bear. My heart is pounding and I'm trying to calm myself down, I don't want to deal with a wounded bear trying to escape into a beaver marsh. I settle in front of the shoulder as it's quartering towards and let fly. The bear drops in it's tracks. For good measure I anchor him. I'm using a .308 with 150 grn accubonds and this is the second bear for this rifle. It seems to really be good bear medicine. I really love the .308 and I REALLY love those accubonds and that beautiful POP they make when they hit home.

I make it down to the bear and simply cannot believe how fat this thing is. This is #7 for me and I've never seen such a fat bear. I can barely move it I'm not going to start throwing numbers out there but this bear is HEAVY!!! Not really long but super heavy. It's length was just average at about 5'. Anyways, I know that this bear is not coming out whole. We're going to have to quarter it up and pack it out, not what you want to do as it's starting to get dark but there's no other option. The fat on it was up to 4 or 5 inches in spots and at least 1 1/2 to 2 everywhere else. I still can't believe it. The stomach was packed completely full of elderberries.

We make it back to the truck just at dark and clean up a little, share a big swallow of Jim Beam and hit the road. I get back home a little after midnight, put the bear on ice and hit the shower.

That my friends, this was an epic hunt. I love calling in bears and this was the most fun I've ever had doing it because I got to watch the whole thing. Often times while calling those damn thing just appear out of thin air but I got to see it appear and every move it made up until the shot.

Sadly it did end up being a sow but there were no cubs around. Thanks for reading. 

[mburrows]

That's awesome, congrats

[danderson]

Great story and pictures, Congratulations

[Limhangerslayer]

Nice bear, congrats!

[mountainman]

Awesome story and awesome bear👍

[gaddy]

  Must have been exciting watching it come in.

[HillHound]

Awesome. I’m sure you preferred to shoot a boar but there is nothing sad about that bear. Great story and a great looking bear

[Bango skank]

Elder berries? Ive never seen much indication of them eating elderberries too much, especially so early.  Interesting.

[Gutpile]

Agreed. I was very surprised. 

[Milkman]

What a fata$$! Nice work 

[Birdgetter]

That’s a tank! Sow or not I’d take it. 

[pianoman9701]

Heck of a bear. Well done. Thanks for sharing. 

[rasbo]

Saweeet,congrats on a great bear

[lewy]

Good work!

[Dan-o]

WHEW!!

Glad to see this thread is about a bear... I was a little worried.

Great looking bear!

[Threewolves]

Nice bear, I like that chocolate color.   

[Turner89]

Nice bear and great story. 

[Widgeondeke]

Congrats !!!

[dilleytech]

You should get a ton of rendered down bear fat from that pig! I shot a sow last year that had 4” of fat all the way around. I think we got about 80# of fat that turned into about 8 quarts of premo fat.

[Machias]

Nice bear, congrats!!

[bearhunter99]

Well Done!

[bighorns2bushytails]

Congrats again on your bear!  Glad it all worked out and we were finally able to call one in.  That's the first fall bear we've been able to successfully harvest at that location. 

[Hillbilly Zen]

Nice Bear!

[wheels]

congrats beautiful bear

[dmoua]

 

[ASHQUACK]

Congrats on a very nice bear! How were the teeth? She looks old.

[Gutpile]

They weren't very worn but starting to yellow a bit