High hunt success!

[yakimanoob]

High five! 

Story to follow.

[jstone]

 

[ctwiggs1]

Funny looking deer! 

Good job man

[bear]

Real men don’t wear gloves and eat a sammich after their done. Just sayin. JK. Nice bear...paw

[ctwiggs1]

Real men don’t wear gloves and eat a sammich after their done. Just sayin. JK. Nice bear...paw

Well now I'm super confused.  Bear can't respond - bear's dead!

[Rainier10]

Congrats and thanks for doing your part to reduce the predator population.

[Bushcraft]

Congrats and I concur with Rainier10...thanks for doing your part to reduce the fawn eater population!

[huntnfmly]

Very cool congrats

[Sutherland]

Haha oh this is great! 

[yakimanoob]

Gah, what an awesome 4 days in the backcountry. 

I've been hunting mostly solo, but my buddy Jake has been wanting to get into hunting (he's been shooting for many years but has never hunted big game) so we decided to carve out some time and make a go at the High Buck.  Neither of us had much of a preference between a bear or a buck--we were just excited to actually get out and see some animals. 

I've been hunting a single spot for almost all of my high buck attempts, but I'd been e-scouting a different spot for the past couple of years and decided to give that a go.  The scenery was STUNNING, but after an evening, a full day and the next morning (and 15+ miles and a few dozen basins glassed), we had seen a single doe.  No bucks, no bears, just a bunch of squirrels and some stunning backgrounds.  So we decided to bail on that place and go back to my old haunt.  I promised Jake that although we'd see other hunters, we'd at least see some sign and most likely something approaching a legal animal (even if it was really, really far away). 

When we arrived that evening, we saw fresh sign 30 yards from the trailhead, bumped three does on our way to our glassing point, and within the 1.5 hrs we sat on a glassing point we had seen at least three individual bears--one of which almost wandered into shooting range right at last light. 

I've been watching a bear at this spot for the past 3 years.  Of course they could be different bears each time, but same spot, same color phase, and a little bigger each year is enough for me to call it the same bear. 

The next morning, we were at that perch at first light.  We watched a beautiful sunrise, then watched thick fog roll in over the ridge next to us and the sun went behind the clouds... we knew rain was coming the next day, but... gah, I was feeling so bummed that with all the animals around, we were about to get fogged in (as has happened to me many times in that spot).  Thankfully, there was enough of an updraft in the basin we were watching to keep the fog just over our heads and preserved our view into the huckleberries. 

All the sudden Jake whisper-yells BEAR and dives behind his rifle as I set up my scope and get a range.  We had agreed the night before that I had dibs on any animals since it was my spot, but I had told him I that my range limit is 300 yds and if a good shot beyond that range presented itself, it was his show.  We knew it was his bear based on ranging the area the night before. 

As he settled in, I got my scope set on a beautiful color-phase, CHUBBY bear -- as far as I'm concerned, the same bear I'd been watching grow up in that basin for the past 3 years.  Certainly the same bear we had watched the previous evening.

"That's a great bear. 380 yards.  Ready when you are."

I've not done much spotting for other shooters, and I was worried I'd flinch from the report of the rifle and miss the impact.  I flinched alright when he touched off the 6.5 creedmoor, but thankfully I got my eye back on the bear just in time to see it shutter then leap, arched back, straight into the air and them tumble down the creek bottom.  We heard the death moan before I could finish congradulating him on the perfect shot. 

Honestly, I'm still a little shaken by the sound of that moan. I had read about it, but nobody told me how loud and how long it would be.  "God, please don't let it suffer too long."  The noise faded.

Time to work. 

We're 500+ feet of elevation above where the bear was, with some SKETCHY slopes between us.  We collected ourselves, then headed very carfully down the gully to where it was standing, and began the search (with the obligatory "good thing we're trained at this" joke -- we're both on the local SAR team).  After about 45 minutes, most of which was spent with Jake waiting for me to get myself out of the rediculously slippery and thick slope I had wandered onto, I heard Jake yell "HERE" as he shouldered his rifle. 

Dead cold in a creek bottom, less than 50 yards from where the bullet hit her.  I finally got to see my bear up close and feel her fur.  I couldn't care less whether I pulled the trigger; this was unbelievably awesome. 

We said a prayer of thankfulness and got to work.  Based on dragging her a few feet to a flatter spot, we figure she was probably a little north of 200lbs, maybe 250 tops.  She wasn't big, but DANG was she fat.  Surprisingly, we got the 90+ lbs of meat and hide, plus all our gear, 4 miles over alpine terrain back to the truck without breaking our bodies. 

Many thanks to everyone on here for all the advice these past 4 years! 

[Watimberghost]

Nice job! Looks like a great hunt! I absolutely love that country!

[Birdguy]

That is an awesome story! Thank you for taking a new out for an amazing time and memory! Nice looking bear too!

[Rainier10]

Great story and bear.  Way to go. 

[ganghis]

Nice work!  Congrats and thanks for the story

[castnblast]

Great story and teamwork of hunting partners. Nice bear!

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

[h3x0ctb1n]

This is the stuff my dreams are made of. Very nice!

[Onewhohikes]

What shooting a bear on a high hunt?

[cb1989]

Nice bear. Sounds like a great experience with a buddy. Those alpine bears eat better than deer anyway IMO.

What shooting a bear on a high hunt?

And ^Ignore this dude ^ he seems like a tool based on this and other posts. That buck from the napeequa  didn't fix those self esteem issues eh? Weird how that doesnt work. So you gotta get back on here and find a dude's post celebrating his first high country success and bash it. That's some expert level toolery there.

[yakimanoob]

Ha.  No worries.

I get it that some folks are only out for a buck on the high hunt.  To each their own. 

[Dan-o]

Way to get it done!

What a great hunt.

Thanks for sharing.

[RockChuck]

Nice! I saw one a bit smaller then that one opening day wander up the hill to me less then 20 yards and gave me a perfect shot.. I am now kicking myself for not taking it! Really  Didn’t want to end my hunt so early though.

[Skyvalhunter]

Yea for me when I am on the high hunt (which is a deer hunt as you can hunt bear Aug 1st in many GMU) I am concentrating on deer. Even though I see several bear then I don't care to sacrifice my deer hunt by having to pack out a bear. But that's just me. Congrats on the bear. It's nice of CB to turn the thread into his own personal attack. 

[Seabass]

Good for you guys! There was time in history when hunting was a necessity to survive...those dudes didn’t have the luxury of passing up an opportunity. The attraction of backcountry hunting to me, is that it feels a little closer to what it used to be and capitalizing on an opportunity feels pretty instinctual.

[Shawn Ryan]

Nice story and bear. Happy you put your buddy on a bear in your spot and let him take the shot. Noob is a real sportsman and a good guy.

[Sutherland]

  great work