I got a story to tell, but first a few questions...

[logola512c]

So, I just filled my second tag on the west side, but the bear didn't follow my instructions to drop where I shot it, and instead ran off into the deep, dark PacNW woods, where I had to follow, by myself.  Obviously, the story turns out ok, but I made a couple contemporaneous videos:  (1) one about 60 seconds after I had to finish the bear in the woods, which is really funny because I'm clearly amped up on adrenaline and probably coming crashing down from the same and maybe paranoid about there being other animals around because I keep looking around like there are more, and (2) one that shows the blood trail I was following and where all the action happened.  All pretty good and entertaining stuff, if I do say so myself, and some in a goofy self-deprecating kind of way, but here's the problem.   Both of the videos potentially give a little too much away about where I was, which I don't really want to share.  Anyone know how to easily edit out parts of the background of an MP4 video?  The story will be much more entertaining with the two videos, especially my almost contemporaneous reaction.  Thanks

[HillHound]

I hope someone does I would love to see them. Many times after the fact I wish I had a go pro or something more so to relive my reaction even more then the shot on the animal

[logola512c]

Let's see if words can do it justice.  Here's the first part.

Sunday morning.  Early.  I’m excited to go check out a new spot up high in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness that I scoped out on Google Earth because I hadn’t seen any bear sign down lower for weeks. The hike in would be about 3 miles and 3500 feet of elevation gain – if nothing else, it will be a good training day.  I also figured since I hadn’t been to the spot or even the trailhead before, I’d just swing by another spot down low until it got light enough to go to the new spot.
 
Well, about 10 minutes after shooting light, I see a big, dark shape feeding in the opening I’m in (which isn’t super wide – meaning more narrow than wide) about 270 yards away.  I’m in a nice perfect spot to go prone, rest my rifle on my pack, and … oh wait, I don’t have my pack because I didn’t really expect to see any bears here.  I’ll just do the old military prone shot off the elbow.  Hmm…16 inch grass is making that impossible (or at least imprudent), which also means to be fair that the absence of the pack also didn’t really matter.  Hmmm…there’s a stump a few yards away that’s a little over 4 feet tall.  I’m 6 feet tall.  Perfect…I’ll just take a standing 270-yard stump-supported shot.  Standing 270-yard stump-supported shot?  Hmmm…well, let’s just watch this bear for a few minutes to make sure there aren’t any cubs, and to be honest, let’s just watch because bears are such majestic and amazing animals that I could watch them all day long.  They have a certain way about them, the way they carry themselves, the way they go about their business.

So about 45 minutes of bear hunting time goes by, which in reality is about 20 minutes.  No cubs.  And this looks like a nice bear.  Thick, solid, dark black coat.  Has the confidence of an animal that knows its spot on the food chain.  It’s time to go through Loren’s bear hunting checklist:

1.   This animal deserves dignity and respect.  If I sign the contract and pull the trigger, this ends when I find the animal.
2.   If I’m alone, which I am today, I don’t want to go into the woods.  I use a 7mm Rem Mag – I’ve looked at the ballistics (most importantly the terminal ballistics of the 139 gr Barnes VorTx LR), assessed my shooting ability, and weighed the conditions.  300 yards is my limit.  Range is 270.  But that’s all based on being prone. 

Decision time.  Bear is still feeding.  It’s been there 20 minutes.  It’s not a wide clearing, but the food source that I knew was there is plentiful, easy for the bear to find, and more nutritious and fattening than berries, but it’s a bear, and bears wander.  Time to switch from the binos to the rifle and scope.  I should mention that the bear is uphill, probably about 70 feet in elevation higher, meaning the horizontal distance (the true range) is a little less than 270, the point of aim would need to be adjusted for elevation – real world math!! – and the wind is blowing perfectly down the hill from the bear to me. 

Still no round chambered. No intent to sign the contract yet.  I set up at the stump just to see how steady the sight picture will be.  I arbitrarily decide that if it’s steady enough to keep the crosshairs within about a 2-inch circle of my point of aim, we have a deal.  I spread my legs to get a good base, lean against the stump, immobilize everything that can be immobilized, take a few steady deep breaths, hold on the natural breathing pause, and I realize my first stump supported bear opportunity is a winner. Cross hair movement is less than 2 inches total.  All I need to do is trust the sight picture and KTFTM.  An acronym I learned at West Point and years of target shooting.  Keep That Fu**ing Trigger Moving.
 
Decision made to sign the contract.  I chamber one of three rounds.  I take a second to visualize … manage my breathing … start a steady squeeze … KTFTM … bang!  But the bear moved just as the round exploded.  Bear tumbles.  I rack a second round. The bear is getting back up.  Back on target.  The bear is stumbling towards the woods.  Controlled breathing.  Tracking. Starting the steady squeeze.  I’ve practiced and visualized this moment – It’s nothing new.  KTFTM.  Bang!  Bear was behind a stump.  Missed.  Unless the round penetrated through the stump.  The bear is in the woods.  At speed. 

More to follow later.  I need to go do parent stuff for the next few hours. 

[ironbuck]

  Not cool dont know how long i can hang on this cliff 

[Rainier10]

I like it so far.

[logola512c]

This is gonna take longer than expected.  Mostly writing this down as a record for myself.  Thought other folks might like the story. Back to the story...

Part 2

Hmmm.  Bear is off into the woods.  Given the circumstances, I’m remarkably calm.  Good, because there’s likely still work to be done because that bear was trucking. Think and assess, mentally note where the bear was.  Visualize the shot – I think the bear moved just as the shot was arriving -- most likely outcome was a solid hit within a couple inches of the point of aim -- behind the near leg, through the lungs, and through the far shoulder – opening is narrow, intent was to break the far shoulder.  Range the location again, so I can range back to where I took the shot if there isn’t any blood.  Bear was moving with some speed into the woods.  Best alternative seems to be to immediately to go closer to where the bear was and re-assess.
 
I pick up the two spent cartridges, and load two more rounds into the rifle, for a total of 3 in the rifle.  Put the rifle on safe at the setting where the bolt won’t open – I love the Winchester Model 70 three-point safety -- and none currently in the chamber.  Check the .45 – still buckled in the holster – and note that the magazine has 5 rounds and none in the chamber.  No need to change that for the time being.  Get my pack from the car, make sure there’s food, water, and kill kit in the pack, and take a few moments to relish this task and just be in the moment.  I’m nearing 50 years old, and as some country singer said, “I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.”

20 minutes since the shot was fired.  I slowly head towards the spot where the bear was.  Plan is to stop about 50 yards shy and look and listen, reassess.  About 50 yards shy, I hear movement, sticks breaking in the woods.  Hard to tell distance in the woods.  Could be 25 yards in.  Could just as easily be 500 yards in.  The woods are typical Pac NW logging areas – semi-thick trees and 2-3 foot tall ferns.  This seems like a prudent place to alter the unloaded status of the firearms.  I hear a couple deep, prolonged moans, that can only come from an injured bear.  Then silence.  Death moan.

But then I hear more movement, sticks breaking in the woods. Not a death moan.  Bummer.  That would have been easier.  Injured bear instead, and one that apparently is still moving, hasn’t just bedded down to slowly expire.

Time to reassess.  Think.  Periodically hear more moaning.  Deep, sad, heart-wrenching moans that nobody wants to hear – clearly from an animal in pain.  Especially when they are by themselves.  But I also hear movement.  The bear is suffering but not out of the fight.  I creep closer to the spot where the bear was shot.  Scan as far as I can into the woods (which isn’t far) using binos.  Nothing.
 
Decision time – go in and end the suffering and potentially push the animal further (and maybe come face to face with an injured bear) or wait it out but listen to the suffering.  When I pulled the trigger I resolved to ethically finish this task, which includes no unnecessary suffering.  Takes about a second to rule out option 1.  There’s only one real option – wait.

So I wait another 30 minutes staring into woods that I can’t see through, wondering what’s out there.  I periodically hear the same deep, melancholy moans, and some minor movement.  What’s this bear doing?  Stalking back and forth waiting for a Loren-snack?

Then…silence.  You know this kind of silence.  When nothing is making noise.  No birds.  No squirrels.  No wind.  Nothing.  The world takes a pause because something must have happened.  Or maybe the human brain, evolved over thousands of years, has learned to focus in on just the set of sounds that matter in this moment.  The last moan must have been the death moan, right?  Each set of moans was getting weaker, with the continued loss of blood, right?

Reassess.  Decision is made to go to where the animal was shot.  Look for blood, find the blood trail if there is one, hopefully determine what kind of hit I made, and scan into the treeline from there following the trail, if there is one.  Look at the watch.  Mentally note the time, because in 30 minutes we’re going in to finish this, which hopefully is just the recovery of an expired bear.
 
When I get to the spot, there’s a deflated feeling.  Hardly any blood.  Maybe 3 drops.  Bummer, but at least I found blood.  Nothing to do but to follow it to where the trees start to take a peek.  5 yards, a couple more drops.  5 more yards, a few more.  5 more yards, almost in the trees, even more blood – hope rises, maybe there’s an exit wound.  5 more yards, and almost in the trees, and the bear was plainly coughing mouths-full of frothy blood – blood spatter the size of a legal notebook – more hope, had to have hit at least one lung, and hard to imagine that it wasn’t two because the bear was broadside even after it moved.  No stomach matter or weird stuff, so no shot too far back.  Another big splatter right after that.  Good.  Plan to wait 30 minutes seems right.  Back away and watch/listen.  Nothing to see or hear.  Ironically, still no squirrels or birds.
 
30 minutes is up.  Give it 5 more for good measure.  Send text to wife/friend using InReach.  Advise of situation, and inform them of location and task at hand, intent to follow up every 30 minutes.  Potentially some serious work still to be done.

I also notice that there are birds and squirrels chirping now.  Weird.  Not sure what to make of that.  Hopefully that all is back to what it should be, whatever that might be. I know I have good blood, a really good blood trail, and probably hit one lung (and maybe two). It’s been 35 minutes since the last sound.  All good signs.

[logola512c]

Part 3

Time to go into the woods.  Not gonna lie.  I feel trepidation, worry, fear.  But also resolve.  Mental checklist.  Pee?  Done.  Eat and drink – done, all fueled up.  No need for a pack. Rifle, on safe, no round chambered, slung over my shoulder.  If I see a live bear far enough away in the woods to use a 3-power scope, I’ll have time to rack a round.  Trusty, double action .45 auto – round chambered and hammer down.  If something needs shooting with a 45 with a two and a half inch barrel, the added trigger pull of the double action won’t be the issue, and it’s definitely safer hammer down in and around trees.  Marking tape and communication? Check.  I’m ready.  Time to finish what I started.

Now to do it.  I keep remembering what I heard when I first started thinking about hunting bears. Never follow the exact path a bear takes into the brush because he might just be waiting for you.  Hmmm…but how to do that and still follow a blood trail?  Well, I hadn’t really thought of that question before.  Seems like kind of polar opposite approaches when I think about it.  So I can safely and fairly comprehensively see about 10-15 feet in front of me and in between ferns and trees.  I decide my plan of action is (trusty pistol in hand and ready) to take a step, scan thoroughly the full 180 degrees, then look for blood.  Repeat.  A bunch of times.  Every few yards, I find a lot of blood.  There’s no trouble following the trail.  25 yards in.  Still making steady progress.  A lot of blood.  Probably taken about 30 minutes to come this far – time to check in with wife/friend, so back up 5 steps, send quick message, make mental note of how inopportune that deadline was.  Get back to the task.  Remind myself it’s not a race.  Each step, the same process.  Sustained smeared blood now on the ground.  About 50 yards in, I see a dark shape under a fallen log and ferns. About 12 feet away.

Pause.  Breathe.  It’s the bear.  No visible movement.  Appears to be expired.  Think.  I decide to yell in a deep, husky voice – “Hey Bear!”  Bear starts getting up, raising up on its hind legs, and turning – 12 feet away.  By the time it’s completely turned around and facing me, my .45 is exploding center mass, and then again slightly higher at the head, which is now tumbling back to the ground with the rest of the bear.  Less than 2 seconds have passed.  The woods are for sure silent now, especially since I wasn’t wearing ear plugs for this part.  Just a quiet ringing.  I back out of the woods, and sixty seconds later, I record my thoughts on my phone.  Still surprisingly calm – not shaking or anything, and steady breathing. (But looking back at the video, I’m clearly amped up, coming down from the adrenaline, and scanning side to side like I think there’s still some predator out there).

Story’s not done. 

[Widgeondeke]

So far so good....gonna have to catch the rest of the story later 

[logola512c]

Part 4 -- Conclusion and Afterthoughts

So the bear’s down for sure now.  I’ve recorded my contemporaneous thoughts for what those are worth, and now it’s time to get to work.  As luck would have it, I brought my tree-mounted game hoist and decide to give it a try.  Plenty of trees in the woods to use, and I can get the bear off the ground and out of the ferns to see what I’m doing.  15 minute walk to the car, 15 minutes back, and I have a game hoist, gambrel, and game scale with me.  There’s not going to be any mystery about this bear’s weight.

So at this point I also decide to take a video of the blood trail for what that’s worth and video showing where the bear reared up.  That’s good contemporaneous commentary also.  That done, I set to work – no shortage of work to do.  Get the tree hoist set up.  Hook up the scale, and the gambrel, cut the gap behind the achilles, hook the gambrel, start hoisting the bear up, and off in the distance, I hear the unmistakable deep vocalization of a big bear.  It’s not terribly close (I think, because I can’t really see that far), but I’m thinking I’m a little preoccupied at this point, and in my little pea brain I’m rationalizing that the only bear that comes to the sound of gun shots or another bear dying is a really big bear.  I’m also feeling maybe a little vulnerable in these woods, and for the first time, fear starts to become the primary emotion.  I also only have 3 rounds left in the pistol.  I wasn’t exactly expecting to be in any gun fights out here.  So I proceed to yell something like “Hey Bear!” when I realize that didn’t work out so well the first time, and so I just make a lot of noise, which seemed to scare off whatever big fella was feeling curious.
 
But now, I don’t really want to field dress this bear in the woods.  I’m thinking the clearing sounds pretty cozy at this point.  So I lower the bear, leave the gambrel in, and start dragging.  That lasts about 10 feet.  Need a new plan—she’s heavy and the ground isn’t flat.  Here’s where it gets a little funny.  I figure I’ll just piggy back the bear out.  Throw an arm over each of my shoulders, pull them down near my stomach, tuck the head to one side, and I just piggy backed her right out, dragging her hind legs behind me.  Surprisingly easy.  But I don’t think I’ll ever forget the smell of her face right next to mine.  Still warm and damp. Next thing I know, I’m in the clearing, go back and get my game hoist and other stuff, and now I’m in the safety of the clearing.
 
So I set up the game hoist on the tree that’s the farthest in the clearing, repeat the process, and … the hoist isn’t high enough to get her head and front feet off the ground.  Sigh.  Lower her.  Add slack to the system.  Raise the hoist, raise the bear, still not high enough.  Sigh… Try again.  Still not high enough.  I think the foot or so of space the scale and its hardware takes makes it not able to raise the bear high enough to get it completely off the ground.  So the bear weighed exactly 156.7 pounds, with its head and both front feet plainly resting at a weird angle on the ground.  Yay for the scale. I’m guessing the true weight was somewhere around 200 pounds.  She was old.  One of the canines was about 50% worn down.  And all the front teeth were worn down so much I could see the circle of the roots inside of each of the teeth.
 
I’m happy to say that there was no further drama.  Just a lot of work processing the bear, 4 more trips back and forth to the car, and the satisfaction of a great day in the woods, at the spot I wasn’t expecting to see anything that was supposed to be a pit stop on the way to a new spot I was excited about.  The whole way home I reflected on the experience.  Identified a few things I would do differently, and things I thought I did well, and how fortunate we are to have bears.  They are truly amazing animals.  I’m grateful for them and for the experience.

Afterthoughts:
1.   The original shot blew a gaping hole in the 4th rib on both sides, taking out the front of both of the lungs, and exploded the humerus on the far-side front leg, and exited the leg.  I think the shot must have hit right before the bear moved.  Can’t say enough about the all-copper Barnes bullets.  I’ve used them on 5 bears I’ve harvested in the last 3 years and they are spectacular.  This was the first bear (or deer) that didn’t drop where it was hit.
 
2.   I’ve put thousands of rounds through my .45 over the years.  Hundreds of rounds of practicing the equivalent of a quick double tap from about 10 or 15 feet.  Most many, many years ago, but the muscle memory is established.  It’s a crap gun at over 15 yards, but supremely efficient inside that distance.  There’s a fine line between confidence based on competence through practice and unwarranted hubris, and we should all carefully evaluate where we fit on that spectrum in each situation as they arise. That said, I thought this bear was already dead when I went into the woods based on the massive amount of blood it was spewing, but I was prepared for it not to be and I skewed the odds as much in my favor as I could.
 
3.   First .45 shot was dead center in the front of the chest, broke a rib in the back, and lodged in back fat.  Bear must have still been turning when that shot hit.  I used the entry hole to crack the sternum while gutting.
 
4.   Second .45 shot penetrated the neck, ruined some good meat, and was likely unnecessary, but I’ll never not take that shot in the same situation.

5.   I suspect the bear was very near death when it reared up.  If I had waited a few more minutes I probably would have avoided all the drama.  And I prefer no drama.  I think the movement and pools of blood were the bear just continuing to try to get distance from the clearing by crawling.  It couldn’t have heard or smelled me.  But down part of two lungs and a broken front left leg, there was just no way for it to keep going.  But it certainly tried.  Much respect to this animal.

[Jpmiller]

Thanks for sharing, good things to think about all around. Hope you can find some way of editing the video to get it posted. Good work

[Pacific Ghost]

Quite the story. Any non-secret pics to share? Also, afterthought #6, make sure to wear high-vis colors while dragging out on your back, maybe even an extra garment for the bear.

[Rainier10]

Great story thanks for sharing.

[logola512c]

A couple not-so-great photos, including the example of how not to use a game scale, because the bear's head and shoulders are still clearly still resting on the ground.  Scale read 156.7 lbs like that, so my best guess is near or around 200 pounds.

[logola512c]

second photo.

[logola512c]

3rd photo

[logola512c]

Quite the story. Any non-secret pics to share? Also, afterthought #6, make sure to wear high-vis colors while dragging out on your back, maybe even an extra garment for the bear.

I totally agree.  I hunt in a blaze orange cap, blaze orange long sleeve shirt, and a blaze orange vest.  If I lose a shot opportunity hunting modern rifle because an animal sees the blaze orange, I'm not doing something correctly, and I'd rather be seen by other hunters.  Before I went into the woods to drag the bear out, I strung up about a dozen pieces of blaze marking tape near where I was, and then was still wearing all my blaze orange.  I also stopped the piggy backing right before the edge of the woods for that reason.  Hard to explain, but where I was, there was zero chance of another hunter seeing me while piggy backing the bear in the woods.  But good advice to put a vest on the bear or its head.  In my book, there's never too much blaze orange, especially after shots are fired. 

[CoryTDF]

Great story! I like your writing style, almost like reading a checklist. It is unique to what is typically posted and I enjoyed reading it. Congrats on a great bear as well!

[Pacific Ghost]

That is a hefty hoist and scale setup; good thing you didn't have to pack it into your new, high spot instead. Wait, I could have used your help on my bear I posted about earlier. How much do you charge just to hike in the hoist & scale for someone else? Premium cost for traveling blindfolded?

[Jpmiller]

Not to nit pick but I think next time you could tie up the bears head and front paws and run a rope back up to the scale and tie it off that way to get an accurate weight with it all off the ground, tied off on both ends. 

[Rainier10]

Not to nit pick but I think next time you could tie up the bears head and front paws and run a rope back up to the scale and tie it off that way to get an accurate weight with it all off the ground, tied off on both ends.

That is a great idea.  I am guessing that thought never entered his mind being all riled up from the encounter and all.  Great idea though.

[logola512c]

Not to nit pick but I think next time you could tie up the bears head and front paws and run a rope back up to the scale and tie it off that way to get an accurate weight with it all off the ground, tied off on both ends.

Good idea.  So obvious in hindsight.  I think the scale is just a curiosity for me, and what I really wanted the hoist for was to be able to field dress the animal off the ground to get less hair and stuff from the ground on the meat, which I did see the benefit of.  Much less hair and leaves etc, in the game bags, although still more on it than I would have liked.

[logola512c]

Not to nit pick but I think next time you could tie up the bears head and front paws and run a rope back up to the scale and tie it off that way to get an accurate weight with it all off the ground, tied off on both ends.

That is a great idea.  I am guessing that thought never entered his mind being all riled up from the encounter and all.  Great idea though.

Totally correct.  Instead I just kept lowering the bear, raising the host, etc. over and over, without success.  lessons learned for the next one...

[Buckmark]

Not to nit pick but I think next time you could tie up the bears head and front paws and run a rope back up to the scale and tie it off that way to get an accurate weight with it all off the ground, tied off on both ends.

Good idea.  So obvious in hindsight.  I think the scale is just a curiosity for me, and what I really wanted the hoist for was to be able to field dress the animal off the ground to get less hair and stuff from the ground on the meat, which I did see the benefit of.  Much less hair and leaves etc, in the game bags, although still more on it than I would have liked.

Congrats
Carry a small tarp to set the meat on, much lighter than your hoist set up 

[logola512c]

That is a hefty hoist and scale setup; good thing you didn't have to pack it into your new, high spot instead. Wait, I could have used your help on my bear I posted about earlier. How much do you charge just to hike in the hoist & scale for someone else? Premium cost for traveling blindfolded?

The 800 yards to my car was about the limit for using that hoist setup.  Although truth be told, once I took the scale out of the system the bear hung nicely off the ground and processing was a snap, and much more  lower-back-friendly, which maybe only us old-ish farts appreciate...  At this point, I'd rather carry 30 pounds of steel upright a few hundred yards than spend an hour hunched over working on something. 

[rainshadow1]

Great story! Thanks!

[logola512c]

This bear had some worn out teeth.  Check out the rings inside the lower teeth.

[muzzleman]

I enjoyed the story thanks for sharing and nice bear!!!