Thanks for all the comments from all of you!
Im very pleased with him. I love every animal I hunt deeply so it doesnt take much at all to become a trophy to me. If taxidermy was 50% cheaper Id have 50 deer does and spike bucks mounted all over my house!
I was very very excited to take this bear...although, I promise you the bear I was hunting (in the exact same area) craps turds bigger than my bear at Michelle's house! The big bear was an easy twice as big.
Any way, I had given up any hope of finding a bear and was just hoping to get my buddy within a elk/deer sighting for his first ever trip to the woods. Next thing ya know... Black Bear at 40 yards with no clue two hunters are leaned against the nearby stump.
We were elk calling on a sparse timber ridge that butts up against a thick nasty bedding area of young firs...
I have seen a big bull and lots of elk in the area...and my wife killed her first ever deer ( 2x2 BT with 300 WM) just 400 meters away... so I expected to see game but the bear was a pleasant surprise.
I would have either mounted or rugged him even if he was 100 pounds smaller!! I think bears are kind of like caribou. While there is a scoring system they are all sorta trophies in their own right...in a way that doesnt always make sense in a B&C measurement kind of way. I love my bear and he is a monster to me!
He sure as hell felt like it when I packed 1/2 his body, his entire hide, and the head...all still one piece... paws still attached... 400+ meters out of that thicket.
Strangely, me and Michelle working together had trouble moving that same meat pack 10 feet from my truck to her shop.
PS- Thank you Michelle for the skinning praise! You forgot to mention the job I did was in 45 minutes from wheres the knife to dropping the pack in the truck.
I was fortunate to sweet talk my way behind a gate that doesnt ever get opened for anyone and that cut over a mile off of the pack out but that entrance came with a 1 hr total time limit including drive time.
gate to gate was 1:09
I wouldn't wanna try it again but thanks George!!
Any way,
Thanks for the comments... not expecting to get much more big game hunting done this year in WA unless some one on here has a pesky cougar that they need taken care of. Guess Ill have to switch to ducks or something now
