Thanks for all the well wishes guys and gals. Special thanks to Johnny my lil bro, for coming out and helping.
This is the beginning of this story...
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,26465.msg303929/topicseen.html#newAnd heres the rest:
A pic from where the bear was standing...(by douglas fir in center of pic), shot with a .300 WSM 165 grain bullet.
Arrived at the spot after picking up my little brother, bout 8 am (I was up at 5, but had a drive). We decide the best way to find a trail is to follow the brush line the bear went into, hoping to cut a trail. We would then go from one end to another, going deeper into the brush until we find something.
930 am, I find his tracks and some blood on some sticker bushes, 80 yards in the brush from were he was shot originally. Keep in mind, much of this is crawling on hands and knees cause its so thick. He bolted out of the brush and made it to a log spur road, that is slightly overgrown with alders, etc. He came out at the dead end of the spur...minimal blood....in fact, we lose the trail of blood there. This is why I only heard him crash through brush for about 5-8 seconds after I shot...he hit the road and was quiet.
From 930 am to 4 pm nothing...no tracks, no sight, no blood. We circle, go up, down, all around, look everywhere, walk much of the spur road, still not finding blood, tracks, hair or any direction as to where he went.
Its frustrating...to add things to it, its raining some.
I decide to head down the spur road as much as I can, even though I have already walked it a few times to some extent (giving up not finding any blood).
I get a 1/4 mile down the road or so and I find bear tracks in a muddy puddle along the right side of the road...he had took a dip in the pool. Looking for blood...no good...tracks look like his.
He crosses the road and goes into the brush, heads down into another ditch area that leads to a swamp....I follow the tracks out of the ditch....they disappear into the briars. After about 40 yards of going throught the briars, I come upon a swamp and look over a log...
there he is! The pics dont really do him justice.
I was very grateful to find the bear, as I owed it to the animal to put forth all the effort possible. We went back and got the gear, truck etc.
We were able to drive up the log spur so we only had about a 60 yard drag out, which we just wrapped the bear up in a tarp and hauled.
We weighed the bear, gutted, with his legs and butt still on the floor...he was just under 250 lbs, so we can only assume with guts and proper weighing..he would be close if not at least 300 lbs.
The boar has scars on his ears, head and has lived a long life. 2 inches of fat were on the belly.
I am 6'1 and 200 lbs...laying next to the bear...
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UPDATED:
Wet skull measurement: 18 1/4 inches (11 3/4 length, 6 1/2 width)
Measured 6' 2" from nose to tail when skinned.
I will get more exact measurments tomorrow..Cheers!
