The Coop2424 and hunt4ever spring bear hunt...

[Hunt4ever]

Heres the story and i will post pics tonight to follow...

AS CLOSE AS IT GETS…

Coop 2424 and myself arrived at camp on Friday night around 11:00pm… My brother had camp all set up and our outlook was good.. After one drink (or two) we crashed, only to dream about the possible bears we might see in the am… The morning came all too fast, but moral was up, knowing we were heading out bear hunting.  We walked into the first canyon and found a great vantage point overlooking an all too familiar thicket( exact spot my brother got his 350 lb blacky last fall).. After a hour or so of calling we decided to press on to the next canyon.. One ridge after another we glassed, called, and visualized bear coming up the hillsides.  So far nothing was impressing us so we decided to drive off the mountain to a lower log job where a government worker( who was changing a flat tire) told my brother he had seen a nice cinnamon the day before.  An hour of driving and a few gallons of gas later we made it to the log job, only to find no bears and 10 degree hotter temps… Given the morning thus far Coop2424 was rethinking he choice of guides… I tried to redeem myself by spotting a pile of fresh bear crap; well it wasn’t a bear but at least it convinced Coop2424 that there were bear on this mountain… Shortly after some tail gate deliberation we decided to head back up to the top of the mountain and try and get on something. 

   We were riding along arguing about chainsaws and country music when all the sudden my brother looks straight down a steep embankment and spots a beautiful 400 class boar 250 yds out broadside… Coop2424 being a track star by nature sprints to the back of the truck to pull out the shooting sticks.. Coop2424 plops down on the hillside and takes a solid 30 sec calm down to make a great shot.. “BANG” the rem model 700… 30-06 180 grain nosler accubonds (reloaded by yours truly) smack the bear right behind the front shoulders and throw him off a 20 ft rock face. After seeing the shot we all started to celebrate and prepare for our pack out of there… After 20 min of slowly making our way to the boar we realized he wasn’t laying where he should be. At first panic I realized that boar had run straight down into the nastiest thorn brush thicket the world has ever seen.  We knew just then that our work would not be easily completed.  We gathered our thoughts and decided to start from the location of the shot to assess the damage(blood).  After a short glance we spotted the huge rock hill he fell off of and the small tree he took out just below that; we noticed there was bright blood everywhere.  Our spirits were currently up do to the amounts of meat and blood we were finding while crawling on hands and knees through the thicket… We searched and searched and made it 100 yds from ground zero and completely lost the blood trial.  As thick as it was and with my brothers search and rescue background we decided to spread out about 6 ft apart and walk back and forth side hilling across the canyon until we found it.. 4 hours of frustration later we realized we had combed that entire hillside. Somehow that bear had pulled an Osama Bin Laden and jumped into some freaking hole in the mountain and disappeared.  At this point we were all so tired and dehydrated we decided to head back to camp and regroup. It took a solid 2 hours just to hike out of there but we did make it. After a few gallons of water later, and some nice shade time we thought maybe just maybe we might  be able to spot that dead bear on the opposite side of the canyon.
     
    Down we went back to the deceiving canyon to try to spot the bear… 40 min of spotting later Coop2424 spots a 275 lb boar with his nose in the air (as if he was picking up a scent of a dead bear) heading right up the same finger right into the same thicket where we lost the blood trail.  We were so disgusted about how fast that bear made it up the canyon we all wondered why god only gave us two walking legs… Beside the point we watched that bear till dark in hopes he would give up the hiding spot to that other bear; no prevail obviously, due to the lack of hound dog training that bear had received (lazy bear)… That night was pretty quiet, with a lot of ?’s like; did we look everywhere, did we try hard enough, was he really dead in that canyon, why didn’t I teach myself how to fly at a younger age so I could glide over the canyon for a bird’s eye view of that bear… AND the biggest ? of all should we continue to hunt knowing that bear could be dead.. We left Coop2424 out by the fire to reflect and make the decision by morning.. Sun came up and we all felt like we had been in a cage match against The Hulk.. Feeling this way kept the option of hiking back into that canyon as a dead end.. We made the decision to go back to that canyon to glass all day until we found that bear… A good 3 hours later we noticed some movement in the very bottom of the huge hillside.. It was a monster honey colored sow and a jet black cub… We all were so distracted by here size we failed to notice the bright colored cinnamon cub right along side of her black cub sibling.. We admired the sow and cubs for a while thinking about how many bears were in this same hillside and how mad we were not being able to find the nice boar that Coop2424 had wounded… The end of the weekend was soon there and the boar is still up there somewhere; whether he’s alive or not I’m not sure but I did learn a couple things throughout this weekend…. One, bears are tough, Two Coop2424 is a good shot, a good friend, and really deserved that bear.,.. Fun times…

[huntnphool]

Can't wait for the pics, nice write up.

[billythekidrock]

Can't wait for the pics, nice write up.

  Sounds like a dead bear with no recovery..so probably no pics.

[littlebuf]

the first and only animal i didnt recover was a black bear that i shot from 30 yards with a 300 win mag. i drilled this bear right in the vitals and he went down hard, then some how got up to run strait down hill 200 yards and fell down into a gully that i just could not get into. i know he died cuz i heard im stop. i tried to get down in there to him for 9 hours bush whacking through the thickest dang brush you could imagine, i had my gps on at the time and if you look at the trail theres about a half ace area i could not penetrate i went from all sides trying to get in there . i felt terrible and when i think back i still do even tho i know i did every thing i could to get down to that bear. he was a big one too, real small ears and his head looked like a box. keep your head up and keep after um, as long as you know you did your best sometimes thats all you can do

[billythekidrock]

the first and only animal i didnt recover was a black bear that i shot from 30 yards with a 300 win mag. i drilled this bear right in the vitals and he went down hard, then some how got up to run strait down hill 200 yards and fell down into a gully that i just could not get into. i know he died cuz i heard im stop. i tried to get down in there to him for 9 hours bush whacking through the thickest dang brush you could imagine, i had my gps on at the time and if you look at the trail theres about a half ace area i could not penetrate i went from all sides trying to get in there . i felt terrible and when i think back i still do even tho i know i did every thing i could to get down to that bear. he was a big one too, real small ears and his head looked like a box. keep your head up and keep after um, as long as you know you did your best sometimes thats all you can do

Basically had the same thing. Lost the trail and the brush was so thick you couldn't see a person three feet away.

[coop2424]

Yeah let me tell you that is one of the worst feelings you can have when you can not recover.  It pretty much makes me sick to my stomach everytime I think about it and that bear was just huge.  I know that bear is dead somewhere but the terrain is so thick that at points we were crawling through it in order to keep on the trail.  

[coop2424]

Sometimes you have to hold off on that celebration dance and put another round in them instead.  Bears are tough and sometimes a perfect shot behind the shoulders isnt enough.

Believe me if I would have had a chance to put another round in him I would have but all we saw was legs in the air falling through a brush and over the rock face.  Never saw him after that.

[saylean]

A nasty feeling in the gut, losing an animal. Them bears are tough and seem to bleed cement (meaning it doesnt come out too much).  Nature wont let him go to waste.

[Jackjr]

I had same sort of thing happen to me in the Wenaha unit a few years back.  Shot a nice blond bear and it droped like a ton of sh--.  Went walking up to it and it got up and took off with the front legs not working.  Just pushing its self with its back legs.  They get around with two back legs pretty good .  I was able to catch up with it and get him.  But I learned a lesson about bears that day

[strutnrut1984]

this happened to me last fall in whatcom county. i had spotted areal nice bear in a patch of blueberries on the side of the mountain. i had a good rest and took my time looked like a good shot. took me about 20min to gt down to where he was at i found 2 spots of blood and some hair. he had went straight down hill into a very thick steep ravine. never found him looked for 2 days. i was sick to my stomach about it.

[littlebuf]

what i took from my experience is if you have the option of a  head shot on a bear take it. its what i should have done with the bear i lost. but the way he popped out from behind a log he actually put is vitals in my cross hairs, it was instinct just to pull the trigger. a head shot and he'd be hanging on my wall right now

[gramps]

Great write up...sorry about no recovery..tough one to take.