I agreed to help a guy with his spring bear tag in Oregon this year. I messed up and missed the application deadline, but still wanted to be part of a hunt. We met each other Saturday morning, split up and hiked opposite ridges to do some glassing, but only turned up deer and elk. I decided to go check out some lower elevation stuff but was told by a local shop owner that snow line was the move. So I went to a different glassing vantage and turned up a nice chocolate bear at 2pm about 4 miles away using a Swaro STC. Seriously impressed with that little spotter. We had to wrap around a pretty long way to get to him, so we got going as soon at possible.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3J4wap15th8WSBkKAWe took a truck and quad up, ditching the truck before the snow got bad. We then pushed the quad to its limits in the afternoon slush and ended up having to pack in after the quad got stuck. I was 95% confident I dropped a pin right on the bear due to some distinct nearby features, but he was nowhere to be seen at 6:30pm when we got around the basin he was in. We sat for 15 minutes before deciding to check the next basin over. We got to the next basin and didn't see him at first. Then he popped out from behind some timber. No doubt the same bear. Buddy set up on a boulder to get a solid rest, shooting at a -17 degree angle at 330 yards. The bear was pretty quickly moving out of sight behind some timber.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/nrxwPEktGv49QmDz8As it started to hail, he held "middle of middle" and sent a 140gr Accubond out of a 26 Nosler at the bear. It dropped instantly. He was going to send another but the bear had fallen where we could just see its rear end. We watched it for a while with no movement and got up for a high five. I put the binos on it again to get it's exact position and it was gone...
We scanned the rest of the basin and didn't see him running off anywhere. We assumed he might have rolled into an alder thicket and started making our way over. It was starting to get dark so we broke out the headlamps and pistols to follow blood, checking this alder choked chute from several angles before wading in there. We spotted the bear around 8:20 PM and tossed a rock on him to confirm he was dead.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SkJmf86NvED4RDnf6As he lay. No doubt he was a boar.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/mmw1UpxqMcUTKeZp8The chute was extremely steep, about 30 degrees. We thought he might have gotten up and ran, but once we opened him up it was clear that he had rolled. Parts of the blood trail were pretty interesting.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wdhomcMaPMWBvGwE6The bullet put a golf ball sized permanent wound channel through the neck, almost separating it entirely. We essentially just had to cut some skin and tissue away to get the head off.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/jPMfxvqE8p5fkurZADue to the crazy slope it took us quite a while to process him. With bone-in quarters, all the loose meat and head we were both pushing 100 lb packs. Due to the severity of the slope, we crawled on hands and knees at certain points to get up to the ridge. We eventually made it up around 1:30 AM and took refuge from the 40 degree, 20 mph blowing wind in a forest service outhouse to rest and fuel up for the remainder of the packout.
Fortunately, we took so long that the snow had set up and we were able to get the quad back to the truck by 3:00 AM. Though the quad didn't like both of us AND packs full of bear on it, so I got to walk a good portion of the way. We got back to camp around 3:30 AM. Despite the hour, a tailgate beer was on the menu. Likely the best Vitamin R I've ever tasted.
Definitely a hunt I won't forget anytime soon!
