Thanks for the comments guys. I'm waiting to hear back from my taxidermist about the skull size. Good call boneaddict, I'm doing a lifesize mount!
Ridgerunner_07 Yep, NE Washington bear. I was hunting a south facing slope at about 5000ft. I would say keep looking for scat and if you find some concentrated in one area, stick with that area and watch it from a distance if you can. I have always had better luck finding spring bears in the evenings than any other time of day.
Here are some more details and pictures. I hope this isn't too long.
I live in Whatcom County, my permit area is 5 1/2 hrs away. My family has a cabin near where I was hunting.
I went over opening weekend, hiked around in my "bear spot" on the 14th, didn't see any sign. I didn't bother going back up there opening day, I figured it's too early in the year, plus it's a 12 mile ride on the 4wheeler and a half hour hike.
Made another trip the next weekend with some friends. We went up to the bear spot Saturday, still no sign, still too early. Sunday we hunted turkeys and got two jakes.
Went back over there with my dad the next weekend (the 28th), didn't have to be back to work till Thursday. We went up to the bear spot Saturday and finally saw some sign (scat, tracks, freshly torn up logs). We only spent about an hour up there, didn't see any bears.
Sunday started out great. First thing in the morning I did some shed hunting and found 8 muley sheds.
Then later while looking for whitey sheds saw a young bull moose. The first moose I've ever seen over there!
I went up to my bear spot at 5pm. On my hike in, I called in a coyote to 8 yards.
A few minutes later I arrived at my bear spot and went to the tree I planned on sitting under till dark. I set down my pack and was clearing a nice spot to sit when I looked and saw a cinnamon bear 180 yards below me in the trees. It didn't take me long to figure out this was the bear I wanted! If you look close you can see he is right alongside a barbed wire fence. This is the last picture I got of him before I put my video camera down.
As soon as I got my rifle up he walked behind some trees. Believe it or not I couldn't get a clear shot at him for another hour. He was very lethargic. He would even lay down on his stomach when eating grass. Eventually, he crawled underneath the fence and took a nap in the down fir boughs you see off to the right. I snuck in to about 80 yards, right up to the lip you see in the foreground and waited for him to get up. When he did, he walked towards me for about 15 yards, then broadside, I shot, he then climbed a fir tree about 40ft up, I shot him again, he fell out of the tree but was still alive, I shot at him again, he managed to get through the fence and died about 20 yards on the other side of it. It turns out the first shot was the only time I hit him. Needless to say, I was probably a little too excited. Fortunately, it was a perfect shot right through the lungs. I was shooting a .300 Win Mag.
Notice all of the sticks around him. I couldn't see his head through all of the brush, so I was throwing sticks at him for a while to be sure he was dead.
I left him there that night. My dad came up there with me the next morning. We took pictures, then winched him up the hill to where we could get him on my 4wheeler, then loaded him onto the back rack and hauled him back to the pickup.
