Last weekend was a bust in Tucannon, but I connected on Friday

[Dean44]

Last weekend was a bust in Tucannon, but I connected on Friday.

We drove up Thursday night with gear to camp for a four-day weekend. This was the first weekend that I was able to have both of my boys come at the same time, ages 12 and 24.  It was raining and almost dark when we came through Dayton so we stayed in a motel rather than set up tents in the dark and rain. We cooked rib eye steaks and watched hunting shows on the TV.

Up fairly early on Friday morning we prepped our gear and headed for the Tucannon drainage. The rain had given a brief reprieve and I was hoping that the break in the weather would bring some bears out on the ridges. We were planning on a full day hike and we had our packs filled accordingly. 

Arriving at our planned camp site and starting point for hiking at 6AM, we got out and started a final check on the packs. My oldest son walked down the hill about 30 yards where you could see several ridges down the drainage. He came back quickly and very excited, telling us to come quickly.

We followed him down the hill and he pointed out a bear working low on a ridge, with one additional ridge between us. We ranged it at 756 yards but the ridge in between was about 500 yards so we knew it would be in range from the next ridge over. 

The bear was busy turning over rocks and digging up roots so it looked like we had some time to execute a plan.

We decided that the boys would stay in position and watch things from high up, while I skirted around the top of the mountain to catch the next ridge and slip down into range. The plan went pretty good. It took me about 45 min to get into position. I came down the side of the ridge away from the bear to avoid giving away my presence until I was ready.  On the way down the ridge an elk bugled from several hundred yards up the drainage.  The boys reported that this put the bear on alert for a while but he eventually just sat down, looked around, and then went back to feeding.

After dropping about 700 feet in elevation, I knew that I should be about lined up with the bear. I skirted to the edge of the ridge and as I was aware would happen, there were several trees partially obscuring my view. The forest fire had burned about half of the trees, so you could find windows through the branches that were big enough for shooting.

It didn’t take me long to spot the bear; it was busy digging and turning over rocks facing straight away from me. The range finder said 96, yards, 109 yards etc so I knew that it was picking up the branches between the bear and I. Finally, I punched through the branches and read 209 yards, which meant a dead-on hold. Although I could see the bear, there were too many branches to risk a deflected bullet so I tried several positions before I found a shooting window, which happened to have a tree trunk to shoot against. My preferred shooting position is sitting with the shooting sticks but to get through the shooting window, I had to be in a standing position so the tree rest worked fine.

The bear still was facing straight away so I waited another 30 seconds or so for it to turn, finally it quartered away from me and started to walk down hill. I placed the bullet just behind the front left shoulder and it exited the forward portion of the front right shoulder. (.338 Win, 250gr Sierra Boat Tail).

The boys had been watching the whole thing from 700 feet up and a half-mile away but I heard them hoot and holler after the crack of the rifle finished echoing.

The pack out was 700 feet up and about 2 miles after circling around the top of the mountain to get back to the truck.  After the kill, the rain rolled in with driving wind and 34 degrees so I knew we were fortunate to get this opportunity during the brief break in the weather that we had.

The bear is of course smallish, but I am very pleased with the beautiful coat that it has on it and the coloring. This is a hunt that all three of us will remember for a lifetime!

[the1rod]

congrats, very nice color on that bear. and great write up. your son sure looks like he was happy about it, its great that you were able to have both of them there. once again congrats on a great hunt. 

[PacificNWhunter]

Nice bear!

[buckhorn2]

Nice bear and pretty color bet you were happy you had the boys for the pack out. Not supposed to be any elk over there.

[runamuk]

awesome bear...... now would you all please leave at least one chocolate bear for me

and there aren't any elk over there

[billythekidrock]

Congrats Dean & Co. Great color on that bear.

[bucklucky]

Oh Heck Ya!! Who cares about the size, that coat and color is awesome! Congrats!

[winston2789]

Great write up and hunt!! Glad you could get one down. It has a great color phase, wa it a boar or sow? 

[machine]

congrats looks like a good bear to me.

[bonecrusher]

good job punchin the tag. i hope to see some more guys have success after this weekend is over. waiting on a phone call to go help pack out from one tag holder on here, hope i get it. that would make a nice little life size mount 

[Kain]

Woot woot.  Great write up and a bear.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Great looking color on that Bear!  Congrats on filling your Spring tag with that good looking animal!

[bowhunterforever]

Awsome story and beautiful bear

[rasbo]

thats great good job on getting it out..It was fun reading up to that part lol,that is a good looking hide..many good memories for yrs to come

[Austrian Hunter]

Nice Job, well done, congrats...  Even better that you had both your boys there