This season has been, without a doubt, the best bear season for me to date.
I've hand my girlfriend Lauren with me on almost every hunt, and together we've seen a total of six bear. Perhaps the best part is that prior to this season, she had NEVER seen a bear in the wild.
Now she can tell everyone she has been false-charged by a bear, had a curious bear stare her down from 40yds while it stood on it's hind legs, glass the high country and watch bear forage through meadows, and even drag one a few hundred yards out of a big, steep bowl!
Tuesday, Aug. 24th after leaving work early we headed east of Sedro Woolley up the mountain to hunt 3,500-4,000ft on National Forest Service land. One week ago there was little-to-no sign in the area...now the area is LITTERED with torn up stumps, flattened berry patches, and trails in every direction.
It seems pressure from the low-lands and the berries beginning to ripen have brought quite a few bear up high.
We reached the first area we planned to glass, shut off the truck, and headed down a decommisioned road. We had seen a large jet-black bear in these meadows the night before, but it was too late in the evening to put on a stalk. After 20 minutes of glassing we hoofed it back to the truck to head further in.
We worked our way down the mainline, stopping to glass any open area we could find.
About 15miles in, we shut off the truck and set up over a large bowl and began glassing at around 7:30pm. 10 minutes into it I spotted a nice dark brown bear eating blueberries on the far side of the bowl--a good 350yds away.
After a quick discussion with the girlfriend, I took off on foot to work my way around the bowl to get a closer shot. She was to stay where she was and keep tabs on the bear. I worked my way 150yds to the left of where she was, but couldn't get a clean shot inside 300yds.
About 20 minutes or so into watching the bear I settled over a stump and put him in the crosshairs. My girlfriend and I were separated by about 125 yards, the bear being about 325yds in front of me and downhill approx. 20°.
As the bear worked itself into an opening and paused to grab a few berries I touched off the Weatherby .338Winmag and launched a 210gr Barnes TSX toward the unsuspecting bear. The recoil of the rifle took my vision off the bear, but I heard the tell-tale "THWUMMMP" of a bullet hitting it's mark. I got back on the bear just in time to see him make it 10yds into a pile of trees. A Split second later there were three short moans, then silence. Everything went still.
I made my way back to Lauren to see if she could tell where the shot hit. Unfortunately, she had a different angle than me and couldn't see clearly enough to identify the hit. We were to find out later the bullet entered about 5" behind the left shoulder and approximately 3" "high." The bullet exited low, in the shoulder pocket on the right side of the bear also passing through it's right front leg. Due to the angle of the shot, it was a perfect hit. Both lungs were annihilated and the bear managed to make it only seven steps before piling up.
It didn't take us long at all to strap up and work our way around the bowl and down the hill. As you would expect, it was very difficult to navigate down the steep inclide and through the sparse fir trees to where the bear was originally standing. In fact, we were very unsure of just where to start looking. I was twenty paces ahead of Lauren when I heard he stumble. I quickly turned to make sure she would catch her balance when I found the bear literally six inches from my right boot. The good luck just keeps coming!
After pulling the bear into the open and taking a few quick cell-phone pictures (Yes, the digi was still in the truck) we dressed the bear and ran a strap between it's hind legs. By now it was 9:00 and it was DARK inside that bowl. We had the light of the full moon and two 3D maglights...and a seemingly never-ending series of, "1, 2, 3...PULL!'s" ahead of us.
We would place my rifle and one of the lit flashlights on a stump 15-20yds ahead of us and heave-ho toward the light. It was slow progress up the steep, blueberry covered hillside. Zig-zagging around rotten stumps and patches of trees broke our spirits. The occasional downed log was nearly enough to make us cry.
By the time we reached the half-way mark up the hill we were no longer sweating. Our mouths were dry, and all we could do was shine the flashlight down the hill and scoff at our progress (or extreme lack there-of). Shining our lights uphill yielded a view of tree-tops and stars. We worked ourselves into a ten-two routine...that is, pull the bear ten feet then take a two minute rest!
We finally had the bear up to the truck at 11:30pm...with no energy left to lift it into the bed. We were exhausted. No, we were beyond exhausted! There was no chance we were getting this bear into my jacked up silverado (sitting on 35's
).
[ENTER REDNECK INGENUITY:]
Off came the tailgate to use as a ramp, and out came the come-along. We hooked one one end of the come along to the bear and the other end to the top of pro-tech headache rack. Two minutes later the bear was loaded and hydration commenced!
We got the bear home and strung up on the scale at 2:00AM, then we each took a quick shower and a two hour cat-nap. The rest of the story is easy. 3hrs later the bear was skinned and prepped for processing and taxidermy. Both we dropped off respectively first thing this morning!
I must say, she is ia real trooper. Endless our of exhausting, messy work and she hung right in there.
It was pretty easy to tell she was actually having a lot of fun and over-all enjoyed the experience. She said she's ready to go notch tag #2!
The details...
Bear weighed in at 180-185 on the scale, field dressed with the hide on.
126lbs skinned/head-off, trimmed, and with all legs chopped off at the "elbows."
Front pads were exactly 4 1/2" across
Nose-to-eye measurement was 5 3/8" and the rough measurement on the skull is 15 5/8"--will update when I check back with the taxidermist.
Nose-to-tail was a mere 5'7"
I'm having a shoulder mount done, and plan to do bleach the skull.
It was a pretty stocky boar with a lot of mass on the front end.
Pictures to follow, after they are downloaded from the phones and uploaded off the SD card in the camera--24hrs or so. It's a nice, dark brown bear.
