I wanted to share some pics and a story with you guys of my first bear.
It was the first day of modern elk season and my dad and I were looking for elk. There are a lot of people that hunt the same area we were, so my plan was to hunt right off of a main road, down a blocked spur. As it just got light my dad and I crept down this spur road. 15 minutes into opening day I look down this road and at the end, sitting on a hill is a bear. I whispered to my dad, and I slowly laid down in the road grade. He looked like a good bear, and I could only see his neck and head. It was on a long straight away and we later ranged it at 147 yds. I held a couple inches below the base of his skull of squeezed the trigger. He rolled down the hill. My dad and I trotted up to where he was. He had wedged himself between some downed alders. He was still moaning, so I shot him again.
The crazy part of the story was, the bear was sitting on a hillside overlooking a dry creekbed. In the dry creekbed was a dead bull elk. It was a good bull for the area. A heavy 4 X 5. You could tell the bear had been eating on him a while because there was piles of bear crap everywhere. My guess for size was about 225lb bear.