Lincoln Bear Down

[Boss .300 winmag]

Way to go Dean44, first bear post.Nice looking hide on that blackie. Boar or sow?

[Boss .300 winmag]

Way to go Dean44, first bear post.Nice looking hide on that blackie. Boar or sow?

[Boss .300 winmag]

Way to go Dean44, first bear post.Nice looking hide on that blackie. Boar or sow?

[hoyt5199]

Congratulations on getting your bear. I so cant wait to get out the first week of May. Damn work!!

[billythekidrock]

Congrats.
 
Spot and stalk, calling or luck?

[Ghost Hunter]

Congrats.
 
Spot and stalk, calling or luck?

  or who gave the best scouting information   whatever, it got er dun

[Dean44]

Thanks everybody for all the congrads, we were very pleased to catch a bear out this early. 

We had done some scouting 2 weeks ago and hiked behind a closed red dot gate up to a clear cut that we had identified on Google Earth.  It had looked like a good area to catch a bear in an undisturbed area.  Things were very busy at work so I was not able to get out to hunt until Saturday. My youngest son Ben was eager to come along.

Upon arrival at the gate on Saturday morning, we were disappointed to see that it was open and now a green dot gate.  We parked and hiked in any way, hoping that we were the first ones there so we could catch the cut in an undisturbed state.

Hiking up the road, we could tell that there had been vehicle traffic on the road, but probably not for the last few days. We reached the cut about 20 minutes after shootable light and started glassing.  The cut is divided by three deep ravines and is on the side of a pretty steep mountain. It is really only a partial cut with patches of standing timber. The road is only exposed to the first corner of the cut and then climbs the hill above it leaving several acres of timber between the road and the cut. A closed skid road and a landing yields access to the far corner/edge of the cut on the other side of the deep ravines.

After glassing the cut from the first corner that the road crosses we decided to walk up the road and catch the closed skid trail that goes out to the far side of the cut. It was a partly rainy morning, the kind with a lot of very wet small droplets, but it was not constant. We jumped a nice black tail on the way over to the skid road and watched him bound off after a lengthy stare down. We reached the far side of the cut and spent some time glassing back toward the corner where the road crosses and up toward the timber at the top. It is about a 9 year old cut so it takes some time to glass it well and there are a lot of hidden spits with the ravines in the middle. (More hidden than visible).

After glassing for a while we decided to walk down the skid road further to check a distant section of the cut that was not visible. We walked a hundred yards or so and then heard the first vehicle of the day coming in on the road at the far corner of the cut where we had started the day.  We knew that the vehicle would follow the road up above the timber that is above the cut so we decided to go back to where we had just been glassing to see if the commotion pushed anything out of the timber and into the cut. 

As soon as the vehicle got past the timber, over the top of the mountain and out of ear shot, the bear came running out of the timber and into the cut, mostly as we had anticipated. It was pretty clear that it was a lone bear but there would not be much time to shoot because he was on the move.
Without time to drop my pack, or get out the shooting sticks, I found a location where I could take a kneeling shot without obstruction from brush along the skid trail or the 9 year old reprod. The first shot was a miss which turned him down hill and into an area that was partially obscured with leafless maple trees.  One more shot while he was bounding through the maple trees and we could no longer see him.  Ben was spotting for me too and we both felt pretty good that we would have caught a few more glimpses of him if he had not gone down. After glassing for a while, we took careful note of landmarks and headed over.

It took us about 40 minutes to get to the location where we had last seen him.  The terrain was steep, wet, brushy, covered with ferns and berry vines, and there were 2 deep ravines to cross.  We located him not far from the large fir tree that we had used for a landmark.  It was a smallish bore with a beautiful long curly coat and no rubs or damage that we can see. The one hit was close up behind the front shoulders with only slight damage to some shoulder meat.  The meat smells really good, like it will be good eating.

Friends that will show up any time to help pack meat are very good friends indeed. At 46 year old, I am always thankful to have my kids along to help with the pack out.  My youngest son Ben is 13 years old, 6 foot, 3 inches tall, and weighs 185 lbs. He does all of a man’s work when it comes to the heavy lifting and I could not be prouder of him. Heath is the same way but he was not able to go with us this day. We already had our back packs on so we made quick work if it.

It was a good day.

[Dean44]

Congrats.
 
Spot and stalk, calling or luck?

BTKR, thanks.

It was none of the above. I would call it "Let the road hunters run him to us".

[skier2480]

Great job! Congrats on the bear!!!!

[Alan K]

Nice write-up!

[Davo]

Great write up, sounds like a great day. Thank you for sharing.  Congratulations

[Huntbear]

Beautiful bear.. great story!   Congratulations on filling your tag.

[rb2506]

congrats dean44

[Dean44]

What caliber is your M70 Fwt?

It is a .300 WSM. 

This was the maiden hunting trip for this new rifle.  I had only shot it to test it for accuracy and sight it in before now. It was round #46 out of this gun that made the kill. I bought it mostly for backpacking since it is lighter than my old Ruger .338.

The new Winchester mod 70s made by FN in the USA are very nice. The controlled round feed system seems like a good idea for bear hunting too. It will feed upside down, side ways etc. This one shoots sub MOA. I can't think of a better way to break in a new rifle. 

[mulehunter]

Wow congt.  Very lucky. And big thumb.

Mulehunter