2008 Blue Mountain Spring Bear

[Rufous]

Shag, no she was much too far away for the pistol. I used my 300 Win Mag with the 180 Barnes TSX. She only made it about 30 yards or so. I did not bring out the hide, just the head as Oregon wants to see the head. Apparently one cannot sell their Oregon bear hides and I already have a tanned hide from my Idaho bear and a full bear rug from my biggest bear which was taken in the Wenaha unit of WA. I was hoping to take a bigger bear and have a bust mount done but as I said this one deceived me and was not as big as I thought. When I get a big one I will do a bust mount. Brian.

[boneaddict]

A good thread guys.  The hunt, the success and the pains.  Good adventures.

[Wea300mag]

Awesome Rufous, glad to see all the hard work pay off. That is a stout looking bear.

[onewakuwa]

Pleased you scored Rufous, I know you earned it, congrats.
I'm leaving tommorrow for the Wenaha to finish out the season and trying to arrow one.
Hopefully the snows have receded a bunch, here's hoping.

[boneaddict]

Good luck Lance.

[Ray]

I just saw the photos of your bear Rufous. I must say that I would be happy with such a bear and if I saw 10 bears in one day I would feel pretty good. Congratulations on your bear. Didn't you also draw a spring bear tag last year and bag one?

[Rufous]

Ray, yes I did draw a spring bear tag for the Dayton unit in Washington and I did fill that tag with a good sized boar with my 45 Colt revolver. This year I drew an Oregon tag and shot my 9th bear. Brian.

[washingtonmuley]

That was a nice color bear. It would be hard for me to waste a hide like that.

[bucklucky]

Kinda what I was thinkin . That would have been a nice display mount for me.

[Rufous]

Regrettably I cannot afford to do taxidermy on every bear I shoot (nor is there room in our small house) so I am holding out for a really big bruiser bruin for a bust mount. She was mighty pretty though. Today we went out trying to get the third member of our 3 man party his bear. We covered about 10 miles on foot and saw 13 bears but once again they were all too far away or were sows with cubs. Brian.

[Rufous]

I tallied up the bear sightings thus far this spring and it came to 70 with 90 miles hiked in the process. It has been a good spring despite the challenging weather conditions. Brian.

[FOsteology]

Like the color and blaze on the chest! Congrats!

[Rufous]

Well today was the last opportunity for us to fill the third tag in our party as my buddy's dad is planning to head home tomorrow. He has hunted really hard and seen a bunch of bears but we just were not able to get his tag filled. We went out today and saw our first bear at 845am. Through the spotting scope it looked to be a really nice cinnamon bear and as it was by itself and big we were confident it was a boar. But it was a long ways off across a really big canyon. There was a road system that led all the way over to just above the ridge the bear was on so we took off, hustling over there on foot to try to get on the bear before it got full and headed for cover. We started at 4300' elevation and ended up at 3200'. It took an hour to get over to where the bear was and we were walking very fast and jogging some of the time. It was 3.75 miles along the road system to get over to the bear and we were able to see it every once in a while as we went. When we got to the ridge it had been on we went down it off of the main ridge but did not see it. Then we glassed over to the north to the next open area and there it was 430 yards away. I thought we had it dead to rights and we were just getting set up with Ron adjusting his bipod when that blasted bear dropped over a small ridge I had not noticed and was out of site. It continued moving to the north and came into view again but I guess the bugger had decided it was time to head for bed because he was moving out. Had we arrived 2 minutes sooner we would have likely taken that bear. I really do not think it heard or smelled or saw us. We persued but he got over the next major ridge and that was the last we saw of him. We tried to do some calling but got no response. Then we wandered around the general area some during the day and finally headed back out. We put in a total of about 10.6 miles today and saw 3 other bears. One of them we jumped while we were hustling down after the original bear but it was a small guy and the last two were probably a boar and sow but they were well out of range. 74 bear sighting and about 100 miles put in. I am ready for spring bear season to be over. 2 tags filled out of 3 aint bad, especially considering the heavy snow pack and late spring. Brian.

[Gutpile]

what a great thread. What a cool looking bear. I'm glad mine didn't have a blaze because then I wouldn't know how to mount it. I really wanted a rug but if it had a blaze not sure what I'd do. That was a beefy looking sow.