Bearpaw Fall Season 2011

[bearpaw]

The evening elk hunt was a bust, one bull bugled just before dark, the guys are out hunting this morning. Still haven't heard from the wife on last night's whitetail hunt, she is probablly out this morning too.

[seth30]

good luck!

[bearpaw]

Another big bull last night, this time a large old heavy framed 5x6 at about 100 yards, but they couldn't close the gap. Jeff figured he was well over 300 gross even missing one point on one side.

[bearpaw]

Just got some more pics onto my computer from our bear hunt. Scott killed this bear with my son. He was using a 338 Marlin lever action, pretty interesting caliber and gun, it certainly did the job on this bear for sure.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Another good looking Bear!

[bearpaw]

Here's the yearling bear that Bill accidentally shot when he was watching for the big one he saw the day before. Guide student Mike from Georgia is getting some experience at packing him out and skinning bear.

[bearpaw]

This is the bear that Scott wounded on the first day that went a quarter of a mile after being shot through both front shoulders. The bullet just missed both front leg bones, barely behind one leg bone, barely in front of the opposite side leg bone. The shot was a little too low and had missed the vitals, but even with heavy tissue damage on both front legs this bear walked out in front of Luke a quarter of a mile from where it was first shot.

Just amazing how tough bear are....

Luke put the smack on him with 1 more shot and has a 6'4" bear to take to the taxidermist. 

[quadrafire]

Great story! Way to stay with it.
Were those quarters covered on the trip out?  Looks like alot of dust.


OOps. from the elk hunt. UT

I'm thinking I shouldn't even bear hunt- as how hard they are to kill.

[bearpaw]

quadrafire, one of the front quarters did need cleaned, it was taken care of. 

You shouldn't be afraid to bear hunt, just wait for a good shot, if the bear runs after the shot, look dilligently, get help if needed, you will do fine. 

[bearpaw]

Heres another bear story:

I recieved a phone call from the Holiday Inn near Seatac, the guy explains that he has two guests from the Czech Republic, the father was going to British Columbia to go moose hunting, his son was along as an interpreter, but the Canadian Customs wouldn't let them in. 

"They want to know if you have any moose hunts or other hunts that you can take them on?" I replied, "If he is a rifle hunter the only open seasons right now are bear and coyote." I was advised they would consider it and they would give me a call back. It wasn't long and the phone rang again, they wanted to come bear hunting and they would be at my place later that day. I waited up for them that night and got them situated in a cabin after they arrived. The son could speak english well enough to understand, but I couldn't understand a word the father said. 

Days 1 to 3
I got them up for breakfast, we got his license in town, and we headed out bear hunting. Over the next couple of days I covered a lot of country road hunting to sort of give them a good tour. We also did a lot of glassing and we watched some feeding and watering areas. We saw coyotes (no shot opportunity), whitetail, mule deer, moose, and elk. On the 2nd day we got into some blue grouse and the father killed 2 grouse that I filleted and we had for lunch on Day 3, which was very much to their liking. Photo is the father with guide student Mike "Quigly".

Day 4
By now we were all getting to know these guys pretty well and were really enjoying them. The father learned a few english words from his son, so he would say "Good Morning" every morning to my wife and "Thanks" after every meal. 

I decided to go back to an area I had hunted in the first week of the season that had played out, but i figured that possibly another bear had moved in. I looked through various berry patches all morning and nothing, worst of all the berries had dried up and most had fallen off. We even watched some apple trees for a few hours, saw another coyote (out of good shooting range), so didn't shoot. For lunch I drove to a little different spot, I parked the rig where we could see in several directions and proceded to rumage for some food.

The son wanted to take a little walk so he headed one way. The father and I glassed while we snacked, when we finished snacking I went back to glassing and he got up to stretch a bit and wandered about 50 yards away from me. I was busy glassing when I heard him running at me and waving his arms frantically, I couldn't understand a word he was saying but I knew he had seen a bear. He grabbed the rifle and we quickly went to where he had been, about that time the son caught up to us, they exchanged some sentences I couldn't understand and then the son whispered that the bear had walked right into his father and then taken off running. We kept moving along looking frantically for the bear, suddenly it stepped up onto a rock outcropping about 50 yards away, the father pulled up to take a shot and the bear ran out of sight, I could see glimpses of him as he ran, I gave a couple quick whistles and the bear stopped agin to look back at about 80 yards, this time the rifle barked and the bear dropped and rolled. "Great Shot" I exclaimed as I patted the father on the back. The son translated back and forth between us as we made our way up the hill to the bear. We took photos and drug the bear to the road. We loaded up and headed for home where I took care of the skin and carcasse.

The next day the father donated the meat to a friend of mine here in Colville, but before my friend took it I cut a roast off one of the rear hams. That evening we had beef roast and well seasoned slow roasted bear, both father and son was really surprised at how well the bear tasted and it was pretty much all eaten for dinner. The father wants to come back and hunt moose, maybe he will be lucky and draw an Idaho tag, but I told him the odds were slim to draw a Washington tag.

I hated to see them go, I have to say I really had a great time with both of them, we had a lot of fun seeing Northeast Washington's out-of-the-way areas, and we discussed everything from hunting to world politics. I found out they are plenty fed up with government spending too.     The son used to earn a very good living making advertisements for businesses on European TV, but he says the economy is so bad that he is barely staying in business now. I told him we have all the same problems here too.... 

[Michelle_Nelson]

Thats awsome!

[quadrafire]

Cool story Bearpaw!

I was curious about the washington licensing without hunter education. Maybe he made it in on age?

Funny story really----came to hunt Canada and can't get in, then make a little side trip to NE Wa and get into grouse and a bear to boot. Gotta love it.

You sound like Machias on the international relations

[bearpaw]

Most europeans (this guy included) have gone through much more intensive training to get licensed for firearms and hunting than any American. Every European I have had in the past has never had any problem getting licensed in any of the 4 states we hunt, the states all know that the European training is very intensive.

There has been one exception that affected us for about 6 years. Here's an interesting story.

Through the 80's and 90's I had dozens of hunters from Japan, Korea, China, Norway, Sweden, Mexico, Australia, and a host of other countries. There was an old law on the books from World War II that had been forgotten about for many decades. That law prevented aliens (non-citizens) from possessing or using firearms in Washington. After 9/11 occured the state started enforcing that old law and would nnot allow persons from abroad to hunt in Washington. This destroyed my international business that I had built up, costing myself thousands every year not to mention the lost commerce to the state and local economy. I called Olympia (several departments) and nobody was going to help. (they could care less, tough luck was their attitude toward me)

I began complaining that hunters from Washington could hunt around the world, but hunters from other countries could not hunt in Washington. I wrote letters to the people who could make a difference, governor, attorney general, senators and representatives, SCI, NRA, HHC, and others. Of all the people I wrote, a handful of legislators, SCI, and the HUnters Heritage Council, started working on this issue. For 4 years a change in the law couldn't make it through the liberal Washington legislature. Finally with the additional pressure from the Olympics in Vancouver BC, the legislature passed legislation again allowing aliens who posses a hunting license or invitation to a sporting event, to carry guns in Washington.

The Hunters Heritage Council (Ed Owens), SCI, and a handful of legislators (Blake, Morton, Kretz, and others) saw it through several years of trying to get that new law passed. I thank you all for working so hard to pass that law, your hard work made the hunt for the gentleman from the Czech Republic possible. In the last couple years I have also had hunters from Mexico, Australia, and Denmark here in Washington. Those hunts were only possible due to your determination to pass that law and in these rough times, I need all the business I can get, no doubt it's a help to the local economy in NE WA as these international hunters all visit restaurants, sport shops, and other local businesses. Every one of these hunters have made significant purchases while in Colville.

I SINCERELY THANK YOU ALL..... 

my apologies for not mentioning everyone that helped with passing the new law....

[bearpaw]

I almost forgot to mention, for all you 257 WTBY lovers, it was another one shot bear down for the 257 club. 

[bearpaw]

Idaho Archery Elk
season ends tommorrow. We didn't kill any elk on this hunt, 4 bulls were missed, oh well, that's bow hunting. There are 11 bulls we have seen in the drainage we have been hunting, 3 of them are over 300 class and one of them we call the MacDaddy, he is huge and has a jurassic bugle.... 

Hoping we can get a few of these on the rifle hunt in a couple weeks.