Hunting Washington Forum
Big Game Hunting => Bear Hunting => Topic started by: bucksbearsbeers on September 08, 2012, 08:34:45 AM
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My buddy told me about a bear he saw in the wilderness while scouting for the high hunt so I thought I'd go after him. Got up there late in the afternoon on Monday set up camp and headed out looking for bear (and scouting for deer). Got up on a high spot, looked to my left and couldn't believe my eyes. 1000 yards away on the hillside was the bear my buddy told me about (had unique markings). It was about 6 PM so I needed to get moving. I put the sneak on him and got to about 150 yards where I proned out and had him in my sights, then he stepped behind some trees. I could see that he wasn't going to come back out to that opening so I started to work uphill at an angle. I got to about 75 yards from the area where he was and laid down. I waited for about 5 minutes and then he started to show himself. When he presented a broadside shot I put the cross hairs on his shoulder and squeezed off. BOOM! He ran down hill about 20 yards and then stopped in some alder bushes where I couldn't see him. He then crashed through the bushes another 15 yards and stopped at the edge of some trees where I lost sight of him. Thinking he was down, I waited for about 15 minutes to make sure he was dead. I grabbed my pack and headed to where I last saw him and....NOTHING. He was gone. I was thinking there was no way I missed that easy shot and started my search. I looked for 1.5 hours and couldn't find any sign that he had been hit. I went back to where he was when I shot at him and couldn't find any blood. I scoured the hillside and came at it from every direction. I was on my hands and knees looking under alder bushes, crawling through trees, just hoping to find him slumped under a branch. Nothing. It was getting dark quick so I decided to head back to camp (45 minutes away) and come back and look in the morning. The next day I got back to the area around 8 AM and started at it again. I spent several hours doing a grid search and again came up with nothing. I was devastated. I figured since I was up there I may as well finish checking out the area I hadn't seen before so I decided to take a round about way back to camp. I was pushing through some thick trees and stopped for a moment to try and find somewhat of an opening to get though when all of a sudden I heard crashing right behind me. I thought I had jumped a deer until I heard "woof woof" and then my heart started pounding. I saw the bear briefly in the trees and heard him stop. I moved to the left to hope to get a glimpse of him and he ran up hill a few more yards. I could see the trees moving around where he was. There was a 20 yard wide opening above us so I decided I was gonna try to push him into the open so I could get a shot. I had just started moving when I heard him crashing through the trees again except for this time he was coming towards me! I put my rifle up and when he filled my sights I let one fly and dropped him where he stood. He was at most 20 yards away! I let out a yelp of excitement and drug him up to the opening where the work began. Got him loaded up and headed back to camp. Picked up camp and headed out with my 90-100 lb pack. 6 rough miles and 2.5 hours later I was back at the truck and wiped.
This was my 3rd wilderness bear, the last 2 were shot on high hunts. Couldn't find my camera before I left home so only got a few cell phone pics. He had a cool blond skunk stripe down his back. I also shot my rifle last night and it is shooting way high...must have bumped the scope somewhere along the way.
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi891.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac111%2Fbucksbearsbeers%2Fbear%25202%2Fphoto3.jpg&hash=bc796447790a44c2d8c3810e8ec0febadb4da291)
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi891.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac111%2Fbucksbearsbeers%2Fbear%25202%2Fphoto2.jpg&hash=023693fcc23234cc4693318d2571974b79ea0628)
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi891.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac111%2Fbucksbearsbeers%2Fbear%25202%2Fphoto1.jpg&hash=202ba6663bdb8de51dda268e24fd8028d4cdbd54)
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi891.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac111%2Fbucksbearsbeers%2Fbear%25202%2Fphoto4.jpg&hash=a530b17baf43e7052fe1d66e41c70424c3f720ec)
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Nice looking bear
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Congrats on the Yogi ..... nice story too :tup:
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Now that's exciting!! Great bear, congrats!!
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Looks like a nice hide! Congrats
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Awesome, congrats and great story. Had to be a little scary when he was charging
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Way to go!
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:tup:
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sweet bear!
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Congrats on the bear, its good to know that after all the hard work looking and hoping that he isn't lying dead somewhere and you didn't find him. Don't go telling your wife about him charging you though!
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Awesome! :tup:
Any chance you recovered the first shot when you cut him up? If you did, what became of it?
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Great looking color on that Bear. Way to go!
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Congrats!!!
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Great story and bear! Congrats1 :tup:
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Congrats!!! Where di you hit him the first time??
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Very Nice
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Now that is a bear hunting story. Congratulations. Maybe some of those who have lost their bears can use your technique, hang out in the area until the bear tries to eat you.
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So here I sit waiting for the work clock to hit 6 and went back and read your story again. Great bear by the way. I'd have to say the part where you say there is an opening and you are going to "push the bear" is the best. Stones man....stones. How do you do the high hunt with that much brass? Nice write up, thanks for posting it.
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Thanks guys! It was a great hunt for sure. Sorry for any confusion...this was a different bear than the one I shot at the night before. The one the night before was black with blond all over it's back. I shot my rifle a couple days after I got home and was at least a foot high at 200 yards. When I had pulled my rifle out of the case to head up on the hunt I did notice that the butler creek scope cover on the front was broken...musta bumped it sometime and put my sights off. Probably only hit this one cause he was so close.
@h20hunter...the trees were so thick it was the only way I was gonna see if it was the one I had shot at the night before. At the time I figured it could go one of two ways: 1) I push him in to the open and get a shot. 2) He takes off before I can get a shot. Didn't plan on option 3) where he runs to me! Plus I had hiked too far to come home empty handed!
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Wow, cool story and a beautiful bear. Congrats :tup:
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Congrats on the bear. I am still surprised that bear wad still right where Ryan seen him.
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awesome story to go with the pics, lucky man :tup:
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Still waiting for you to post pics of your buck on here. Congrats on getting it done up there. That's a freaky horned buck you got.
