Hunting Washington Forum

Big Game Hunting => Backcountry Hunting => Topic started by: xXLojackXx on August 17, 2015, 02:28:35 PM

Title: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: xXLojackXx on August 17, 2015, 02:28:35 PM: Spent the weekend with _TONY_ up in the mountains looking for bears. We were planning on hiking in Friday evening, but due to the weather we opted to wait until 3am Saturday morning. So away we went bright and early. Got up to camp about 8:30am after an 8 mile hike in. We were greeted with cool weather and 50 yard visibility with thick fog. Saturday amounted to a lot of camp fire sitting and occasional glassing when the fog would roll out momentarily. We put Saturday to rest, hoping for a higher ceiling the next day. Sunday came and Tony was up hiking in the fog. He came back to camp and after making some coffee, the fog finally lifted. We quickly gathered our optics and went to our perch. Within about 30 minutes, Tony spots a good bear feeding on the berries in the valley floor. He signaled me over at the sighting, and I located the bear he was looking at. I dropped down about 20 yards and got set up on the edge of a steep cliff hillside. Pulled out the rangefinder and read 191 yards, with a -52 degree slope. I waited for the bear to stop moving, and quickly had a quartering towards me shot. I sent a round from the 7 Dakota through the base of the neck and out behind the opposite shoulder. Bear took 3 steps and piled up into the berry brush. After about 45 minutes of navigating the steep slopes to reach the bottom of the drainage, we arrived at where we had landmarked the bear at the time of the shot. About 10 yards away she was laying in the tangle of shrubs.
Leading up to this point Tony and I both thought that it was an old boar. Come to find out it was a dried up sow without cubs. The lack of teeth she had confirmed the age on this bear. She must have been digging in a bee hive as we picked about 50 yellow jackets out of her hide as if they were ticks. Only managed to get stung once :tup: We made quick work of getting her skinned and boned out, and were headed back uphill a mile or so to camp through the vine maples and 6' tall berry brush. We hung the meat back at camp and ate a bite of food. Then broke down camp and loaded it up along with the meat, headed back to the truck. With heavy packs and aching muscles we made it back to the truck about 8pm Sunday night. All in all over 20 miles hiked in 2 days for this sow. One heck of a weekend.
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: Wetwoodshunter on August 17, 2015, 02:37:07 PM: Beautiful bear and great job. Super rewarding when you get a shot opportunity even if the conditions are not perfect for hunting and glassing in the hills.
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: steeliedrew on August 17, 2015, 02:41:22 PM: :tup: Nice job dudes.
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: 7mag. on August 17, 2015, 05:41:26 PM: Congrats Logan! That's a darn good looking jacket you've got there. Nice looking bear, how is the hide?
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: muleyslayer on August 17, 2015, 06:17:43 PM: :tup: nice bear!
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: bugs n bones on August 17, 2015, 06:22:22 PM: Nice job :tup:
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: bear hunter on August 17, 2015, 07:13:30 PM: Sweat old sow. She has to be over 20 years old Congrats
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: CaNINE on August 17, 2015, 08:22:14 PM: Now that's my kind of weekend! Good job fellas.
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: xXLojackXx on August 17, 2015, 08:22:37 PM: Quote from: 7mag. on August 17, 2015, 05:41:26 PM
Congrats Logan! That's a darn good looking jacket you've got there. Nice looking bear, how is the hide?

Haha thanks Ken. I like that Borealis. Breathable arms and back, insulated front.

The hide was pretty nice but it was covered in yellow jackets that were burrowed into the fur. Like they were hibernating. Very dormant and lethargic. I grabbed a handful of fur to roll her over during processing and one of the bass turds stung me. It was bizarre. Tony got a pic of the bees, I'll post it when I get them from him.
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: Dan-o on August 17, 2015, 08:25:47 PM: Nice!!!!!!

I'd love to know her age.
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: xXLojackXx on August 17, 2015, 08:39:17 PM: Quote from: Dan-o on August 17, 2015, 08:25:47 PM
Nice!!!!!!

I'd love to know her age.

I'll never know. Her skull is laying where she died.
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: HUNTINCOUPLE on August 17, 2015, 08:43:19 PM: Real nice bear! :tup:
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: Turner89 on August 17, 2015, 08:44:14 PM: Nice job guys :tup:
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: jackelope on August 17, 2015, 09:51:48 PM: Way to go fellas. Happy to see some success pics. Thanks for sharing.
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: duckmen1 on August 17, 2015, 10:25:46 PM: These are the stories I like to read. Congrats to hard work paying off.
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: swift on August 18, 2015, 08:58:21 AM: :tup: way to go !
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: X-Force on August 18, 2015, 09:07:44 AM: Nice Work!
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: ribka on August 18, 2015, 02:16:58 PM: :tup:
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: HUNTNORTHWEST on August 18, 2015, 02:19:49 PM: Backcountry hunts are always a challenge. Heavy packs for a long hikes. :tup:
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: mountainman on August 18, 2015, 10:50:14 PM: Congratulations! Sounds like a great weekend!
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: ctwiggs1 on August 19, 2015, 01:41:17 PM: Great bear man!
Title: Re: Backcountry Bear Down
Post by: saylean on September 04, 2015, 07:13:53 PM: I missed this bear story. :tup: Sweet damaged teeth...looked like a pretty good hide to. Congrats!