Hunting Washington Forum
Big Game Hunting => Bear Hunting => Topic started by: CaNINE on June 01, 2017, 02:03:21 PM
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Just left the Jackson Fish and Game office.
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What's that mean??
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What's that mean??
Wondering the same thing. :dunno:
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http://bcsupercubs.com/
If this is what you're talking about I'd be very interested in hearing about it. I'm contemplating putting a runway at my house.
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You don't need much of a runway for those things.
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The planning for this hunt started in January when my buddy Rob and I discussed a bear he'd captured on trail cameras in a remote drainage in the bridger-teton national forest. Some big bears had been taken from this area before so we knew there was good potential.
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There is nothing quite like Wyoming in the spring time. We camped along side a creek in a site not far from where mountain men used to hold rendezvous to trade their fur harvests. I could picture in my mind what their camps might have looked like and felt honored to be sharing the same ground that had been used by these men and the native peoples before them.
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Thinking maybe you killed a bear??
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Sorry guys I've had spotty service. Made a side trip up to Thompson Falls MT to see Dean Haun of Haun Taxidermy. Dean has done a mount for me before and his award winning work is what I want to do this bear justice. I'll flesh out the hunt story and get some pics uploaded later.
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Soooo... Is this thread about a bear hunt or an airplane?
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Finding his trail
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Joining...
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Sorry guys I've had spotty service. Made a side trip up to Thompson Falls MT to see Dean Haun of Haun Taxidermy. Dean has done a mount for me before and his award winning work is what I want to do this bear justice. I'll flesh out the hunt story and get some pics uploaded later.
No apology necessary, thanks for sharing. tagging for the rest of the story :tup:
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Enjoying some Starbucks Vias on the mountain.
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Still here........ :chuckle:
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Day 2 we rode to a different vantage point and spent a long, wet day behind the glass. We got caught by a torrential downpour on an exposed ridge and dodged thunder and lightening while we led the horses to lower ground.
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The evening of day 2 we sat in a drainage at lower elevation about a 90 minute ride from camp. We watched a good boar we estimated to be about 6' tall feed at about 300 yards. Now a 6' boar is no slouch but we knew bigger bruins roam this country. It was very difficult to pass this bear up but it was only day 2 of the hunt. I was second guessing myself the entire ride back to camp and hoped I wouldn't regret my decision.
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Joining...
Me too.
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Days 3 - 5 involved more riding to distant vantage points and glassing, glassing and more glassing. The moon phase was perfect and we were betting on catching a bear "cruising" mid-day setting up a spot and stalk opportunity.
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I guess I took for granted that the term "super cruiser" would be understood so i'll provide some definition. Cruiser is a term used to refer to large boars that roam vast distances in search of food and girls. They can often been seen "cruising" from one drainage to the next. "Super Cruisers" are the biggest boars that when you spot them there is no doubt how huge they are.
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Caught snoozing behind the glass.
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By this point in the hunt we had seen two sows, one with twin cubs (cute little buggers) and the boar that we saw in the evening on day 2. Nothing was moving mid-day perhaps because of the warm weather. Regardless we were getting a little discouraged and the mental toughness game was setting in. The beautiful mountains and abundant deer and elk sightings helped keep us going. On the ride back to camp that night the stars were absolutely amazing. I hummed some Chris LeDoux songs from the saddle while watching the northern lights dance across the horizon. I was in my kind of church.
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Tagging
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As a side note, Western Wyoming was hammered with record snowfall this winter. The biologists were predicting high mortality for the deer herd with low fawn survival. We actually saw a surprising number fawns and the deer numbers looked good and healthy. There were a few bucks with growth outside their ears and starting to fork. Keeping fingers crossed for the Region G deer draw!
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Great story so far!
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We had some 12" round JC targets set out at 400, 500 and 700 yards near camp. Spent some time in the mornings sending a few rounds downrange to confirm dope. I like having confidence in my gear and validating that the system is dialed in. It's one thing to confirm your rifles zero after a long road trip but it takes things to a whole other level when you can shoot at distance throughout a hunt.
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Monday night we made a fireside decision to relocate the next morning to a different drainage. It was a more difficult to access area that would require several creek crossings with waters swollen from rapidly melting snow pack (thank God for strong horses) then a climb on foot up a steep ridge tangled with snow drifts and blowdown.
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I considered the option of ending the hunt on Monday and heading home. I'm glad I didn't.
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Tuesday evening found us sitting on the spine of a ridge looking across a deep canyon toward a series of intersecting finger ridges. This was our first time into this area so, to be honest, I wasn't terribly optimistic. We spent several hours glassing waiting for the magical last light moments when bears often like to appear.
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At exactly 8:01 PM I was scanning the far side ridge passing from right to left when into the glass emerged a very large bear bathed in the light of the setting sun. After spending nearly 40 hours behind optics this week it was an absolutely surreal moment to gaze upon this animal. The pic below is as captured through the spotting scope at approx 750 yards.
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:drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :bfg:
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OMG :yeah: :tup: :drool: :yike:
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You can't leave us hanging.......
It's like blue balls!
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Sorry fellas I've been away from the family for almost two weeks so out having a celebratory beer with the wife. I promise to cap this story off in the morning. Trust me it has a happy ending.
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That bear even has a nose like a PIG! :tup:
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Can't wait to see it unfold. :tup:
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wow...showed this pic to my wife and her comment was if i were a bear this is how i would look--old, kinda beat up around the face, a big sway belly and pi$$ed off at the world...congrats
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tagging
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I whispered to my buddy..."there's a bear...and he's huge...that's him". I gave a description on where to spot the bear and he started scanning. Next thing I hear is "that's our super cruiser...holy @$%#". The next 30 minutes were an absolute test for me. We wanted to close the distance but knew we didn't have enough legal shooting light left to drop into the canyon and come up the other side. The bear was moving down the ridge and would ultimately shave off a lot of yardage so we let him come. We have video of him working his way down the finger ridge toward the canyon. I had to convince myself I was looking at a bear and not a gorilla - he looked like a dump truck waddling down hill.
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During this time I spent some serious time connecting with the Lord and deep breathing. My buddy kept me calm by saying this is what we came here for...this is what we've worked hard for all week...we've been taking these shots on steel all week. This really helped relax me and allow me to focus.
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Wow he's a beast
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My refresh button is broken........
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By this time I'd established a solid shooting position and had the bear in the scope. We were sitting on a downhill so I had built up a solid position using my pack, puffy coat in a stuff sack, and shooting sticks. This position makes a very solid field rest and allows for a natural point of aim. The kestrel was calling for 7.4 MOA up. I dialed for 7.25 as I knew from shooting this week that I needed a little less dope. He kept coming a few steps at a time. My buddy kept repeating to me...break down the shoulders. He knows from experience that these big bears are tough customers and breaking down the shoulders is the best way to anchor them. I went through my mental checklist; wind? none; parallax adjusted; focus on the reticle, follow through on the trigger....
I told my buddy that I was on him and ready for the shot. I recall him saying "as soon as he turns broadside...point of the shoulder". I could see him plug his ears through my peripheral vision. I took a couple deep breaths and started my trigger press.
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On the 300WSM
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The trigger break felt clean and the 200 grain Hornady ELD-X was on it's way at 2870 fps.
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Even with a good muzzle break (thank you benchmark barrels) I'm not quite able spot shots from this shooting position. As I recovered from the recoil I could tell the bear had reacted to the shot. It looked like he hunched but then started to move. I chambered another round but was unable to get back on the bear before he was moving and gone behind some trees. Even though he was ready for it, the muzzle blast blew my buddy off of his spotter long enough that he didn't spot the impact but he too thought the bear was hit.
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After the shot, we listened intently for crashing or moans but the distance and the creek sound in the drainage below made it impossible to hear. The next few minutes we finally were able to mentally relax, take stock of what happened and recount events. We were both still in disbelief that this magnificent bear had appeared and that we just took a shot at such a spectacular specimen. I gave thanks to God and prayed that the shot was true. We packed up our gear and started descending down the ridge to where the horses were tied.
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It's now dark and we reach the horses by headlamp. We start riding, cross the creek and try to find our way up the other side. We were both excited to confirm a hit and recover this bear. Things got a little western as we pushed the horses up the ridge, around blowdown and over some slopes that defied common sense. We stopped and got ourselves calmed down, dismounted and led the horses to a safe point where we tied them then climbed the rest of the way on foot. No point in getting a horse hurt or one of us taking a fall. More deep breathing required.
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We climb about 500 feet on foot to the spine where we last saw the bear. With headlamps we do our best to pinpoint the exact location where the bear was standing at the shot. Being careful not to disturb the area too much and damage sign we start searching for blood via headlamp. We start to extend in the direction the bear was moving and pick up tracks. No blood. We stay on the trail and he's now moving in snow drifts (see pic above with dollar bill). No blood in the snow. How can that be I'm thinking. We followed these tracks in the snow for approximately 50 yards and decide that pressing further in the dark at a potentially wounded bear was a bad idea. We decided to come back in the morning to resume the search in daylight. It was a long, quiet and depressing descent back down the mountain and ride back to camp. Doubt had crept in and without finding any blood in the snow I was convinced that I had blown this opportunity.
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My buddy who has much more bear experience than me, tells me that bears are tough and can go a long ways even with a good hit (thus the need to break down the shoulders) and that all that hair absorbs blood like a sponge. We both spent a restless night waiting for morning light.
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After some breakfast, we saddle the horses, a pack mule (thinking optimistically :)) and make our way back up the mountain. In the daylight, we are able to find a much easier path this time and ride the horses without danger. We tie the animal up about 100 yards from the spine and resume our search. We start looking for hair and blood at the location of the shot. None. We start looking for a bullet crater in the event I had missed. None. Hmmmm.
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We fan out and start moving down the last known travel route of the bear. After about 25 yards of careful tracking I hear a manic "hey I've got a bear over here...you better get over here!!! Now my mind interpreted this as I've got a live bear over here so with the rifle in the high ready I hustle in his direction repeating "where?, where?". I now catch sight of my buddy and can tell he's looking at the base of a nearby tree surrounded by a 4' deep snow drift. As I approach I can see the mound of a bear at the base of the tree. We carefully approached together and it became obvious that the bear was dead.
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We celebrated and I gave thanks to the Lord for helping us find this bear. It was all we could do to pull him out from under the tree and up onto the hill. The shot had impacted in the right shoulder, took out the lungs and exited just aft of the ribs. The bear died quickly. We had been within 20 yards of him last night but had walked around him in the dark. The only blood to be found was in the location where he lay.
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So thankful for this beautiful bear
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Wow ! Great write up and nice bear !! Congrats
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That's a once-in-many-lifetimes blackbear. Congratulations and thank you for such a great write up. Curious as to how the sausage tastes on an old boy like that??
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Beautiful Bear! Congratulations!
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We packed meat and hide down to the horses. It was a bit of a mountainside rodeo convincing the mule to shoulder this bear but he finally calmed down and accepted the smell of danger.
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After laying eyes and hands on the bear it became obvious that a lifesize body mount is the only way to honor this creature. That wasn't in the budget but Dean is willing to work with me to make it happen. The hide when stretched from nose to tail measures 7'4" and the skull SCI greenscored right at 20". The biologist in Jackson estimates him at 15 years but maybe older. One of his canines used for aging was missing but they were able to extract one for lab analysis. I will find out the exact aging results in a month or two. He is a bruiser with one ear split clean in half and the left upper inscisor tooth pointing forward at about 45 degrees from a past broken face bone. Pretty amazing.
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That's a great bear! Can't wait to hear even more details on our next hunting trip.
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Congrats on a great hunt and magnificent bear!
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Thanks guys! Still a little surreal. Thankful, honored, humbled.
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Amazing bear and a wonderful write up, thank you so much for sharing, and congrats!!
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Glad I tagged along....Great story and even better bear!!! Thanks for sharing.
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My heavens! What a bear!
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Awesome...thanks for sharing. :tup:
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Outstanding
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Incredible bear. Did you get a girth measurement?
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Incredible bear. Did you get a girth measurement?
Thank you. No we did not get any girth measurements. In hindsight that would have been interesting data. He is definitely a big fatty especially for an inland springer.
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I had to come back and look at him again. What an incredible animal.
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Thanks man. I keep looking at him too. Still amazed.
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What a TOAD of a bear!!! Beautiful bear. Fantastic write up and congrats on one of the nicest bears I've seen taken. Thank you for sharing the hunt and the photos!
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Congrats!! That is a massive bear. Showed my wife and she couldn't believe how big it was. Awesome write up too. :tup:
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That is a dandy! Congrats..., imagine how huge that bruiser would be just before he heads in for hibernation! :yike:
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That is one dandy bear!
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Thanks so much guys. I told the taxidermist not to be afraid to make him look a bit like a fall bear. Ha Ha. I can't recall what the width measurement was on the hide but I recall the taxidermist saying that they don't make a form that big so he'll have to build it up. My wife keeps asking me where we're going to put this thing. :)
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Tell her it'll be on her side of the bed, standing there staring at her. :) :)
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That is truly an amazing story and a beautiful bear. Way to get it done.
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Whopper!!!!!!!
Couldn't have happened to a nicer or more deserving guy!
I hope you'll let me drop by when it lands at your house.
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Thanks Dan. I think a bear mount homecoming party will be in order.
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Congrats on a super bear! Beautiful animal.
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Great deal man!!!!! :IBCOOL:
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That live pic...of a giant, beautiful bear that you ultimately tagged...may be the coolest bear photo I've seen. Thank you for sharing, and well done! :tup:
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:yeah:
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Nice score! I'm with everyone on the coolness of the live pic.
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Thanks guys. Here's another field pic from where we discovered him. It was texted to me and the image quality isn't that great but you get the idea.
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Wow what a toad! Congrats!
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:tup:
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:tup:
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There is so much character on his face. What a porker!
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Not sure how I missed this one. Great bear and write up. Thanks for sharing.
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Holy cow what a great experience and what an awesome Bear! Great write up too! :tup:
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Thanks for all the comments. This was such a great hunt and I enjoyed sharing some of the memories with you guys.
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Not that scoring by any means is the ultimate measure of a trophy but some of you have been asking about the numbers of this bear so thought I'd throw up an update. The SCI scoring dude did some official measurements last week. The skull came in at 19 15/16". For what it's worth, that qualifies this bear for the SCI Gold category. I'm not yet sure what that means exactly but it does validate that this bear is indeed a once-in-a-lifetime bear.
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Thanks for the update. Great bear!
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Not that scoring by any means is the ultimate measure of a trophy but some of you have been asking about the numbers of this bear so thought I'd throw up an update. The SCI scoring dude did some official measurements last week. The skull came in at 19 15/16". For what it's worth, that qualifies this bear for the SCI Gold category. I'm not yet sure what that means exactly but it does validate that this bear is indeed a once-in-a-lifetime bear.
It means that when you get him back you really need to let me stop in for a look!
That thing is a monster.
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This brute is coming back to life. Taxidermist still working on the final detail phase of the mount and will be ready to pick up in the spring. The height of the mount is just over 6’ and will look pretty sweet next to my wife’s snow baby collection in the dining room LOL...she can’t wait to have this thing in the house! :chuckle:
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Looks great. I still think his uncle was a grizz :chuckle:
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Awesome work right there.
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I’ll be honest: I’ve come back to this thread at least 10x to get amped for bear season.
Great lookin mount!
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Such a gorgeous mount and animal.
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Just Wow! Beautiful beast.
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Well done Sir!
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Looks great! Beautiful bear, great story, thanks for sharing. Pics never do their size justice.
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Just Wow! Beautiful beast.
:yeah:
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Great thread, the story is made for a book. I’m curious, is Wyoming over the counter for spring bear? Did you see any grizzlies or were you in an area that had a low population of them?
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Beautiful mount and great bear!
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
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Awesome bear!
Might have missed it somewhere, but did you ever get the exact age on him?
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How did I miss this thread?!?! Definitely gets the itch going for draw results :tup:
What a bruiser! Awesome full body mount does he look as big as when you first laid eyes on him?
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thanks folks I really appreciate the comments. A year and half later I still think of this hunt at least once or twice a week. Just an incredible experience. Can't wait to get back to Wyoming this fall to chase elk!
87ford: Tooth aging results put him at 15 years old. He was an old bruiser. I have a pic of his skull somewhere up in the taxidermy forum. Not sure how he survived but there was a massive injury to his left upper jaw at some point in life that had healed over. I'll take some pics of that and post them up here. It's pretty amazing. He has battle scars all over his body. The dark spot on his side in the mount pic above is where the taxi tried to patch a large wound and scar tissue. He's not done with that and is using some better color matched hide to fix that before I pick it up.
trophyhunt: Wyoming is OTC for spring bear! I think my NR tag was around $400 and picked it up at the local gas station on my way through star valley. Not an area with high grizzly densities. They are there but pretty low numbers from what I understand. I had to give this bear a good look to make sure he wasn't a grizzly before I pulled the trigger. Fortunately I had a lot of time to evaluate him as he roamed across a ridge stopping to rub his back on trees and mark territory. I have a short video clip of him taken through the phone skope. Not sure how to post something like that on here if someone knows how send me a PM.
elkrack: Honestly, I think he gets bigger every time I see him!
The taxidermist says he's in no hurry for me to pick this dude up....I think he wants to keep it in his shop as long as possible.
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He’s a great show piece to have in a taxidermist shop :tup:
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Thank you! The area I hunted for elk had little back bear, more grizz. Your hunt sounds amazing!
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Unreal. Still just an amazing bear.
The jaw injury still gets to me. Would love to know how long ago he picked that up.
But seriously, I can't imagine trying to sneak that thing into my house!
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I finally had the chance to install double French doors on the house so we could fit this dude in. My Dad and some buddies came over yesterday and we managed to get him moved in without incident. So stoked to have him home and inside to enjoy!
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More pics
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Sorry these pics are upside down. Maybe one of the mods can fix for me please?
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Truly Impressive!!!
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Incredible mounts!
