So, I walked up D-Rock and my not-so-favorite hill, looking for our not-so-favorite deer since the rut is on. A guy stopped by as I parked at the gate and asked me if I ever had any luck up there, I told him very honestly that it is typically a good excuse for a workout and a nature walk with a gun. In fact, in 3 years, maybe 4 now, I think I have seen 2-4 deer, 3 bears (one which D-Rock had killed and 2 while scouting) and in general I wasn't quite sure what compelled me to hike up. It is probably my 30th time up the stupid hill and I really had no good reason to even be going.
I walked my bike up so I could stay until dark and swiftly ride back down. After looking out over a couple of clearcuts I was walking along a logging road that D-Rock has as a personal favorite. Usually I don't walk it, but last night I though "D-Rock loves this particular spur, that must be because there are animals on it and he always claims to see things here, maybe I'll try it". So I did, and heard some twiggs snapping to my right in a place I have been one time and swore never to go again. It is a swamp complete with blow downs, devils club and water. Here I found a bear, moseying around, into view, out of view as he hopped between blowdowns and devils club. I finally received a brief shooting window, but of course had no rest. I've practiced a lot of freehand in the past several years though because it always seems that when the shot is available there isn't a rest in sight. Of course, it was the same again. My estimation is a 50-70 yard shot, freehand, with my new bear gun, Win Model 70, .375 H&H. <----- booyah
This was the first time using my new .375. I figured that for an elephant gun (experts estimate that more elephants have been taken with .375 than any other caliber) the bear should drop immediately. I was using 300 grain softpoints. When I shot the bear ran, but not the "I'm hit" run, more of the "wow, that was loud, I'd better leave". Because of the area it was in I was not able to get in any follow-up shots and watched as this black mass bobbed away into a deeper level of crap.
I knew what I was getting myself into, I had been in this area before, and it is a terrible place. Nothing should live there (or maybe everything smart lives there because no human would dare enter more than once). I'm not sure if it was fortunate or unfortunate, but I found blood. Let the tracking begin.
There was not a lot of blood, but enough to follow and pick up ever 10 yards or so. It was about an hour before dark. I figured that there's no real such thing as wounding with a .375 and i should see the bear close to where first blood was drawn. I followed him probably 60 yards into a wall of devils club with 5' of visibility. I had already called D-Rock and he was 30-45 minutes from reaching me. Since it was beginning to get dark and my .375 really only useful as a club in that setting I decided to wait it out and get some help (I didn't want to get bear mauled in the dark and die wrapped in devils club). D-Rock showed up and the tracking was on. He brought a pistol for personal protection and I donned a knife in hand (better than my gun in these close quarters). We probably tracked it only an additional 40 yards, but it was HELL. It was like this bear knew it was going to die and was determined not to be found. We were literally on hands an knees, falling over and accidentally grabbing devils club and half expecting to have to use personal protection devices (handguns/knives). It was the kind of place that you look into and say "If I saw something down there, I wouldn't even shoot it". Since I cannot further explain how terrible it was, I'll cut to the chase. D-Rock came around a corner and said "I see a foot, a really big foot, but I cannot tell if its moving or not" (this is at 5' away from it). I found a new vantage for him to hold a gun on it while I went and poked it (I really thought we might both die there).
The result, is the biggest dead bear I have ever seen in person, and I think that D-Rock feels the same. I hit it a little far back, but I still cannot believe that a bear goes that far after a shot from a .375. I'm pretty sure you could hit a deer in the butt with that round and it would die. This is my third expose to "bears are super tough". I really have no idea on the weight, I'm going to guess 300 lbs, but I'm not a good estimator. The pictures really dont do it justice. Since it died i a hole there was no way to get really good pics of it and we had to quarter it to get it out of there. I think we started quartering at maybe 8pm. The hide is beautiful for winter so I wanted to cut it for a rug (hard to be careful when you have no space and no equipment). We made 2 extremely heavy loads to the logging road, each, sometimes crawling on hands and knees to get out where the bear went in, but with it on our backs. I took the hide and a hind quarter out in one trip and I think I'm lucky I didn't break an ankle, stupid idea in hindsight, but each trip was terrible. Got it up to the road, D-Rock had went to the effort to pick up a game cart, but decided not to hike it up the hill with him, so it was over 2 miles away (thanks D). We decided it wouldn't be worth it to go down and get it and bring it all the way back up, plus it was 4 am at this time. We each took 2 quarters on our backs (and backstraps, hanging tenders, etc) and tied the hide to the bicycle with some of our other gear. We walked it down and got back to the truck at maybe 5am. By the time I picked up some ice it was 6:15 and made it to bed by 6:30.
Shout out to D-Rock, couldn't ask for a better friend and more dedicated helper, you'll get at least one package of bear pepp.
Now I need to find a good deal on a bear rug.
Seriously, the pictures do not do it justice. One of the ones I did laying next to it, check out how big its paws are. Laying next to it was the only real way we could show and sort of its size due to our constrained photo area.
