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Author Topic: First week of the season.  (Read 2409 times)

Offline billythekidrock

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First week of the season.
« on: March 17, 2008, 06:13:51 PM »
This is a couple years old, but I thought I would share here anyway.

Short version:
We had 4 guys in my camp and we all saw bears. 3 guys got shots (not me). My partner (who had his truck stolen before season) borrowed his fathers, and it blew a rear end on us 10 miles up a MT. with no traffic. We were stranded for 6 hours. No bears killed in the whole unit.

Long version:
My son and I set up camp two days before the season and we were by ourselves for the first 4 days. We saw deer and elk and the coyotes would not quit howling those first few nights.

Opening morning my son and I got to one of my favorite stands and we instantly heard a bear feeding a couple hundred yards away. We listened for a half our as it walked away and we let the surrounding woods calm down. I started calling with my old stand by Burnham Brothers C-3 LR and after about 5 minutes, nothing. I tried out a new E-call (I will not share the name the POS unless someone wants to know what NOT to buy) fawn distress for 5 min and still no bear. So I decide to try out the Demon (I am waaayyy out of practice with an open read.) After 5 minutes of calling with the Screamin' Demon by ArkyYoter, I could hear some brush breaking, but not moving. Another five minutes of calling (off/on) I saw the bear come shuffling out of the brush. He was facing us from about 125 yds. across a small draw. The bear stopped behind a small huckleberry bush looking directly at us, an easy neck or spine shot for an experienced hunter. I grabbed the camcorder as I told my son where it was. He couldn’t see the bear and while I was trying to point it out I dropped my Demon call in the dirt. Since this was his first bear hunt as a shooter, I had told my son only broadside shots or a standing shot as long as it was facing us. I wanted to get this bear to stand up and take a look so I got down to get my call. Again I called. The bear would not budge. Since the bear was head on my son told me to shoot so I set down my camcorder, put the call in my jacket and the darn call went all the way down the leg of my rain gear. I picked up the call and my rifle, stepped passed my son to take the shot and the remote on the POS Ecall hit a button and the speaker cut loose with a bunch of coyote howls. The bear started to walk into the brush so I called with the Demon and the bear stopped broadside at 135 yds., and facing to our right. My son was on my left and I told him the bear had stopped and he could take the shot. He said he didn’t have a good shot and for me to shoot. I grabbed him and pulled/pushed him in front of me and to my left. He got excited and said, “I see him, but he’s moving”, I set my rifle down and grabbed my camcorder again and told him, “when you have the shot, take it” and as I turned around I saw the bear moving away facing our left. Before I could turn on the camera my son shot, I yelled, “you missed” as the bear jumped forward, then turned and ran back to the right and into the thick dog hair. We listened for a couple minutes and heard nothing, no moaning, hissing, brush breaking or anything.

My son spotted, while I hiked my way over to where the bear was when he shot and then joined my in looking for any signs of a hit. We found where the bear jumped, turned and then rain across a log, but no blood. Though I knew that he missed, we followed trails and circled the area for almost an hour looking for any sign that might tell me otherwise. Dejected, my son proceeded to tell me that I should have listened to him and taken the shot.

On the second day I had to drive 2.5 hrs to a job interview and back and that evening I called in a bobcat to ten feet before it took off like a shot. Called it with my Burnham Bros. C-3.

On the third day we almost had a bear in camp, literally. At 4 pm my brother was napping on the ground, my partner was crashed in his trailer, my son was reading in the tent and I was reading on a cot in the shade when nature called on me. I walked 20 yds barefoot out to the logging road to take a leak and as I reached for my “gun” I saw a bear at 35 yds walking along the edge of the road right to me. I holstered my gun with out firing a warning shot and ran back to get my “rifle” (one is for killing, one is for fun) and quickly debated on killing the small bear and waking up camp with the shot, but decided to call my son out of the tent and see if he could get a shot. I loaded two shells in my .270 and we went out to the road just as the bear jumped in the brush next to camp about 20 yds away. I thought about leaving my son near the road as I walk behind camp, but thought he might not hit the bear if it was running by, so he went and I stayed. The bear jumped and trotted a short distance and my son went back in deeper as the bear took off. He was able to see it, but would not have had a shot, even if he had a rifle with him. Not until we woke up the rest of camp did I notice that I had not zipped up my pants!
That night I called for an hour with a call made by Bearmanrick and had an animal hang up about 100 yds away. I do not know what it was but it was bigger than a bobcat and smaller than an elk.

On the fourth evening I did not call for the first hour and I had a bear downwind of me tearing up cedar logs. Sounded like it was making a split rail fence the hard way. A shot rang out a half mile away and the bear stopped making any sounds. I called for a half hour before leaving. That evening in camp I tried a coyote howl with my Demon and those lonely yotes answered back. We went back and forth for about a half hour and then called it a night.

The fifth day we drove up the coast about 20 miles before driving 10 miles up the mountain. I have never seen so many cedar trees peeled by bears in my life. Must have been well over one hundred along ten miles of road. The country was looking good, but then it happened! The rear end went out on the truck. This was a borrowed truck as my partners was stolen a week before the season. There was a 1-inch by 10-inch gash in the cover and lubricant all over the road. Luckily this was the ONE place in the hills that we were able to get cell service. We made a few calls and 3.5 hours later some help arrived and a flatbed wrecker on the way. Unfortunately the wrecker went the long way around the Mountains and it took him over six hours to get to us. While waiting for the wrecker we decided to take the pin out of the rear end and try to get the truck closer to the highway. It worked for about 6 miles, before a C-clamp fell off and the passenger side axle started to come out and the tire went from 2 inches inside the wheel well to almost 3 inches outside of the well. Talk about being startled! We jacked the rear up, pushed the axle back in and drove to the next landing that had room for a wrecker. When the wrecker showed up and had the pickup loaded, the driver put some straps in the side compartments and we notice that the whole darn mess is rolling down the hill. Our pickup on the flatbed rolling down the hill and half of us standing there with our mouths open….and the driver makes it to the rig after about ten yards and gets it stopped. Almost 7 hours later we are back in camp and my son and I go out for a quick hunt.
We head in to an old cut and heard some brush break. We stopped to listen and heard a bear walking on the gravel and dried Alder leaves about 30 yds away, headed right towards us. We could hear the crunching getting closer and the wind gusts right to it. On the second gust of wind the crunching stopped and we never heard the bear again. Never heard it leave the logging grade or enter the dry thick brush.




Offline ICEMAN

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Re: First week of the season.
« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2008, 09:51:28 PM »
Great story. Sometimes nothing goes right! Thanks for posting.
molṑn labé

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“I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”  John Wayne

 


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