2014 Oregon Spring Bear Hunt

[TBASTIAN]

Thought I'd share a few pictures of our Memorial Day bear hunt in NE Oregon. We had a great time in the mountains, and saw 5 bears - 1 large chocolate boar, this blonde sow, and another large black sow with two black cubs.

Shot this bear at 356 yards, with a Browning A-Bolt chambered in .300 WSM and loaded with 180 grain Barnes TSX hand loads. Shot her just before 8:00 a.m. and didn't get back to the trailhead until almost 3:00 p.m.

Definitely a great weekend in amazing country.

 

[JD338]

Beautiful bear, Congratulations!

JD338

 

[Guy Miner]

Congrats! That's going to make a great looking bear rug! Love all the different color phase bears out here in the Northwest.

NE Oregon has a whole lot of steep built in.

Congrats! Guy

 

[DrMike]

Ya' done good! Beautiful bruin taken in some delightful country. Looks like a good weekend for sure.

 

[truck driver]

Great pics and a nice bear.

 

[IdahoCTD]

It kinda looks like that bears head took a beatin. Nice bear though. I have one just touch darker on the wall from 7-8 years ago.

 

[gerry]

Looks like some rugged and beautiful country and a beautiful blackie as well. She looks to have a thick coat, congrats.

 

[DrMike]

She does appear to have taken one on the noggin. Give us a blow-by-blow of the hunt; don't keep us in suspense.

 

[sask boy]

Sounds like you had a great weekend! Thank you for the beautiful photos!! I am looking for to the complete story :wink: coming soon I hope.

Blessings,
Dan

 

[TBASTIAN]

I'm still trying to determine what happened with the bullet myself...

My hunting partner and I were hunting a new area to us. Hiked in a few miles right at dawn, and broke out of the timbered trail into this great looking bear country. We had glassed a few drainages from some high points prior to slipping into this gulch. For some reason, this one just looked right.

We had been glassing the area for about 20 minutes when I heard rocks rolling. It sounded like something was headed out of the canyon. Glassing the whole area, we couldn't see anything going out, so we continued to glass. 10 more minutes passed by when I whispered to my hunting partner that maybe we should call for a bit with my fawn in distress call.

As I reach down for the call and begin to bring it up to my lips this bear catches my eye on the knife ridge below us, and above the gulch...she's been rolling rocks over looking for ants and grubs, and continues to do it as she feeds up onto the ridge line below.

The next few seconds are crazy, as we scramble back behind the rock outcropping we've been sitting on, throwing our packs on the rock for a steady rest, ranging the bear at 356 yards, and finally rolling her with one shot from the .300 WSM.

Now for the shot - she was slightly quartering away from us, below our position, and just about to crest the ridge when I shot. From the angle I had, I was aiming low behind the near shoulder, with the 300 yard hash on my Leupold Boone & Crockett Reticle. With the shot she rolled over stone dead. Upon examination I'd destroyed the near left shoulder that I'd been aiming at, there was a hole in her bottom left jaw, and the hole you see in her forehead. The only answer that I can come up with is that the bullet deflected considerably after demolishing the front shoulder/leg and exited through her skull.

I've only shot one other bear before, and that was at about 175 yards with a .300 Remington Ultra Mag. That bear was shot through the vitals and still managed to bellow and run down the mountain a considerable amount before expiring. Being able to watch the shot and the bear roll on this one was a welcome sight for sure.

The next seven hours were spent caping and quartering the critter, packing it out of the canyon back to the trail, and then finally back to our camp. The wilderness area that we were hunting and rugged terrain made it an incredibly enjoyable hunt. We saw one other backcountry tent while we were in the wilderness, but never another soul.

The sad thing about the hunt is that we heard wolves howling one night and saw multiple scat piles off the trail, 5 bears, 1 extremely skittish cow elk, and no mule deer. This area is historically known for it's elk and deer herds. We also saw a couple wolf/bear killed elk in the gullies we hunted. Long story short, it felt good to get at least one of these predators off the mountain.

 

[DrMike]

Great account of a quality hunt, TBASIAN. Wolves can clean out a valley in short order. My last venture down into an area from which I had taken many head of game revealed no elk, only a couple of moose and a handful of deer, but wolves in every drainage. They can be hard on the ungulates.

 

[IdahoCTD]

Oregon better get on the wolves now or there won't be much left like much of Idaho. Many areas use to be thick with elk and now you'd be lucky to see 1 in several days. They will cause irreparable damage to the game herds without control. Oregon's problem is there are way too many tree hugger types in around the northern I-5 corridor so controlling them will be near impossible.

 

[sask boy]

Yes it is really scary how the wolf population is continuing to grow. The packs we are now seeing on real consistent bases on the edge of the forest land is very concerning for both the farmer & hunter.
I believe that is got to be some type of control set for the packs.

Blessings,
Dan