The family and a nother couple went camping/bearhunting/buck season scouting this weekend. My buddy is a big bear hunting guy, but has never hunted in our area. I had been telling him about all the bears we see, and he later told me he didn't believe me and thought I was full of it.
He quickly changed his mind when ten minutes out of camp we were shooting a bear! We spotted her running our of the draw we were headed up. I ranged her at 388. He had the first shot, and missed. I was packing the 280AI loaded with 120 BTs (I know, not the best choice). My first shot stopped the bear in its tracks. The way it acted I thought I spined it or hit it in the head. She quickly gathered her wits and was back on the move. My buddy missed again, and I connected again with out much reaction. My buddy finally got a 225 remington factory load into her, and then I missed. With WWIII over, we had a bear in the bottom of a brushy draw that still appeared to have alot of life left in her when she went out of site.
We decided to give her 45 minutes, and hiked around to where we thought she went in. We hiked up about 30 yards trying to get above her. I sure didn't want to be down hill from a wounded bear in thick brush. The first thing we see in the bottom of the brush was a huge blood pile. This was a pretty big suprise, due to the fact that we thought we were abover her. We went up the bottom a bit, but there was no blood, so we decided to track it down a ways. I was in the middle of maneuvering through a few branches, and big rocks on the blood trail when I spotted her. 7 yards away! she was hiding behind a big rock and bush looking at us waiting for us to be close enough to ambush (at least that is how it played out in my head). I pulled up and let her have it behind the shoulder (only clear shot I had), and worked the bolt like my life depended on it! At the shot she turned down the draw and saw out of sight before I could get another round in her. Turns out the second kill shot was not needed, she went ten yards and piled up. We got her cleaned out and drug down to the horse trail, and back to camp we went to enjoy a "kill shot" of some mighty fine whiskey, and some bacon wrapped bear tenderloins.
She was around 5', a pretty average bear for our area.
He quickly changed his mind when ten minutes out of camp we were shooting a bear! We spotted her running our of the draw we were headed up. I ranged her at 388. He had the first shot, and missed. I was packing the 280AI loaded with 120 BTs (I know, not the best choice). My first shot stopped the bear in its tracks. The way it acted I thought I spined it or hit it in the head. She quickly gathered her wits and was back on the move. My buddy missed again, and I connected again with out much reaction. My buddy finally got a 225 remington factory load into her, and then I missed. With WWIII over, we had a bear in the bottom of a brushy draw that still appeared to have alot of life left in her when she went out of site.
We decided to give her 45 minutes, and hiked around to where we thought she went in. We hiked up about 30 yards trying to get above her. I sure didn't want to be down hill from a wounded bear in thick brush. The first thing we see in the bottom of the brush was a huge blood pile. This was a pretty big suprise, due to the fact that we thought we were abover her. We went up the bottom a bit, but there was no blood, so we decided to track it down a ways. I was in the middle of maneuvering through a few branches, and big rocks on the blood trail when I spotted her. 7 yards away! she was hiding behind a big rock and bush looking at us waiting for us to be close enough to ambush (at least that is how it played out in my head). I pulled up and let her have it behind the shoulder (only clear shot I had), and worked the bolt like my life depended on it! At the shot she turned down the draw and saw out of sight before I could get another round in her. Turns out the second kill shot was not needed, she went ten yards and piled up. We got her cleaned out and drug down to the horse trail, and back to camp we went to enjoy a "kill shot" of some mighty fine whiskey, and some bacon wrapped bear tenderloins.
She was around 5', a pretty average bear for our area.
