gerry
Ammo Smith
- Mar 1, 2007
- 6,866
- 1,664
My wife and I went out bear hunting this last Saturday and Sunday in an area close to home but also an area that I haven't done much in for some strange reason for quite a few years. I usually hunt bears a bit more north and east of here.
Saturday
It was a beautiful day and we were quite happy to be out there in the fresh air and enjoy the beauty of our area.
First big animal spotted was this cow moose, she was quite relaxed about us being there. She should be dropping a calf very soon I would think.
Took the old logging road to some spots we used to camp out as kids, we usually take the highway on the east side of the lake to our regular bear hunting spots.
Drove up farther and saw a smallish black bear I put a bit of a stalk on him but didn't really want to take him so he melted off into the bush, I probably could have shot him from a distance but didn't want to take a chancy shot at it.
Area close to where that bear was
Going home just before dark
Sunday Afternoon
We headed out again to the same area and explored a few areas that looked promising on Google Earth
Eventually we headed to the same general area we had seen the bear on Saturday night and watched the powerline which was greening up nicely. We glassed the powerline and took note of every landmark and ate our supper. We kept looking as we ate and after a while I looked up and there was a bear who had just come out of the timber and was feeding on the fresh grass a little over 1 km away.
We jumped into our RAV4 and headed to a spur road just underneath where the bear was feeding. We eventually got there but there was no bear in sight so walked up the hill and there was nothing. We drove back to the spot we had spotted him from and there was the bear again about 200-300 yards higher. So we raced back and did the stalk again but went further up. We slowly went up but the bear had moved even higher so we cut the distance down but just before we got within range he moved into the timber again.
We sat there listening and could hear him moving in the dry underbrush after about 15 minutes we could hear he was coming out onto the powerline again and we were ready, he stopped on the edge behind some brush and waited a while. Finally he started to walk across in the open and when he stopped clear of some brush at about 125 yards I let him have it. He ran but I knew he was hit, he went about 50 yards and started to slow down, just before he disappeared out of my sight at around 150 yards I hit him again in the hip and he was gone. He only made it about 20 more feet mostly downhill and was done just inside the timber.
We took 2 pictures and then heard something moving in the brush while we were doing the third shot so there are no more field photos. Having another bear come in while you have one down is bad and even worse if it a grizzly. We made a bunch of noise and thankfully it never came in on us.
This turned out to be a funny picture.
The bear did us a big favor and ran close to the next spur road so we only had to pack it about 50 feet. I did drag the bear up a slight incline about 20 feet or so to get it out of the thicker bush since we weren't alone I wanted a bit of time to shoot if our uninvited guest actually came in on us. I can tell you it was really heavy and it was all I could do to move it that far while Maria kept an eye out for the bear from a bit farther back.
The bear squared 6' 2" and was very fat, he had about 1 1/2" of fat on him rump. It doesn't show in the pictures but he has a bit of chocolate color on his shoulders and upper back.
The gun is a new one which I will talk more about another time, it is a left hand Remington 700 CDL in 270 Winchester. The load was Ramshot Magnum with the 160 gr Partition at 2705 fps. It really likes this load and appears that it also really like IMR 7828 SSC with 140 gr BT's. I tried H 4831 SC with several bullets but it was average at best, H 4831 is supposed to be the ultimate 270 Win powder but this gun doesn't like it. Just shows that each gun is an individual and just because most guns love a particular powder doesn't mean they all do
Off to flesh out the hide now..........
Saturday
It was a beautiful day and we were quite happy to be out there in the fresh air and enjoy the beauty of our area.
First big animal spotted was this cow moose, she was quite relaxed about us being there. She should be dropping a calf very soon I would think.
Took the old logging road to some spots we used to camp out as kids, we usually take the highway on the east side of the lake to our regular bear hunting spots.
Drove up farther and saw a smallish black bear I put a bit of a stalk on him but didn't really want to take him so he melted off into the bush, I probably could have shot him from a distance but didn't want to take a chancy shot at it.
Area close to where that bear was
Going home just before dark
Sunday Afternoon
We headed out again to the same area and explored a few areas that looked promising on Google Earth
Eventually we headed to the same general area we had seen the bear on Saturday night and watched the powerline which was greening up nicely. We glassed the powerline and took note of every landmark and ate our supper. We kept looking as we ate and after a while I looked up and there was a bear who had just come out of the timber and was feeding on the fresh grass a little over 1 km away.
We jumped into our RAV4 and headed to a spur road just underneath where the bear was feeding. We eventually got there but there was no bear in sight so walked up the hill and there was nothing. We drove back to the spot we had spotted him from and there was the bear again about 200-300 yards higher. So we raced back and did the stalk again but went further up. We slowly went up but the bear had moved even higher so we cut the distance down but just before we got within range he moved into the timber again.
We sat there listening and could hear him moving in the dry underbrush after about 15 minutes we could hear he was coming out onto the powerline again and we were ready, he stopped on the edge behind some brush and waited a while. Finally he started to walk across in the open and when he stopped clear of some brush at about 125 yards I let him have it. He ran but I knew he was hit, he went about 50 yards and started to slow down, just before he disappeared out of my sight at around 150 yards I hit him again in the hip and he was gone. He only made it about 20 more feet mostly downhill and was done just inside the timber.
We took 2 pictures and then heard something moving in the brush while we were doing the third shot so there are no more field photos. Having another bear come in while you have one down is bad and even worse if it a grizzly. We made a bunch of noise and thankfully it never came in on us.
This turned out to be a funny picture.
The bear did us a big favor and ran close to the next spur road so we only had to pack it about 50 feet. I did drag the bear up a slight incline about 20 feet or so to get it out of the thicker bush since we weren't alone I wanted a bit of time to shoot if our uninvited guest actually came in on us. I can tell you it was really heavy and it was all I could do to move it that far while Maria kept an eye out for the bear from a bit farther back.
The bear squared 6' 2" and was very fat, he had about 1 1/2" of fat on him rump. It doesn't show in the pictures but he has a bit of chocolate color on his shoulders and upper back.
The gun is a new one which I will talk more about another time, it is a left hand Remington 700 CDL in 270 Winchester. The load was Ramshot Magnum with the 160 gr Partition at 2705 fps. It really likes this load and appears that it also really like IMR 7828 SSC with 140 gr BT's. I tried H 4831 SC with several bullets but it was average at best, H 4831 is supposed to be the ultimate 270 Win powder but this gun doesn't like it. Just shows that each gun is an individual and just because most guns love a particular powder doesn't mean they all do
Off to flesh out the hide now..........
..Congrats buddy 
