Spring Bear

My permit for spring bear in Western Washington starts today. Once I get some grocery shopping done I'll be heading for the hills. I've decided to bounce back and forth between my .450 Marlin and .35 Whelen for the hunt this year. I haven't taken anything with the Whelen since I went to Africa 5 years ago and it's been a bit longer for the Marlin.

Very cool! Good luck Lefty. The Whelen is a great thumper. What loads are you running in it

Good luck!

I'll be spring bear hunting here in just a couple of weeks myself!

We're all pulling for you, Lefty. We've had heavy snowfall the past several days; so, our bears are quite liable to remain denned up for a while longer. I had thought we would be hunting this week.

Using the load I came up with for Africa. 250 Nosler Partition going mid 2400 out of my Ruger 22 inch barrel. The season runs till June 15th. I have not hunted this tree farm in two years so today is just a little exploration to see what has changed.

That load should be excellent for you. How long of a shot would you anticipate in your AO? When you describe it as a "tree farm," I envision reasonably close shots.

Good luck on your hunt, either of your choices will hammer those bears.

New licensing system here now that is online and is a disaster right now, getting a hunting license is easy but they have to mail the tag to you. Went down to the government agent to buy a tag they aren't set up for it till May 15 and can only sell the old licenses. Didn't want to take the chance so am getting my tag mailed to me.......

After using my 270 Win with 160 gr Partitions successfully the last two springs I'm going to use the 35 Whelen again with the 200 gr TTSX this time.

gerry":3a2gbky3 said:

Good luck on your hunt, either of your choices will hammer those bears.

New licensing system here now that is online and is a disaster right now, getting a hunting license is easy but they have to mail the tag to you. Went down to the government agent to buy a tag they aren't set up for it till May 15 and can only sell the old licenses. Didn't want to take the chance so am getting my tag mailed to me.......

After using my 270 Win with 160 gr Partitions successfully the last two springs I'm going to use the 35 Whelen again with the 200 gr TTSX this time.

Click to expand...

Gerry,

Ordered all my tags Thursday. Most fascinating system. We'll see how long it takes to get the licence. Did you notice that there is no hunting licence now? You carry photo ID and your hunter number. The tags are all you get. Wonder how the COs will check on licence when they have no cell coverage.

Question ---is Gil, Hodgeman, and Cheyenne the only ones on the forum who can hunt bears and other animals for substance ? And do you three have to even have a license ? a tag ?

Best of luck on your bear hunts, Lefty, Dr Mike, Hodgeman, Gerry---I am envious

DrMike":3pp8kf0s said:

gerry":3pp8kf0s said:

Good luck on your hunt, either of your choices will hammer those bears.

New licensing system here now that is online and is a disaster right now, getting a hunting license is easy but they have to mail the tag to you. Went down to the government agent to buy a tag they aren't set up for it till May 15 and can only sell the old licenses. Didn't want to take the chance so am getting my tag mailed to me.......

After using my 270 Win with 160 gr Partitions successfully the last two springs I'm going to use the 35 Whelen again with the 200 gr TTSX this time.

Click to expand...

Gerry,

Ordered all my tags Thursday. Most fascinating system. We'll see how long it takes to get the licence. Did you notice that there is no hunting licence now? You carry photo ID and your hunter number. The tags are all you get. Wonder how the COs will check on licence when they have no cell coverage.

Click to expand...

It sure felt weird going out target practising and not having a license, for now I'll take my old one and the receipt for the transaction. Unless the CO's have a satellite phone or something there are most places here won't have any cell coverage, there are some things it looks like they didn't think through. In time it will probably be a good system but for now it is not working well.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on that 200 TTSX Gerry. I believe the Newton may run them this fall. They seem to be coorperating with me.

Should have a finished load before too long.

You can be sure I'll let you know Scotty, I would like to do something other than bullet test with them. I was going to use the 170 gr Berger in the 270 Win but don't like hunting with rounds that I can't eject because they are too long. Hard to peel the rim off the extractor. They weren't very accurate running them at mag length.

hunternyny":whmjdkcw said:

Question ---is Gil, Hodgeman, and Cheyenne the only ones on the forum who can hunt bears and other animals for substance ? And do you three have to even have a license ? a tag ?

Best of luck on your bear hunts, Lefty, Dr Mike, Hodgeman, Gerry---I am envious

Click to expand...

In my area there is no subsistence priority for bears...pretty much any resident can just download and print off three harvest tickets for black bears and have at it!

For griz, we're in a predator control zone and residents don't even need a tag- just shoot one and tag it when you have the skull sealed.

The tree farm totals around 140,000 acres I think. It goes from around 800 feet in elevation up to around 5000. Just think of it as National forest type terrain that is being logged. Shots range from how close you want to get to how far do you want to shoot. I have a self imposed limit on bears at 300 yards, preferably closer.

I packed the .450 today. No bears spotted but did have a couple encounters with a Bobcat. Pretty cool day.

I fall in love with such country. Thanks for the picture and the report. Here's pulling for a great bruin, soon.

Well I screwed up and missed the application deadline for spring bear in the blue mts. Pretty irritated with myself. My guess is I'll have the dang things walking up to me.
Good luck to those who planned ahead.


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Best of luck Lefty!

Good luck fellows on your up coming spring bear hunts . I am not sure if I am going to be able to make it out as I have one class left and then a seminar to become licensed with the ACOP and it will be all done by May 10th. Hopefully I can still get out after that for a couple days if they have not rubbed by then.

Blessings,
Dan

Good luck Lefty

JD336

Posted these in the 303 British thread but here are the results so far of what a 180 gr Speer RN can do. I did finish off both bears with the 35 Whelen 200 gr TTSX load, it is an impressive bullet. Things stop happening quick with the Whelen and both the TTSX and 200 gr AccuBond. Heading out tomorrow morning again.

This young boar is my cousin's boy's first big game animal, I liked this picture of him with the skin around his shoulders. This was the evening of May 14.



Yesterday morning (May 20) a younger friend also got his first big game animal, again a young boar.



Both young men were very pleased to have brought home some meat for their families.

One of the wonderful things about spring bear hunting, beautiful scenery We also saw a bunch of mountain goats and a bull moose yesterday morning.