NVDesertHunter
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2016
- Messages
- 160
Was able to head out for opening week in Northern CA archery season with a bear and deer tag in my pocket. The first 2 days were spent in the blind along a travel corridor with 1 deer spooking on opening morning when it got within 50 yards.
Day 3 started the same but @David Gough spotted a nice buck on his walk in but it walked off before we could coordinate a plan. Most of that day was spent back in the blind until a big bear spooked around 17:00 and I realized the blind set up was not going to work. Even with most of the windows closed, they were still able to smell me.
With 2 hours left of light, I packed up and still-hunted back to camp. Near camp, a bear spooked and ran into the dry creek bed. I decided to "stalk" the mature bear even though I was in sight of my camp. After walking in circles and playing "peek a boo" for 100 yds, the bear stepped out from the manzanita bushes and presented a 33yd broadside shot. The shot looked and felt good and the bear ran off and all was quiet after 60 yards. I decided to wait at camp until David got back from his hunt. While playing the events in my head and looking at the arrow, I determined the worst case scenario was a single lung hit.
After grabbing some water, snacks and all the headlamps we had. We went back to the scene. We didn't find blood but decided to track the bear's footprints. After grid searching for 60 yds, I found the found stone dead bear in a patch of young pines. The shot was a center punched double lung shot which might be the best archery shot I have done given most of my archery kills are eastern whitetails within 20 yards.
CA Fish and Game pulled a tooth for aging but I also sent in a tooth to Matson's Lab to get quicker results. My estimate is the dry sow is 10+ years old. She was a chocolate phase with a blonde strip down her back. For an August bear, there was plenty of fat to render down and we were able to enjoy some tenderloins fried in bear fat the next morning.
cheers,
Day 3 started the same but @David Gough spotted a nice buck on his walk in but it walked off before we could coordinate a plan. Most of that day was spent back in the blind until a big bear spooked around 17:00 and I realized the blind set up was not going to work. Even with most of the windows closed, they were still able to smell me.
With 2 hours left of light, I packed up and still-hunted back to camp. Near camp, a bear spooked and ran into the dry creek bed. I decided to "stalk" the mature bear even though I was in sight of my camp. After walking in circles and playing "peek a boo" for 100 yds, the bear stepped out from the manzanita bushes and presented a 33yd broadside shot. The shot looked and felt good and the bear ran off and all was quiet after 60 yards. I decided to wait at camp until David got back from his hunt. While playing the events in my head and looking at the arrow, I determined the worst case scenario was a single lung hit.
After grabbing some water, snacks and all the headlamps we had. We went back to the scene. We didn't find blood but decided to track the bear's footprints. After grid searching for 60 yds, I found the found stone dead bear in a patch of young pines. The shot was a center punched double lung shot which might be the best archery shot I have done given most of my archery kills are eastern whitetails within 20 yards.
CA Fish and Game pulled a tooth for aging but I also sent in a tooth to Matson's Lab to get quicker results. My estimate is the dry sow is 10+ years old. She was a chocolate phase with a blonde strip down her back. For an August bear, there was plenty of fat to render down and we were able to enjoy some tenderloins fried in bear fat the next morning.
cheers,
