Big Sky
Well-known member
As of last Friday I hadn't bought a bear tag/license. After work that evening a friend of mine texted me and said he had recently seen a couple of bears around his cabin on his place in the mountains. He asked if I wanted to come over and have a look around. To be honest, my motivation was super low as I've been to his place many times and had never seen a bear. However, I hadn't seen my friend for a while and I thought it would be enjoyable to go hang out with him for a few days, and pretend to look for a bear. I mean I figured pretending was about as close to actually bear hunting as I was going to get. So I bought my bear tags Friday evening so I could be all legal. I got to my friends place around 11am Monday morning. We ate lunch in town and then drove up to his cabin in the mountains. We weren't in any hurry as most of the bear sightings had been early in the morning or the last few hours of the day. Once we got settled in, we decided to go do a little coyote calling, just to take up some time in the middle of the day. We didn't have anything respond to the calling, but we did have a good visit hiking back from each stand. He said there had been a sow with two pretty big cubs frequently hanging around his cabin eating grass in the meadow near the cabin. The last time he saw her the cubs weren't with her. So we were hoping maybe she had booted them and gone into heat. The real hope was that she would bring in a boar. We got back to the cabin from coyote calling and decided to make dinner around 6pm. After dinner my friend suggested we take a short 1/2 mile walk down a trail on his property that went past several meadows where he had seen bears in the past. Around 7:15pm we left the cabin. We were about 80 yards from the cabin and just entering the timber when we both stopped abruptly. We both saw a dark object at the same time. We also both whispered at the same time; "That looks like a bear." I don't know what my partner's train of thought was from there on out, but here was mine.
1. That looks like a bear.
2. That is a bear!
3. It's a colored bear!!
4. I don't see any cubs.
5. That bear isn't a dink!!!
6. I'm going to take that bear!!!!!!
The bear was facing us straight on at around 70 yards or so and down hill. The only shot I had was a head shot and I didn't want to blow up the skull. So I waited for the bear to make some kind of move. It was turning into a Mexican stand off. I had to move slightly to be able to see over the pitch of the down hill grade better for a shot. The bear had all he could take and took off through the timber. I looked ahead of the bear and saw one tiny opening between two trees in the direction the bear was headed. So I swung with the bear has he was running and the second he entered the opening I sent a bullet his way. This was off-hand mind you, without any rest, at around 80-85 yards. I only saw a flash of the bear after the shot as he ran into heavy timber. I asked my partner if he thought I hit it. He said he couldn't tell. I told him I was right on him when I shot and if I missed I wouldn't have any explanation as to how I missed, unless I misjudged my lead. I also mentioned that I thought if I did hit it, it would be a little further back than I wanted as he went through that opening really fast. We hiked down to where I shot and couldn't see any hair or blood. I hiked up to where I thought he went into the timber and still couldn't see anything. My partner reminded me to take the safety off and be ready incase it was wounded and was in a bad mood. I had complete and intense focus as I carefully picked my way up hill and over to the next ravine. As I looked down on my side of the ravine I still didn't see anything. Plus, I hadn't heard a death moan and I was getting a real sick feeling that I'd either missed, or worse, wounded the bear. If you have ever been there you know the feeling I'm talking about, and you just want to throw up and smack your head against a tree. I looked over my side of the ravine carefully with my eyes and then to the bottom. Still nothing, and I was starting to literally sweat from the stress of thought of losing that bear. Then my eyes started to track up the far side of the ravine and I noticed something that looked out of place next to a large pine tree. I looked through my scope and sure enough it was one beautiful dead bear! Up to this point I hadn't shown much in the way of emotion, as when I'm shooting and tracking, I'm very focused. However the second I realized it was dead, I'm almost embarrassed to admit, I did a major happy dance. As we walked up to the bear my friend said; "Huh, I've never seen this bear before." In a way that made me feel good for some reason. I think it was because it was a new bear to both of us. There isn't much to the rest of the story other than getting it out of the hole it died in. (I'm getting too old for that!) Then getting it skinned while being eaten alive by mosquitos.
I went on my first bear hunt at 26 years of age. I turn 53 in August. This is far and way the quickest-luckiest bear hunt I have ever been on. I've paid my dues and hiked a zillion fruitless miles and never even seen a track let alone a bear on many hunts. This was like the ultimate bear hunting easy lay-up of my life. I'm darn grateful to finally actually have any easy hunt for a bear. This makes my 11th bear kill and by far the shortest hunt. From the time we left the cabin to when my bullet hit the bear was less than 5 minutes...and I'll TAKE IT!
Most of the bears I've killed have been black so when I get a colored one, I'm more than a little excited. This is one of the prettiest I've ever killed. Note the sweat still on my forehead from stressing out over the thought of missing or losing this bear.
Before some cyber warden says anything...YES I did have my hunter orange. No I don't like it in photos, but I did take a couple photos with it and then tossed it on the ground for the rest of the photos. Yes I'm really red in the face in this photo as it was just second after hiking up to the bear. I'm an old fat man and the mountains just seem way steeper for some reason...but I'm a happy old fat man in this photo! The photo above this one was taken about 10-15 minutes later when my colored had finally returned to normal on my face.
I just absolutely cannot get tired of this view from my friends cabin. Montana is one beautiful state. It's even more beautiful when one has there bear tag filled with a nicely colored bear!
1. That looks like a bear.
2. That is a bear!
3. It's a colored bear!!
4. I don't see any cubs.
5. That bear isn't a dink!!!
6. I'm going to take that bear!!!!!!
The bear was facing us straight on at around 70 yards or so and down hill. The only shot I had was a head shot and I didn't want to blow up the skull. So I waited for the bear to make some kind of move. It was turning into a Mexican stand off. I had to move slightly to be able to see over the pitch of the down hill grade better for a shot. The bear had all he could take and took off through the timber. I looked ahead of the bear and saw one tiny opening between two trees in the direction the bear was headed. So I swung with the bear has he was running and the second he entered the opening I sent a bullet his way. This was off-hand mind you, without any rest, at around 80-85 yards. I only saw a flash of the bear after the shot as he ran into heavy timber. I asked my partner if he thought I hit it. He said he couldn't tell. I told him I was right on him when I shot and if I missed I wouldn't have any explanation as to how I missed, unless I misjudged my lead. I also mentioned that I thought if I did hit it, it would be a little further back than I wanted as he went through that opening really fast. We hiked down to where I shot and couldn't see any hair or blood. I hiked up to where I thought he went into the timber and still couldn't see anything. My partner reminded me to take the safety off and be ready incase it was wounded and was in a bad mood. I had complete and intense focus as I carefully picked my way up hill and over to the next ravine. As I looked down on my side of the ravine I still didn't see anything. Plus, I hadn't heard a death moan and I was getting a real sick feeling that I'd either missed, or worse, wounded the bear. If you have ever been there you know the feeling I'm talking about, and you just want to throw up and smack your head against a tree. I looked over my side of the ravine carefully with my eyes and then to the bottom. Still nothing, and I was starting to literally sweat from the stress of thought of losing that bear. Then my eyes started to track up the far side of the ravine and I noticed something that looked out of place next to a large pine tree. I looked through my scope and sure enough it was one beautiful dead bear! Up to this point I hadn't shown much in the way of emotion, as when I'm shooting and tracking, I'm very focused. However the second I realized it was dead, I'm almost embarrassed to admit, I did a major happy dance. As we walked up to the bear my friend said; "Huh, I've never seen this bear before." In a way that made me feel good for some reason. I think it was because it was a new bear to both of us. There isn't much to the rest of the story other than getting it out of the hole it died in. (I'm getting too old for that!) Then getting it skinned while being eaten alive by mosquitos.
I went on my first bear hunt at 26 years of age. I turn 53 in August. This is far and way the quickest-luckiest bear hunt I have ever been on. I've paid my dues and hiked a zillion fruitless miles and never even seen a track let alone a bear on many hunts. This was like the ultimate bear hunting easy lay-up of my life. I'm darn grateful to finally actually have any easy hunt for a bear. This makes my 11th bear kill and by far the shortest hunt. From the time we left the cabin to when my bullet hit the bear was less than 5 minutes...and I'll TAKE IT!
Most of the bears I've killed have been black so when I get a colored one, I'm more than a little excited. This is one of the prettiest I've ever killed. Note the sweat still on my forehead from stressing out over the thought of missing or losing this bear.
Before some cyber warden says anything...YES I did have my hunter orange. No I don't like it in photos, but I did take a couple photos with it and then tossed it on the ground for the rest of the photos. Yes I'm really red in the face in this photo as it was just second after hiking up to the bear. I'm an old fat man and the mountains just seem way steeper for some reason...but I'm a happy old fat man in this photo! The photo above this one was taken about 10-15 minutes later when my colored had finally returned to normal on my face.
I just absolutely cannot get tired of this view from my friends cabin. Montana is one beautiful state. It's even more beautiful when one has there bear tag filled with a nicely colored bear!
