220yotekiller
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2017
- Messages
- 768
Got back from my bear hunt last night, it was in interesting trip to say the least.
I left Saturday night to be where I wanted to be on opening morning. I got there mid afternoon and set up camp, it was super muddy getting in but made it without having to put it in 4 wheel drive. I scouted around for the best route to the hole I wanted to get to and got back to camp around dark, as I was getting ready to build a fire it started to rain, not a problem, I got my book and sat in the truck waiting it out. It never stopped, in fact it got harder and then turned to snow. I decided that I didn't want to deal with snow plus mud so I pulled out at midnight, got stuck but got out without a ton of problems, didn't have to chain up but it was a toss up, got back to town and crashed till the next morning.
I headed out early and got to my back up area.....It was CRAWLING with people I mean 50 trucks in the parking area. I talked to a game warden and apparently that area opened for shed hunting on bear opener. But he did say that he seen a bear on a elk carcass two days earlier. I thanked him and went to my plan C, an area that I had spent no time in but what did I have to loose? I started up the trail, not a ton of people but enough that when I seen a side trail I took it. I hiked for about a mile and a half, the trail getting worse as I went. It eventually cliffed out in dog hair thick timber. I turned back and got back to the main trail and kept going, about 3.5 miles in, it opened up and I could see a fairly open drainage across a river so I set up to glass, moving a couple of times to see more country. I was tired and dosed off for a hour or two about noon. I felt better after my nap and started glassing. I didn't see anything until 5 PM when cow moose stood up and started grazing. A couple of hours later the country really woke up. I wound up seeing 4 moose (1 bull, 2 cows and yearling) one of the cows was a bald face so that was pretty cool, 8 bull elk, and 7 deer. Not a bad day at all, I got back to my truck well after dark.
The next day I went back to where the warden had seen the bear, I actually ran into him again as I was getting my pack ready, he checked me and then said that he had checked 15 other hunters and no one had seen a bear yet but he told me where the carcass was. I found it without much trouble and set up to watch it. It was a pretty good spot, I could watch the carcass and also glass about 3 miles of burns. It was pretty uneventful, Nothing on the elk but birds, But I did glass up a bighorn ram up in the peaks and on the flats below me there were a couple of antelope and 3 deer showed up about dark as well as some turkeys.
Conclusion I found out a couple of important things the hard way, 1) Starting out on a bear hunt with no conditioning is a huge mistake, the first day I figure that I put on 10 miles and my legs were killing me. 2) My wood stocked 7mm Rem in WAY heavy, I am serously thinking of getting a lighter rifle. It has a 26 inch barrel with a 2 inch muzzle brake, it is not the rifle that you want when you are crawling through brush.
Sorry for the long, uncucessfull post but I figured a from the field report might be helpful.
I left Saturday night to be where I wanted to be on opening morning. I got there mid afternoon and set up camp, it was super muddy getting in but made it without having to put it in 4 wheel drive. I scouted around for the best route to the hole I wanted to get to and got back to camp around dark, as I was getting ready to build a fire it started to rain, not a problem, I got my book and sat in the truck waiting it out. It never stopped, in fact it got harder and then turned to snow. I decided that I didn't want to deal with snow plus mud so I pulled out at midnight, got stuck but got out without a ton of problems, didn't have to chain up but it was a toss up, got back to town and crashed till the next morning.
I headed out early and got to my back up area.....It was CRAWLING with people I mean 50 trucks in the parking area. I talked to a game warden and apparently that area opened for shed hunting on bear opener. But he did say that he seen a bear on a elk carcass two days earlier. I thanked him and went to my plan C, an area that I had spent no time in but what did I have to loose? I started up the trail, not a ton of people but enough that when I seen a side trail I took it. I hiked for about a mile and a half, the trail getting worse as I went. It eventually cliffed out in dog hair thick timber. I turned back and got back to the main trail and kept going, about 3.5 miles in, it opened up and I could see a fairly open drainage across a river so I set up to glass, moving a couple of times to see more country. I was tired and dosed off for a hour or two about noon. I felt better after my nap and started glassing. I didn't see anything until 5 PM when cow moose stood up and started grazing. A couple of hours later the country really woke up. I wound up seeing 4 moose (1 bull, 2 cows and yearling) one of the cows was a bald face so that was pretty cool, 8 bull elk, and 7 deer. Not a bad day at all, I got back to my truck well after dark.
The next day I went back to where the warden had seen the bear, I actually ran into him again as I was getting my pack ready, he checked me and then said that he had checked 15 other hunters and no one had seen a bear yet but he told me where the carcass was. I found it without much trouble and set up to watch it. It was a pretty good spot, I could watch the carcass and also glass about 3 miles of burns. It was pretty uneventful, Nothing on the elk but birds, But I did glass up a bighorn ram up in the peaks and on the flats below me there were a couple of antelope and 3 deer showed up about dark as well as some turkeys.
Conclusion I found out a couple of important things the hard way, 1) Starting out on a bear hunt with no conditioning is a huge mistake, the first day I figure that I put on 10 miles and my legs were killing me. 2) My wood stocked 7mm Rem in WAY heavy, I am serously thinking of getting a lighter rifle. It has a 26 inch barrel with a 2 inch muzzle brake, it is not the rifle that you want when you are crawling through brush.
Sorry for the long, uncucessfull post but I figured a from the field report might be helpful.
