Young Buck
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2016
- Messages
- 78
Day 4: Another beautiful day! We couldn’t believe our luck. Fishing yielded more rockfish but no halibut. Maybe a Yelloweye or two. A fun fight but too bad you can’t keep those buggers any more.
Decided to go on a sight seeing mission and hunt a different part of the island that we had yet to see. Like a dangerous woman, it was beautiful but we were sure to tread carefully. Other hunters had already dinged a prop in there already.
I swear some of these bears are trained to run as soon as they hear a boat motor idle down! We spotted a bear on a spit of grass but it ran as soon as we tried to slow down. A bummer for sure but we were happy to be seeing a bear.
We kept on our merry way and my brother took it upon himself to drive in to this large bay. We made our way south into the bay and did not see any bears. Coming back north in the bay, we passed the first hunters we had seen in 4 days. We waved and not long after my brother turns it says I think that’s a bear!
Sidenote: Now, it strikes me as odd that the boat driver spotted both bears that we ended up killing and not the guy in the back standing there with $1000 binoculars… mind you, Helen Keller could’ve seen this bear standing out in the middle of a big glass flat but, I digress…
This time we decided to act like we had “been there“ an eased our way around the corner. I carefully got out of the boat with my essentials and made my way down the beach and around the corner into the Cove. The wind when I could finally see the bear was coming from the bear to me. Perfect. I snuck down the beach a little. Ranged the bear. 174 yards. Rifle is zeroed at 200 so well within range. I got prone but didn’t like the left right angle I was laying on so I found a flatter spot. I contemplated getting closer and I certainly think I could have with a bear being so content eating grass but I figured since I was in range and the wind could switch any minute so I better make this count Before I ran out of time.
I must confess, I did not get the same feeling this was an immediate shooter like when I saw my brother's bear but my heart was still thumpin. I did notice immediately that it had a perfect long jet black coat and it had wide set ears with a good size skull on it indicating that it was definitely a mature animal. I did feel that when broadside the bear did taper slightly toward the front shoulders indicating that it may be a sow but I am not experienced enough to be able to tell them apart by that alone. The bear seemed mature, had a perfect coat, had a good size head on it and that checked all the boxes for me. My heart was certainly thumping now. I waited for the bear to get broadside and actually went slightly quartering away. I found the middle of the middle and gently squeezed the trigger till the boom surprised me. Off it went straight into the woods. Oh boy…
I immediately heard the boat motor fire up and my brother came around into the cove. I told him what had happened and felt like I had made a good shot but that bear was alive until proven dead in my eyes. I walked my brother in using my rangefinder to the exact spot that I felt the bear had been. Surprisingly, my brother immediately found hair but no blood which I was not surprised by. The long coat soaks up any chance of getting a blood trail. I turned on the tracking function on my OnX app and went to work following this big beaten down moose trail that seemed like the path of least resistance but no sign of a bear running at full speed. From experience with my brother's bear and others, it seems that if you make a good shot the bear does not go more than 40 yards. We looked for any sign of churned up dirt or scuff marks on a log or any sort of disturbance going up the trail. No dice. I searched in a wagon wheel pattern into the woods. After about 45 minutes, my brother spotted a dark spot in the under growth...
There SHE was. A wave of emotion came over me. I was so relieved to have recovered her and that she didn’t suffer. Did not go 35 yds. She certainly was smaller than I thought she was but still a good sized sow. It is so hard to judge how big an animal is when there are no others around.
After a few pictures, we skidded her down the beach for some more pics and so we could work on her.
A cool little smile on her chest.
Just like that, we were tagged out. We could not believe we had come all that way and had achieved our goal in such an amazing place with such amazing weather. On the boat ride home, I did my best to take take in the bear, the beauty that surrounded us and enjoy every last drop of that victory beer.
Authors Note: If its just two guys hunting, I highly recommend shooting your bear on an incoming tide like i did so you can avoid the track meet in your chest waders. Just sayin'.
Low on light and short on time after returning home. We let the bear cool in the boat to get taken care of in the a.m. Time for some more mystery beers!
Decided to go on a sight seeing mission and hunt a different part of the island that we had yet to see. Like a dangerous woman, it was beautiful but we were sure to tread carefully. Other hunters had already dinged a prop in there already.
I swear some of these bears are trained to run as soon as they hear a boat motor idle down! We spotted a bear on a spit of grass but it ran as soon as we tried to slow down. A bummer for sure but we were happy to be seeing a bear.
We kept on our merry way and my brother took it upon himself to drive in to this large bay. We made our way south into the bay and did not see any bears. Coming back north in the bay, we passed the first hunters we had seen in 4 days. We waved and not long after my brother turns it says I think that’s a bear!
Sidenote: Now, it strikes me as odd that the boat driver spotted both bears that we ended up killing and not the guy in the back standing there with $1000 binoculars… mind you, Helen Keller could’ve seen this bear standing out in the middle of a big glass flat but, I digress…
This time we decided to act like we had “been there“ an eased our way around the corner. I carefully got out of the boat with my essentials and made my way down the beach and around the corner into the Cove. The wind when I could finally see the bear was coming from the bear to me. Perfect. I snuck down the beach a little. Ranged the bear. 174 yards. Rifle is zeroed at 200 so well within range. I got prone but didn’t like the left right angle I was laying on so I found a flatter spot. I contemplated getting closer and I certainly think I could have with a bear being so content eating grass but I figured since I was in range and the wind could switch any minute so I better make this count Before I ran out of time.
I must confess, I did not get the same feeling this was an immediate shooter like when I saw my brother's bear but my heart was still thumpin. I did notice immediately that it had a perfect long jet black coat and it had wide set ears with a good size skull on it indicating that it was definitely a mature animal. I did feel that when broadside the bear did taper slightly toward the front shoulders indicating that it may be a sow but I am not experienced enough to be able to tell them apart by that alone. The bear seemed mature, had a perfect coat, had a good size head on it and that checked all the boxes for me. My heart was certainly thumping now. I waited for the bear to get broadside and actually went slightly quartering away. I found the middle of the middle and gently squeezed the trigger till the boom surprised me. Off it went straight into the woods. Oh boy…
I immediately heard the boat motor fire up and my brother came around into the cove. I told him what had happened and felt like I had made a good shot but that bear was alive until proven dead in my eyes. I walked my brother in using my rangefinder to the exact spot that I felt the bear had been. Surprisingly, my brother immediately found hair but no blood which I was not surprised by. The long coat soaks up any chance of getting a blood trail. I turned on the tracking function on my OnX app and went to work following this big beaten down moose trail that seemed like the path of least resistance but no sign of a bear running at full speed. From experience with my brother's bear and others, it seems that if you make a good shot the bear does not go more than 40 yards. We looked for any sign of churned up dirt or scuff marks on a log or any sort of disturbance going up the trail. No dice. I searched in a wagon wheel pattern into the woods. After about 45 minutes, my brother spotted a dark spot in the under growth...
There SHE was. A wave of emotion came over me. I was so relieved to have recovered her and that she didn’t suffer. Did not go 35 yds. She certainly was smaller than I thought she was but still a good sized sow. It is so hard to judge how big an animal is when there are no others around.
After a few pictures, we skidded her down the beach for some more pics and so we could work on her.
A cool little smile on her chest.
Just like that, we were tagged out. We could not believe we had come all that way and had achieved our goal in such an amazing place with such amazing weather. On the boat ride home, I did my best to take take in the bear, the beauty that surrounded us and enjoy every last drop of that victory beer.
Authors Note: If its just two guys hunting, I highly recommend shooting your bear on an incoming tide like i did so you can avoid the track meet in your chest waders. Just sayin'.
Low on light and short on time after returning home. We let the bear cool in the boat to get taken care of in the a.m. Time for some more mystery beers!
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