Joe Hulburt
Well-known member
Well I hunted pretty hard over the weekend and just as I was finishing up my last setup attempting to call in a bear it started raining. I looked at my phone and it showed three days of rain so I decided I would get some stuff done around home for a few days....
Got home from work tonight and fixed dinner and noticed the rain (that had been heavy most of the day) had stopped and the driveway was even drying out. :excited: Change of plans, I am going hunting Dear, be home after dark. So off I go and drive about 30 minutes and it starts to pour again and the thermometer in the truck drops to 42 degrees and I am shaking my head why I am even out there. I decided I might as well check out the spot as I hadn't been in there since archery season. I hiked into the vantage point and the first thing I see is black on green! :excited: I pulled out my rangefinder and he was 157 yards. That is easily doable for the old 30-30 but the wind was howling in my face and bears and not the toughest critters to stalk so I decided to get a closer look. About 10 minutes later I am laying across a stump at 65 yards and trying to decide if I was going to shoot or not so I snapped a quick picture with my point and shoot camera and thankfully the flash didn't scare the bear. :doh:
I could tell he wouldn't be the biggest bear I have killed but he had the forearms of a mature boar and I couldn't think of a reason to pass other than I didn't really want to deal with a dead bear in the dark and rain but my itchy trigger finger made the call.
He wheeled and ran about 30 yards and and the lights went out in mid stride! He dropped right in a little creek...
I didn't notice it until a little later but if you look close at this picture he had a broken lower jaw at some point and it didn't line up right with the upper. Scared up nose too!
The old 30-30 has certainly put the fun back in rifle hunting for me! A couple years ago I would have been kicking myself for not having my bow as I am pretty sure this guy would easily go P&Y and it would't have been hard to cut the distance a little more but to be honest that old gun is too much fun to leave at home.
That is five shots at big game with in now....
Good luck to everybody who still has a tag! I will be missing bear hunting while I am chasing Springers the month of May.
Got home from work tonight and fixed dinner and noticed the rain (that had been heavy most of the day) had stopped and the driveway was even drying out. :excited: Change of plans, I am going hunting Dear, be home after dark. So off I go and drive about 30 minutes and it starts to pour again and the thermometer in the truck drops to 42 degrees and I am shaking my head why I am even out there. I decided I might as well check out the spot as I hadn't been in there since archery season. I hiked into the vantage point and the first thing I see is black on green! :excited: I pulled out my rangefinder and he was 157 yards. That is easily doable for the old 30-30 but the wind was howling in my face and bears and not the toughest critters to stalk so I decided to get a closer look. About 10 minutes later I am laying across a stump at 65 yards and trying to decide if I was going to shoot or not so I snapped a quick picture with my point and shoot camera and thankfully the flash didn't scare the bear. :doh:
I could tell he wouldn't be the biggest bear I have killed but he had the forearms of a mature boar and I couldn't think of a reason to pass other than I didn't really want to deal with a dead bear in the dark and rain but my itchy trigger finger made the call.
He wheeled and ran about 30 yards and and the lights went out in mid stride! He dropped right in a little creek...
I didn't notice it until a little later but if you look close at this picture he had a broken lower jaw at some point and it didn't line up right with the upper. Scared up nose too!
The old 30-30 has certainly put the fun back in rifle hunting for me! A couple years ago I would have been kicking myself for not having my bow as I am pretty sure this guy would easily go P&Y and it would't have been hard to cut the distance a little more but to be honest that old gun is too much fun to leave at home.
That is five shots at big game with in now....
Good luck to everybody who still has a tag! I will be missing bear hunting while I am chasing Springers the month of May.
