SHOOT or NOT to shoot???

[mtnboy]

Opening day of rifle, rollin' solo, you stumble up 3 hours in the dark over deadfalls, through towering alders and finally make it to the timberline ridge just as legal light breaks...(every day should start like this...YEAAAH!!) You glass the first basin and spot a couple of smaller bucks at 100 yards...but you know some big bucks cruise this timber...you decide to peak over the back of the ridge and you spot a MONSTER black BRUIN stuffin' his mug in a huge berry patch ...you just happen to have a tag in your pack with his name on it...

Problem is he's pushin' 400 lbs and is in the nastiest-ball breakin'-hole you could imagine...at the bottome of a steep, shale avalanche chute...it'd take all day to get him back to where you're standin' and then most of the night to get back to the truck... To HUMP or NOT to hump...that is the question??? ...
Here's the bear in the hole...

The front basin...a slice o' redneck PARADISE...

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 10-22-2002 14:07: Message edited by: mtnboy ]</font>

 

[A-con]

To answer your question, no, not on a bear when I'm gunning for a big buck.
Thats why I try not to look into the bottem of basins like that.
Fifteen years ago, bow hunting deer in Utah, we were seeing lots of does & small bucks. About midday I was showing my buddy my new binoculars. We started glassing a canyon that was impossable to get to from where we were. You gussed it, a great big buck, bedded in some tall grass. No way to get to him without ropes & mountian climbing gear.
Now a days, if I can't get there, I dont look.

 

[Elkhunter]

Having never having got me a bear yet, I would say yes. Yes I would take him.

 

[Steamer]

I have a hard and fast rule that I live by. Never shot anything when it is somewhere you don't want to pack it out of.

I have passed up a lot of game because of that but I don't regret it.

 

[Ithaca 37]

If I wanted a bear I'd go after him in a second. So what if you have to spend the nite out on the hill?

 

[Kraven]

Looks like excellent bear country there.And to answer your question yes I would shoot.That area looks really similar to what I was in bear hunting and yes it would be a hell of a pack out for sure especially solo,but that is why we do this.

 

[mtnboy]

Well, I'm still young and hungry enough to jump on down that hole, but I passed him up that morning, cause I had BIG horns on the brain (and I have a decent bear in the freezer - the pepperoni is GOLD!

)...BUT after glassing the front basin and the base of the far mountain all morn' I was back lookin' for him...of coarse he as long goooone!

I never heard about anyone dragging him out, so I'll be back there next year, with my HUMPIN' boots on...

Ithaca - I like your attitude on that one!

 

[ELKCHSR]

Yep!!!
If theres a tag in the pocket and something is spotted...I am on the chase!!!!

 

[Deerslayer]

My philosophy is opposite of Steamer's.......I'll hunt and shoot in the nasty stuff, and worry about a bust ass pack out after the kill. Deer and elks and bears are where you find 'em...and more times than not it won't be too easy.

 

[Moosie]

A real friend you can call anytime and they'll go anywhere... I'm that way for Wylee and he's that way for me...

BANG !!!!! Deer season is long

 

[The_Yetty]

If I see a monster on the moon and I know I can kill it, it's dead. I'll find a way to get over there to get that sucker out. Hell, you probably always wanted to try some real mountain climbing. You'd just have a good reason to do it now.

 

[Calif. Hunter]

If I wanted a bear, I'd shoot it and pack it out by angling up the hill, through the trees and to that saddle - rather than up the face. (Unless it was getting late and I did not have gear to spend the night.)

 

[csutton7]

shoot it and get to the task..

CA Hunter--just wrap that ol' sweet bar skin 'round you for the night and you'd be set for the fiercest storm on earth--of course the opposite sex would probably avoid you for many moons thereafter ...chris

 

[Horn Seeker]

Well, yesterday I was ready to shoot but never got the chance. I was 4 hours from my truck and about 3500+ feet above it, deadfall all the way. I had 3 tags in my pocket, bear being one of them. If a big fatty stepped out i would have put the hurt on him (then he would have put the hurt on me, especially with the nice little winter storm that rolled in).

 

[Ten Bears]

I've killed 3 bears in holes somewhat like that. I was sore by the time I got them out, loved the hunt all the same. One bear I dressed, and came back the next day with packing help. Another I decided to pack at night, and when I fell I almost broke my back, I don't pack in the dark anymore.
Bottom line, I'd have taken him, I can deer hunt more later.

 

[Boman]

Well since I have not ever taken a bear and I want to really bad.. Boom! One dead bear. I'd have found a way to get him out. I'm like others If I have a tag in pocket then its dead critter time. You can always hunt other animals later. But on the other hand in your situation I can't say I woudn't have done the same as you did. Either way congrats to you. Hopefully you'll get your deer and your bear!

 

[Delw]

If I was hunting back that far then I would be hunting to shoot something as well.. so yes I would take it...

It might take a day or 3 toget him out.. If I am hunting that far back I am always prepaird to stay and extra day or 2, so it would be no biggy....


Delw

 

[wiggysIROC]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Steamer:
I have a hard and fast rule that I live by. Never shot anything when it is somewhere you don't want to pack it out of.

I have passed up a lot of game because of that but I don't regret it.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's the rule I live by and people call me lazy. I just happen to know my limits.

Mark

 

[wall hangers]

Kill it yes! If you have a tag for it, I`m assuming you want to shoot one. Exception being that they are so plentiful that seeing more of this caliber animal is commonplace.
These good animals like these tough places because they`re not bothered much, so go in to them.
Tough places and dangerous places use different rules. I think if it`s a dangerous places I would go as far as I could before dark, hang the meat or cape and come back tomorrow. Tough but relatively safe, with good lights I would try to get it out in one trip. WH

 

[The Hedgehog]

I shoot that SOB in a heartbeat.. then go get the Yetti. He happily packs out all the meat you can fit into a large backpack.

Also, a key quote from my friend the Weekend Warrior, while standing over a dead elk.. a long ways from the truck... "Ya know.. It's never to late to shoot him in the ass.."

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 11-20-2002 11:20: Message edited by: Greenhorn ]</font>