Valley1320
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Here's some pics I'll update more later.
Valle Vidal Spring Bear Hunt 2023
- Thread starter Valley1320
- Start date
Valley1320
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Valley1320
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Dry and warn yesterday. Snowed last night and chilly today
Sask hunter
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Looks like a good one in the tree! Did you guys shoot him?
Valley1320
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No did not shoot him beings it was our first day here. Pry should have
Valley1320
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Caught another bear on the ground but I didn't make it to it. Will update more later
Valley1320
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Headed home. Will try to write it all up this evening or tomorrow hopefully
TheJason
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Looking forward to the photos!
Valley1320
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Day 1 Monday evening get in to camp and get everything set up, dogs and horses put away. Relax and enjoy some green chile enchiladas. 
Valley1320
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Day 2
Decide to take the pickup and Polaris the first day of the hunt to let the horses and mule acclimate, couple of the horses are older. There is only like 3 roads in there to hunt so we go a couple miles down the main road and take the loop road that loops down around and back up to the Cimarron campground and the main road. Only get about 2 miles down it and the dogs rig!! They didn't rig real hard but enough it was worth turning them loose. So we dump a couple of the betters dogs and they do the zigzag trailing stuff til they get bout 300 yards out and line out towards kinda a rock pile. At the rock pile they blow up so I turn loose another dog and they haul butt til they are about 3/4s a mile out and come up treed. Seemed a lil weird and we didn't think we really had a bear treed. So we sent my brother in to see what was going on. After a bit he's on the radio all excited GOT A BEAR GOT A BEAR!!! So we dump the pups and start heading in to the tree. He said on the radio that he thought it was a medium sized bear. We get there and the dogs are treeing hard and walk up and it's no where close to jus a medium sized bear. Biggest boar I've ever treed with my dogs. And one of the biggest my buddy has ever treed as well. Couldn't believe it that we hard hardly even started hunting and already got a bear treed by 10oclock. We let the first group of dogs tree awhile and decide I should go get the rest of the young dogs so they can get a taste of it and all cuz we may not get another chance this good to train them and let them get a good taste of bear. Get back with the rest of the pups and take them in to the tree or about half way into it, they leave me in the dust haha. We than decide to pull the dogs off and see if the bear will come down so the pups can run it. Pull the dogs back and the bear comes right down and takes off so we let them go. I was hoping he'd run a lil farther but he only ran a couple hundred yards before he climbed another tree. I decided to not shoot him now I regret it... but I mainly put in for the tag so if I drew we could get these young pups on some bear sooner. NM does not have a training season. By the time we pulled all the dogs and got back to the truck it was mid-afternoon and we decided to jus go back to camp and fix up a big supper and relax. Had green chile enchiladas. That perty much sums it up for day 2.
Decide to take the pickup and Polaris the first day of the hunt to let the horses and mule acclimate, couple of the horses are older. There is only like 3 roads in there to hunt so we go a couple miles down the main road and take the loop road that loops down around and back up to the Cimarron campground and the main road. Only get about 2 miles down it and the dogs rig!! They didn't rig real hard but enough it was worth turning them loose. So we dump a couple of the betters dogs and they do the zigzag trailing stuff til they get bout 300 yards out and line out towards kinda a rock pile. At the rock pile they blow up so I turn loose another dog and they haul butt til they are about 3/4s a mile out and come up treed. Seemed a lil weird and we didn't think we really had a bear treed. So we sent my brother in to see what was going on. After a bit he's on the radio all excited GOT A BEAR GOT A BEAR!!! So we dump the pups and start heading in to the tree. He said on the radio that he thought it was a medium sized bear. We get there and the dogs are treeing hard and walk up and it's no where close to jus a medium sized bear. Biggest boar I've ever treed with my dogs. And one of the biggest my buddy has ever treed as well. Couldn't believe it that we hard hardly even started hunting and already got a bear treed by 10oclock. We let the first group of dogs tree awhile and decide I should go get the rest of the young dogs so they can get a taste of it and all cuz we may not get another chance this good to train them and let them get a good taste of bear. Get back with the rest of the pups and take them in to the tree or about half way into it, they leave me in the dust haha. We than decide to pull the dogs off and see if the bear will come down so the pups can run it. Pull the dogs back and the bear comes right down and takes off so we let them go. I was hoping he'd run a lil farther but he only ran a couple hundred yards before he climbed another tree. I decided to not shoot him now I regret it... but I mainly put in for the tag so if I drew we could get these young pups on some bear sooner. NM does not have a training season. By the time we pulled all the dogs and got back to the truck it was mid-afternoon and we decided to jus go back to camp and fix up a big supper and relax. Had green chile enchiladas. That perty much sums it up for day 2.
Sask hunter
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Great pictures! Still think your crazy to have passed that bear lol
Valley1320
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I was crazy
prhunter
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Following along. Good luck!
Valley1320
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Day 3
I wake up and look out to see this,
It's about 25° so we cook up a nice big breakfast and take our time getting ready to hunt hoping the sun would come out and warm up. Sun starts showing so we saddle a couple horses and take some dogs on a loop north of camp seeing if anything is up and moving. Had a antelope race with some of the pups so had to deal with that.
Starts clouding back up big nasty clouds and getting nasty so we start heading back to camp had about a mile to go. By the time we got to camp it was snowing again and the wind was blowing jus enough it was cold and annoying. So we throw the dogs in a dog box and have a quick lunch. Weather settled a little again so we loaded a few more dogs and took off to drive up the main road mainly to just go look around didn't have much hope of bears being up moving.. so we drove up to shuree ponds and up to the elk calving area. It really snowed up higher for awhile the one area we went had at least 8 inches of snow probably
That evening when we came back down it was all melted off and dry down low so that was nice. Back in camp we grilled up some ribeye steaks and relaxed.
I wake up and look out to see this,
It's about 25° so we cook up a nice big breakfast and take our time getting ready to hunt hoping the sun would come out and warm up. Sun starts showing so we saddle a couple horses and take some dogs on a loop north of camp seeing if anything is up and moving. Had a antelope race with some of the pups so had to deal with that.
Starts clouding back up big nasty clouds and getting nasty so we start heading back to camp had about a mile to go. By the time we got to camp it was snowing again and the wind was blowing jus enough it was cold and annoying. So we throw the dogs in a dog box and have a quick lunch. Weather settled a little again so we loaded a few more dogs and took off to drive up the main road mainly to just go look around didn't have much hope of bears being up moving.. so we drove up to shuree ponds and up to the elk calving area. It really snowed up higher for awhile the one area we went had at least 8 inches of snow probably
That evening when we came back down it was all melted off and dry down low so that was nice. Back in camp we grilled up some ribeye steaks and relaxed.
brownbear932008
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Awesome looks like some.e great country. That was a heck of a nice boar. Gotta love the excitement of those hounds on track.
Valley1320
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Day 4
Wake up to a frigid cold morning after a clear night. Saddle horses and mule. My brother, a friend that came up the evening before and I take off with a few dogs, while my buddy takes the Polaris and takes the loop road with some other dogs. Split up to cover more country and hopefully find another bear to run.
We had got a mile or so out from camp and I could see my buddy had dumped a couple dogs up on the main road and they were chasing something so I kept watching gps but it never got looking real serious so we kept on going. Come to find out later they had dumped on a bear they were perty sure but it was perty cold or something never could get it going good.
Looped up around a mountain and stopped and had a snack and to warm up a bit. Been looking for sheds the whole time as well and never did find any. Road back to within a couple miles of the loop road and got signal on the other dogs with my buddy and saw the were way out from the road so we started working that way. Gps showed dogs barking 20 to 30 bpm and looked like dogs had a bear caught on the ground, my phone was dead so I had to take this pic later off the GPS.
We had cut it down to about a mile and dogs started moving up the cliffs and seemed like they held the bear a lil longer but eventually it got up over and left the dogs down in the cliffs. So I didn't quite make it there. Wish I had been a mile or so closer pry could have got there in time. By then it's getting perty late in the day so we head back to camp. Ended up being about a 22 mile ride total. Only bear sign we saw that day on the ride was on the road when we crossed it heading towards the other dogs. Back in camp for a supper of hamburgers i think was that night if I remember right.
Wake up to a frigid cold morning after a clear night. Saddle horses and mule. My brother, a friend that came up the evening before and I take off with a few dogs, while my buddy takes the Polaris and takes the loop road with some other dogs. Split up to cover more country and hopefully find another bear to run.
We had got a mile or so out from camp and I could see my buddy had dumped a couple dogs up on the main road and they were chasing something so I kept watching gps but it never got looking real serious so we kept on going. Come to find out later they had dumped on a bear they were perty sure but it was perty cold or something never could get it going good.
Looped up around a mountain and stopped and had a snack and to warm up a bit. Been looking for sheds the whole time as well and never did find any. Road back to within a couple miles of the loop road and got signal on the other dogs with my buddy and saw the were way out from the road so we started working that way. Gps showed dogs barking 20 to 30 bpm and looked like dogs had a bear caught on the ground, my phone was dead so I had to take this pic later off the GPS.
We had cut it down to about a mile and dogs started moving up the cliffs and seemed like they held the bear a lil longer but eventually it got up over and left the dogs down in the cliffs. So I didn't quite make it there. Wish I had been a mile or so closer pry could have got there in time. By then it's getting perty late in the day so we head back to camp. Ended up being about a 22 mile ride total. Only bear sign we saw that day on the ride was on the road when we crossed it heading towards the other dogs. Back in camp for a supper of hamburgers i think was that night if I remember right.
WNC2500
Well-known member
Beautiful pics and thanks for taking us along @Valley1320
You are crazy! Absolutely crazy for not shooting it first thing. There, I said it.
You are crazy! Absolutely crazy for not shooting it first thing. There, I said it.
Valley1320
Well-known member
Day 5
Wake up to snow and bitter cold again. This time we load dogs and head up the main road and go up past Cimarron campground and take the loop road from the north side and work our way down and around. Once we got past the campground we dumped a couple dogs and let them road.
It was going fairly un eventful til we hit a creek and all a sudden the dogs tore off up it and started barking perty good. So we sat there and watched the gps awhile and they were looping around back and forth above the creek down along a ridge. Walked up aways and saw they they were trailing a lion. But that time the young dog came back down so we let the older dog we had put keep working it but didn't turn any others loose. (Can't kill lions in the valle vidal unless your deer or elk hunting), older dog finally came back down and we continued on our way. Got around to the south end where the road started looping around back up the other side of the mountains and the sun was starting to show and snow starting to melt.
Worked all the way back up to main road without coming across anything more. By then snow was perty much completely gone. So we then took the main road south all the way to the vermajo park border. Came across some elk on the way and had to get after a couple pups and give them some electricity. Afternoon of day 5 up next
Wake up to snow and bitter cold again. This time we load dogs and head up the main road and go up past Cimarron campground and take the loop road from the north side and work our way down and around. Once we got past the campground we dumped a couple dogs and let them road.
It was going fairly un eventful til we hit a creek and all a sudden the dogs tore off up it and started barking perty good. So we sat there and watched the gps awhile and they were looping around back and forth above the creek down along a ridge. Walked up aways and saw they they were trailing a lion. But that time the young dog came back down so we let the older dog we had put keep working it but didn't turn any others loose. (Can't kill lions in the valle vidal unless your deer or elk hunting), older dog finally came back down and we continued on our way. Got around to the south end where the road started looping around back up the other side of the mountains and the sun was starting to show and snow starting to melt.
Worked all the way back up to main road without coming across anything more. By then snow was perty much completely gone. So we then took the main road south all the way to the vermajo park border. Came across some elk on the way and had to get after a couple pups and give them some electricity. Afternoon of day 5 up next
Khunter
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great stuff. Thanks for sharing!
Nick87
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Loving this thread so far..
