Mile and a half or so pack out. The bear looked long when I first glassed him. Not skinny, but long. I could see his ears in relation to his head and knew he was a good one, especially since I had seen quite a few little bears the couple days before and there is no mistaking when a nice one does show up. this is the second biggest bear I saw this hunt, but the first biggest bear was in one of those spots you would have to be crazy to go in and kill him at, a real leg breaker canyon. The chest measurments indicate he would have been around 360 pounds, but he was covered in fat and I think he would have weighed more;-). This bear had been in the pears for weeks and was going between them and the scrub oak acorns which had been in for a few weeks too. The skull looks like it might go 20, maybe a little over if I am lucky. I shot him at dark and did not find him till the next day at noon, he only bled for the first 300 yards and went another 350 or so with no blood at all before he piled up. It had sort of sprinkled during the night after I shot him and the only blood I was finding was on beargrass he rubbed against and rocks, the blood on the soil was not visible at all. I almost gave up on the trail 2 different times and both times found little dime sized splotches 10 yards further. Finally after I could not find any more I started making big circles out from the last blood and finally found him. I pulled the hide off him anyways with hair coming out like crazy the entire time but it is not salvageable. I am still sick about losing the hide and meat on him and I won't ever shoot another one unless it is bigger or it is a nice sized cinnamon that I am sure I can get the hide out and to the taxidermist the same day for a rug on. I would like to see bear management change but anytime G&F makes something go draw then it will never come back to over the counter. I am not really sure what the answer is, but according to G&F, bears in 27 are on the increase and I know I sure saw alot of them (7 different ones) in the last 5 days. I talked to the G&F bear report line lady a few minutes ago and she said as of right now 7 sows and 7 boars is the total reported harvest so far for 27 which is not as bad as I thought. I guess they have till Friday to report in any bears killed yesterday though. Anyways, thanks for the kind words, I am just glad that after 5 years I finally got one I can be happy with even though it was an ugly situation trying to find him.
Bret M.