First off, I had an AWESOME time!!!!
Friday evening took a drive to scout the area a wee bit before opening morning. Didn't see any deer, but I ended up spotting 4 bull elk. All were branch antlered, and the last two were both 300" class bulls (6 points) and they were fighting! Let me tell you it was AWESOME sitting on this hillside watching these two HUGE bull elk battling it out on this hillside 200 yards away.
Opening morning came and we were on our ridge right as shooting light arrived. Not 10 minutes after shooting light, we hear what sounds like somebody running a construction tractor a ways away. "WTH??" then all the sudden two four wheelers pop out of nowhere below us on a primitive road scaring everything to hell and back. We could even hear them yelling to eachother off their QUADS!!!!! Oh man, that pissed me off somethin fierce!!
A cow elk got spooked out and they never even had a clue she was there. They leave, we resume hunting...
About 7:30 comes around, and I'm sitting on one side of a ridge, my Father on the other. He comes over, and skylines himself then sits down next to me. Not two minutes later I see a big bear running across the canyon about 250 yards away.
"Dad, there's a bear!!"
I ran down to the barbwire fence on got a rest on the crossbrace of the fence. At that time the bear had run into a timber "finger" thicket. I waited for him to emerge from the other side (I knew this was a pretty good sized bear, and I just wanted to fill a tag this year as we've had tag soup the last 3 years). Out he came at a fast walk.
I took aim right above the shoulder and let 'er FLY!
When I shot the bear, he was about halfway up the hill and then proceeded to roll right down into a brush thicket near the bottom. He never let out a yell or anything.
We worked our way along the fence line to get even with where we last saw him, then I see him limping down through the brush towards the bottom of a pine at the bottom. 'BOOM', no reaction from the bear, 'BOOM' right as he disappeared under the pine.
"Great, now we have a wounded bear right in the middle of a thick brush thicket, and we have to go find him."
So, we wait a 1/2 hour, then work our way down to where we think he is. After searching for a good hour, we finally found him only 50 yards away piled up under a log.
My first two shots hit him right behind the shoulder and were both fatal. My last shot right as he dissapeared under the pine hit him in the rear leg.
This is my first bear and his skull green scored at 18 7/8". Enough to make WA state book if he doesn't shrink below 18 1/2".
Here are the pictures. We struck out on deer but ended up seeing quite a few on Sunday, just no legal bucks. had a GREAT time, and am really excited to get my rug in 6 months!!
Where my first shot came from, the crossbrace seen here.
A better view of where I shot from. I'm standing where I first hit him, and if you look close, you can see the crossbrace of the fence on the far ridge.
Here he is...I'm on the left, my dad on the right...
Here are some pictures of the general area where we were hunting...
Here he is going into the freezer "locker"
I know it's not a deer, but it was on my deer hunt, and I'm pretty excited about this guy!
Michael~All Gods creatures welcome... right next to the mashed potatoes and gravy.
Friday evening took a drive to scout the area a wee bit before opening morning. Didn't see any deer, but I ended up spotting 4 bull elk. All were branch antlered, and the last two were both 300" class bulls (6 points) and they were fighting! Let me tell you it was AWESOME sitting on this hillside watching these two HUGE bull elk battling it out on this hillside 200 yards away.
Opening morning came and we were on our ridge right as shooting light arrived. Not 10 minutes after shooting light, we hear what sounds like somebody running a construction tractor a ways away. "WTH??" then all the sudden two four wheelers pop out of nowhere below us on a primitive road scaring everything to hell and back. We could even hear them yelling to eachother off their QUADS!!!!! Oh man, that pissed me off somethin fierce!!
A cow elk got spooked out and they never even had a clue she was there. They leave, we resume hunting...
About 7:30 comes around, and I'm sitting on one side of a ridge, my Father on the other. He comes over, and skylines himself then sits down next to me. Not two minutes later I see a big bear running across the canyon about 250 yards away.
"Dad, there's a bear!!"
I ran down to the barbwire fence on got a rest on the crossbrace of the fence. At that time the bear had run into a timber "finger" thicket. I waited for him to emerge from the other side (I knew this was a pretty good sized bear, and I just wanted to fill a tag this year as we've had tag soup the last 3 years). Out he came at a fast walk.
I took aim right above the shoulder and let 'er FLY!
When I shot the bear, he was about halfway up the hill and then proceeded to roll right down into a brush thicket near the bottom. He never let out a yell or anything.
We worked our way along the fence line to get even with where we last saw him, then I see him limping down through the brush towards the bottom of a pine at the bottom. 'BOOM', no reaction from the bear, 'BOOM' right as he disappeared under the pine.
"Great, now we have a wounded bear right in the middle of a thick brush thicket, and we have to go find him."
So, we wait a 1/2 hour, then work our way down to where we think he is. After searching for a good hour, we finally found him only 50 yards away piled up under a log.
My first two shots hit him right behind the shoulder and were both fatal. My last shot right as he dissapeared under the pine hit him in the rear leg.
This is my first bear and his skull green scored at 18 7/8". Enough to make WA state book if he doesn't shrink below 18 1/2".
Here are the pictures. We struck out on deer but ended up seeing quite a few on Sunday, just no legal bucks. had a GREAT time, and am really excited to get my rug in 6 months!!
Where my first shot came from, the crossbrace seen here.
A better view of where I shot from. I'm standing where I first hit him, and if you look close, you can see the crossbrace of the fence on the far ridge.
Here he is...I'm on the left, my dad on the right...
Here are some pictures of the general area where we were hunting...
Here he is going into the freezer "locker"
I know it's not a deer, but it was on my deer hunt, and I'm pretty excited about this guy!
Michael~All Gods creatures welcome... right next to the mashed potatoes and gravy.
