Bullstodie
New Member
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This is my favorite bear story, What are some of yours?
I believe it was a Saturday, May of 2003. It was spring bear season in the Rockies and I was holding a tag and in search of my second black bear. Because it was my senior year in high school and all my classes where pretty lax, I had plenty of time to roam the hills in search of bear. Although there was still a lot of snow left in the hills, bears where starting to pop out everywhere. But I wasn't just looking for an average bear, I wanted something to brag about.
Bear hunting started for me at the ripe age of 12. I grew up in a family of hunters, who loved to take my brother and I out every chance they got. So on that May day in 1997, my uncle Dell decided to take me on a walk in on of his favorite spots. We slowly made our way up the deep canyon with a raging mountain creek and lush green grass parks running throughout the bottom of the draw. This was my first time being behind the gun and I was loving every moment of the hike with my hand caressing the stock of my 270 M77 ruger. We made it all the way to the end of the draw and decided to turn around and make our way back slowly. Dell whispered to me "don't worry, we see most of the bear on the way out." This lifted my spirits and we quietly made our way back down the canyon.
About half way down, we noticed some bear tracks in the sand. "those were not here when we came up. immediately we started scanning the terrain. To our right was a very steep side hill that was an standing burned trees about half way up. To the left was thick dark green timber. The bear had come out of the dark timber and headed towards the burn. We knew he was there somewhere. We walked a little ways, stopped and scanned. Nothing again. Finally I put my gun back on my shoulder as we reached the edge of the burn. Suddenly right out from below us came a dark chocolate bear boogying his way straight away from us. The gun was off my shoulder in an instant and unlike most 12 year olds first time, I had him in the scope the second I put my gun to my shoulder. BOOM! and he totally disappeared to me.
Dell told me he thought I had missed, because he seen the bear continue into the dark timber. But I was sure I had hit him, so we made our way up his tracks. We followed his tracks until he made it into the timber with no blood. I had missed my first opportunity.
I would be 2 years until I finally got even with bears. At age 14 I popped a small
boar. After dealing with this bear I decided I was finished hunting bears for awhile. So there I was Friday afternoon in class counting the minutes until I could go for a ride and try to spot a probable stalk for a bear. The bell rings and out the door I go. After searching the hill until dark with no luck, I returned home just in time for uncle Dell to call me up. He was wanting to grab some snow shoes and make a trudge back to some far back parks that were lush and green and sure to hold a bear or two. I was down for the adventure. After a sleepless night, I was up, packed, fed and ready to roll. Dell pulled up and I loaded my gear and 270 Smith & Wesson in the truck and off we went. The road was rough and we finally decided to unload the 4 wheeler and drive as far up the snow covered road as possible. We came to a roaring creek and we opted to not cross it on the 4 wheeler because this particular creek has been known to wash 4 wheelers downstream with it. So we parked, strapped our snowshoes on and started up the creek bottom to find a place to cross. We managed to get across and made the couple mile journey up the heavily wooded canyon. Once towards the end, we could see the green grass covered slope that we though a bear just might appear on. Now it was a waiting game. The park was a long ways away, but we knew if something was to come out into it, we would be able to make a stalk. As we watched we noticed another small park further down the canyon from which we just walked up. It was right up on top of some cliffs and there was only two ways to get to it. Either strait up a rock chute or make a long circle to go around the cliffs.
Further investigation of this park revealed a very promising bear! As we tried to map out a plan of attack we looked back into the big park we were straight across from and another bear had appeared right out in the middle of it! This bear wasn't quite as big so we opted to ignore it. While trying to map out a stock we found yet another bear up in the old burn that was a few hundred yards higher than the other two bears. This bear was big, but there was just no way to get in on him. So we decided to stick with the plan.
The plan was to make our way back down the canyon to the base of the cliffs and use our make shift predator calls (the back of our hands) and try to convince the feeding bear that there was a dying rabbit or something down in the canyon. Soon we were down in the tree's making all kinds of racket. But nothing was coming. We spent a long time trying to make it come down the hill, but it just wasn't happening. Finally I was fed up. I said "he obviously cant hear us calling, so he isn't going to hear me coming either!" with that notion I was making my way up through the rock chute. Right towards the top it narrows to about 5 feet wide and then opens up to the lush green meadow at the top. But after creeping up for about 30 minutes I slipped and rocks started rolling! I just knew I blew it. I almost just turned around and headed back but figured since im so close to the top, I might as well just go peak at its tracks and see how big of a bear I had just messed up on. With no attempt to quiet my assent I crested the upper edge of the chute. I scanned left. nothing. I started to scan right but as I was scanning back right something caught my eye and I did a double take. There directly in front of me! It was the bear standing behind a small pine tree with her head sticking out the right side of the tree! We locked eye's at only 15 feet. I was not at all thinking it would still be there. It caught me by total surprise. I threw up the 270 and put it on the tree where its vitals would be, but then something came over me.
Fear had stricken and I quickly thought, "if I shoot when its behind that tree and wound it, there is no telling what might happen... there is no way I could run down that chute." In the split second that thought came through my mind, I moved my cross air to between her eyes and pulled the trigger. She hit the ground hard and then continued to roll downhill... right at me! Although it was dead the moment that bullet entered its skull, I still jumped out of its way as it rolled down the rock chute.
I couldn't believe what had just happened. After a moment to sit down and recount what had just happened, I took a look around at the beautiful scenery from the top of that cliff before heading down to collect my trophy. This bear was only 5 ft 7 but was 29 years old and most of her black hair had gray at the ends. My bullet passed all the way through her skull with out breaking it to pieces which made for a great euro mount.
A couple year later I shot a chocolate phase blacky between the eyes with a 300 winny and had the same result... Didn't blow the skull apart, so now have two skulls with matching bullet holes.. of course the bigger bullet hole is the bear I shot with the 300.
29 year old blacky with 270
Chocolate phase shot with 300 winny
Matchin bullet holes
"Like a midget at the urinal, always be on your toes!"
www.Anacondatreasure.com
www.rwmurals.com
http://www.themontanagallery.com/
I believe it was a Saturday, May of 2003. It was spring bear season in the Rockies and I was holding a tag and in search of my second black bear. Because it was my senior year in high school and all my classes where pretty lax, I had plenty of time to roam the hills in search of bear. Although there was still a lot of snow left in the hills, bears where starting to pop out everywhere. But I wasn't just looking for an average bear, I wanted something to brag about.
Bear hunting started for me at the ripe age of 12. I grew up in a family of hunters, who loved to take my brother and I out every chance they got. So on that May day in 1997, my uncle Dell decided to take me on a walk in on of his favorite spots. We slowly made our way up the deep canyon with a raging mountain creek and lush green grass parks running throughout the bottom of the draw. This was my first time being behind the gun and I was loving every moment of the hike with my hand caressing the stock of my 270 M77 ruger. We made it all the way to the end of the draw and decided to turn around and make our way back slowly. Dell whispered to me "don't worry, we see most of the bear on the way out." This lifted my spirits and we quietly made our way back down the canyon.
About half way down, we noticed some bear tracks in the sand. "those were not here when we came up. immediately we started scanning the terrain. To our right was a very steep side hill that was an standing burned trees about half way up. To the left was thick dark green timber. The bear had come out of the dark timber and headed towards the burn. We knew he was there somewhere. We walked a little ways, stopped and scanned. Nothing again. Finally I put my gun back on my shoulder as we reached the edge of the burn. Suddenly right out from below us came a dark chocolate bear boogying his way straight away from us. The gun was off my shoulder in an instant and unlike most 12 year olds first time, I had him in the scope the second I put my gun to my shoulder. BOOM! and he totally disappeared to me.
Dell told me he thought I had missed, because he seen the bear continue into the dark timber. But I was sure I had hit him, so we made our way up his tracks. We followed his tracks until he made it into the timber with no blood. I had missed my first opportunity.
I would be 2 years until I finally got even with bears. At age 14 I popped a small
boar. After dealing with this bear I decided I was finished hunting bears for awhile. So there I was Friday afternoon in class counting the minutes until I could go for a ride and try to spot a probable stalk for a bear. The bell rings and out the door I go. After searching the hill until dark with no luck, I returned home just in time for uncle Dell to call me up. He was wanting to grab some snow shoes and make a trudge back to some far back parks that were lush and green and sure to hold a bear or two. I was down for the adventure. After a sleepless night, I was up, packed, fed and ready to roll. Dell pulled up and I loaded my gear and 270 Smith & Wesson in the truck and off we went. The road was rough and we finally decided to unload the 4 wheeler and drive as far up the snow covered road as possible. We came to a roaring creek and we opted to not cross it on the 4 wheeler because this particular creek has been known to wash 4 wheelers downstream with it. So we parked, strapped our snowshoes on and started up the creek bottom to find a place to cross. We managed to get across and made the couple mile journey up the heavily wooded canyon. Once towards the end, we could see the green grass covered slope that we though a bear just might appear on. Now it was a waiting game. The park was a long ways away, but we knew if something was to come out into it, we would be able to make a stalk. As we watched we noticed another small park further down the canyon from which we just walked up. It was right up on top of some cliffs and there was only two ways to get to it. Either strait up a rock chute or make a long circle to go around the cliffs.
Further investigation of this park revealed a very promising bear! As we tried to map out a plan of attack we looked back into the big park we were straight across from and another bear had appeared right out in the middle of it! This bear wasn't quite as big so we opted to ignore it. While trying to map out a stock we found yet another bear up in the old burn that was a few hundred yards higher than the other two bears. This bear was big, but there was just no way to get in on him. So we decided to stick with the plan.
The plan was to make our way back down the canyon to the base of the cliffs and use our make shift predator calls (the back of our hands) and try to convince the feeding bear that there was a dying rabbit or something down in the canyon. Soon we were down in the tree's making all kinds of racket. But nothing was coming. We spent a long time trying to make it come down the hill, but it just wasn't happening. Finally I was fed up. I said "he obviously cant hear us calling, so he isn't going to hear me coming either!" with that notion I was making my way up through the rock chute. Right towards the top it narrows to about 5 feet wide and then opens up to the lush green meadow at the top. But after creeping up for about 30 minutes I slipped and rocks started rolling! I just knew I blew it. I almost just turned around and headed back but figured since im so close to the top, I might as well just go peak at its tracks and see how big of a bear I had just messed up on. With no attempt to quiet my assent I crested the upper edge of the chute. I scanned left. nothing. I started to scan right but as I was scanning back right something caught my eye and I did a double take. There directly in front of me! It was the bear standing behind a small pine tree with her head sticking out the right side of the tree! We locked eye's at only 15 feet. I was not at all thinking it would still be there. It caught me by total surprise. I threw up the 270 and put it on the tree where its vitals would be, but then something came over me.
Fear had stricken and I quickly thought, "if I shoot when its behind that tree and wound it, there is no telling what might happen... there is no way I could run down that chute." In the split second that thought came through my mind, I moved my cross air to between her eyes and pulled the trigger. She hit the ground hard and then continued to roll downhill... right at me! Although it was dead the moment that bullet entered its skull, I still jumped out of its way as it rolled down the rock chute.
I couldn't believe what had just happened. After a moment to sit down and recount what had just happened, I took a look around at the beautiful scenery from the top of that cliff before heading down to collect my trophy. This bear was only 5 ft 7 but was 29 years old and most of her black hair had gray at the ends. My bullet passed all the way through her skull with out breaking it to pieces which made for a great euro mount.
A couple year later I shot a chocolate phase blacky between the eyes with a 300 winny and had the same result... Didn't blow the skull apart, so now have two skulls with matching bullet holes.. of course the bigger bullet hole is the bear I shot with the 300.
29 year old blacky with 270
Chocolate phase shot with 300 winny
Matchin bullet holes
"Like a midget at the urinal, always be on your toes!"
www.Anacondatreasure.com
www.rwmurals.com
http://www.themontanagallery.com/
