S
snowstormhunting
Guest
This hunt took place in the High Eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range. The country we were hunting in was recently opened to bear hunting by the California Department of Fish and Game because of its ever expanding bear population. This got my attention because; I love to hunt new areas to see all the majestic country that California has to offer. When we arrived to the area I wasn?t impressed. This newly opened area didn't seem to be good black bear habitat. The country is very treacherous to say the least. Let's put it this way, the United States Marine Corps has a training facility near there because the country is as close to Afghanistan as they could find in the USA. The USMC uses this type of terrain to train their soldiers for high altitude combat training. My first thought of the country was holy smokes this is going to be rough.
On this hunt I had some well trained Snowstorm Mountain hounds with me so this helped me with having the confidence I needed in getting my bruin.
The hunt started off slow because there was a sudden and unexpected thunderstorm. My hunting partners and I just used this time to scout out the country and learn the road systems. About 1:30 that afternoon things were starting to dry out. We decided to rig some of the hounds in hopes of starting a bear. Finding bear sing in this type of terrain is hard to spot. Just when I was thinking I may have wasted my time coming to the area the rig dogs exploded. Their loud bawls could be heard for miles. The noise level was so extremely loud that I could hardly wait to release the hounds, just to give my ears a break. The hounds were eager to hit the bear trail.
I released Champ, Little Girlie, Skinner, Barney and Angie on the track. There is nothing better than to witness well trained hounds do what they have been bred for, for generations. The dogs quickly crossed the small stream that was running along the mountain road. Up the hill they were heading and their loud bawls soon faded up the steep mountain out of hearing range. Their bawls faded to my left. Now it was time to put some of my equipment to work. I pulled out my telemetry antenna and tracking box to locate their position. The reading I was getting was showing them high on the mountain and up the road. I quickly got in my rig and drove up the road hoping it would lead me toward the hounds. The road was headed in the right direction for approximately ? of a mile then the road broke to the left, doing me no good. I knew it was time to start sweating.
I started grabbing my gear and I was off in the direction my equipment showed the hounds in. I crossed the creek using rocks and started my climb up the mountain. In the far distance, I could hear the echoes of the hounds and those sounds were telling me they had their quarry at a standstill. The sounds just fascinated me and gave my haggard legs more motivation. When I almost reached the high point of the area I could now hear the hounds clearly. They were going berserk at the bruin. I stopped for a moment to rest and realized then what a panoramic view I had. It was absolutely awesome. I couldn't rest long because I needed to end this battle of hounds vs. bruin.
I was on the move toward the hounds moving as fast as I could. I started to quickly close the gap between the hounds, bear and me. I got within 50 yards of the bruin and he quickly got wind of me and abscond the area quickly. The bruin was heading parallel across the mountain. He couldn't go too far with the way the hounds were baying him.
The bruin stopped to turn and fight the pack of hounds and this gave me my opportunity to finally bring this phantom into view. I quickly raised my old hunting rifle and fired. The beast fell straight to the ground for a quick clean kill.
I checked all the hounds over for injuries and noticed everyone was ok. Now the work was really about to start because this bear was huge. I guessed him to be over 500 pounds. With the help of my hunting partners we field dressed the bear. A bear this big couldn't be brought out whole especially where he was at. We all had framed back packs with us. I took the hide and skull and my partners loaded their packs full of bear meat. The whole event took two trips up the mountain, but it was well worth the muscle pain.
I had this brut of a bear made into a rug so I could cherish this memory forever. The bear rug is hung on my wall and measures 8 foot 4 inches and his skull measured almost 20 ? inches.
This hunt would have never been possible without the Snowstorm Mountain Hounds. This big boar bear was a paragon of the species.
www.snowstormhunting.com
On this hunt I had some well trained Snowstorm Mountain hounds with me so this helped me with having the confidence I needed in getting my bruin.
The hunt started off slow because there was a sudden and unexpected thunderstorm. My hunting partners and I just used this time to scout out the country and learn the road systems. About 1:30 that afternoon things were starting to dry out. We decided to rig some of the hounds in hopes of starting a bear. Finding bear sing in this type of terrain is hard to spot. Just when I was thinking I may have wasted my time coming to the area the rig dogs exploded. Their loud bawls could be heard for miles. The noise level was so extremely loud that I could hardly wait to release the hounds, just to give my ears a break. The hounds were eager to hit the bear trail.
I released Champ, Little Girlie, Skinner, Barney and Angie on the track. There is nothing better than to witness well trained hounds do what they have been bred for, for generations. The dogs quickly crossed the small stream that was running along the mountain road. Up the hill they were heading and their loud bawls soon faded up the steep mountain out of hearing range. Their bawls faded to my left. Now it was time to put some of my equipment to work. I pulled out my telemetry antenna and tracking box to locate their position. The reading I was getting was showing them high on the mountain and up the road. I quickly got in my rig and drove up the road hoping it would lead me toward the hounds. The road was headed in the right direction for approximately ? of a mile then the road broke to the left, doing me no good. I knew it was time to start sweating.
I started grabbing my gear and I was off in the direction my equipment showed the hounds in. I crossed the creek using rocks and started my climb up the mountain. In the far distance, I could hear the echoes of the hounds and those sounds were telling me they had their quarry at a standstill. The sounds just fascinated me and gave my haggard legs more motivation. When I almost reached the high point of the area I could now hear the hounds clearly. They were going berserk at the bruin. I stopped for a moment to rest and realized then what a panoramic view I had. It was absolutely awesome. I couldn't rest long because I needed to end this battle of hounds vs. bruin.
I was on the move toward the hounds moving as fast as I could. I started to quickly close the gap between the hounds, bear and me. I got within 50 yards of the bruin and he quickly got wind of me and abscond the area quickly. The bruin was heading parallel across the mountain. He couldn't go too far with the way the hounds were baying him.
The bruin stopped to turn and fight the pack of hounds and this gave me my opportunity to finally bring this phantom into view. I quickly raised my old hunting rifle and fired. The beast fell straight to the ground for a quick clean kill.
I checked all the hounds over for injuries and noticed everyone was ok. Now the work was really about to start because this bear was huge. I guessed him to be over 500 pounds. With the help of my hunting partners we field dressed the bear. A bear this big couldn't be brought out whole especially where he was at. We all had framed back packs with us. I took the hide and skull and my partners loaded their packs full of bear meat. The whole event took two trips up the mountain, but it was well worth the muscle pain.
I had this brut of a bear made into a rug so I could cherish this memory forever. The bear rug is hung on my wall and measures 8 foot 4 inches and his skull measured almost 20 ? inches.
This hunt would have never been possible without the Snowstorm Mountain Hounds. This big boar bear was a paragon of the species.
www.snowstormhunting.com
