Here are some pics from a recent bear hunt. I was huitng with a 24 year old gal who had previously only shot grouse, never a big gamne animal. Well, that was about to change...

Me with her bear..It had a slightly rubbed hind end, but no big deal. It was 5' 8" when skinned. A pretty decent first bear!



Lora and her bear.





View form the bear...





My turn...He had a great back/sides- Which was all he would let me see...



But his front was rubbed to shit! (And yes, there is a bit of blood and his tongue is hanging out.)



He was a real scrapper!



After much struggling, pulling and yarding, we got it to a road.




Look at how fat this fella was!




Front paw:

I green scored my bear skull- It was 19 13/16th, so it easily makes the SCI book and will squeak into the BC record book..

Although I don't have any plans to register it.

Nice work, I would love to whop a bear !!

Gates, nice bears! Looks like nice country where you are at too.

Clarke, for a sec there I thought I read that you scored your skull and it made BC book.

Thats a fine bear alright. Congrats to the hunter and the "guide"!

Can't believe the fat on that spring bear. Those banana belt bears have the life! You won't see that on an interior bear.

Cheers,
Canuck

quote:

Originally posted by Canuck:
Clarke, for a sec there I thought I read that you scored your skull and it made BC book.

Thats a fine bear alright. Congrats to the hunter and the "guide"!

Can't believe the fat on that spring bear. Those banana belt bears have the life! You won't see that on an interior bear.

Cheers,
Canuck

Haha funny guy... I do have a pretty big melon! I can't wear ball caps, anyway- they are too small!

I couldn't believe the fat on him, either...Most of the spring bears I've seen have some fat on them, but NOT like this!!

Clark - I see you forgot what I told you last time ... keep those mitts of yours out of the photos ... they make the bear paws look small!





Oh, one more thing .. I think it's time you thought about using a rifle.

Nice Bear, Big Guy!

congrats on your guiding and hunting success--couple of nice bears no doubt--chris

quote:

Originally posted by Nickudu:

Oh, one more thing .. I think it's time you thought about using a rifle.

!

Why use a rifle, when you can use a spear!

Seems I have seen this somewhere before, still great pictures.
I told the young lady to put them up on the campfire too.

Gatehouse: Congratulations on your bears. What rifles were you shooting?

RWJ

The first bear was killed with a .280, using 140gr factory Federal ammo. Lora had just bought the rifle (used) a couple of days previous. It had a Vari X II scope mounted on it.

We spent a few minutes verifying the zero and we were ready to hunt!

We stalked to 57 yards (paced afterwards) with her bear, and she shot it in the left armpit, which knocked the bear right down into the ditch. (After MANY difficult bear recoveries, I was a happy camper after seeing that shot! )

The bear wasn't quite finished, so she nailed it in the neck at abotu 25 yards, finishing it off. We had made about a 300 yard stalk.

It was an interesting stalk due to the wind- It was taking our scent in the bears direction, but as it was evening, and the air was cooling, I believe our scent was heading downward, and we were able to keep in front of it, as we travelled uphill.

My bear I spotted just as we entered a clearcut off a main line.

We glassed him for a bit, and I decided he was worthy of closer inspection!

I set off on a 700 yard uphill stalk. Unbeknownst to me, Lora had sneaked up behind me to film it.

I kept up witht he bear, occasinally squatting down and rying to get a better look at him. He kept feeding uphill.

FInally, he SAT DOWN!! And then he looked directly at us, and I knew I was busted at 90 yards.

I shot him with my .375 H&H, with 300gr Partitions at about 2550fps. He took a coupe of steps then fell down the hill.

I heard a whoop form Lora- Dodon't know she was there- and I ran up tp the bear. He was lying about 12 feet below us, and then he moved a bit. I put a finisher in his spine. After a few secs, he moved his front legs AGAIN!! I shot him in the spine again.

When we butchered him, it became apparent that both finishing shots had hit his spine, and they had lodged wihin an inch of each other in his lower shoulder. TOugh bear. I have no idea how he managed to move, soince both rounds had destroyed his spine..

The grizzly bear that Nick posted was killed with a 7mm Remington Magnum wiht a 160gr X bullet through both shoulders, form my buddy at 160 yards.

I followed up with the 375 H&H, but it was completely unneccesary.

I have shot bears with alot of different cartridges now, and I use the .375 H&H simply because I can, and I find that it smacks bears hard. Given the opportunity, they will find a little hole to crawl into and die, and then you have to find/recover them which is no fun.

Anything form a .270 up will kill a bear very well, though...