Just back from my Idaho Bear hunt. I hunted with my brother, a friend for many years that used to work with me, and our very own Mighty Joe.
We had a good hunt and great fun.
Mighty Joe was the first to take a bear with his 405 Encore. I will let him tell the details.
I will say he made a great shot.
A couple of days later my brother shot a bear with his Marlin 45/70 Guide gun with a 350 Hornady FN over 53.5 gr of IMR 3031.
He had to wait a while till he had a good shot. He had to place his bullet where it passed by a tree to hit the bear just behind the right shoulder. The bullet exited the front of the chest just to the left of center.
No major bones were struck, nor the heart, [good because that is my favorite thing to eat ] The bear ran about 65 yards.
Both bear hides were in perfect shape with hair 5 to 6 inches long.
They were not real big bears but both had very pretty tan hair on the nose and around the mouth, especially Mighty Joes.
My other friend and I did not see a bear, but it did not lessen our trip in the slightest.
Mighty Joe is a fine fella to have in camp.

Our outfitter http://www.gowildelkcityadventures.com
run by Stitch and Joannie run a great camp. Joannie is a GREAT cook making everything from scratch. I tried to trade Stitch my brother for her, but no deal. Then I tried to kidnap her, but had to untie her and let her go because I could not get her into the vehicle with all the other stuff I had.
We had a great trip.
I will tell about the Prairie Dog shooting on the way up and also with 500 grains in other posts.

Tony,
Glad you are back among us. Sounds like you had a great trip. Congrats on the PD's(I caught your other post)! The way word travels in the animal kingdom, I bet every PD between Canada and Mexico is now on the lookout for you!

Congrats on your Bear Hunt.We were up there last week for a week and saw lots of animals but no bears and caught alot of fish.One of my favorite areas.

Glad you enjoyed the Elk City area.

Jayco

Ahh yes, good company and good food...



And beautiful scenery...





And alot of good time....hic



And bear meat in the freezer...

Congratulations! Sounds like a mighty fine hunt. Yep, that's gorgeous scenery up there.

What Unit were you in?? I've hunted elk/deer up there out of Red River Hot Springs, but not bear (specifically). I always carry a bear tag and a mountain lion tag with me when hunting deer and elk. Never know what you might run across... or what might want to run across you.

L.W.

Tony:

Have you forgotten that the way to a woman's heart is to shoot her first?

quote:

What Unit were you in?

I think it was Unit 16A. We were camped on the Unit 15 side, which was just above the Red River on the Darby Montana Road at mile marker 5.

Here is a veiw of the Red River from mile marker 3.

Mighty Joe-Thats some nice country up there and I love that road but I haven't been all the way to Montana on it yet..To many places to get side tracked.


Congrats again....Jayco

JudgeG

Did you forget a brand new credit card that you haven't used yet?

Tony,

Congrats on the bears. We got one, too. My rotten kid saw three, but couldn't connect. We practiced with the 45-70 before the trip and he was shooting well, so I have to put it down to buck(bear)-fever.

I shot one with the .375 and it went 10 yards. Quartering towards me, through the front shoulder, through the heart, and out the off-side ribs. Factory 270 grain fodder from Remington (didn't get a load worked up for this gun before the trip).

My younger son caught a bunch of fish (which Joannie cooked up for us) and went squirrel hunting.

Joey wouldn't wear the red hat for our camp, but Stith and Joannie wouldn't let him forget about it!

What a great time. I second the recommendation of Stich and Joannie's camp and cooking. Thanks for letting me know about them.

Steve

Steve,
Glad you had a good trip. Good shooting on your bear.
I am going back for another hunt the last of August, first week in Sept.
They run a great camp and I like to hunt bears.
We will be in a different camp in Sept, higher up the mountain. I have killed bears 2 years in a row in Sept, from the same stand.
I will take the 28 ga bbl for my Blaser and hopefully shoot some grouse. They are delicious.

PS
What is wrong with the red hat?
Joey is a good kid. He carried a 8 3/8" S&W 44 Mag while checking the baits. My brother and I left him some speed loaders and some Federal 300 gr Cast Core loads just in case.These folks run a great camp. The cooking is first class.
They are fun people to be around.
Black Bear over bait is a great hunt for a double rifle, handgun, sharp stick [bow and arrow], or a single shot encore in 405 WCF as Mighty Joe proved.
It is a good "low stress" hunt. That is untill you have to walk back to camp in Bear Country in the DARK.

Tony,

Nothing's wrong with the red hat, but I guess Joey got teased about his colorful outfit with raingear one day.

I can't wait to get up there again, but I don't know if I can swing it again by fall. Joey was awfully proud of those speed loaders and the hard cast .44 loads.

Awfully nice folks. Can't wait to hunt with them again. They all sure do like you, too. Joey taught my little guy how to gamble, though. Or he thought he did. I hope Joey's still got enough money left to get him through the summer. Just kidding.

I love grouse hunting, too, and I agree about coming out of the woods at night, or tracking a bear in the dark. Makes the low stress hunt pretty exciting! My boy got a little lost one night after dark (after seeing a bear) while coming out from his stand. Got him a little nervous. What fun.

I may try the sharp stick/handgun/double rifle next time, too. I have a bow made by a guy in Idaho in a model called the Selkirk. What could be more appropriate for this Idaho Bear hunt?

Steve