quote:

Originally posted by pagosawingnut:
Looks very sucessful and like you all had a good time. Congratulations! Nice bears

Olbiker
If you want color phase bears, come to Southern Colorado. They are the norm and black bears are hard to find.

quote:

Originally posted by Geedubya:
Great hunt report Bob. Wow!!!!!

As many of you know, we have very little public land here in Texas. I usually have either one or two trespass leases each year somewhere in the Texas hill country. Consequently most of the hunting I do is on those leases. I can take quail, turkey, dove, varmints, deer, exotics and hogs.
This is the first out of state hunt I’ve done since my dad passed in ’09, and my first “Posse” hunt in a couple years. However, when Bob put this up on the board, I just couldn’t resist.
Never really wanted to hunt bear before, but hunting them with hounds sounded like a ball. It was. This was a story book hunt.

Bobby and I headed up on Tuesday the 14th. We decided that we would stay the night in Roswell, New Mexico as Bobby had never had the opportunity to do a combination Alien/Bear hunt. Here’s the pix of Bobby’s biggest “little green man” we took that night.



Wednesday morning we headed to Ruidoso to have lunch and then drove up to Capitan to meet Bob and Amigo at the Smokey Bear Restaurant. I kinda figured we would be hunting quite a bit on this trip, so I decided to hit the feed bag while I could.



OK, now I was ready to hunt.

I was guided by two great young men whose full time job is that of government trappers, Jeremy and Bubba. I’ve an old friend from Ireland who says that “ A lie well told is as good as the truth any ay.” Being as these guys were young and impressionable, and had not heard my lies or jokes before, and taken with my love of hunting, reloading, shooting, trapping and theirs, it could not have been a better match. They were totally corrupted by time I left. Good thing we were killed out after three days. I’d soon have to start recycling my BS. Here a couple photos with them, their friend Ronnie and Bobby.





This was Thursday morning the first day of the season and the first day of the hunt. The dogs had”rigged” a particularly bad bear. Seems this old bear was smart and confident enough to never go up a tree. He would run the dogs for a couple miles, then back up against a tree or some rocks and swat the dogs until he got rested. Then he’d take of and run for a couple more miles. We followed that bear over four hours, up and down the mountain twice, in an out of the forest and onto private land then back again. He about wore us and the dogs out. The guides say he has done this for a couple years. They are talking of getting a half dozen guides, horses and 20 or so dogs and “settling his hash” later on this year. During this particular hunt we were taking a break. It was still early in the morning. They had told us of a spot that had a great view. They were not kidding. It was worth the price of the trip.









One more photo as we were heading down while chasing that bear. The view was so grand I had the guides stop so I could get a photo. Pix do not do it justice.



This is one of the things that make a trip like this so special to me.

Our typical routine was to be in the truck heading out by 5 AM. Get back from the morning hunt about 2 PM, then head back out around 4 PM and get back in about 10 PM. We did that on Thursday and Friday. Here are a few pix of the scenery and terrain where we hunted.












My buddy, Bobby and the outfitter, Joe had an amazing adventure Friday night on their hunt. I think they got back about 1 AM. Bobby was so “jacked” that we talked about his hunt until 2:30 AM in the tent. I don’t think that I’d be betraying a confidence, but IMHO, my friend Bobby became a “hunter” Friday night on his hunt with Joe.
I don’t know how it is with you guys, but hunting can be a cathartic, and even a religious experience. Listening to his story and descriptions when he came in the tent, I think that a “hunter” was born that night. Between the physical difficulty of the hike in, the taking and retrieval of the bear, the job of skinning, taken with the stark beauty of the mountain, the dark, the silence, the wind, and the sheer pleasure of the moment, a hunter was both born and christened.

Anyway, Bobcat, Amigo, and Bobby had all killed by Saturday morning. I think Bobby was worried that I wouldn’t kill. I told him as I am want to do, Bobby, don’t worry,when it comes to killin’, I’m very lucky. I explained that I’ve killed so much stuff that if I never kill another animal, I’m happy. I’m in it for the experience. I also told him that if it was my karma to do nothing but be the person that introduced him to big game hunting that would be reward enough.

On the Saturday morning hunt, I once again hunted with Jeremy and Bubba. The dogs “Rigged” about 10AM.





And despite what some folks may believe, wild bears do …………





… in the woods!

They also leave tracks



The dogs ran this particular bear about 3 miles before he “treed” Once the guides decided the bear was in the tree we had to drive for almost an hour to get close enough to a spot where we could walk in. Close was about ½ mile as the crow flies. It took about another 45 minutes to walk in.







Three “hollers” (and several stops to catch my breath), I got my first glimpse of the bear.





I followed the guides instructions and when they gave me the go ahead I took the shot. I was using a 7-08 with 140 gr. Nosler Accubonds. They certainly did the trick.









Next the process of skinning and packing out started. I’ll spare ya’ll the pix of skinning, but here is Bubba packing out 60 plus pounds of head and hide straight up and down.







If he hadn’t have packed it out, that hide would still be there. I retain my “certified wuss” badge.


My bear back at camp.



As I said earlier, this was a story book hunt. Two days traveling and acclimating myself to the altitude and spending time with a good friend. Three days hunting before I took my bear.
If I had taken a bear the first day, I would have missed out on all the beautiful scenery the camaraderie of being with some good men, the enjoyment of their company and getting to know them. The waiting, the difficulty of walking in to shoot and packing my bear
out made it all the more special.

As a coda, if your idea of a hunt is to go to a “designer” lodge where you’ve got a soft mattress, conditioned air, waitstaff that cook and serve meals, fetch your scotch and wipe your tush, this ain’t the hunt for you. If on the other hand you want a true “free range” hunt at an affordable price, with folks whose passion is bear and lion hunting, who have the integrity and desire to put you on the best animal possible, then bust their humps to do so, then I would highly recommend Little Joe’s Big Game Adventures along with Joe, Kyle, Jeremy and Bubba and their pooches.
I’ll remember this hunt as long as I have days. Many thanks guys. I’m hoping to come back with my oldest son next year.

Best

GWB