With the heaviest snowfall in decades, Montana's spring bear season has been off to a slow start. The season opened on April 15th but access was about impossible until the last few weeks. I have been out evenings and weekends but have not seen a single bear, and only a few piles of fresh scat that were so big I attributed them to grizzlies.

Yesterday we were having a bit of a heat wave with temps of 83 so I stayed in the house till it started cooling off around 7:30 pm. I thought that I would go and call at a creek in a nearby deep canyon on the assumption that bears would want to be down where it was cool.

I hiked in about 3/4 of a mile on a gated road and found a place just above the creek with lots of lush grass that seemed like a good place to sit and call.

I had been working with Dave Paul of HuntnCarve calls to come up with a wolf call featuring both open and closed reed interchangeable mouthpieces. I had just received the prototype "Montana Howler" last week so that was the call I was packing.

I started a sequence of calls and after blowing for less than two minutes I saw movement about 80 yards in front of me. There were some very deep shadows and the trees were fairly thick but I could clearly see that it was a bear heading my way. I stopped calling and just sat still as it drifted my direction. This bear was fairly large and dark brown so I had to be absolutely certain it was not a grizzly before I did anything else.

When the bear got within about 40 yards I was fairly confident that it was a big brown phase black bear but I wanted to see a good profile before shooting. The bear had about 10 yards to go before it would present me with a broadside shot in a small clearing.

I had already removed the safety so I shouldered my rifle and rested my elbows on my knees. Just as the bears head entered the clearing I got a good sight picture through my Skinner aperture sight and as his shoulder came into view I pressed the trigger. That 525 gr slug at 2305 fps took him right through the chest and he was down instantly. There is no rifle on the planet that puts things down harder than my Montana Rifle Company .505 Gibbs!

This was the first bear I have ever taken that got bigger as I approached. It took more than a little effort just to get him rolled on to his belly. His face bore the scars of earlier battles but his hide was in perfect condition.

I got him tagged and then hiked out to get some help and a game cart. With three of my friends assisting, we would each grab a leg, lift and swing him forward. Reset and swing him again until we moved about 50yds to a trail we could get the cart on. With each of us on a corner we wheeled him out of the woods and got him loaded in my truck for a late night ride to the taxidermist.

The bear was aged by a USFW bear biologist at 15yrs. When we laid out the hide last night it taped 6'6" (NO STRETCHING!). That is a very large and very old bear for Northwest Montana.

It was an amazing adventure capped by the harvest of a grand old warrior!

wow! Very nice trophy! The more I read about the .505G on here the more I get the itch for one There is one nearby in the CZ for around $2k....

Fabulous bear!

Great bear! 15 years is ancient up there. Congratulations.

Wow, I see your apprehension...that coloration looks just like a brownie.

Very nice I wish we had a spring season here.

WOW!!! What a Bear!!! Congrats

That is truly a great Black Bear.
Nice job Jay!

Congrats on a great trophy!

Hell of a bear Jay
Congratulations

Congratulations, very nice! Love those chocolate bears.

You mentioned a wolf call. What does the sound imitate?

Did you get the chance to put it on a scale.

Did you measure the skull yet?
That's some pumpkin there

Very nice bear.

Just saw on local news, black bear killed by car by Paws Up Ranch that weighted over 400 lbs
Looked huge just lying there on the road

quote:

Originally posted by boarkiller:
Did you measure the skull yet?
That's some pumpkin there

It ended up getting frozen for a few weeks before I got it up to the "bug man". Should be back in a few months.

Nice bear and a great report.
I'd like to know more about the call.

Nice!