Outfitter: Skinner Creek Hunts and Doug McMann
Weapon: Borrowed Rifle in .243
Boots: Irish Setter Ravine (un-insulated) in 7"
Animals seen: Black Bear, Chipmunks, Sandhill Cranes, Fisher, Coyote, Bull Moose



The wife and I just returned for British Columbia with Skinner Creek Hunts (hosted by Doug and Julie McMann). Looked forward to making the return trip after having my hip replaced in October 2018, only to be laid off in March 2019. Prior to the surgery I contacted Doug about hunting cats for my 50th Birthday (January 2019), but we had some miscommunication. It was probably for the better because my hip was in no conditions for the timber or dead falls that soon after the surgery. We settled on a fall bear hunt. Doug said the bears would be more spread out, but usually easier to tree. This is due to the extra fat stored up for the winter. We were to find out the hard way it wasn't the case.

Flight to Vancouver and Williams lake was uneventful except arrival at Vancouver. The airport was an absolute zoo. All the foreign students were arriving for fall classes. Customs, baggage, exiting the terminal, shuttle/taxis and traffic was madness. The airport is also under construction. What should have been a laid back 3 hour layover wasn't. We checked into the Williams Lake flight with 30 minutes to spare. Doug met us off the aircraft at Williams Lake and we proceeded for a 3 hour ride to the ranch.

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Day before the season. Took the wife to Tatlayoko Lake while Doug work on truck (War Wagon/Rig). We then spent the day scouting and looking for berries. The berries unfortunately were few and far between. The region received early rain this spring. Actually they got lots of rain and heavy at times. So the area got an early green up only to receive a late frost. Lost of the berry blossoms were killed because of it.



Opening day. We had rain, fog, rain, sun, rain, sun, rain...



Day 2. Couple hours in and we let the dogs out to stretch along with my hip. Put the dogs back in and 200 yards further down the logging block the dogs had a strike. They treed an young boar (about 3 year old) and we found a nice Moose dead head. Later we saw another bear as we were driving. It wasn't very big and didn't dumped the dogs. Also had another strike, but the scent got burnt off on the open hillside.











Day 3. Early morning and dumped the dogs out as we were hunting a different timber block. The chase was a long one without the bear attempting to go up a tree. We got into position to attempt a shot as the bear was crossing the road. The bear didn't stop on the road, but was extremely gorgeous. The bear had a reddish/black hide and Doug thinks it was a sow. Before the bear actually crossed the road the dogs were emerging form the opposite side of the roadway. We attempted to get in front of the dogs since they had it bayed up in a creek bottom. Unfortunately the bear broke and went towards the highway. The bear only had to go roughly 700 yards while we had nearly 3 miles to cut it off. We just missed cutting the bear off, but the dogs were spent after nearly 10 mile chase. After recovering the dogs we noticed the bear was able to exact some revenge after being chased. Doug had to put on his medical cap and do some first aid.



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Day 4. Five minutes in and we see a bear running down the road. The dogs are dumped and Doug started to get nervous about them chasing the bear in Indian territory. Just prior to getting in the tuck I noticed two set of bear track, but one is very small. We maybe went 100 yards in the truck when the dogs treed the bear. Half mile walk in and the dogs treed a large sow and her cub. Doug said that's a big old sow and as large as they come by. We got some pics and loaded the dogs back int the truck. We made our way to where we saw the bear along the road on day 2. This was after flipping a coin. We dumped the dogs prior to reaching the top of the hill. This is the third time for me to have the dogs strike or seen a bear in as many trips (on this road). The dogs chased this bear for over 10 miles and it never treed. Doug had to call the dogs off eventually because the bear was in new growth timber blocks. These continued for miles. Trees were 8 feet to 25 feet high, but all the size of pencils.

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Hear comes the heartache. Doug take a road that enables us to scan lots of timber blocks. The dogs are spent after these past couple of chases. Doug and my wife are taking when we crest a hill when I see a bear at the bottom. Doug stops the truck and the bear is an absolute tank. Brown in color, so Doug initial though was a Grizzly. We did see Grizzly tracks on the road prior to the sighting. Doug tells my wife to get ready, but still unsure if it was a Grizzy. After his brain going back and forth he said that's a Black Bear. We are taking a bear the easily goes over 7 feet and possibly 8 feet. Long story, but my wife didn't feel confident in the long shot and I turned down attempting a shot. It wasn't easy because I'll probably never see a bear that size again, but you don't have to live with the wife. I did the "right husband thing", but it will haunt me for the rest of my life. Doug and the wife attempted to get closer, but the bear went into the forest. We attempted treeing the bear, but had no luck. Wife was extremely upset and I was a little pissed. If she would have said "you shoot it" I would have done it, but she didn't. Nothing left except the memories and the nightmares.



Day 5. Doug's Birthday. Another 10 plus mile chase and no bear. Doug has never had this happen so often. The bear are in shape, but may not be as heavy as in seasons past. This could be due to the lack of berries. We stopped for lunch and let the dogs rest. He took his two oldest dogs Jack and Tredster. We proceeded to the range to get the wife's confidence back. She had no problems shooting and made her feel a little better. We left the range and got the dogs a drink. At the lake my wife says "it's senior citizen day!" Now Doug and I take it at a jab at ourselves and the dogs, but she insists it was only towards the dogs. We load the dogs back up and turned down the very first logging block when Doug said "Bear!" The heat reflection across the open block made the spotting scope nearly worthless. So we made a play to get closer. The bear was nearly .30 miles away, but there was a small depression between the bear and us and the wind was in out favor. We closed the distance to about 125 yards and the wife settled the rifle on the backpack. I told her I would attempt to back her up, but there was really no need. She smoked it, but my shot hit the paw with a portion of the bullet traveling into the knee. It's amazing how fast an animal can spin and flip after a shot. After approaching the bear I went back to get the other pack and the dogs. Both dogs don't have many hunts left in them and it may be very well be Jack's last hunt. Doug said we took the dogs in case we wounded one. I said my shot was perfectly placed, so the bear wouldn't be able to get away and the dogs would be able to keep up. The bear was a boar, but we had a shocking discovery. You could feel the bear's ribs when you ran your hand down the side. Skinning it we discover the bear only had 1 inch of fat about the hind quarters. In comparison the bear I shot in the spring (although larger) had well over 2 plus inches throughout. Doug is concern about the bears making though the winter. Even the large one we saw the day before didn't have a large sagging belly. It's a vast turn of event after the day before. Not the biggest bear (4 year old), but well earned. Doug said we got it the "easy way."











Day 6. Final day. The morning we only came across a day old track. That afternoon my wife wanted to go horseback riding, so it was just the two of us. Doug asked me want I wanted to do? We been into bears 4 out of 5 days, but now we are down to the last 5 hours. We decided to go back to the road where the wife got her bear and we saw the bruiser. Earlier in the day the truck was making a noise from the rear end, but we didn’t see anything. When we let the dogs out to get a drink that afternoon Doug discovers the problem. Broken main leaf spring. There goes the rest of the hunt as we start limping back to the highway. We didn't go very far when the dogs strike on a bear. Now the dogs are hot on the trail and we have a truck that can only crawl along. The dogs actually bayed this bear 3 times, but we couldn't get there fast enough. Just had to limp the truck along and nothing else we could do. The last time we were on a road that would have gotten us to within half mile, but the dogs broke contact. Here is where it got scary. One dog showed "treed" while the other weren't and continued to distance themselves. We parked the truck along the highway and made the walk in. We honestly though we were going to find a dead dog in the blown downs, but the dog "Spider" was unharmed. He was tired, exhausted, dehydrated, but perfectly happy when he saw Doug. Now Doug kicked into a extra gear since his dogs were heading to the truck (which is still parked on the highway). I just couldn't keep up with my new hip through the dead falls. Really trained hard prior to the trip by carry 50 pounds on my back and walking 3 plus miles daily. I took a fall on my hip one day at home. Hurt like hell and lost nearly a month of progress. Took some time to get back up to the weight, but never got to the targeted mileage (6 miles). When I got to the highway (about 250 yards behind the truck) I noticed the RCMP parked opposite of Doug's truck. Trying not to get Doug in trouble I stayed back in the treeline and approached slowly. When I noticed the Officer standing along side Doug, I said to myself "He's not going anywhere." Officer was extremely nice and was actually loading the dogs into the box when Doug got to the highway. We made our way back home, but never did come across another bear.







Return. We had no problems traveling back with the bear. The hide and skull was placed in a garbage back and then placed into a Sea2Summit 65L waterproof bag. The bag was then placed into a military duffel. The only thing customs asked in Vancouver was to see the paperwork. It was pretty simple and a lot easier than my trip though customs in Toronto.





Overall it was a great trip, but very frustrating and extremely bad luck. Wife got her first hear with a great hide. We were into bears 5 out of 6 days. Had multiple chases, but the bears just refused to climb. Saw a bear that will probably be once in a lifetime (I hope not). Saw gorgeous country and hopefully next trip I'll get to fish the multitude of lakes we came across. Personally came home empty handed, but it wasn't because of effort. The first three day we hunted 38 hours. Look forward to making the return trip and getting some payback.

And that is why it called hunting.

The wife has a tag this year and tomorrow we are going out with the hounds.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
And that is why it called hunting.

The wife has a tag this year and tomorrow we are going out with the hounds.

Good Luck tomorrow.

.

Good read. Congrats to your wife and thanks for posting / sharing!

Cheers

Charlie

.

There were two kill tags out totday the 2nd tag got to the tree 10 min before we did.

They were waiting for us to get there and shoot the bear.

It started to come down so they shot it.

It dressed at 286 pounds.

Well be going out Monday.

Thanks for sharing. It was still a wonderful adventure!


Ski+3
Whitefish, MT

quote:

Originally posted by SkiBumplus3:
Thanks for sharing. It was still a wonderful adventure!


Ski+3
Whitefish, MT

Thank you. I had a good time! Apologize for the damn auto correct spelling errors. I finished the report on Friday, but had to immediately get to work. Also had work this weekend, but slowly chipping away at it.

Once again a fantastic week with Matt and His better half. Looking forward to seeing you both again.