Up close and personal with Mr. Ursus

May 16 2011

At 30 yards I drew my bow and suddenly the bear looked up, meeting my eyes for one second. This was no baited stand hunt, I was standing on the same playing field in this spot and stalk BC hunt as this bear was. As I aimed for my mark the bear decided I was a problem. It bolted and I held my fire. Still, it was an awesome rush and one I won’t soon forget.

This weekend I headed up towards Lillooet to do some camping, quading, and more importantly hunting with my Dad, my brother and 2 family friends. My brother and I both have tags for black bears. But he doesn’t really enjoy the meat and he already has a grizzly rug that the wife won’t let him keep. I told him if we see a big one, just shoot it and I will make some pepperoni with him out of it. My dad got his hunting license with my brother about 18 years ago, but only ever bought one deer tag. The other two guys aren’t really interested in hunting black bears. So I felt like I had the reins on this trip as far as hunting was concerned.

So on Friday we put the stalk on that first bear. We closed the distance on the meandering feeding spring bear from 100 yards down to 30, where he busted us. I did draw on him at 50 yards because I thought I was in range, but consulting the bow mounted range finder made by Leupold, I decided to let down my draw and try to make it to 30. As the bear fed away with its head in the fresh grass we would walk up closer, staying in the ditch and using part of the bank of the road as cover. When we got to 30 yards I drew on it and was ready for the shot but the bear looked at us and bolted. I learned a couple things on that stalk. When a bear is feeding, take your time, use cover as best you can, move slowly, and too many people mean more foot noise. I am not sure what alerted the bear, but either way, we got busted. We even tried for him again that night, but he was nowhere to be found.

On the way back to camp I came around the corner on the quad to see my dad stopped on the middle of the road with his quad still running. He signaled for us to move up closer. Quickly I unclipped my bow from the quad rack and jumped on the back of my brother’s quad. We knew the bear was there watching my dad, but maybe he was sleepy or something? We rolled up to it, and at 20 yards I hopped off and knocked an arrow, the bear scrambled up the bank but at 17 yards it stopped and looked at me. I was already drawn; I checked the range with the bow mounted range finder and put the 20 yard pin on its heart and lungs. But I didn’t have the heart to shoot this little fella. He was definitely a young and scraggly looking black bear. I let down, and grabbed my camera instead to shoot him with. Probably in stupidity I got a bit to close from this naive bear, only 10 feet away. Finally after a minute of video, he buggered off.

Friday evening in the wall tent the skies opened up and the rains came down, all Saturday it continued. I figured the bears would be playing in the woods today, so I held off heading out around 3 pm in search of Mr. Ursus. Almost not wanting to go because of the rain, finally I twisted my own and my brothers arm to jump in the truck and at least go for a look see. We headed back into the spot we had stalked that first bear. After a slow walk through, no bear was seen.

As we headed back towards camp I looked down a side road as we passed. “There’s a bear!” I exclaimed. I pulled over the truck out of sight and got out to go back and look down the road. “Yep, there he is!” I said. Sure enough, we could get closer. I told my brother to grab his 338 and if it was a big one, he could take it. We climbed up the road we were on further, and from where we were, we could look down almost on top of where the bear was feeding. We jogged up the road and peeked over the edge. Sure enough there was a lone bear, it looked to be a boar by the facial features, its ears were wide enough apart, and it was mature. Not a monster belly dragger, but it was raining all day, and I was hoping the wet fur might have made the bear appear smaller than it actually was. Just then I noticed that the rain had stopped; maybe that’s why he was out feeding. We watched him for five minutes and came to the decision that if we could get closer, I would try for him with my bow.

We ran back down the high road, and I looked to see the bear heading back towards the bush. It then disappeared out of sight. I gave a puff with my wind checker bottle and the wind looked ideal! We ran as fast as we could towards the last place we saw the bear using the cover of the road side bushes. As we got to the last place of cover I knelt down and looked hard for the bear using my binoculars. Sure enough he was still in the same place, but he was sitting, and all I could make out was his paws. I would have to crawl from here. Pushing my bow in front of me I belly crawled using a big log as cover. I told my brother to stay at the log and use it as a rest for his back up 338 and cover me. From here I would have to go in alone. I thought back to the first stalk and remembered my own words of advice. Patience. I waited and watched this bear for about 2 minutes. He was bedded at about 60 yards perfectly broadside. Every 20 seconds or so he would lift his head from his paws and look right for about 7 seconds and then left for about the same, then he would lift his head, sniffing the air. Then his head would go back on his paws facing forwards. After noticing this pattern I made my move. I was in full view four times as I moved from one place in the ditch to the next, getting closer and closer. At one point he stared long and hard in my direction. I was wondering what my brother was doing behind me. He put his head back down. I came to what I thought was around 30 yards. The bear turned and looked right and I spied my opportunity and rose up out of the ditch like Rambo coming to full draw. The bear turned his head in my direction as usual and looked me directly in the eye. I thought I was busted but my camouflage Kuiu rain gear must have hid me well from his eyes, even at 26 yards, I was almost fully exposed. Then he looked forward again putting his head back on his paws. I checked the range with my bow mounted range finder with the click of a button from my ring finger while at full draw. I chose my pin, held on his heart and let the arrow fly hearing the smack of the 500 grain arrow thump into and through his chest. Bingo! I stood up and walked back to my brother fist pumping the air with my bow! “Woooo hoooo!” I whispered. I was really excited at this point. This is the first bear I have shot with my bow and it was such an incredible rush. We had a dead bear on our hands.

My brother being a rifle only hunter, wanted to run in to the bush and have a look for the bear as it had run off and into the bush behind it. I quickly kyboshed this idea and said we would give the bear at least 30 minutes. Of course at this point the worst thing happened. The skies opened up and it started down pouring again. We decided to whip back to camp, grab the guys and some guns before going in after it. Hopefully more eyes would help us find it in the quickly approaching night fall.

30 minutes later, we walked up the road past where the bear had run down into a little creek and peered down into the ravine. Looking through the non leafy spring brush was easy. Sure enough, there he was down by the creek, stone dead. We headed down to the bear with some rope and I admired this beautiful bear. It was bigish at about 250lbs. We hog tied it to a pole and my brother and I marched it out of the swampy creek and up the steep bank. To get it up the very top of the bank was tricky. It was very steep and we enlisted the help of my Dad and another guy, the steeper it got, the heavier the bear was.

It was a proud moment for me to have taken such a beautiful first bear with my bow and have my brother and father along with me on the trip. We took some pictures of the 5’10” bear and quartered him up to be made into pepperoni.

Looking back on the trip now, I think it is something that I will remember forever. It was a great time, even with all the rain! Being an avid hunter and camper that I am, it was great to share the experience with family on our once a year trip to the bush. As neither of them has ever been on a successful black bear hunt I think they will remember it for a while too. Good times.

That's awesome, man! Beautiful bear! Look at the melon at that big dude! You shot him with a G5 Montec?

Yup a 125 grain Montec is exactly right!

Got his hams in the smoker right now!!!

Great bear

Nice story and great pics! That looks like a lot of fun!

What bow?

Great story and pics BigBoar! Nice to see you posting over here on AR too.
Cheers,
Canuck

Congrats! Nice bear! Enjoyed the story and the pics!

Nils-Ole

Great story! Thanks for sharing

Congrats.....he's a beaut! Good story too.....

So, how do you like your new Kuiu gear, do you think that it will last for several BC hunting seasons? It looks very snugly fitted to me and I know you are not fat or out of shape...except that head you whacked on the low beam in my basement is probably STILL sore, so, what is your take on this after having used it on this trip?

Very nice Bear, congrats!

That's a great story and a well earned bear. Congrats!


One criticism; I hate pictures that are taken in that perspective, with the hunter standing well back of the animal to make it look bigger (I guess).