This year I decided to do a solo hunt, taking the wall tent and setting up camp, in the same spot we always camp for moose hunting. It's miles back in remote bush, in the Swan Hills.


The trail going in, Fri May 28. Still snow in the bush.



Fresh bear tracks on the trail near camp.


Moose sheds I picked up on the trail near camp.


Before. Bare tent frame.




After. Tent all set up, stove ready to go. Time to go scouting for bears...



More fresh bear tracks.

Saturday, I headed into a spot that I knew was really good for black bears.
There was numerous tracks, old and fresh, plus lots of s**t. Good feed.

I travelled up a long east-west running cutline. Stopped on a hill that allowed me to see over a km to the west and nearly a km to the east. Lots of fresh track and I was sure a bear would show if I was patient.


Sitting, waiting for bruin, got the .35Whelen in this pic.

Sure enough, at 2:25 a bear came out on the line, to the west,
and I knew right away it was a pretty good size. He was 900-1000 meters off, when he came onto the line. I know that, because I had been fooling around with the rangefinder and had ranged 994 yards, pretty much right where he came out.

]
If you look way down the line, to the top light colored area of grass, that's where the bear came from.


The bear was moving up the line right toward me and he was travelling in that way they do, when they're going somewhere. I hoped he'd come to me. So I stayed put, but I grabbed the .416RM out of the case, because I wanted to try it with 400gr Hornady IBs that I had loaded.

And the bear never stopped. He just kept coming, in that lumbering side-to-side gait, head held low. I figured he was about a 6-1/2 footer and I decided to take him.

I really never had to do anything. Right place, right time.

I held the gun on him as he got closer and closer. Because of the way he was carrying his head low, I had to wait though to get a slightly angling shot, that would miss his head. I held on his shoulder and he stopped and looked up. I drilled him just inside the right shoulder, right under his chin, the way he was looking at me. I stepped it off at 28 paces...

As soon as I fired he wheeled around and took off running. I thought, I can't have missed him!?
As soon as I got up to follow, I saw blood splashed all over the cutline and along the path where he'd run.




There was blood every five feet, all the way to where he lay.

It was not hard to find him. As I got there, he was breathing his last. No need for a finishing shot, he gave one last shudder and died. The bear had run about 50 yards after the shot and went down just inside the treeline.






He has lots of scars on his face from fighting.
I got my Honda and pulled him out to the trail, using a small chain.

The bear measured exactly 50" around the chest. According to the chart I have, that makes him approx. 385lbs live weight. I think that's about right. It was a chore just to hold his head up for the self-timer! He measured 6-5" nose to tail. His pads are an even 5" across and his hind feet are just over 8" long.




After skinning and laying out the hide I got the exact same measurement, 77" long and 84" across the front paws. So that makes him 6'9" squared.


Here's the entrance hole. Huge hole!



The bullet blew away the top of his heart. Huge hole through it.

I tried to find the bullet to examine it, but I couldn't. I think it ended up in his guts somewhere. I couldn't find any other wound channel.

With the bear down and skinned I headed for camp. I made the decision to break camp and head home to spend some time with the family.

Did I mention it was raining, the whole time I was skinning the bear? Well it didn't stop and by the time I had camp packed in the trailer, it had turned to snow. Made for a helluva rough trip! A lot of winching...



This is the return trip. Friggin Swan Hills weather! May 29 2010.

Great post, thanks for bringing us along!

the chef

^ Thanks!


Skull measurements, 7-5/16" wide by 12-10/16" long. So green score 19-15/16".









And the penis bone...

Thanks for sharing your story and pictures. Looks like a great hunt.

looks like a fun time and a nice looking bear

Great report and nice bear. Is the cut line for timber? Who made it, I ask because the line looks like a natural gas pipeline. I hunt on a gasline here in Georgia, looks very similar, except for the snow and different trees.

Enjoyed the report and pics; thanks for sharing. You don't know anyone who'd have liked the meat though, huh? Seems a pity to leave it, but hey, your bear!

Good stuff mate, some real hunting there and a fantastic report to boot!

I'm planning to hunt in Canada in the next couple of years for bear.

YOu've just made the wait that little bit more unbearable!

quote:

Originally posted by Kamo Gari:
Enjoyed the report and pics; thanks for sharing. You don't know anyone who'd have liked the meat though, huh? Seems a pity to leave it, but hey, your bear!

KG, this is a good point to raise and one to think about. I used to work for the Alberta Forest Service somewhat north of where Demonical shot this boar and so am familiar with the area.

Black Bears in Canada, are incredibly numerous, especially here in BC and are often shot as "pests" by the resource management agencies of this and other provinces. Here in BC, about 800-1000 BBs and 50-70 Grizzlies are killed every year this way and our populations of both species is increasing...we need to hunt and kill MORE bears, IMO.

With many BBs, especially the older boars, the meat is pretty rank and tough, especially in the spring. This is also the case with Grizzlies shot at this season as my buddy MTM just did last week, so, leaving the carcass is not the major breach of hunting ethics it would be with a deer, moose or elk.

I would always take the hams, backstraps and strip loins from an un-opened carcass and try them for palatibility at home, but, I have Rottweilers who dispose of all meats I cannot eat. With wild meat, it is ALWAYS thoroughly cooked first, but, old bears and old RM Goats sometimes do end up as dog food as you cannot eat their meat.

AS Demonical points out, other bears, etc., will eat this one and killing an old boar like this will actually increase the survival chances of young ones, due to the cannabilistic nature of both BBs and Grizz. Soooo, leaving that carcass is not a breach of sportsmanship or environmental ethics, IMHO, and I am a fanatic about both.

If, you want to get a couple of nice Bears and enjoy their meat, which CAN be excellent, come and hunt in the mountains for bears that feed on berries and "re-gen" on old burns in the fall season and the meat then and hides are much better, all in all, but, the hunting can be much more demanding.

Nice Bear Demo and very cool to have done it solo. Congrats

Awesome report....good for you.

Now thats the kinda hunt I'm talking about

let's see: approx 385lb bear takes the 416RM, whole enchilada, at 28 ish paces and turns around and goes 50 yards before expiring.

tell me more. tough critter.

Looks like your typical Swan Hills gumbo. Hunted Grizz there in 2004 and the weather was very similar. Just about impossible to even walk , when it started to rain.
Grizz

Great report and photos thanks for sharing!!

Great report! Congrats.

I enjoyed that report immensely!! Thanks for sharing Demonical, and congrats on a great hunt and a great bruin!!

How dense are those trees in plantaion Demoniacal?

In the soft commercial forestry here the trees are planted so close there is no daylight only a few feet in and one must stick to the rides and edges.

Could one stalk through the woods or is it a ride job?

Well the trees are too thick really, in most places to walk through. Plus in any of the old cutblocks there's too many damn water holes, deadfall etc. Better to stick to old logging trails or oil & gas seismic lines.

The way to hunt bears, in the spring, in the area where I go, is to slowly cruise the old logging trails, to catch a bear out feeding on lush, fresh green stuff. Find the right type of feed at the right time, and you'll find your bear. They love clover, dandelions and just plain green grass, in the spring. The fresher and more tender, the better. And near water. Any area like that, near creeks is always better.
The bears travel the creeks hoping to catch a beaver that has wandered too far from the water.

The areas where I was hunting this spring, will be useless to hunt in the fall though. The bears will be in the spruce forest then, feeding on Saskatoon berries, blueberries etc...

quote:

Originally posted by Demoniacal:
Well the trees are too thick really, in most places to walk through. Plus in any of the old cutblocks there's too many damn water holes, deadfall etc. Better to stick to old logging trails or oil & gas seismic lines.

The way to hunt bears, in the spring, in the area where I go, is to slowly cruise the old logging trails, to catch a bear out feeding on lush, fresh green stuff. Find the right type of feed at the right time, and you'll find your bear. They love clover, dandelions and just plain green grass, in the spring. The fresher and more tender, the better. And near water. Any area like that, near creeks is always better.
The bears travel the creeks hoping to catch a beaver that has wandered too far from the water.

The areas where I was hunting this spring, will be useless to hunt in the fall though. The bears will be in the spruce forest then, feeding on Saskatoon berries, blueberries etc...

Thanks Buddy, this is the sort of post that is the halmark of AR. It would take me more than a few trips to get this sort of information!

Your forestry seems much like ours, also thickly planted trees but with rides much narrower than yours. In the lowlands of the South of British Isle there tends to be more broad-leaf which is not planted so densely and one stalks the rides only really at last and first light when the deer are moving from the woods to the fields. If one wishes to stalk the whole day the only real option is to pick a deer path through the woods and go as slowly as possible upwind. Patches of clear-fell are indeed dangerously rutty and difficult to traverse but also usually the best place to see deer in the middle of the woods. I tend to find that moving a little distance, say a couple of hundred metres or so, followed by glassing for 20 minutes keeping absolutely still tends to produce the goods, sometimes almost out of nowhere! Is this sort of technique appropriate for your sort of hunting out there?

This together with stalking open fields and particularly the edges forms the bulk of my deer stalking experience. I usually stalk alone in the UK but fantasise about the sort of freedom you blokes have over there.

I'm looking forward to your Autumn bear hunt mate, thank you for all the help.

Ghubert, I pretty much always hunt slowly, looking for a prime ambush position then waiting. Depends upon my whim, I may stay in one spot only 10 minutes and other times, when it feels 'just right', I can sit for 6-8 hours.

I hunt very instinctively. I really can't tell you what I do any more then that.

I also think everything happens for a reason and it will all work out, so I'm seldom in a hurry, always feel where I am is the place to be etc...

So I am stress free. I think that helps a lot.

You come over here for a visit, I'll take you bear hunting, how about that!?

quote:

Originally posted by Demonical:
Ghubert, I pretty much always hunt slowly, looking for a prime ambush position then waiting. Depends upon my whim, I may stay in one spot only 10 minutes and other times, when it feels 'just right', I can sit for 6-8 hours.

I hunt very instinctively. I really can't tell you what I do any more then that.

I also think everything happens for a reason and it will all work out, so I'm seldom in a hurry, always feel where I am is the place to be etc...

So I am stress free. I think that helps a lot.

Thanks mate, all good information as it sort of corelates to the way I hunt over here in notinally similar circumstances. I know what you mean about that "feeling", a sort of hunter's instinct that although decidedly nascent in my case, is quite real. Having said that I don't trust mine fully yet becasue of the number deer I usually bump from only few metres way when I decide that there are definetly no deer in the area!

I also think that being stress free is the way forward, can't concentrate otherwise and miss stuff what?

quote:

Originally posted by Demonical:
You come over here for a visit, I'll take you bear hunting, how about that!?

You may live to regret that very kind offer Sir, i'm due to visit sometime in 2012 to see friends and hunt some bear! I will look you up on condition that you get yourself to England and do a spot of shooting here at some point.

What would you like to do?

I suppose the things you might not get where you are would be:

Driven pheasant ( A formal day on the pheasants, a friend has an excellent shoot near London and as my guest you won't have to worry about the "formal" bit )

Last year's shoot
Woodcock over pointers (Informal, challenging, great sport )

Walked up game ( men, shotguns, dogs. My best day was 6 species to my gun one gloriously crisp winter morning )

6 species of deer ( something is in season all year round we have Fallow, Roe, Red, Muntjac, Sika and Chinese Water Deer free roaming in the wild. For you I would reccomend Muntjac stalking in broadleaf woodland as the most exciting unless you want something specific.)

(My big Fallow, excuse the state of me but we'd just dragged that 100kg deer through half a kilometre of bomb scarred clearfell in the middle of wood...)

( A little Muntjac buck )

( A Freakin' huge Muntjac buck, not mine I hasten to add! )


(Nice little six pointer Roebuck)

Game fishing on the fly

Coarse fishing on bait

Now, when can you come?

Ghubert, thanks for the offer, but unless I win the Lottery I am stuck on this side of the pond!

But you are welcome here.

Mate you only need your airfare and a few beer tokens!

Thanks again for your kind offer I will look you up when i'm next in your wonderful country.

^ Just give me a few months warning to free up time and make sure of bear hunting season dates, license requirements etc, that's all I need!

Will do sir!


I am serious about the hunting here mate, I'm a silent partner in a outfitters that arranges mainly top end game and deer shooting here in the UK so I can usually pull some string and get a few representative cull animals for nothing. I usually shoot them myself while the client is out stressing the gamekeeper.....

There are trophy fees for a fallow as big as that but on a patch I know in Oxfordshire that is over-run with them a gold medal Muntjac is easly possible if you put a few days in and to you sir completely free. You will be my guest for the pheasant shooting so there is no cost in that but we will need to get you dressed appropriately!


In addition to that any amount of vermin shooting , decoying pigeons, shooting rabbits at night with the NV and silencer, lamping fox whatever.

We will be limited by time rather than budget.

Keep in touch mate.

Wow I had never laid eyes on a Muntjac before.
What a curious little guy he is!
Super Fallow Buck too!
We used to be able to hunt Fallow here but unfortunately that hunt is no longer possible.
A good friend of mine got a really nice one he was forced to use a shotgun with slug on it!