Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting My wife decided to shoot a bear!

Eastern OR on the Wa state line.

I am a passionate bowhunter but she packed the rifle for this bear. Last week I got to the 20 ish yard more or less from a nice 300ish bear in an apple tree. I could have drilled him with little effort at that moment.

She was a bit further behind me with the video camera. I passed on the shot because I have seen photo's on the trail camera of a couple much bigger bears. They have been nocturnal so far this season. Both in the 400-500 pound range.

I'm hunting a very steep draw that is only wooded about 100 yards wide with a 4' wide creek running in the bottom. This draw is filled with fruit trees. Out side the 100 yard wide swath of timber is wheat fields and CRP as far as you can see. There are cattle running in this as well. The cattle have established trails up and down the creek. The bears use these trails constantly. Our tree stands are on these trails. I've killed 5 bears in here in the last 5 years all over 400 lbs the biggest was 506. All had skulls between 20" and 21". I have only hunted one other location in my life that had bigger bears.

The trick is that you must spend most of your life in these tree stands to be there when the bear is there. I'll admit that I have photos of bears in the trail 16 yards from me, that I did not see while I was in the stand because I had fallen asleep in the stand. The bears walk up and down these trails eating from the pear, and apple trees, along with the hawthorn, Elderberry, and raspberry bushes. In Spring there are dozens of cherry trees as well as plum trees.

We stay until dark and then walk this trail to the gate where we are parked. That walk out is in total darkness by the time we get there. Meeting this smaller bear on the trail was no problem for me. I would have just yelled him away. My wife however was far more easily shook by this. When that bear was getting so close to us, I felt it was a looming problem. Then I decided that the ranchers who have their cattle in here could be charged without any bear encounter experience........ well the decision was easy to make. After all they allow me in here to hunt predators to protect the calves. How can I knowingly leave a threatening bear in here when the purpose of my permission is to take out the meat eaters.

I hope to get a chance at another big bear this year. I spent the first month of the season in Africa, so I did not hunt the long hours of daylight early in the season. Now in the dark woods it's only hunt able until about 7:30 and getting shorter every day!