24hourcampfire: Pursuing Bear (long and pic heavy)

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#2479607 - 10/05/08 07:09 PM

Pursuing Bear (long and pic heavy)

sportsfan7292
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Registered: 12/17/07
Posts: 191
Loc: Willamette Valley, OR

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Hey Campfire members,

I just want to thank you guys for all the information you guys put out here. It has truly enriched my hunting!

For as long as I can remember, I remember Dad telling me stories of his elk hunting adventures. I remember wanting to be just like him. We would go out and shoot on the weekends with my .22 chipmunk that his best friend bought for me when I was two days old.

I progressed to shooting sage rats with .22s but always wanted something more. So when I turned 12 my dad took me to New Mexico and we hunted antelope. Dad took an 81" and I took a 78" on opening morning. Next we went mountain lion hunting. I took a cat at 3 feet while hanging off a cliff on the first day of the hunt. I ended up writing an article for Hunting The West about it.

We then booked at trip to Africa, Tanzania that is. We were going to hunt leopard, lion, and cape buffalo for 21 days. The trophy fees were then raised by the Tanzanian government, putting the price of the hunt out of our budget. We decided to cancel and book a grizzly and black bear hunt with The Perrins' Rainy Pass Lodge (theperrinsrainypasslodge.com), who we have know for five or so years. I worked at the lodge last summer. Anyways, we headed up in August for 7 days. The family has five boys. The middle son, Clay, a 23 year old, would be our guide.

Day 1
Hunting day one was eventful. We spotted two solitary black bears a ways off, attempting to stalk each of them. Our efforts didn't pay off.

Day 2-6
We spotted a total of 10 bear and 3 eagles in this time, all the bears being sows with cubs or across the Happy River. We began to get antsy and wanted to go out to a satellite camp that the Perrins' run, just to see some new territory.

Day 7
We rode off to Halfway Lake on horseback, three hours to get there. We glasses from mid morning to mid afternoon, spotting one cow moose. We decided to head back rather than overnight there. Being this was the last day of the hunt, I was disappointed that we had not gotten anything.
We took these pictures as we thought the hunt was over.

My Dad and I

Clay and My Dad

As we rode back, Clay would hop off and glass every half an hour or so. I thought he was just doing this to earn his tip. I was humming Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive" in my head, when Clay hopped off, glassed, came over to my horse, and pointed out a black bear eating just on the other side of the valley. We decided to pursue it.

Stalk #1
We rode behind a stand of trees, tied up the horses, and grabbed our gear. The whole time we were watching the bear. He was running around and acting like a younger bear, according to Clay. We got into a shooting position (prone shooting off Clay's pack) just as the bear ducked into a creek lined with Alders. We waited 20 minutes, nothing happened. Clay whispered, "I am going to whistle and he's gonna run outta the creek to the other side, it'll be a 300 yard shot." He whistled, nothing. Again, nothin. A third time, nothin. We were sitting there waiting when Clay looked behind us, and here was Yogi, 450 yards away behind and to the right of us.

Stalk #2
We got up and hustled to a stand of brush. We walked through the brush, came out. Another stand of brush, and when we came out he should have been 40 yards away, but he was gone. We had to make a choice: did he go to the right, parallel to us into a patch of trees, or did he blow up over the flats towards the river? We decided on the latter.

Stalk 3
We hustled back to horses, saddled up, and rode over the flats. We spotted a black dot on the closest shore of Lone Tree Lake. We rode into a small indentation, came up and he was on the OTHER side of Lone Tree. So we really sped up the pace now, because once he went into the valley that the Happy has created, he would be gone. We had to cross multiple bogs, one that the horses could not make it through with a rider. So we had to get off and walk them through. This wasn't a problem for Clay or I as we had hip waders, but my Dad had "Alaskan Slippers" from Barney's, a slip-on hip wader. So he had to dismount and put them on; as we waited for him, he told Clay and I to go ahead, he would catch up. So we tied the horses, grabbed our guns, and sprinted over a hill. The bear was just 130 yards away! I put my Remington Model 7 300 WSM across Clay's shoulder and fired. TWAAPPPPP went the Barnes 180 TSX into the bear's shoulder. Then we started unloading on this thing. We ended up firing 12 times total. I am positive we hit it 6 or more times. We went up to it and IT WAS A GRIZZZZZ! We hooted and hollered! We thought it was a black bear the whole time.

It was HEAVY!

Dad and I

Me and Clay

Clay with the paw

The shot was at 10 and we got into the lodge at 3 AM. We measured the hide and skull. The hide squared 8.5 feet and the skull went around 24 3/4"! It was amazing.

Me and Clay

Me, Clay, Dad, Steve (owner of RPL and Clay's dad)

16 and I got a grizzly!
Thanks for reading you guys. Sorry it was long, it's just so exciting!

-Henry

Edited by sportsfan7292 (10/05/08 07:12 PM)
Edit Reason: screwed up the pics