Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Victoria Day outing

Fellow Campfire folks:
This morning our daughter Amy-Liz and her husband came over and as planned we loaded lots and lots of arms and ammo, chainsaws and assorted gear and food into the pickup. The overall goal was to drive around for awhile glassing for bears, then do some shooting with the bear deterrent device I'd put together for them - Lakefield Mossberg 500AB slicked up and shortened and finally to cut a load of firewood.

After awhile we found some easy to retrieve fir and decided to set up some bark targets nearby to practice the shotgunning skills on. I've got to say my son-in-law who is relatively new to shooting took to the pump gun like a proverbial duck to water. It would appear I'm in the market for another plain Jane Lakefield Mossberg to build for him - but that's another story.

So a hundred odd shots later we decided it was too hot now to cut firewood, so we began to attack the assorted snacks and drive homeward. Partway down the log haul road Amy-Liz says - "Bear!" That's him on the right just adjacent to the brush on the cut line.


I couldn't quite make out how big a bruin it was, but the stalk was on so we bailed out to see what he looked like closer up. The wind was pretty brisk and you couldn't buy a better direction either. I should note for the record that we've both got bear tags so we're both legal to stalk the animal.


Closer


Still closer


And closer still


What you can't tell from the photos is that either he was screened by brush, at a bad angle or hiding the vitals from Amy-Liz the whole time.


As he turned slowly into a better position for Amy-Liz, she slid a round into the chamber and he saw her at the same time. He picked up his head and we finally saw his ears - so I'd say a 3-4 year old 5'1"-5'4" sorta model but my goodness he was nice and fuzzy!

He slid to the left and out of good shooting position quick as a wink and we all had a grand laugh as the stalking nerves left us. I'd say conservatively it was 35 meters between them in the last photo.

Oh, after we'd piled into the pickup and started our way homeward again, he crossed the road in front of us at a slow enough jog trot that we could admire his nice coat and get another angle on how big he was.

Anyway all, thanks for looking and sharing a grand day afield with us. The pickup said it was 27° as we neared home, so finally warmth has come to our south Okanagan homes.

All the best to you all this summer and good luck to the bear hunters out there.

Dwayne

Thank you Dwayne! The 'fire', at it's finest when you post. You may be of short stature on the outside, but six foot six "inside".

wabigoon;
Thanks yet again for the continued kindness you've shown me sir. I will do my best to deserve that in future posts for sure.

As a bit of an expansion on the son-in-law, he took his PAL this winter and is waiting for it to be sent from New Brunswick as we speak. Since the kids love tenting I was very happy to see him show such quick proficiency with the short pump gun - just much better odds of surviving an encounter that all fathers pray their kids never run across.

The bottom one is the one I built for Amy-Liz - prior to my son-in-law getting his PAL - so now I've got to find another chassis and build him one.


Anyway although he's been hunting with us before a couple times this was the first stalk he was in on and my goodness was he excited.

Again I don't know if he'll ever hunt, but I'm happy to guide him into being proficient with any firearms that reside in my safe.

Thanks again for the kind words sir and all the best to you all this summer.

Dwayne

Anytime a person can get out in the Wilds with family is a great day.
Thanks for sharing your adventures with us all Dwayne.

Great pictures and story Dwayne, thanks for sharing it.

GRF