Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Black Bear, Who's In?

I hope you heal well. Just recovering from a total hip here.

Sorry to hear that.

If you can learn to shoot left shouldered off a bipod, you should be okay.



Enjoy the PT in the meantime....

I hope to head up to my place in north Idaho this spring and hunt with a neighbor.

A black bear is definitely on my bucket list. I've got a buddy in Pinedale,WY that's been begging me to come out and hunt one with him. I think next year I might head out for a week or two and give it a try!

Had a cool hunt in the Oregon Cascades a few years ago. I was following an elk track that I was sure was a bull. It was raining and I was cow calling my way through thick hemlock, alpine fir, and jack pine hoping to jump a bull from his bed and get a quick shot. I was carrying a Savage 99 in 375 WInchester. Saddlering John owns that same rifle now.

It was fairly dark in the woods that day and as I looked ahead I see light coming from a small opening coming up in the timber. It looked like a small meadow about 75 yards by 40 yards. I cow called my way to the edge of the 40' tall pines and poked my head into the open so I could scan the opening for a bull elk. As my eyes adjusted to the light I looked off to my right and see a good sized bear standing with his front feet up on a log, looking right at me from 75 yards, just inside the edge of the timber. He'd been tracking my sound coming toward him, assuming I was a cow elk of course! I had a bear tag so I put one in the front of his neck and dropped him in a pile.

I watched to make sure he wasn't getting up. As I stepped into the meadow and turned to go over there I was pondering my good fortune that I hadn't had an encounter at closer quarters, since he had heard me coming. When I got to the end of the meadow I just about tripped over an elk leg sticking out of the grass. Turns out I was a day behind the bull and the bear had beat me to him! He'd eaten half of him and buried the rest with grass and brush. He was probably sleeping it off when I came along.

They had had quite a struggle. The bear had a hole in his shoulder and another in his forehead. He was stuffed to the gills with elk meat too! He turned out to be a good bear for the Oregon Cascades, a little over 6'. A really beautiful hide and a fantastic memory of a great hunt.

I need to motivate my buddies and go after spring Brn bear on sleds. Catch them coming out of the den headed to the calving grounds in unit 13..

Killed a Kodiak sow I was certain was a boar after watching it for the small parts of a week where you could see more than a hundred yards. Long story short the stiff-legged gait and slow movements were the result of severe domestic violence directed at her.

On leaving the valley we thought we spotted a big boar wearing a wife-beater headed over the ridge...

December 14, 1996 I had major shoulder reconstruction for three complete tendon tears and "acromioplasty with Mumford" on my right shoulder... third surgery. On May 14, 1997 I shot a Kodiak brown bear with a 375 H&H and it was no issue. Last July 4 I threw a football for kids for over an hour steady and had zero issues beyond the expected from that kind of work-out.

I cannot throw a football like Uncle Rico any more, but for all the work on it, the results are quite fine for an old fat man...

And my first black bear died 57 years ago... I have no good guess how many I have shot since then...

Do you think, the time went too fast.
I know it's moving right along for me.

My dad graduated HS in '68 and it was 10yrs before I was born, so no first hand recollection. Gibson's season that year changed baseball as it resulted in a lowering of the mound. Read a great interview with him a few years back, he was asked about the scowl he gave when getting the signs. He replied that he didn't pitch angry, just didn't have that good of eye sight... When he pitched, he owned the plate and wasn't shy about making sure the batter knew that as well. One thing I love about the internet is being able to access/find videos of those old games.

Will be hunting out of Forks, Wa again. Last year a real dandy came out and I blew the shot. Going back for a rematch.

Gotcha, lotta bear on the pennisula, good luck.

Wind is blowing about 9-0 here today.......

Might be another picture day....;)

Start hangin em!! No kelp fed cheater bears either..... grin

Here’s one, for conversation.

Pard was huntin a big blacktail buck in late October last year. He was cougaring through some timber, heard something behind him, this bugger was 5’ behind him, turned, swung and fired at the same time hitting it in the face with a 300 win..... the texts started flying immediately, he was damn shaken up.... grin

He'da really been shaken (like a rag doll) if it got aholt of 'im.....

Ya he was fairly rattled, for quite a while. I was crying I was Laffin so hard

Will be baiting and bowhunting this year. Exactly one month from today it opens!