Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors OT- Bear hunting report

Been walking various Savages in the Oregon mountains this fall, but when it comes to killing a bear the 358 carbine usually gets the nod. My load consists of a 180 grain Barnes ttsx and 51 brains of TAC powder.

Around here, August and September is magic time for bears. August is brutally hot and bears are predictably very close to secluded water. Bees and other nasties making hunting miserable so I usually wait it out. Various berries and nuts ripen and bears follow the food supply around their home range. I'm convinced they know individual bushes that produce and will travel to them. The key is knowing what ripens where and when. Boots on the ground.

I have been exploring a new area this season and have found some good sized bears here and there. I've lost track of how many we've seen but most are small ones. Haven't been motivated to shoot anything with temps over 110 degrees but recently dropping into the 70's it got interesting again.

At the bottom of a large canyon glassing the cliffs with my buddy Liam.




Calling in a creek bottom for a good bear we found. Using a pistol is "self-regulating". Kind of hoping not to get one when it was hot but wanted to go just the same. LOL




Some favorite bear foods in our area.

Black caps




An unknown berry that grows abundantly on bushes about 5-6' tall and around.




We even found some myrtlewood trees following a burn. The seed pod has a large nut that's bitter to my taste. Don't know for sure but would assume a bear would eat it.




After finding evidence of a good bear in an area, I try to figure out his food, water, and safety situation. They will like to stay within 150 yards of water during the day. That really narrows down the search area. I generally like to call them in so I can control the location and situation a lot better than just random sightings and spot and stalk. Being an adrenalin junkie helps. It's always best to watch downwind no matter the lay of the land as they like to circle down and see what the scoop is before coming in to a call. They don't want to get killed by a bigger bear. You can limit that by using obstacles to prevent it, but they will try. As a rule. You never know with bears. A second shooter really helps to cover the downwind approach. If calling doesn't work, it's probably because they aren't hearing it, I.E. you're in the wrong drainage.

I got a knee replacement 5 months ago so was determined to shoot one IN THE ROAD so I didn't have to pack it. If you figure out their watering time you can catch them leaving their bed and heading for water, which often means they'll cross the road between 5 pm and dark, on their way to water.

My wife and I were walking a road last evening hoping to catch a particular bear I'd had no luck calling as he headed for his evening drink. Sign was thick along the road and when we hit a steaming fresh pile I picked up the pace thinking he was just around the next corner. As we cleared the corner I was actually surprised he wasn't walking down the road away from us. A few yards later the world erupted as a bear exploded in the brush next to the road. I got eyeball on him as he made for the creek bottom 75 yards away but didn't get much detail. I hit the fawn bleat to try and slow him down and hopefully get a better look but he kept going, disappearing in the swamp 75 yards downhill. As I continued blowing the call and watching that tall grass for any sign of movement when my wife hits me on the shoulder and says, "Bear!" I looked up in time to catch one cross the two-track road about 25 yards ahead of us. Bear #2! It was actually bear #4 for the evening but the first two were a sow and cub.

I called to try to get him to slow down but he was headed downhill towards that creek and had obviously seen us already. As I tried to track him in the scope I looked ahead and saw an upcoming opening, so I pointed the little 358 carbine there and a split second later he ran through it, about 75 yards distant. One shot and he went down and stayed down. I found out afterwards my wife got it all on video with here phone! Cool as schit! I'll probably post a video link in the next few days when she has time to sort it out. We finally finished about 2 am and fell into bed.

The long and short of it is, you can't win if you don't play, and you have to think what would a bear like, and hunt accordingly. They live by their nose not their eyes, which is a foreign idea to us, but if you respect that you can use it against them to fill your tag. You have to stay with it and hunt by faith. If they are there you can kill them with persistence. Here's some photos of this falls bear. I am allowed another tag if I want one, but I haven't decided if I need another.

For you guys in states that offer limited and controlled bear hunts I feel your pain. Bear hunting is my fave and we have a lot of fun each fall doing it. Year after year the Savage 99 in 358 proves it'll drop the nastiest bears with one good shot. I was a 375 Winchester fan for a long time but the 358 adds several hundred feet per second to the same weight bullet and better bullets are available for the 358, so IMO that's the way to go if you want to hunt a Savage 99. When you absolutely, positively do not want the bear running down the nearest canyon, shoot him with a good bullet and a hot load in your 358. It's impressive honestly.

Weighing the carcass and adding back the head, hide, and guts we figure this was a 250 pound bear. They tend to run small in weight for their age here, I believe due to the difficulty they have traversing the mountainous country acquiring food. He would be 75-100 pounds heavier in November than he is now. They are tough and die hard though! Mountain bears! None of that fish-eating, dog food raiding, garbage bears for us! This is bear hunting in it's purest form, one on one in their turf and for the most part on their terms. All you can do is try to tip the odds in your favor and keep going.











Keep the faith and follow the sign.

What an excellent 'article' - fit to be printed!

Great job on all accounts!

Thanks.

Part two of the story was the recovery. You would think being less than 100 yards off the road what's the big deal, right? Well for one, new left knee. And dark. And fallen trees. And brush. And steep as hell. LOL

We got the truck sideways and turned on the flood lights so we could see down in there, being mindful bear #1 had disappeared right before bear #2 showed up and we didn't see #1 leave the swamp. As much noise as he made getting away from the road it was odd that he switched to stealth mode when bear #2 shows up. We did lots of loud talking as we drug the winch cable as close as we could get it to the bear, but coming up 35 yards short. I carry rope and paracord so we tied up Mr. Bruin in a Deer Sleigher I keep in the truck for just such occasions. A deer sleigher is like a giant flexible teflon cutting board that has eyelets around the perimeter that allow you to "lace it up" with your game inside. Tie a rope to it and you can pull far more than a loose animal without it.

When we first tried the winch with the off-road lights on everything on the truck went dead instantly. I thought we blew a master fuse or something so after searching around for a while we discovered the positive battery cable was loose. Whew, that was nerve racking. Stuck in the mountains, everything dead on the truck, game on the ground and my wife with me! Thankfully we got it working.

We had to pull the bear uphill by hand until the rope and winch cable combined could reach it. Then wife runs the winch while I guide the bear over logs and around trees up to the road. At the end I just held onto the rope and let Mr. Warn drag my sorry butt up the hill with the sled.

Once we were on the road I gutted the bear and we quickly realized loading an intact bear carcass is much like loading 200 pounds of loose jello. We tugged, pushed, pulled, lifted and cussed a few times then I hit on the idea of using a pully mounted inside the bed and tying end #1 around the bears neck and end #2 around a tree, then slowly driving away, dragging the bear into the truck bed. Wife had to lift the head over the tailgate when he got up to it, but otherwise the truck did the work. Yay, finally. After gathering up everything we had scattered all over the road we headed for home. Hung him up and skinned him, showered and hit the rack at 2 am.

Not OT at all. It was a Savage hunt.

Good hunt and good job.

Bears are on different turf in Northern WI So the hunts are different.
But the same rules apply. And they are as much challenge as you make them.
A good hunter understands the quarries biology and that tips many things in his favor. A turkey biologist in Florida taught me that years ago and applied it ever since.
Plan, organize and execute. Makes for great hunts.

I'm a HUGE fisherman, not a hunter, but the same rules apply. Know your prey, its habits, its food source, etc...

I was fishing with my neighbor for walleye, he was 10 feet from me in the boat, I'm catching walleye, he's catching small mouth. He looks at me an asks "what are you doing?"

I replied with a smile "touching myself."

Congrats!

Nice story and well done.

Well played, Roy!!

I may have to do some more fishing if it involves touching myself. LOL

I've got a lot of respect for good fishermen. They know their stuff.

really entertaining. You need a hoist like we built for putting elk in the pickup. Can't find pics right now.

I have one new in the box, in the shop. LOL I just figgered it wouldn't work with the canopy on the truck so I never even took it out of the box. Maybe I should check ????

Great hunting story! I enjoyed reading it. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

Lee

FB, just like hunting, been doing it since I was 4 years old, means 60 years. Put in the time to learn. All my fishing buddies say if I don't catch them, they ain't biting. Just instinct now, like tying my shoes.

Great story Roy. Congrats on your hunt!!

Congrats Roy, nice bear, was it taken with your short barreled 358?

Very cool 👍 Funny how dead weight can act when trying to get it off the ground sometimes 😂

No bears involved, but related to 375 Win, I finally got that XTR ready to roll for this deer season in November recently.

Yes John. You should see the fireball! I think it even shows up on the video. I need to get that video up but been busy cleaning up the bear meat and now back to work.

FB, I don't use my canopy on my pickup any more but I could load an elk with it on. It was just a lot tougher than with the canopy on. I could only get the elk sort of on the tailgate. Without the canopy I can swing it onto the bed of the truck.

your mention of loading bear like handling 250 lbs of jelly reminded me of loading me first bear quite a circus!

As many have said, we’ll written story. I was tuned in the whole time. Thank you for sharing and congrats.