Today was the opening day of the CO bear season and I had a special limited tag in my pocket for the Bosque de Oso State Wildlife Area. This is an area they manage for trophy animals so it takes a lot of preference points to draw. I burned 14 points for my tag. I have been doing a lot of scouting and found several areas with a lot of bear sign. I decided to focus on Leon Canyon and at 4:30 a.m. I was making my way back. This area has a lot of gas wells so there are plenty of roads but you can't drive them, walk or horseback is the only way to hunt it. It is an hour and a half walk from the parking area to where I wanted to sit and I wanted to be in place before first light.

Everybody knows that when it comes to hunting and fishing things don't always go as planned, but today it worked our perfectly. 20 min after first light this big fellow stepped into an opening in the oak brush.


I was sitting on a hillside by a gas well that gave a good view of 3 different hillsides. The shot was about 250 yards at a sharp downhill angle. I was shooting a T/C Compass in 308 Win that by wife bought me for Christmas last year and it was loaded up with handloads using a 130 gr Barnes TTSX bullet. The bullet hit exactly where I aimed and the bear dropped to the shot for an instant kill. I was sitting where the yellow star is and the bear was at the red star.


This is magnificent country and this was the view from the kill site looking west to the hill I was sitting on. Those are the Sangre de Christo mountains in the background


I spent the rest of the day getting the bear taken care of and skinned. I really wanted to do some fishing but the meat care took precedent so I am back in Amarillo with 2 coolers full of meat and cooler full of skin filled with ice so I can work on it tomorrow.


Cheers Y'All. Life is good!

Congratulations!!!

Great looking bear.

VERY cool!

Congrats! Good looking bear and nice pics..

Beautiful bear! Congratulations!

Congrads, love the color of the hide!

Very nice, love the color…Congrats.

That is a magnificent trophy

Congrats

Love it when a plan comes together.
Beautiful

Awesome color phase. Congratulations!

Pretty bear, congratulations

TY for sharing Mac.

Nice one for sure and a lot of work that followed.

you should probably take down the pic with the little stars on it, as it's illegal to shoot across a road in CO.....

Nice

Well that’s making quick work of things. Congrats.

“ Shoot from, across, or on a public road with a firearm, bow, or crossbow. People firing a bow, rifle, handgun, or shotgun having a single slug must be at least 50 feet from the centerline of the road.” - Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Is it a “public road”? Sounds like a private non-motorized access utility “road”. We have a similar rule in Idaho and the road has to be “publicly maintained“

“ "Public highway" means the traveled portion of, and the shoulders on each side of, any road maintained by any governmental entity for public travel, and includes all bridges, culverts, overpasses, fills, and other structures within the limits of the right-of-way of any such road.” - IDFG

Congratulations on the nice bear OP!

Fantastic. Love the color of that bear. Congrats.

Conglads, That's a good bear---love the color Bob

No it isn't on the Bosque. Those are not public roads, they are access roads for the gas wells. Bob Holder the head game warden for that part of CO and the guy that who checked my bear had no problem with me taking that shot. The law in CO states PUBLIC ROADS. Read it.

Beautiful bear, congrats!

Nice bear!

Dandy bear . Congrats

Congrats, I've spent some time on the Bosque, despite it being strictly managed, those hunts arent always a walk in the park!

Awesome job! Love the coloring on that guy!

Beautiful bear!
Congrats!

Congrats. Great looking bear

Cool bear and super rad color phase.

Nice bear, congratulations.

Beautiful bear!

Love reading all these hunting excursions!
Nothing that extravagant down here in MS. Keep the stories coming and congratulations! Thanks for sharing

Outstanding, congrats on the bear.

Nice job!

Really cool looking bear! Kind of a unique hunting area also!

Congrats! Nice bear.

Nice color phase.

MAC,
I don’t think hunts was trying to be critical. He was just watching out for you.

That is a beautiful bear. We had planned a bear hunt on the east side of the state last year but with all of the crap related to COVID-19 we decided to call it off. Don’t know if I’ll ever get around to it now.

Again, congratulations on a well done hunt and well earned trophy!

Just outstanding!