Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire A Bear story, or "The proper way to pack out a big (DEAD)black bear!" PIC HEAVY,

No secret that I cannot hunt and get around like I would like, want, or used to. Fortunately for me I have made friends with a family near here who have lots of old growth, grown over orchards on their property as well as loads of berries and little drizzley creeks in the canyon floors. If a guy is patient, and quiet for a few days he can watch a hillside or saddle in between orchards and sometimes at last light in the fall catch a glimpse of a bear on the move. This is now my preffered method of hunting just about anything. Sit, glass and sshoot.

Last fall, just a few days before bear season opened up, JJHack (Jim Hackewicz), the landowner and I rode quads up to check out a few of thes saddles or natural crossings and I spotted a size XXL bear moving in between brush patches. Jim - who has LOADS more experience in judging bears than I - confirmed that this was indeed a big bear. I quit scouting and from that moment on I was not hunting for a bear, I was hunting for THIS bear. I saw the bear one other time in the open for a moment when the season was open, but the range was close to 500 yards so I held my fire - barely...... A few days later I was back up on that same mountain but positioned myself so that if the bear showed in the same place, I would be close enough for a fairly decent, apx 200 yards, shot.

As it happens in hunting, I would have been better off in my original glassing spot as the bear appeared directly across the canyon from where I HAD been sitting and waiting. But, I had lazered the opening where the bear now was before settling in for the evening and knew it to be almost exactly 350 yards. That range is a dead on hold for my wildcat 340 Tyrannosaur pushing 225gr Barnes TTSX's at a full chronographed 3100fps. So, that is what I did. I held on the rear ribs of the quartering away bear and touched off a BIG chunk of solid copper at very high speed.

In my scope I watched in total excitment as the bear just folded up, dropped to the ground, and rolled down the steep hill. A couple of seconds later that wonderful, familiar ka-WHOP sound of a good, hard hit reached my ears and I literally jumped up in joy and thrilling feelings.

By the time I got to the other side of the canyon and onto the trail of the bear, it was getting very dark and I was begining to take falls and near falls among the blowdowns and blackberry and rose bush tangles.

I called for some help from the landowners, and they came and found blood and got (as it turned out,) very close to the bear but no luck that night before it became far too dangerous to go on.

As soon as I got within cell phone service areas I called my good friend Jim Hackewicz (JJHack from here) and requested his assitance the next morning. In addition to his help, the landowner, who is also an avid hunter, fired up his old full size 4x truck with a commercial fishermans net winch mounted in the bed! This thing in immense, and carry's TWO FULL MILES of 5/8 inch steel cable on it! The truck with winch was parked directly above where we believed the bear to be, and Jim found the shortly thereafter while I was covering the possible escape routes. JIm had to put a finisher in the bear with his 44 Magnum revolver as I had not taken into account the bears forward motion when I held on his back ribs for a kill shot. During the time I touched off the round and it arrived on site, the bear had moved forward some and I had hit, and busted up, his hips and furthest rearward verterbrae. So, the bear was well anchored, but still needed a finishing shot from Jims gun.

With MUCH excitement, hollering, adrenaline and thusly plenty of scratches and bruises in getting all the way TO my bear, this is the nasty, straight up steep, thorn filled scene where he fell:





A really happy JJhack and Safariman together at the bear kill site:



Then came time for the work.....

1) Call in the big rig:



2) haul the cable straight down to Mr. Bear:



3) Place an appropriate collar on the new "pet" bear:



4) then UP we go!



5) and up, some more! (amazing how well this works....) :

[img]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a7/safariman416/MyBEAR016_zpsa3b44f18.jpg[/img]


And then, out come the stinky innerparts for coyote bait:

[img]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a7/safariman416/MyBEAR025_zpsb32c3874.jpg[/img]

This photo give another good idea or representation of just how BBIG this bear is! 1/2 of him is in the truck in the photo above.

And finally, more happy, hero type pictures:

[img]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a7/safariman416/38380036_zps134eeb03.jpg[/img]

For size reference, I am 6'3" tall, I weigh in at 250, and this bear was and is a lot bigger than me. Meat is in the freezer, rug mount should be finished this month some time.

It had been a couple of years since I shot a bear, I had not felt like going but with this scenario I was able to make a hunt work out. I am still pretty thrilled with my fair chase, no bait or hounds bear, and by far my largest black bear. Right at 19 inches of skull, squared. I will let you all guess his live weight, I only know for sure it was a LOT. Jim and I could bbear-ly ( ) budge him to set up the photos, and we are both ppretty muscular, strong guys, even though my joints hurt a lot.

Sorry it took so long to post these, They are from my I phone and I did not know how to get them into photobucket until very recently. Oh well, it was fun just now re living and telling the story! I hope you enjoyed it, as well.

MARK

love the bear retrieval rig.....80 some year old father in law keeps a roll of rope in his truck thats prolly atleast a half mile for pulling deer out of the deep coulees here......either he attaches a pulley to our truck if we are with him or a post if we are not, run the rope through the pulley, down to the deer and then drive down the road and up comes the deer....works best with three people but can be done with one.....

Damn nice bear Safariman, good shootin, looks like JJ knows where they hide.

Gunner

That is ANOTHER good way to do it! I have a small ATV winch in the back of my avalanche, but I have to get the dead creature close to the truck before it does me any good.

BTW, to any of the still capable folks here who might thinnk this is 'cheating' to winch out a bear, I have backpacked out a bunch of stuff, loved doing so, but physically just cannot make that happen any more. I am so very glad to have real freinds who make it possible for me to still hunt at all these days.

Nice pics and story.

It looks like 2 bears right there. LOL.

Thank you, and yes he sure does! He has hundreds of bears to his credit, or notched into his guns.

Great bear Mark! Great to see you still able to get after them!

to hell with cheating im crippled dammit.....plus if you do wind up out here for the Ice Breaker shoot you will see the coulees im talking about in places.....70* or greater and not even sagebrush to pull your self up with......can spend all day making a couple trips and risk hurting yourself or get the long rope....

Good to see. Long ways from the hospital. ;-{>8

Thank you! Now what was that song...

"I get by with a little help from my friends"

YEAH MAN! Much better to be out there with the bears than in the finest hospital in the world!

I got to go back to the horsepital in one week though. This time it is my turn to be the patient. Have high hopes of some relief and real help there at CTCOA. Maybe, hopefully, more and better hunting in the future.

Nice bear!! Good job man!

Ain't no cheating involved there. Some people are just still stronger than they are smart!

Turkey is right around the corner!

Thanks, amigo.

No Turkey hunintg for me, though, since I discovered the great fun of sitting in one spot and blasting away at spring ground squirrels until the barrels on the guns are too hot!

I gave away all my turkey hunting stuff after a couple of years of no use.

I'll bite... 550lbs.

How do ground squirrels taste?!?

If your up for it, I'm gonna spend a couple days over by Cle Elum. You'd be welcome in camp. I'lll even let ya use the 12ga with a pretty stock, I'll shoot the plastic one. Hah!

In those pics,that bear looks awfully Grizzly-ish. In the face at least. No?

Face is sho nuff pretty uglee, but no griz in these parts. Just a big headed, PHAT old black bear.

How close was my weight guess Mark?

One of the things I love most about them, nothing to clean, cook or have to eat! Just feeding the iggles and such.

Probably as close as mine would be! I really do not know for sure. No way to get him to a scale in that (realtively, for October) hot weather without risking meat and hair both.

You are probably in the right range.

This much I know, I was really GLAD to have my big 340 in my hands, as I would not have dared the shot with anything sub 30 caliber, and not many 30 cal's either. 300WBY, yeah, probably. 308? No way in heck! Not that I couldn't have hit him with a 308, but it was a lot EASIER to hit this beast with my big gun, and I had total confidence in its ability to anchor him with a decent hit. We do not always get to pick a broadside shot or a close enough shot for a little gun.