First Vancouver Island black bear down

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stickhunter

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I went out on Sunday for my first blackbear hunt and brought along a friend who'd never hunted before. Unfortunately, work's been taking up my time, so yesterday was the first and only time we'd be out this spring (season ended June 15). We arrived in the area (South Vancouver Island) about 8am and started up some logging roads. We saw lots of scat, but only one pile that was fresh. After a couple of hours of driving and scouting, we parked the truck and walked down a spur road. We'd been observing a cut block for about 10 minutes when a bear appeared about 30 yds below us. It had been tucked in a gully and we only saw it when it climbed up over a ridge and dropped into another gully --- lesson learned, it pays to observe an area even if it appears to be clear.

The bear was moving down the slope away from us, so I moved further along the road to try and get a view from the side, and we kept an eye out for any cubs or other bears -- nothing. The bear had now moved further down the slope and paused on the edge of another ridge when I decided to take a quartering away shot. To my relief, the bear dropped on the spot and was immediately dead. The bullet entered from above and behind the left shoulder blade and exited from the lower right chest. The shoulder was untouched and only a small portion of the neck meat was lost to damage.

The bear was a sow. I'm not sure of weight, but the two of us were able to move her 5 yds onto a log where we did the field dressing and packed the quarters up the slope. All told, we ended up with 45 lbs of boneless stewing meat plus the ribs and backstraps. Not having grown up in hunting families, my friend and I would have been very happy with just having seen the bear signs and spending the day in the woods, so the bear was icing on the cake. Being my friend's first time hunting, and my first time actually pulling the trigger on big game, made the day even more special for us.








This is me and my friend's mother-in-law doing some butchering. His family was thrilled with the bear meat and have already cooked up the ribs in a Chinese ginger sauce, which they all enjoyed --- I can't say enough how satisfying it is to provide quality, fresh food for my friends and family.

 
What gun and bullet weight did you use?
How far up the Island did you go?
Congrats on your success and a quick little tip too is to listen for those bigger fatter bears lumbering around those slashes in the woods.
they sound like fat old men huffing and puffing while climbing up and around logging slashes ;)
Dont ask me how I know what they sound like please .
Good Job and enjoy.
Rob
 
superb. Nothing like your first. I have killed many big game animals but I got my first bear a few weeks ago. It's a different kind of thrill for sure. I'm letting mine sit in the freezer for 30 days before trying the meat.
 
Thanks for kind words, guys. I feel thankful to have gotten out and shared the day with my friend, and to pass on a little of the knowledge that I'd learned from hunting with others.

FLHCUI, since we only had the one day to hunt, we stuck to Sooke/Pt. Renfrew area. The short drive allowed us to leave Victoria at 4:45am and make it to our main hunting area by 7:45am, with a few stops to explore in between.

As for the rifle, it was a bog standard Remington 700 XCR2 in 30-06 shooting Federal blue box 180gr bullets and mounted with a Leupold FX3 6x42. Can't get more standard or boring than that! I was originally planning to take a Marlin 30-30, but given my limited time this spring, I was only able to get to the range a few times and never got comfortable/confident enough with that rifle. I had the 30-06 already sighted in with the Federals, so although it was more bullet than needed, the rifle was ready-to-go without a second thought.

Ardent, as much as I wanted to try out the new 416, it was the same story --- I just haven't spent enough time with that rifle to use for hunting. As I was slipping down the slash with the Remington, I was also glad that I had a rifle who's finish I didn't have to worry about. Truth-be-told, I'm finding myself drawn more-and-more to really learning one rifle and using it for most of my hunting. I've found myself torn between enjoying time at the range with a variety of firearms and spending time in the woods hunting, and like many, I find myself without enough time to do both.

Hunting is why I got interested in firearms, and it's what's given me the most satisfaction, although I do it so infrequently. I realize now how important and enjoyable it is, so I think I'm going to really make it a focus of my firearms hobby. That won't mean I stop enjoying collecting rifles, but just that I need to make sure that hunting and having a rifle that I can confidently take out of the safe and use at a moment's notice don't get lost amongst my other interests.

Good eye on those banana leaves! Those sticky rice wraps were actually part of our hunting snacks, but now that you mention it, I'll ask my friend if he can make some up with a couple of cubes of bear meat. I bet they'd be delicious (as if they needed any more help!)
 
stickhunter said:
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Cool story, good job! Judging by the color of the grass in the background, you guys are in dire need of rain!
 
Congratulations. Glad to hear another successful hunting story. But the truth is, black bear hunting in vancouver island is getting more difficult each year. 4 years ago, I can see black bears every time I hunted at port Alice. But this year, we spent two days driving on logging roads from holberg to the end of the ocean beach, only saw one cub. Bears scats were scarce. The same road I saw bear scats all over the road two years ago, nothing left on the road. We walked on different spur roads, nothing!
It is hard to explain, more hunters had taken too many bears or bears suddenly decided to hide in forests?
 
Congratulations stickhunter... that bear will be a memory not soon forgotten. My first big game animal was also a bear, taken with a homemade self bow... almost four decades ago... it is the one that I remember most clearly. Bear meat is excellent table fare when handled properly, and it looks like you did a good job with it...
 
elker said:
Congratulations. Glad to hear another successful hunting story. But the truth is, black bear hunting in vancouver island is getting more difficult each year. 4 years ago, I can see black bears every time I hunted at port Alice. But this year, we spent two days driving on logging roads from holberg to the end of the ocean beach, only saw one cub. Bears scats were scarce. The same road I saw bear scats all over the road two years ago, nothing left on the road. We walked on different spur roads, nothing!
It is hard to explain, more hunters had taken too many bears or bears suddenly decided to hide in forests?
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Which is funny because I was in that same area this year and saw tons of scat up and down every road I went and took two bears in half an hour (shot the second while I was still dressing out and skinning the first) and saw two more bears on top of that all in a 12 hour period.
Oh and congrats OP on your first bear of many to come I'm sure.
 
Zanelike said:
Which is funny because I was in that same area this year and saw tons of scat up and down every road I went and took two bears in half an hour (shot the second while I was still dressing out and skinning the first) and saw two more bears on top of that all in a 12 hour period.
Oh and congrats OP on your first bear of many to come I'm sure.
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We were there on 13th and 14th. No scats, nothing. From Holberg, to ronning Rd and other branch roads. When were you there? I understand bears like to move, but to have seen so little scats in those good old areas is not normal.
 
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