copy and pasted from HuntingBC.ca, to share with fellow Gun Nutzerz
well we got back late last night from an eventful trip
arrived 10pm Saturday night, got camp set up. Hunted Sunday from around 10am to dark. Saw two small blackies
not long after seeing that black bear we came to a spot where some blowdown fell across the road and since we had no powersaw we decided to head down the road on foot and check out to see how things looked
about 20 minutes hike from the quads we come around the bend and my hunting partner said "there's a bear!" I look up expecting to see a small black bear in the ditch ahead but my eyes see a hulking brown mass about 300 yards down the road. I raise my binocs and see the most amazing and impressive sight I have ever seen hunting. A HUGE hulking boar grizz the color of a chocolate lab is waddling down the road towards us, oblivious to our presence. The wind was perfect, in our face, so we sat down and I chambered a round. We decided my partner is to take the shot as he spotted it (we all had LEH)
The bear is about 250 yards out and getting closer with every pigeon toed step. Once he got to 200 yards or so he stepped off the road and into the trees. I told my partner to hold off the shot as he will come back to the road. Sure enough I see a spruce tree begin to dance as the bear rubs himself on it. We take this opportunity to close some distance on him and get about 30 yards closer, then the tree stops shaking and out he comes. The tree must of felt good as he turned around and headed back. We readied ourselves for the shot, and he soon stepped back out at a range of about 150 yards.
He is standing broadside facing the right, and my partner lets fly with his 300 Win Mag (180 grain Winchester Supreme Elite Xp3 ammo), going for a shot right behind the front legs. The bear lets out a roar and begins to spin himself onto the road, biting at his left side (exit side). As he slows his spin I crank him with the 8mm Rem Mag (200 grain Triple Shocks @ 3000 f/s) and at the shot he turns to the right and launches himself into the ditch and into the trees, as my partner lets a hail mary running shot go as he is swallowed up by the bush.
We listen and hear nothing, wait 15-20 minutes and head up to the spot where we last seen him. We find his tracks in the snow and begin to follow carefully on high alert. The blood is pretty decent and even in spots where the snow was melted, it was still easy to follow his path. After we tracked him downhill for 300 yards we began to get worried that maybe he wasnt hit as well as we'd thought.
700-800 yards down the trail (still steady blood) we're down on the river bottom. The bear then turned and followed the base of the mountain for about 1KM, taking us through every nasty piece of creek bottom and swamp that he could. We finally lost his trail 2 hours and almost 2km into the trail when he crossed a creek and we couldnt find the blood anywhere after a long search. The last 500y or so the trail was getting harder to follow, due to lack of snow and less bloood.
It was almost 7pm and we had a 2 hour hike back to the road so we had to abandon the search.
It was extremely disheartening to say the least, for both of us. It was unbelievable the distance and ground he covered with that much blood loss. For 1.5 km he bleed every 5 feet, enough that a guy could follow the trail at a near walking pace. Absolutely amazing endurance. The bullet must of just grazed the vitals as a good hit to the heart lungs would result in a dead bear within 500 meters at the most, you'd think...
the next two days were spent covering other areas in our zone, we found a sow grizz with 2 cubs (no pics sorry) and in total we saw 10 black bears in 3 days
here's some pics
well I can only speak for myself but I am very very upset with the ways things played out. A part of me believes the grizzly is still out there, probably in a very pissy mood, but another part of me believes he finally ran out of steam and holed up in some nasty creek bottom, waiting and watching his back trail, waiting for us, now stiff as a board never to be found.
I'll be able to head out for one more 3 day hunt before the season closes, 2nd week in June.
The grizz had a seven inch front track and according to what I read that would make him roughly 8 foot? Id guesstimate him to weigh around 500-600 lbs and stand about 3.5' at the shoulder when on all fours. Like I said I will never forget that sight
Update 2 weeks later - 2nd trip
The morning of the first day we headed back to the area where we had shot the big boar 2 weeks ago.
Here's the spot where it all happened. Shot was taken from where the pic is taken from, the bear was about 145 yards down the road in the left ditch
We checked out the tree he was rubbing himself on the day we shot him, and HE IS ALIVE . There was a fresh bite mark in the tree and more chocolate brown hair stuck in the bark. This tree has been visited a ton over the years as there was pad tracks in the moss worn in from years of stepping in the same spot on his way to the tree
We made a plan to come back and walk this road at first light on day 2
we got up early at 6 and made the 90 min ride from camp to the spot. The road goes through a swamp and rising water levels have the water 6" over the road, but we make it in no problem.
We hiked in to the end of the road but it turned out to be a dead end. We backtracked and tried the other side of the river, and saw a few black bear but no grizz sign.
We headed back to camp around 4pm for a late lunch and a rest before heading out at 7pm for an evening hunt in the next drainage over from our morning spot. Water levels are even higher, and we're pushing water with the front bumper of the F350. Sadly we cannot return to this drainage due to the flood.
view of the "road" behind us
We head out in evening and spot a nice bull moose in the cut below the road.
We split up at 9pm and I headed down the road and my partners headed up a clover choked road leading to the top of a cut. All I saw was an old cow moose but my partners had three grizzly within 50 yards of them, feeding in the edge of the cut. Sow w/ 2 cubs all silvertips
the next morning we are almost into our zone around 8am when we round a bend and two grizz are on the road. They are smaller so we believe them to be cubs, but no sow in sight. Minutes later out she limps and they slowly walk away down the road. It seems sometime in the past she has been shot, as with each step she limps pretty good. This is about 30km from where the sow w/ 2 cubs we spotted the night before so doubtful they are the same bears
by 9am we had seen 3 grizz and 4 black bear and a couple moose
temperature was +33 but nice and breezy. Pretty brutal midday hunting conditions so we got back to camp and had some food and a couple hour snooze.
We headed out to check out a road we hadnt been down yet in our travels and we see some nice country. We come around a corner and two smaller grizz are on the road, both bolt for the timber. Another sow & cub. We see four more black bear and find a grizzly killed elk. A young bull judging by the skull, and we recover one of its whistle teeth.
No more time off to hunt this spring before the season closes on the 15th.
I had a great time the six days we got to spend in the area. In total we saw 12 grizzly and approx 25 black bear. I am also very relieved to know the boar we shot has managed to survive and continue on with his routine. I will keep hunting this area in the years to come and hopefully will cross paths again.
TB
well we got back late last night from an eventful trip
arrived 10pm Saturday night, got camp set up. Hunted Sunday from around 10am to dark. Saw two small blackies
not long after seeing that black bear we came to a spot where some blowdown fell across the road and since we had no powersaw we decided to head down the road on foot and check out to see how things looked
about 20 minutes hike from the quads we come around the bend and my hunting partner said "there's a bear!" I look up expecting to see a small black bear in the ditch ahead but my eyes see a hulking brown mass about 300 yards down the road. I raise my binocs and see the most amazing and impressive sight I have ever seen hunting. A HUGE hulking boar grizz the color of a chocolate lab is waddling down the road towards us, oblivious to our presence. The wind was perfect, in our face, so we sat down and I chambered a round. We decided my partner is to take the shot as he spotted it (we all had LEH)
The bear is about 250 yards out and getting closer with every pigeon toed step. Once he got to 200 yards or so he stepped off the road and into the trees. I told my partner to hold off the shot as he will come back to the road. Sure enough I see a spruce tree begin to dance as the bear rubs himself on it. We take this opportunity to close some distance on him and get about 30 yards closer, then the tree stops shaking and out he comes. The tree must of felt good as he turned around and headed back. We readied ourselves for the shot, and he soon stepped back out at a range of about 150 yards.
He is standing broadside facing the right, and my partner lets fly with his 300 Win Mag (180 grain Winchester Supreme Elite Xp3 ammo), going for a shot right behind the front legs. The bear lets out a roar and begins to spin himself onto the road, biting at his left side (exit side). As he slows his spin I crank him with the 8mm Rem Mag (200 grain Triple Shocks @ 3000 f/s) and at the shot he turns to the right and launches himself into the ditch and into the trees, as my partner lets a hail mary running shot go as he is swallowed up by the bush.
We listen and hear nothing, wait 15-20 minutes and head up to the spot where we last seen him. We find his tracks in the snow and begin to follow carefully on high alert. The blood is pretty decent and even in spots where the snow was melted, it was still easy to follow his path. After we tracked him downhill for 300 yards we began to get worried that maybe he wasnt hit as well as we'd thought.
700-800 yards down the trail (still steady blood) we're down on the river bottom. The bear then turned and followed the base of the mountain for about 1KM, taking us through every nasty piece of creek bottom and swamp that he could. We finally lost his trail 2 hours and almost 2km into the trail when he crossed a creek and we couldnt find the blood anywhere after a long search. The last 500y or so the trail was getting harder to follow, due to lack of snow and less bloood.
It was almost 7pm and we had a 2 hour hike back to the road so we had to abandon the search.
the next two days were spent covering other areas in our zone, we found a sow grizz with 2 cubs (no pics sorry) and in total we saw 10 black bears in 3 days
here's some pics
well I can only speak for myself but I am very very upset with the ways things played out. A part of me believes the grizzly is still out there, probably in a very pissy mood, but another part of me believes he finally ran out of steam and holed up in some nasty creek bottom, waiting and watching his back trail, waiting for us, now stiff as a board never to be found.
I'll be able to head out for one more 3 day hunt before the season closes, 2nd week in June.
The grizz had a seven inch front track and according to what I read that would make him roughly 8 foot? Id guesstimate him to weigh around 500-600 lbs and stand about 3.5' at the shoulder when on all fours. Like I said I will never forget that sight
Update 2 weeks later - 2nd trip
The morning of the first day we headed back to the area where we had shot the big boar 2 weeks ago.
Here's the spot where it all happened. Shot was taken from where the pic is taken from, the bear was about 145 yards down the road in the left ditch
We checked out the tree he was rubbing himself on the day we shot him, and HE IS ALIVE . There was a fresh bite mark in the tree and more chocolate brown hair stuck in the bark. This tree has been visited a ton over the years as there was pad tracks in the moss worn in from years of stepping in the same spot on his way to the tree
We made a plan to come back and walk this road at first light on day 2
we got up early at 6 and made the 90 min ride from camp to the spot. The road goes through a swamp and rising water levels have the water 6" over the road, but we make it in no problem.
We hiked in to the end of the road but it turned out to be a dead end. We backtracked and tried the other side of the river, and saw a few black bear but no grizz sign.
We headed back to camp around 4pm for a late lunch and a rest before heading out at 7pm for an evening hunt in the next drainage over from our morning spot. Water levels are even higher, and we're pushing water with the front bumper of the F350. Sadly we cannot return to this drainage due to the flood.
view of the "road" behind us
We head out in evening and spot a nice bull moose in the cut below the road.
We split up at 9pm and I headed down the road and my partners headed up a clover choked road leading to the top of a cut. All I saw was an old cow moose but my partners had three grizzly within 50 yards of them, feeding in the edge of the cut. Sow w/ 2 cubs all silvertips
the next morning we are almost into our zone around 8am when we round a bend and two grizz are on the road. They are smaller so we believe them to be cubs, but no sow in sight. Minutes later out she limps and they slowly walk away down the road. It seems sometime in the past she has been shot, as with each step she limps pretty good. This is about 30km from where the sow w/ 2 cubs we spotted the night before so doubtful they are the same bears
by 9am we had seen 3 grizz and 4 black bear and a couple moose
temperature was +33 but nice and breezy. Pretty brutal midday hunting conditions so we got back to camp and had some food and a couple hour snooze.
We headed out to check out a road we hadnt been down yet in our travels and we see some nice country. We come around a corner and two smaller grizz are on the road, both bolt for the timber. Another sow & cub. We see four more black bear and find a grizzly killed elk. A young bull judging by the skull, and we recover one of its whistle teeth.
No more time off to hunt this spring before the season closes on the 15th.
TB
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but $hit does happen no matter what some higher-than-thou's say 
