I spent two weekends in my hunting area.  Those weekends happened to be the last two weekends of Rifle season.  One thing that told me was where the deer were now, and if there were folks hunting an area, then it has produced in the past. 

Weekend of Oct 17

I left work Saturday at 1:00pm and arrived at my hunting area at 6:00 pm with about an hour of light left.  All the way up the road I saw hunting camps occupied.  I found a relatively flat spot and pulled off the road.  I was near the center of the area I was focusing on and it was apparent that the Rifle hunters focused on this area as well.  I had three camps within hearing distance, and I estimate about 50 hunters in those three camps.

My camp was pretty spartan.  A cot and sleeping bag, a roll up table, and a two burner propane stove.   Dinner was a can of soup, some French bread, and a cold Fat Tire amber ale.  The forcast was clear so I slept under the stars in my 30 degree rated Western Mountaineering Megalite down bag.   I did put it inside of a Ti Goat Bivy sac in case of a heavy dew or rain shower. 

In the morning I enjoyed a cup of coffee and a bowl of instant oatmeal as I waited for the sun to come up.  Since I’d never seen this ground before, I wanted to wait for daylight to drive the roads in the area and familiarize myself with the lay of the land.  My first foray was down to a trailhead that lead into a DEEP canyon.  After chatting with some other hunters I found another trail on the top of a ridge that I thought would give me a good view of the heart of the area I planned to hunt. 

I left my pack in the truck since I was just walking down the ridge.   I carried my rifle and a bear tag on the off chance that I spotted a bear.  By 9:00 am I spotted a bear feeding in a patch of oaks below me.  300 yards of hip high brush separated us.  The bear was oblivious since he was focused on feeding on the acorns that were falling like rain.  I tried to get him in the cross hairs, but the bear kept moving around the tree and feeding out of sight.  Twice, he fed around out of sight.  I had nothing for a good rest. 

Finally,  I found a low spot in the brush and took a knee when the bear fed out at 303 yards at a 19 degree down angle.  He turned broadside and the crosshairs danced over his shoulders.  I took a Deep Breath and….

JERKED THE TRIGGER!

The bullet kicked up the dirt behind and above the bear and I saw him wheel and dash into the trees.  I could hear his rhythmic stride and he busted through the brush headed to the deep and steep brushy draw below.  No bawl, no crash .  Just Thump-Crash, Thump-Crash getting further away.

And then the Fog rolled in.

At that point I decided to hike back to the truck and get my pack and wait for the fog to lift.  45 minutes later I was looking for the spot I fired from and eventually re-spotted the site of the shot.  I stepped off into the brush and fought my way down to the open oak patch.  A distinct bear trail lead through the oaks with bear scat every 6 feet along it.  I looked and found the tracks of my bear but no blood.  I did find a rodent chewed 3 point shed though.  After a Clif Bar and some jerky I fought my way through the brush to the top of the ridge.  That took me an hour to go 300 yards to the top of the ridge.  At that point I was glad I wasn’t weighed down by bear meat and a hide!

I spent the reminder of the day driving to lookout points and finding landmarks on the map.  I drove to the southern edge of the area my tag allowed me to hunt.  Doing that helped me to eliminate much of the area for a November hunt.  My one day of scouting had been worthwhile and I now had a knowledge base for the next weekend.

Cindy went on her first hound hunt near Porterville, CA this Fall and arrowed this black bear. Now Cindy has bow hunted in New Zealand, and across North America and she said that that bear chase was “Exciting, but kind of WILD!”

In related news, keep an eye out for Cindy in an upcoming issue of Eastmans Bowhunting Journal.  You may recognize the Elk….In fact in my latest issue of the Pope and Young Journal, it was on the back cover!

I’ve made some good friends through archery, running and online forums.  Rich is one of those.  We have hunted together, he has beat me in trail races, we have shot together, and we banter back and forth on Sage Creek Forums.   

Below is his epic saga.  A tale of overcoming obstacles to succeed, that even a motivational speaker would have a hard time topping. 

I set off for my 5 day adventure to the place I killed a bear a few years ago. I headed up the trail intending to reach my destination of 7 miles in time to hunt that evening. I don’t recall it being that tough, maybe I’m getting old, but it was a rough haul. I found the whole area burned, even where the stands of timber were still viable, the understory was taken out. That could bode well for the next few years, but I noticed there was no sign the whole way. Previously the trail was littered with bear tracks and scat, now the only track I came across was a big cat (I think).

I set up for the evening but spotted absolutely nothing, nor the next morning. I was pretty discouraged (and tired), but decided it was time to come out and relocate. When I made it out, I made camp at the trailhead and made a new friend. I left my UA heatgear shirt out and hunted out from camp. When I returned, I found the doe trying to make a meal of my shirt — yum, salty.

I got up the next morning and drove another couple of hours to another spot I wanted to check out. I’d not been in there before, but it looked promising, at least on paper. By the time I reached the trail head, I found to my dismay, the trail was closed that morning due to fire. I was starting to feel that I was the victim of a nasty conspiracy. Even so, I decided to take off in the other direction. No map, no idea of the kind of territory, nada. Up the trail, a bunch of weekend hikers were coming out, great, I thought, just what I need are tons of people around. Eventually I made it up to a ridgetop overlooking a small basin. I glassed it until late in the evening and it was not looking positive, no deer, no bears.

 

I decided to move my vantage point way around the other side and my mind starting wondering if I should just call it a trip. I hadn’t seen didly and it was frustrating me to no end. But I finally persuaded myself to stick it out and see if my luck might change.

I awoke to a gorgeous sunrise and set up to glass. After about an hour and a half, after spotting nothing but a small herd of cattle, I did a double take when a decent sized black bear appeared at the bottom of the basin. It was nearly shear faced at my location and it was going to take me a good 90 minutes to go back around and down to get in position, but the game was on. Packing up my gear, I slowly made my way around to a finger ridge that would take me down to where I thought the bear may be hanging out.

Once I reached the timber, I slowed myself down to still hunt mode and tried to keep the wind in my favor. Before long, I heard a buzzard fly up out of the forest floor. I thought there may be something dead in the area and went to check it out. As soon as I spotted the deer carcass, the bear that was guarding it spotted me and busted out. I stood there silently cussing, but I took out my camera and headed down to take a few snaps. I got 10 steps and the bear busted out again; it had come back and apparently wasn’t ready to give up its meal.

I worked my way back up the hill about 100 yards and sat down to wait for him to return again. I thought it would be an hour or two, but no more than 15 minutes passed before I heard the bear starting to drag the carcass through the brush. I removed my boots and sneaked down the hill. I side-hilled my way above the bear and suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of a bear woofing. I peered into the brush below me and saw the bear looking in my direction and woofed again. I couldn’t see its body clearly, but the head seemed big given the tiny ears. I was thinking this was the bear I spotted that morning. It didn’t appear that it would abandon the deer easily, and although it was only 25 yards away, I could not get a clear lane. After about 10 minutes the bear worked its way back to my left and started feeding again. I maneuvered my way left about 10 yards. There was a bright sun and the shadows were deep and, finally, the bear moved into a spot where there was a gap in the brush about the size of a pie plate with his vitals exposed – 20 yards. I decided to take the shot and settled my top pin in the middle of the gap where I thought was the sweet spot. I let off a smooth release and my arrow zipped through the gap to put the smack down on him.

He roared, did a few spins and took off. He crashed off through the brush and I kept a mark of the last location. After I went back up the hill to collect my things, I went back down to the shot location. Half of my arrow was laying on the ground. I tried to follow the trail, but it was torn up by him dragging the deer around. I searched and searched and found not a single drop of blood. Not good. So, I set out on a grid search to cover the whole basin if I had to, but it only took me an hour to find it.

The bear had definitely lost weight since I last saw it, ground shrinkage was severe. Turns out it was a sow, and not the bear I spotted earlier, about 175 – 180 lbs. The shot was not ideal, I put the FMJ400 with a Hellrazor broadhead right through its shoulder blade. The broken end of the arrow was sticking out and the broadhead ended up just at the edge of it’s chest and was still in perfect condition. Did the job, but it left nary a blood trail.

I was a little surprised at how small she was, but the best thing was I was only 50 yards from the trail. Suhweet.

If any trip convinced me of the value of not to giving up, this was it.

A black bear that had become accustomed to being around people and eating human related foods, such as bird seed and garbage, was euthanized by biologists on August 23.

The 10- to 12-year-old female bear had been trapped the previous day after it had shown a total loss of fear of people and had made numerous appearances at cabins in the Mack’s Inn area of Island Park.

The bear began its downward spiral when it was trapped by Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks in a campground in the Big Hole area of Montana. It was released in the Northern Centennial Mountains in Montana and worked its way over to Island Park. Numerous reports of the bear amongst human dwellings came in throughout July and August.

On August 13, the bear was positively placed in the Mack’s Inn neighborhood and paid subsequent visits to unprotect trash in the North Fork Subdivision area. On August 22, the bear appeared to become even less afraid of humans and was reported going through bird feeders and getting onto cabin decks in the area.

When bear biologists encountered the animal, it climbed a pine tree. The biologists placed three snares at the base of the tree. When they moved away, the bear climbed down and was caught in one of the snares.

The biologists then tranquilized the bear and placed it in a culvert trailer trap for security and transport. Because the bear was sporting numbered ear tags, biologists were able to establish its history in Montana.

The bear’s current behavior, coupled with its past relocation, meant that few options existed for the bear in the wild. Because it had shown no fear of humans, biologists could not guarantee human safety if the bear were released.

It is clear that repeated exposure to human related food was the reason this bear had to be put to death. Bear management agencies have an ongoing education program in the Island Park area, but it is ultimately the responsibility of individuals in the area to help prevent problems.

To learn more about living with bears visit www.igbconline.org.

In an attempt to salvage some benefit from this situation, the hide from this bear will be used as part of a bear education trailer that is being developed to educate the public about living and recreating safely in bear country.

My huntin’ buddy Kirk Edgerton is pretty well known for going into some remote country with a backpack and killing some magnum blacktails and black bears in the Northern California mountains. You have seen him here with some nice hogs and he has witnessed me missing a nice black bear on a late season bear hunt.

On the opening weekend of the 2009 season Kirk was fortunate enough to team up with Brent Miller, for a backpack hunt in a game rich area. Watch as the duo spot blacktails and bears from a high vantage point and try to stalk into bow range.

This is Western Hunting at it’s best. Keep an Eye out for more from the Relentless365 team in the future.

Trevon connected with this beautifully coated black bear in Ontario, Canada. I’m sure we will see this hunt on a future episode of Outback Outdoors.

Trevon writes:

Over bait, but not 55 gallon drum, they use onion sacks hung in a tree. I really like that and the video isn’t as cluttered as when shooting a bear coming to a trash can looking barrel.

Passed on numerous bears, actually one bigger than the one I killed (but it was the first night and they had a ton of trail cam pics of HUGE 350-400lb bears). My camera man and buddy Durk Stark (from Kicking Bears camps) actually killed a bear I passed on the first night and he ended up being a bigger than mine by about 20lbs. Mine has a beautiful white V on the chest (they call it a blaze).

From the Idaho Fish and game News release:

DNA is a powerful tool.

Preliminary results of saliva from one of the bite marks where a female grizzly bear bit a hunter on June 28 returned a match to a radio-collared grizzly with three cubs.

The hunter was one of three eastern Idaho black bear hunters who got an unpleasant surprise on the morning of June 28 when their hounds surrounded a female grizzly with cubs.

The bear took after the hunters, knocked down Keith Klingler, 38 of Idaho Falls, bit him on the right arm and tossed him around. His brother, Eric Klingler dug his .44-caliber Magnum handgun out of his pack and took a shot at the bear, deliberately firing high to avoid hitting his brother.

He may have missed or only inflicted a flesh wound. A scheduled Idaho Fish and Game grizzly bear monitoring flight in early July in the same area located the collared bear and her three young cubs. All four appeared fine, said Daryl Meints, regional wildlife manager for the Upper Snake Region of Idaho Fish and Game.

Keith Klingler was treated at Madison Memorial Hospital in Rexburg for lacerations to his right arm. He had no other apparent injuries.

The Klingler brothers and Corey Raichart, all three from the Idaho Falls area, were hunting black bears with hounds on Bishop Mountain near Harriman State Park. They released their hounds on a scent, and the dogs soon surrounded what the men thought was a black bear. When they arrived, they quickly realized they had a grizzly.

The hunters reported seeing two cubs with the female grizzly. None of them noticed whether the bear was wearing a radio-collar.

Fish and Game officials will continue weekly monitoring from the air, but they do not plan to track the bear on the ground unless they get a mortality signal. Officials also recommend that anyone heading into the backcountry carry bear spray.

A quick movie clip from  DJ Rankosky’s trail cam in Western Montana.  A Grizzly bear sow and cub.  

After a dry run earlier this spring, Kirk returned to Western Oregon and glassed clearcut units for spring black bear.

On the Second day of his hunt he spotted a bear feeding on grass on a clearcut 550 yards away. He moved in to 300 yards, took aim and the cartridge didn’t fire.

Expelling the bad round, I jacked in another one and settled in for the shot. The bear was at 308 yards, so I put the cross hairs just below his spine, at the shot, the bear turned quickly downhill and appeared to be hit hard. He ran into a small patch of brush and disappeared.

Putting another round in the gun, I looked up and saw the bear walking out of the brush pile, appearing to be unharmed as he continued to feed.

Aiming just at/over his spine, I touched off another shot and bear crumpled, sliding a few yards downhill. Coming to rest on a downed log.

Luckily the shot took out the bears heart. She was a younger sow, probably 3-5 years old, very healthy with a great coat. I’d say she went roughly 175lbs.

Although I was hunting alone, I had some great hospitality and hand drawn maps from one of the locals.

Well done Kirk!

WESTCLIFFE, Colo. – Memorial Day Weekend marks the traditional start to the camping season, and the Colorado Division of Wildlife reminds campers to be “bear aware” when enjoying the outdoors. Campers should keep their campsites clean to avoid attracting bears, or other wildlife.

Bears go into campgrounds because food is often available around tents, camp trailers, and dumpsters. The potential for conflicts increases when food brings bears and humans come into close contact.

“Bears are built to eat and their sense of smell is incredible,” explained Justin Krall, a district wildlife manager in the Westcliffe area. “They can smell food from miles away and they’ll travel to find it.”

In a natural setting, bears would just as soon avoid people, but bears that learn to associate humans with food begin to lose their natural fear of people. “Food Conditioned” bears are the most dangerous kind. They usually end up being euthanized.

“It is unfortunate, but bears get into trouble because humans leave food around,” Krall said.

“Bears are not naturally aggressive toward humans, they are actually very shy creatures,” Krall said. “However, bears are on a mission to find food. Campers need to take precautions to avoid problems for you and your family, but also for the campers who use the site after you. Do not leave food or garbage behind. Always pack out your trash.”

Here are a few tips for campers in bear country:
* Keep a clean site and clean up thoroughly after every meal;
* After grilling, allow the fire to continue until food scraps and grease are burned completely off the grill.
* Do not eat in your tent or keep food in your tent;
* Do not leave pet food outside for a long period of time. Any uneaten pet food should also be stored in a secure container.
* Store unused food and garbage in secure containers out of the reach of bears and away from your sleeping area;
* If you see a bear in a campground, report it to the local DOW office as soon as possible.
* If you come in close contact with a bear, talk to it firmly and make yourself look as large as possible. Back away slowly, but do not run.
* Teach children and others who might be unfamiliar with bears about bear safety.

For additional information on how the public can do their part to keep Colorado’s bears wild please visit the Division of Wildlife’s Living With Wildlife web page at http://wildlife.state.co.us/WildlifeSpecies/LivingWithWildlife/ and click on the “Living with Bears in Colorado” link.

For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.