First bear hunt, went with a few buddies with the plan to use dogs and maybe some spot and stalk.
Long story short is we went to a harvest objective unit that was incredible country (North Slope unit), we saw hundreds of deer and elk along with several moose and turkey, however bear sign was minimal.
We only cut 4 tracks in 4 days, dogs never picked up a strong scent.
Mornings we drove around rigging with dogs on trucks, late morning / lunch time hunts were hiking canyons with dogs, and evenings were hiking / glassing canyons.
Long days, daylight was 5am to 9pm.
Fortunately, we did turn up a single bear cross canyon and I got into position quickly and single shot with 300 WM put her down. Bear was quartering away and turned back to look at us as we whistled, standing on an upward slope. Entered middle of middle on right side and exited the chest. Instantly dead, hammers worked as advertised…finding several petals under the hide.
Took us about 2.5 to 3 hours to get to the bear with a raging river between us, had to hike back to truck and drive across bridge then hike to her on the cliff face.
It was a small female bear with no cubs, likely 2 to 3 years old. Weight was around 100 lb with zero body fat. My buddy who is experienced bear hunting said he has never seen a bear so lean. Beautifully blonde thick coat with no rubs, likely had only been out of the den a week or less.
We also ran across a mountain lion on at sunset, ran and got the dogs and tracked it for a while until it got too dark to see.
Hiked about 50 miles, thousands of feet of elevation in beautiful country.
Long story short is we went to a harvest objective unit that was incredible country (North Slope unit), we saw hundreds of deer and elk along with several moose and turkey, however bear sign was minimal.
We only cut 4 tracks in 4 days, dogs never picked up a strong scent.
Mornings we drove around rigging with dogs on trucks, late morning / lunch time hunts were hiking canyons with dogs, and evenings were hiking / glassing canyons.
Long days, daylight was 5am to 9pm.
Fortunately, we did turn up a single bear cross canyon and I got into position quickly and single shot with 300 WM put her down. Bear was quartering away and turned back to look at us as we whistled, standing on an upward slope. Entered middle of middle on right side and exited the chest. Instantly dead, hammers worked as advertised…finding several petals under the hide.
Took us about 2.5 to 3 hours to get to the bear with a raging river between us, had to hike back to truck and drive across bridge then hike to her on the cliff face.
It was a small female bear with no cubs, likely 2 to 3 years old. Weight was around 100 lb with zero body fat. My buddy who is experienced bear hunting said he has never seen a bear so lean. Beautifully blonde thick coat with no rubs, likely had only been out of the den a week or less.
We also ran across a mountain lion on at sunset, ran and got the dogs and tracked it for a while until it got too dark to see.
Hiked about 50 miles, thousands of feet of elevation in beautiful country.
