kidso

I also shot my coati while javelina hunting. Ally's Taxidermy $360 last year.

Nice bears! Were all of them Arizona bears? I'd like to hear more about the bear shot at 8 feet. Did you call him in, or did you hit him over a water hole? The 70's photo is nostalgic.

Jet black...nice!

Sitting water that you have scouted out to have bear activity is a great bet to hedge...if you have the patience. I tried it and became bored out of my mind and started hitting the call again, my favorite mode of bear hunting.

My First Lion It was September 15, 2003, a day that I will long cherish as a favored memory. Not only was it the day that I tagged my first lion, but it was also the day that prompted a chain of events that led up to my wonderful marriage with my eternal Sweetheart. What started it all, you might ask? My passion for calling in Arizona bears with hand-held predator calls. A day earlier, I drove into the Sierra Anchas Mountains in my trusty aging metallic blue Chevy Astro van. Yes, I lacked a true four-wheel drive vehicle, but Old Bluey was built upon a truck chassis, so I felt somewhat secure in my adventure. With careful negotiating, I drove her in as far as I dared on the rugged two-track without losing an axle and pulled over into a small clearing just big enough to clear the roadway. I knew I had to hike in nearly eight additional miles to make it to the spot where I had glassed a black bear feeding in the prickly pear cactus one week earlier. Without skipping a beat, I donned my backpack, slung my beat-up Savage 30-.06 over my shoulder, and scurried further along the now washed-out two-track with anticipation flowing through my veins. Just as I rounded the bend in front of me, however, my heart rate plummeted, as I saw three individuals loading hunting gear on the front of their quads. As I approached them, with no intention of stopping, one of them asked me if I was out looking for bear. I politely responded that I was and wished them luck in their own hunting endeavors. As I tried to hustle on by, another competitor asked me if I wanted a ride. Instantly, I froze in my tracks. Now, that particular question --in itself-- was innocent enough. But, any acceptance of that offer would ultimately reveal the location of my secret hotspot…and that --in itself-- would border upon second-degree self-stupidity! Thus, I kindly declined and stated that I really didn’t have far to go and continued on my way. Within five minutes, the small caravan of brothers passed me at a moderate speed and baptized me in a cloud of swirling dust. Several hours and liters of water later, I rounded the final bend in the road to my secret hotspot and nearly did have a heat attack as I spotted all three of the good Samaritans propped up on the rocks, my rocks, glassing across the canyon to the prickly pear ridges stretching along the expanse. Being good sports, none of them asked me again how far in I was planning to hike and I quietly ate a piece of humble pie while climbing up on the rocks beside them. In retrospect, I think I actually devoured and nearly choked on the entire dessert over that one! After glassing the terrain with my new-found friends for nearly an hour, our conversation shifted to the discussion of what each individual thought we should do to maximize the upcoming evening hunting period. Each of the Samaritans suggested heading off to different areas to glass, while I proffered the idea that I would just stay put and attempt to call in a bear from one of the many canyons that fed into the area that we were glassing. The Brothers Three nearly laughed me off the rocks and had absolutely no faith in the idea that black bears could be called in with a rabbit-in-distress vocalization. Two of the brothers continued to ridicule me as they rode off on their quads in opposite directions from our location, while the third sat quietly, patiently waiting for his comrades to disappear. He then broke the silence by asking if I was serious about calling a bear in, and if calling for bears really does work. I simply smiled and replied that it would…as long as lady luck was with us! About an hour later, we took up positions on our rock outcropping and I began to wail away on my hand-held Tally-Ho. I squealed and squelched on that red, open-reed tantalizer with everything I had, and at about the forty minute mark…“BEAR!” “BEAR!” again repeated the lone gunman who remained with me while hastily pointing towards a ridge about 600 yards to our right. I continued to blast away and focused my eyes that direction and easily spotted the large chocolate bear coming down off the ridge towards us. He actually angled downwards and slunked onto the two-track I had hiked in on earlier that day. At that point, I began witnessing one of the most incredible sights I have ever observed. I paused in my calling and watched the boar reduce his speedy gait to a slow uninterested walk. However, when I began calling again, he immediately proceeded to swing his head side to side with an out-hanging tongue and quickly increased his pace to a steady lope. I was so intrigued by the bear’s response that I tried stopping and restarting my calling several times. Each time I did, Mr. Chocolate responded in tandem with changes in his own speed and interest. I was playing him like a fiddle! It was then that reality set in as we realized that Brother Number Two was also on the two-track, sitting on his quad and glassing off into another canyon completely oblivious of the mammalian threat that was quickly approaching him! We starting yelling at him and began jumping up and down waving our arms in an attempt to grab his attention...but alas, our efforts remained fruitless. The bear kept advancing along a transect that placed Number Two between the two of us, thus forfeiting any shot that we could safely take. Mr. Chocolate came to within 20 feet of the unsuspecting hunter before realizing that he just wasn’t hungry enough to try to pass the mass of machinery that was blocking his advance, so he angled upwards and disappeared among the ridges above us. Within five minutes, we were at Number Two’s side showing him the bear tracks in the dirt that nearly signaled his premature demise. Although he was more than shocked, Number Two began to transition into a true believer. For he too, like his brother, was now buying into the idea that a bear will respond to a human-induced predatory symphony. Well, we all regrouped within 10 minutes at the rock outcropping, due to the fading sunlight, and planned possible scenarios for calling in the bear at first light. Unfortunately, the Brothers Three were under the belief that the bear would continue uphill along the ridge and that we should make a stand along the back side of that ridge. I, however, felt impressed to believe that the bear would double back along the ridge and return to lower elevations on our current side. Thus, we had reached an impasse, and I as the caller refused to yield to their belief. We parted ways respectfully, after I gladly accepted their offer for a ride back to Old Bluey, fully knowing that we would be on opposite sides of the mountain in the morning. I could hardly sleep that night, anticipating the early hike to an area along the ridge where I felt that Mr. Chocolate might be bedded down. At 3:00 am, my wrist watch cried out way too early for my aching body, but my mind was sharp and eager to get the day started. I hiked out slowly and quietly, enjoying the unseasonably warm air for that time of year and made my way to the general area where I wanted to execute my first stand. Because I carried no flashlight, I was a little unsure of my exact location, but I knew I was close enough to do some damage. Thus, I settled into a thicket of juniper bushes and propped my back against one of their thick trunks and waited for the welcoming dawn. When daylight first began peeking over the hills before me, I met it head on with a chorus of screams. At 22 minutes into the chorale, a dusky tan colored creature materialized without any warning just 15 feet in front of me. Due to the perfect alignment of its body, all I could was its face, with eyes staring directly at me. In a matter of microseconds, my life flashed before me as I simultaneously raised my ought-six to my shoulder and saw my reflection in the eyes of the lion morphing into steaming hotdogs. That’s when my rifle fired and everything went blank. It went blank because I must have blinked or momentarily closed my eyes when I instinctively squoze the trigger. When I opened my eyes, the wild feline was gone without a trace. I sat there shaking in my boots due to a mixture of adrenaline, shock, and fear. Reality returned after a brief moment and I ejected the spent round and chambered another 180 grain bruiser. I walked over to where the lion had sat facing me and searched the ground for any sign of blood. At the 20 foot mark, I spotted a strange sight --large golf-ball sized chunks of reddish material lying on the ground with a composite volume of about two cups. Strangely, however, there was not a single drop of blood mixed in with the organic goulash. After closer examination, I believed the material to be slightly digested prickly pear fruits, which was even stranger, as lions are strictly carnivores and wouldn’t touch a cactus pear with a four-foot tail! A feeling of despair soon set in and my heart began to hurt as I assumed that my shot had not actually hit the lion, but struck the ground near it, causing the cougar to vomit out its stomach contents as it leapt away in fear. Dejectedly, I donned my daypack and started hiking away from my stand when that little voice deep inside me whispered to go back and look around a little bit longer. After all, it was a lion that I had shot at, not some small fox or coyote. Thus, I returned to the spot of organic mush and started circling in ever-widening patterns, when much to my astonishment, I found a single drop of blood about 70 yards away on a small stone. At that point I dropped to my belly and scrutinized the ground intently, looking for any sign that my lion had passed through that direction. Sure enough, I was able to find a bent blade of grass, a moved pebble, and a scratch in the soil. So I continued onwards on my hands and knees for the next two-hours, literally crawling along a low-lying ridge following the sign that I was finding, which still had not yielded another drop of blood. The escape trail was leading me under the low-hanging limbs of yet another widespread juniper, so I dropped all the way down on my belly and slithered like a snake to stay directly on the sign when I heard a loud HISS a few feet away from me. I instantly recoiled and lifted my head upwards and banged it on the tree limbs when another HISS sounded out. I froze and turned my head sideways to see the lion about six feet away from me on the opposite side of the same juniper! It was lying on its side with its jaws agape and its eyes fixated on me. It was then that I noticed its insides hanging out of its belly. I was petrified and exhilarated all at once, but was unable to raise my rifle in the tight space in which I was confined. Thus, I reached to my side and retrieved my .38 special from its holster and sent one round flying into the chest of the beast. It may have moved a few inches with the ballistic impact, but the lion never made it out from under the tree. It expired before my eyes! My first thought was, “Boy am I glad that I listened to my inner voice and came back to investigate the stand one more time!” My second thought was, “If I had only bagged that bear last night, I could have tagged both species back to back!” And my third and final thought was, “It’s getting warm and I need to gut this cat quickly and start the long hike back to my Astro!” Well, to wrap the story up, I made it back to Old Bluey with the lion on my back, skinned her out, and boned the meat. I determined that my initial 180-grain bullet entered the cat in its front chest beneath the rib cage and opened her up like a zipper before exiting near the bottom of her belly. I think the red cactus pieces were actually liver chunks or parts of some other organ that the bullet dissected along its lateral trajectory. And what does any of this have to do with my beautiful wife and marriage? Well, at this point in my life, I was interested in seriously pursuing one of three women in the dating world. So I contacted all three of them with the information that I had just tagged a lion and asked if they would be interested in seeing any pictures of it. Well, bachelorette number one responded with the rage of a tsunami and blasphemed me for taking the life of a poor little helpless animal. Bachelorette number two refused to talk with me any more after that fateful day. And bachelorette number three stated that she wouldn’t mind viewing the photographs, as long as they weren’t too bloody. So, can you guess which one became the Mrs. and wears a matching wedding band with engraved mountain lions?

I guess you won't have to put up with that pesky bear next year! Good job! What day and time did you harvest him?

Weight is probably the toughest thing to assess on a bear, as it can only be done if you have perfect access to the bear and can get him to a scale, which is a joke, as one would want to gut and skin it before any kind of transport. That being stated, Al LeCount our infamous state bear biologist for years had a paper published that showed a strong correlation between the circumference of a bear around its chest and its body weight (not sure if it was his own work or if he borrowed that tool from someone else). Thus, one can get a decent weight estimate if you measure the bear's chest circumference in the field with a tape before gutting and skinning it. Using "weight" as a tool, a good bear is arguably one over 250. A big bear might go 300. A great bear could be 350 plus. Anything over 400 is likely a trophy beast. I've tagged three bears and had a tape in my pack each time, but never measured a single bear due to the excitement and the rush to get it gutted and skinned.

About 20 years when I shot my first Arizona black bear, I too knew nothing about skull size or measurements, but went to get the skull "scored" as a buddy at college kept asking me to have it measured. While talking with the scorer, he was intially impressed with the skull size and after I mentioned that it was my first bear he made the comment that most hunters will go their entire hunting career without getting a bear over 18 inches. I don't know how true that is, but that was based on his own experience as an official scorer. So, if skull size is the only "criteria" to consider here, then an 18 inch skull would be an impressive skull and as stated earlier, 20 inches will make the books. I had no idea that the measurement was simply calculated by adding up the length and width of the skull (top part; not the lower jaw). It is also interesting to note that if the outer curve of the skull's eye socket is missing from being shot out (this affects the skull width measurement), for example, then the measurement can only be made to the edge of the existing bone fragment and can not be extrapolated to where the missing bone would likely have been.

Get in there and harvest that lion before it eats up all the little piggies! Call that guy out and tag him!

Sweet. Go in there and get him!

Good job on the bear. Packing it out has to about kill you to make the adventure super rewarding! Way to finish it.

Here's a few more pics from my 23N game cams. I was hoping that my cams had not been destroyed or stolen...and they were fine. Had a few non-hunters on there too, but they just looked into my bucket and nothing more.

I have no idea if elk picture number one shows a break or not. I think picture 2 and 3 are the same bull and he might have a small antler tip broken off on the right side. I know little to nothing about bull elk as I have only ever hunted cows. I thought it was a cool elk picture in photo one, as I thought the bull was sniffing the female to see if she was ready to ovulate. I can post another pic or two of that photo a few seconds later and it may reveal a broken antler piece. Another kind of funny thing was that I took my laptop into the field to check my trail cams, as half the time I can not review my pics on a hand held digital camera. Anyways, I did find two hikers at one cam and they were respectful, and I think they never even saw the cam. When I got down to my LAST picture, however, I saw three hunters in camouflage who were doing some crazy dance ---for they realized they were on a trail cam. I thought that it was a respectful thing for them to do, acting silly versus vandalizing or stealing the cam. And then it hit me like a brick thrown into my head...those three crazy guys were us checking the cams! AND we were not doing a CRAZY dance! That pic is simply how we were snapped as we were moving in on the camera! Thus, if you ever see some crazy guy on your trail cams in camouflage doing a weird dance, think twice, as that WEIRD may actually be his NORMAL! My buddy and his son went up into 23N on Thursday to bear hunt. I joined them Friday night and we checked the cams. On stand one, Saturday morning, I called in a dark, dark brown colored bear. We were on one ridge of a small bowl and he was on the other. Only about 200 yards separated us, but he was into the oaks between us before my buddy's son could get off a shot. The bear was spotted at 19 minutes into the call. After 45 minutes, father and son went into the thickets looking for him, but the bear must have picked up something in the air, as it was swirling in the bowl. Stands two through four produced nothing and the fun time ended with a Powerade.

I have milk and Cocoa Puffs in the bucket. Actually, it is just water I scooped up from the creek with some twigs and leaves. The bear was not interested in either the water nor the mineral lick. He seemed to be interested in sniffing around where my rifle and back pack had been laid. When I came back today to get my trail cams, there was about four inches of water left in each of my buckets and it was a dark brown nearly black color. I'm not sure why? Maybe the elk backwash or something and it concentrates over time? I'll throw up a few elk photos that I also got on trail cams.

I checked my trail cams today in 23N. Had some cool bulls, does, and a bear on one cam, and received this surprise on the other cam!

Nice lion and bear. Wish you had a full body bear shot of that guy!

Those three that came closest to me were very pesky and did hang around. Other foxes that stoped around the 20-50 foot range took off and never came back, but the close ones didn't need much encouragement to hang around. They would pop up in bushes or on rocks and bark and me and circle partially around me and bark again...move to another vantage point and bark some more... and after a few minutes they finally left. They must be extra hungry, extra naive, or extra prideful when they come in that close that they end up sticking around a bit longer after being tricked. Who knows for certain? I'll let you know. I'm out tomorrow after work and a half day Saturday to check trail cams. I'll blow a few stands and see what comes in. I'll take the 12 gauge along in case a cat comes a-looking!

I've had that happen to me three times. Once the fox actually made contact with my boots before running off. A second time, I hit it with the stock of my rifle. The final time I threw a stick at it when I spotted it racing towards me. I was calling for bear and was not going to waste a shot on a fox. Two out of three times, the fox hung around for several minutes and gave me the obnoxious fox bark, which may have scared other predators away or alerted them to somehting suspicious in the area. Foxes make me nervous when they are around and I fear having to receive rabies shots. Now, I always place a few nice throwing rocks next to me before I ever start to call!

Nice job on the bear! That must have been the neatest thing to see that bear UP in the oak tree. I have seen broken branches high in the oaks and in a few other tree species, but have never seen a bear feeding up in the air. Neat expereince! What unit did you tag the sow? I almost forgot to ask, but do you have any sideways photos that you can post to show more of its color pattern from that angle? In picture 1, I can see a neat black patch on the hair, but wish you had a photo showing the bear's side to better reveal that pattern.

Yup. I recognize the blonde bears frolicking now that I see them. You have a nice place. I wonder how often the bears and lions take out the cattle. Reminds me of an area in 24A where three cattle were taken down in 10 days by bear. Wish I could get out there. Are you hunting your area for bear at all?

Thanks for posting the day bear pics. Did you measure any front pad widths in the mud?

Sweet bear. Is he a chocolate color? Can you post a daylight picture of that bear?

I trapped my spotted skunk the first three times with 9-Lives catfood from a can and the 4th magical time with a half-monster taco from Jack-in-the-Box, as I had forgotten my bait that day and had to sacrifice part of my lunch!

I have four of them and love them, but probably because I have never had anything better than them. I get between three and four weeks of pictures with the Duracell batteries from Costco. The pictures might be a tad blurry or over exposed some of the time, but I am used to it. I just like to see things on the disc. I had one camera that was sensitive if the batteries shifted slightly and it did not take any pictures. Every now and then for whatever random reason, I have had discs that could not be read in the field by my picture camera so I had to take the discs home to view them on my computer. But for $50, I have left cameras in the field all winter long and through the spring and have gone back to pick them up in the summer. Yes, they were long dead, but they still worked after putting fresh batteries in them again.

Nice spotted skunk. I once trapped one in a live trap about 20 years ago. I caught him three days in a row and told myself that if caught him again a 4th time, then it would be his destiny to become a mount. At the time, I was busy in grad school, so I threw him in the freezer and left him there for about 8 years. Needless to say, I actually HIT the scent sack while skinning him out with a slip of the scalpel and the beast sprayed me after being frozen for 8 years!!!! Yes, he may have been dead, but he certainly got the last laugh!! I'll post a photo of him in the taxidermy section for fun in a day or two. By the way, any more pics of the black bear?