My first bear hunt

[capoeirajosh]

Man, was I excited for this!! My first bear hunt! I got up to our camp Thursday afternoon with loads of anticipation for the next morning. I could barely sleep that night, haha. My alarm goes off at 3:30 a.m. and I jump out of my sleeping bag like it was on fire. By 4:45 I was in my glassing/calling spot. 10 minutes into calling, I hear something barreling down the hill towards me. My blood started pumping so fast. The noise stopped, so I started calling again. I hear the thing again!! Still didn't get a look at what it was though and I never did. The wind was awful that morning, so I figured it winded me. At my next stand of the morning I had a hawk try and swoop down on me!! Man, those predator calls really work! He thought breakfast was waiting for him on top of the mountain, haha. Still no sign of bears. I move to my next stand and nothing. On the way to my 4th I hear something behind me. Turns out I was being followed by a fox! Little bugger ran away once I turned around and looked at him. By this time it is about noon and hot, so I head back to camp to meet up with my partner for some lunch and coffee. Got back out by about 1:30/2:00. I did some more calling deeper in the canyons with no luck. At around 4:00 I decided to go have a look at the area where I have seen bear sign in the past few months. Turns out there was more! Didn't find one pile of scat or tracks. The only thing I was finding consistently was flipped rocks. So, now I want to hunt this area for the rest of the evening. Problem was, my buddy was set up on the way to where I would glass from for his archery deer hunt. I would have had to walk right through that area and make a bunch of noise in his hunting area. Well, I didn't want to do that to him, so I backed off and decided to hit that area in the morning. What I ended up doing for the pure purpose of letting my buddy try and get a shot at a deer, ended up being a blessing. There was a tank not to far from where I was at the time, so I decided to sit water for the remainder of the evening. I am sitting there at my lowest point of the day and my brain is running a mile a minute. Did I pick a good area to hunt? This is my first bear hunt. What am I doing wrong. I have not seen any bears in the past 2 months of my scouting. At about 7:00 p.m. out of the corner of my eye I see the biggest black bear that I have ever seen walk out of the oak thickets to my right about 300 yards away, headed over to the hillside where I found the overturned rocks earlier. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. I did it?? I actually found a bear on my first hunt. He looked like he had to be 300 pounds!! I have never brought my rifle up so fast in my life. Got my rifle up, took the safety off, looked through my scope and he was gone behind some scrub oak. Then he appeared again!! Same thing happened. Right as I looked through my scope, he was gone. So, then I got out my call to try and bring him out of those thickets. He appeared again about 50 yards closer to me. I only saw him for a second though, then he was gone. Being that I had a general idea of where he was going, I contacted my partner on his walkie talkie, hoping that I had just not ruined his deer hunt, haha. I told him that there was a big bear headed down into the canyon next to him. He gets out of his spot as fast as he can and heads over to the opposite ridge to try and spot him. He did!! He said that he heard crashing coming down the hill in front of him, almost as if the bear was sliding down the hill. The bear was then working his way through the bottom of the canyon. I tried to get over to head him off at another high point that over looked where I thought he would move through, but nothing. I think the bear must have winded one of us and went the opposite way in the canyon. At this point, I was not totally crushed. I felt very accomplished having even found a bear. Also, very anxious to hunt that area for the rest of the time we were there, to hopefully get a shot. Then rainfest happened!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! It cleared up for the afternoon and I sat at the tank where I saw the bear from 2:00 p.m. until dark. Nothing. The next morning it started raining at around 1:00 a.m. and didn't stop. I was so upset. After all of the scouting and hours of not seeing anything, this front moved in and we didn't see anything at all. Only rain drops. The rain did not show any signs of stopping at all. We decided to just pack it up and get out of there before we floated away. Even though I didn't get to harvest this bear on my first trip, it was one that I will never forget and the one that has me addicted to bear hunting now. Besides, that would have been too easy right?? Harvesting my first bear on my first bear hunt on opening day?? Hahahaha. I do plan on getting back out there once it heats up again and the acorns ripen up more. I figure he won't be back in the area of that tank until it heats up again. Thank you to everyone on here for answering my questions regarding bear hunting. All of you have helped out a whole lot and because of you, I actually was ALMOST successful on my first bear hunt. The one that got away........for now. = )

[Big Browns]

Sounds like you had a great time. Welcome to the world of Bear hunting. Finding Bears can be very hard. Getting a shot on a Bear can be even harder at times. It seems like they are constantly moving. Keep up the good work and you will get one. Great job and story!

 

Adam

[capoeirajosh]

Thanks man!! Will do!

[Couzer]

Awesome! Hopefully you connect with one! just noticed your screen name, Voce Fala?

[capoeirajosh]

I studied capoeira for about 2 years under capoeira brasil. I didn't really learn the language, just the martial art, haha. Thanks man!

[lonne]

Awesome job seeing a bear!

[kidso]

Sounds like you had a blast, even without tagging. Welcome to the addiction. Keep at it.

[capoeirajosh]

Sounds like you had a blast, even without tagging. Welcome to the addiction. Keep at it.

Addicted I am!! Can't stop thinking about bears and I can't wait to get back at it!