MY 2014 Bear!!!

[sidwynder505]

The 2014 fall bear season started the next day in 24-A and I was lucky to glass a bear just before dark the day before the hunt started!! It was a BIG bear too!! So my wife and I decided to stay in our vehicle over night until the next morning! Next morning found us getting ready to start the General rifle bear hunt in unit #24-A! Well, we were not alone as a lot of other hunters felt the same as I did!! We could see lights coming from the bottom of the canyon and then we saw more lights coming over the top of the mountain!! Funny thing was they were all Side by Side’s!! You can’t miss the two little headlights close together!! And there were a lot of them, everyone going to a special place!

 

So we finally got to our glassing spot to look for the big bear we saw the night before, minutes later my wife said I got him!! I got excited so I rushed over to her side to find where the big bruin was at! She pointed me to a ridge about 800 yards to her right with a lot of boulders in it. I got to the spot she was talking about and there was our bear moving out of the country in a hurry! After a while, I could hear a “Side by Side” moving up the canyon below us! As I watched the bear go out of sight, I noticed some deer high tailing out of the canyon below me as fast as they could. Then I glassed the “Side by Side” that parked and they got out to glass!...I guess they were looking for bear or deer as well, but nothing moved in the canyon for the rest of the morning, so we waited back under a tree until the afternoon! The afternoon took a long time to get here, man it was hot and sticky and the gnats tried to crawl in every crevice in our faces! But then we glassed up another big bear on an open side along the ridge, about two thousand yards away eating pears around 3:30pm. There was no way I could get to him until way after dark so we just watched and enjoyed him in the cactus enjoying the delicious purple pears!

 

We watched the bear for about half an hour then something happened! The big bear sat up and froze looking down the canyon!! Next thing you know he was high tailing it out of the country not looking back. I started looking for what could have spooked the bear so I watched down the canyon then I heard it before I could see it! The high pitched whistling with a put, put following it!!...yup another “Side by Side” I started looking around again and witnessed more deer leaving the canyon!! The hunters that were in the “Side by Side”, stopped and got out to glass. Little did they know everything was out of the canyon before they got there! Later that evening, we glassed another bear heading out over the mountain more to our west about a mile away! It was not the same bear we watched earlier! So we headed back home that was an hour and a half away, tired and beat up from lack of sleep and the heat, we decided to head home to rest and make an early day of it tomorrow.

 

Next morning, we were up at our same glassing spot well before sunrise, this time there was not as many hunters out moving around, which was a good thing because it gave me a good chance to look around the country! I was glassing the same ridge where we last seen the bear eating pears the day before and wouldn’t you know it, there was a bear eating off the same cactus patch as the day before! I watched the bear for about Ten minutes and guess what??...it did the same thing, it sat up and froze looking down the canyon I said “oh great here comes another “Side by Side’ …GEEZ” so I listened but I could not make out a sound as the bear was running out of the canyon! As the bear got to the top of the ridge, to my right, it stopped and looked back one more time before disappearing over the ridge!! I asked my wife if she picked up any noise or something that would cause the bear to spook out of the canyon. I started glassing back to where the bear was enjoying the pears earlier and “BOOM” big bear! I was mistaken that this big bruiser was a boar. His belly looked like it was dragging the ground and had a flat head with little ears and an arching Roman nose look to him! Man what a bear. After watching him and trying to make a game plan on how I was going to put a stock so far away! Well, my question was answered real quick when the sound of the high whistle PUT, PUT, PUT was coming up the canyon again!! The huge bear did not waste any time running out of the canyon along with several deer!! If I did not see it for myself, I would not believe how spooky the animals get from the “Side by Side’s”! I really wanted to get one because you can get around real fast, but after witnessing that, I think I have changed my mind then watching a Newer Blue 4 door Jeep cruise up the road and drive right by a bear and it did not spook it away, verified my feelings! Later when the jeep drove up the road and started target practicing, did the bear move off the prickly pears very slow towards the bottom of the canyon. Heck the shooting did not spook it like the “Side by Side’s” did!

 

The sun started rising and it started getting hotter and I told my wife everything is about bedded down for the day, so we made a game plan to drive all the way around to the other side of the canyon where the bear whas eating on that particular ridge and wait as long as it took to see if the bears would come back and feed on that ridge. It was 10:30 am before we got to the area where we wanted to be for the afternoon hunt. We found a nice high point about 415 yards from the ridge where the bears kept coming out on.

 

We made it to the top and looked for some shade. Man, was it hot! And it was getting hotter! After glassing around for awhile I looked up the canyon and made a comment to my wife that the other ridge it full of cactus with a lot of pears and if the bears come out, it will be there where we find one. Around 3:30pm I was glassing that ridge with all the cactus and pears on, when a black shadow caught my eye, I moved back and yup!!! It’s a bear! I told my wife, it’s in the area I said they would come out on! So I checked the wind and looked at the time!..1100 yards away??..yup, I can do this I told myself then, I told my wife what I was going to do and started after my bear! The first canyon reminded me that I’m not as young as I used to be! But I did not let that slow me down so I thought?

 

It took me about 45 minutes to get to the ridge above where the bear was eating the cactus fruit! As I caught my breath and calmed my nerves down, I eased over the top and looked down! No bear! I looked up the canyon and then down and nothing? I walked down the canyon closer to the bottom that was thick with brush and trees, but I could not see the bottom so I waited. I sat there for about 10 minutes and started moving parallel down the canyon! After about 100 yards, I stopped and waited again and looking hard, but nothing. As I was trying listen for any noise, a twig snap or any movement I noticed two blue jays that flew into a tree right below me squawking at each other making all kinds of noise, but were cut short and flew right at me! It made the hair stand up straight on the back of my neck so I waited and listened again! Nothing was moving where the two Jays flew from so I eased down the canyon as quite as I could for another 100 yards and stopped again. As I was looking down to the bottom of the canyon, I noticed a small finch looking bird darting out from the bottom of the canyon, this time I had the urge to load my rifle so ever so quietly. I jacked a round into my rifle and put the safety on and waited, it was getting very intense with no noise!! It was kind of creepy! All of a sudden, about 100 yards across the canyon, the bear appeared out of no where shaking water from its hair like a dog does after getting wet! I quickly put my bog pod down and settled the rifle on top of it and slipped the safety off!! I couldn’t believe it is going to happen right here, right now! I found the bear in my cross hairs, took a deep breath, let half of it out and squeezed the trigger! The bear dropped in its tracks and did not move, as I sat there watching for some kind of twitch or any movement, I was reflecting on what just happened! That was number #9 of the Arizona’s big 10!! I couldn’t believe I have made it this far! After taking my bear to the Game & Fish Dept, to be checked in they looked at the lower jaw and estimated her age to be between 12 to 15 year old sow! Finally, I had my bear!! I did not get very good pictures of my bear because I left my wife back at the jeep and I was by myself so I took what I could (pictures) and then the real work started. I was fighting time as the sun was dropping very fast I made the first trip to the jeep with the first load and headed back with my wife and flashlights for the last two loads! We were worn out when we drove into Globe around 10:30 pm at night to grab ice and some coffee so we could make it home!! It was a tough hunt, but one that will stay with me forever!! Just me and my hunting partner, my wife!

P.S......Thank you Keith for the advise!........Oh and My wife had me scrubbing the floor all night!!...and the next couple of days for putting the hide on the floor!!! .....? LOL.....

[kidso]

Looks like a very nice hide! Congratulations! Not that I was yet in the market for one....I think I will pass on the side by sides! Thanks for your studious observations!

[Couzer]

Darn side by sides , I've always wanted one but have been thinking twice lately. Nice shooting and sticking with it with those nats and heat. Looks like she has a little brown on her muzzle, great looking bear, congrats!

[ready2hunt]

great job smitty! That is a beautiful bear. Are you set on a rug or a full mount?

[Couestracker]

Very nice bear and great recap of your hunt. Congratulations on #9, that's awesome! So, what's #10?

[papa]

Congrats on a nice Bear smitty. we hunted 24A as well those gnats ate us up.

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Dude flesh on the wife's tile not cool.

[PRDATR]

Great write up. Congrats.

[KidBowHunter]

sweet bear!

[capoeirajosh]

Awesome story and awesome bear!!

[tjhunt2]

The long read was worth every bit of it. Congratulations on a hot nasty hunt. I know exactly what you went thru. Great huntin partners like yours are far and few between. Thanks for sharing.

 

TJ

[Dan]

Congrats on a nice bear. Good story of the hunt!!

[sidwynder505]

Very nice bear and great recap of your hunt. Congratulations on #9, that's awesome! So, what's #10?

That would be "Ta 'Tonka"! ...AKA Buffalo!!...but that i think is going to the hardest!!!.....but ill always keep my fingers crossed!! ...im glad you liked the story!!

[sidwynder505]

Thanks everyone!! i'm glad you enjoyed the story as i did the hunt!!.......im still scrubbing floors!! but she is a hunter and understands!!

[hoghntr]

Thanks everyone!! i'm glad you enjoyed the story as i did the hunt!!.......im still scrubbing floors!! but she is a hunter and understands!!

When I killed mine I was working on it in my driveway when wife got home and she was not very happy about it at all! I fear if I had it in house on tile floor I would have been dead beside it.

 

Gr8 bear ya got!