So I got my bear this year. It was the first time I have ever gotten a bear, and it was a very interesting experience. Quite exciting to say the least. I think the only actual funny part about this is that I got him the opening day of elk season, believe it or not. Go figure. So here’s the story of how I got my first bear.
I didn’t get up as early as I had hoped the morning of the start of elk season. We had been scouting in a completely different zone when we decided to go up to our favorite area the day or two before elk season opened. We hope to get a little scouting in before it opened and hopefully see some elk. We weren’t keeping our hopes too high but with some luck and some leg work maybe we could find something.
Opening morning, I went and parked the truck at a gate that was closed because I knew that if the elk were anywhere they would be back behind the gates far enough away not to be bothered by most road hunters and berry pickers. I spent some time walking down the logging road doing a lot of scouting and glassing to try and catch some movement. Around 11am, I was coming around the corner of this hill and I saw the bear on a ridge line across a draw from me. He was beautiful. Great jet black coat and near perfect features. I watched him for about 20 minutes wandering around the ridge munching berries.
The stalk
Notice the deadfall and bushes? I was awe of the chance just to see one let alone stalk one. But at the same time I cursed the gods for putting so much unhelpful, loud, and just plain annoying hindrances between me and that bear. Regardless, I felt confident in my abilities to overcome adversity.
Once I felt confident he was sticking around a while and even making his way toward me some, I decided to stalk him. My only saving grace was that it had been raining off and on so a lot of the deadfall was fairly quiet and not super brittle. Don’t get me wrong, it was still snap here, snap there. I suppose I should thank the squirrels at this point too because they were chittering along quite happily in the trees as well, dropping a pine cone here and a pine cone there. They provided extra distractions which I feel grateful for despite usually hating the existence of the squirrel.
So I spent the next arduous, tense 1.5hrs stalking down to the middle of that cut below the ridge in the above picture and waited for for that beautiful bear to come the rest of the way to me. It was only something like 75 yards, but it a hell of a stalk. I think I used muscles I didn’t know I had anymore keeping my body absolutely ridged, yet fluid as I made my way between, on, over and through the deadfall to a spot down at the middle of the draw. At this point I was tired as all hell, but ecstatic with the anticipation building. He didn’t hear me or see me and the wind was on my side the whole time. Everything was going well at this point.
I waited. I waited a little longer. He was definitely moseying grabbing berries off every huckleberry bush he could stick his muzzle in. The anticipation was killing me. Finally, he reached a point 45 yards away. Time to throw an arrow out there. I wasn’t bold enough to try getting closer or letting him get much closer because even that distance isn’t that great for a bear in a rage. I wanted time to make my move if he came charging. But he was behind the bushes! Just enough that I didn’t want to risk a long shot that would ricochet and piss him off. So yet again I waited. As I waited he walked behind some more bushes without giving me a good broadside shot. Then he started turning up the hill. Dang it! I was quickly losing my chance. He hadn’t heard me. He didn’t see me. I am pretty certain he didn’t smell me. He just started moseying back up the hill. He finally paused at 60 yards and I decided to hail mary it since I figured I wouldn’t get another shot. I drew back, aimed and let fly. You guessed it, I missed about 6inches over his back. He tore off up and over the ridge and I thought he was gone for good.
So a little bummed but thankful for no angry bears, I went to go retrieve my arrow. I knocked another one just in case on the way up. Always a smart idea. Never know what else you’ll run into…an elk maybe? I started walking up a caterpillar track going up the other side and about 2/3 the way up the ridge I heard some crunching and swishing of bushes. ‘What is that?’ I thought to myself. That couldn’t be him. Cautiously I continued up the hill, but still at a decent pace. At 3/4 the way up the other side of the draw, I heard it again and finally caught sight of him. He came back! I must have done a better job staying invisible than I had thought! He had no idea I was there. He actually stopped and came back over the ridge to continue his grazing. AWESOME!
I proceeded to stalk to within 10 yards of the top of the ridge so I could get a nice clean view, and hopefully a good shot. Unfortunately, the bear was mulling about behind some saplings between him and I so I couldn’t see him clearly. He came out a couple of times in the bushes, but was always not clear enough for a shot. I should mention he was already at 40 yards at this point. I decided to watch him and be ready in case a shot opened up. Turns out he was slowly making his way toward me. I could hear him and see some things moving behind this big pine and the saplings, but I couldn’t see him for what seemed like forever. He finally poked his head out from right behind this big pine only 20 yards away from me. He poked his head out once, then twice. That’s when he decided to walk out into the open right in front of me, still at 20 yards. He came out broadside quartering toward me slightly. I drew as quietly and smoothly as I could so as not to get his attention and I aimed. Again I pressed the trigger on my release and let the arrow fly. I saw the arrow hit slightly high but a great shot. He jerked a little as soon as he her the string snap again. Once the arrow hit him he jerked back and jumped like he was biting at it and then he straightened out and took off running. I started to grab for another arrow when I realized that wasn’t such a smart idea at this juncture.
He decided to head straight downhill. Down the caterpillar track. The very same caterpillar track I was standing in! I don’t know if he was charging or if he was just headed downhill. It didn’t matter! There wasn’t time and I wasn’t going to ask him. So I stopped going for the arrow and pulled my pistol. I had thought through this beforehand so that I was prepared in case this adventure turned truly dangerous. There is a reason most people hunt bear with rifles. It puts them far enough away and with strong enough fire power to put one down and not have to worry about one charging. So I had my pistol unsnapped and chambered. I wasn’t gonna go so far as to cock it as well, though I could have. I did however make sure the safety was off so I didn’t have to think twice about pulling the trigger.
As he closed to 5 yards, which was all the time I had to draw my pistol, I let one rip. Bears can be incredibly fast when they want to be, and he was only 20 yards from me when he started. It was a race at that point and in 15 yards I was able to draw faster than he was able to run. There’s not much of a way I could miss the bear, but when you push the situation from your mind to overcome the fear, you sometimes lose focus. I admit, I was unsure if I had hit him. I had aimed right at him, so I thought I did. But he didn’t go down. Instead, he turned on a dime and quartered away from me heading straight downhill toward a thicket of saplings down in the middle of the draw. I had successfully diverted him from my path and for the moment I was safe again. I reholstered my pistol and got on the horn to my father back at camp.
The thicket
I figured it was better to have two hunters after one wounded bear than a one-on-one. As it was, I wasn’t entirely sure where he went. I saw him plow into the thicket, but was worried he had carried himself through the other side where I would have likely lost him over the ridge and down the mountain. So I forgot about my arrows at that point and headed back to the road to watch the thicket and listen for the bear. I spent 10 minutes or so getting back to the road and started to relax a little while I waited. I was confident in my shot, but I was a little worried as I saw a heck of a lot of the arrow shoot out when the bear straighted and ran. I finally heard the bear in the thicket trying to breath. Good, confirmation that he was still there and I had hit him in the lungs. 20 minutes or so later, my dad showed up in his gear ready to help me finish off this bear.
So both of us took off some of our gear and knocked an arrow. We then proceeded down to the lower end of the thicket where we heard most of the huffing the bear was doing. We got to the edge of the thicket and stopped to listen and look. Neither of us saw him right away, but he had flattened himself on some grass right in front of us just on the other side of a small log. He hadn’t actually gone IN the thicket, just to the edge of it. He was completely still and my dad thought he might be dead and he was sure laying like it. My dad went to touch his eye and he picked up his head! First he stared at me for a second, then turned his head to my father. At that point I let another arrow fly and put it right through his other lung from the spine down. He didn’t move at that point, but then a few seconds later he pushed up his front half like he was getting up and started to turn slightly in my father’s direction. My father had pulled out his .44 mag at this point and when the bear got up he put one round into him. Before my father could put another one in him he had turned 180 degrees and was heading in to the thicket as far as he could get. At this point we started moving along both sides of the thicket slowly. We heard him crash down and were being cautious trying to see where he was so we could take another shot and finish him. When I was about even with where he was, I heard him gurgle which was a pretty good sign to me that was his last breath. I heard nothing more from him.
Behind the thicket
We made it around to the back of the thicket and we still couldn’t see him. I could tell he was close but I couldn’t quite make him out. So I slowly moved in to take a look. He was laying down up against one of the branches in the thicket. Just to make sure, as soon as I could see him, I put one more arrow in him and waited. I did NOT want him getting up again.
Luckily, I didn’t have to worry. He had expired with the gurgle and the extra arrow was unneeded. So we made sure there was no eye reflex and then began the arduous task of getting his big butt out of there. He was probably around 180-200lbs, but that was definitely heavy enough. It was a loooong drag back to the truck. We would have loved to have a game cart.
So, when all was said and done, I came out with a beautiful bear close to 200lbs that has been quite tasty and I am looking forward to seeing how his hide turns out.
I would rather not have used my pistol and was hoping there wasn’t a need for my father to either. But I am glad we had them or things could have turned out very differently. I will say I learned a couple of important lessons in this crazy adventure.
1) Think things through and be prepared – had I not been ready ahead of time with my pistol knowing I was so close and using my bow on foot, I surely would have gotten a bear in the face as he ran through me and most likely took his aggression out on me. I really have no question of that, regardless of if he was actually charging or not.
2) Have patience – it helped me get close enough to shoot him, but on the flip side I should have also waited to let him bleed enough to die or at least be closer to dying than he was. That is regardless of how good or poor of a shot I thought I had made on him. If it had been a rifle, it might have been ok to go in and finish him. In this case, I didn’t want him getting away and dying some place else I couldn’t find him or get him out so I rushed things and went in too early.
In the end, I found I had made a good first shot through his shoulder blade that penetrated his cavity but was promptly pulled out by his running which snapped the majority of the arrow off leaving the blade in his shoulder. I also found the .45 I used in his shoulder but no apparent hole that it went through…so all I know is I hit him. I have subsequently gotten a .44 magnum to take hunting with me which will do well against all manner of game in the Pacific NW. Never take anything less than a .357, and definitely not a .45 or smaller. There are grizzlies that haunt those woods and although is hard enough to find bears when you are looking for them, you wouldn’t want to cross one unprepared.
Word to the wise: bears are not to be taken lightly. I did take my own life in my hands stalking on the ground with a bow and no backup and came out ok but it could have been soooo different. Remember that.
Tags: bear, bear hunting, bow hunting, GMU 113, Hunting, Lake Sullivan, Pacific NW, Selkirk
