Idaho bear hunt recap

[Roger]

A New Hope

So, it is decided I need a new place to hunt as I still have yet to see a bear of any size. They also think the ladder stand needs to cool off. New plan. I will go sit where Robin killed his bear on Monday and Hunter will sit where Micah accidentaly passed the big bear.

At this point, we still don't know his cam hit the arm rest and he thinks he just badly missed at 8 yards. He said he wants to take the 7 mag and work on his first bear. He'll be perfectly happy with that and can always chase one with a bow later. Works for me. And the guides. They were not going to let anyone bowhunt that bait. It was 20 yards from a drop down into the nastiest, steepest, deepest bowl you can imagine. No one wanted to try and get a bear out of that if it could be avoided. In fact, one of the guides said "if you shoot one, and it takes even one step toward that edge, you start pouring bullets into it until it stops or your out of bullets." They really did not want to pack a bear out of that. I didn't blame them. So Hunter sits this bait and sees...chipmunks. One even jumped on his boot. No bears.

I'm sitting in a popup 20 yards from the log bait where Robin killed his bear. A million mosquitos swarmed me the second I sat down. Thermocell saved the day for us all on this trip. Again, I saw no bears. Guess that's why they call it hunting. It's not a fish in a barrel proposition. I did have mule deer all around me for the entire 200-300 yard walk back to the road at dark. That was cool. They'd blow and pogo hop around, but never really ran off. Other than Micah's up a tree, I've yet to see a live bear on this hunt and I am having the time of my life. Couldn't be happier!

A long and tiring Wednesday ends with tags still in our pockets and smiles on our faces. Two days left to get it done.

A view of my sit for Wednesday evening and the mountains across the river from the lodge.

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[Drycreek3189]

Good story !

[brrdnk]

This is a great read. Need pics of the guide with a 40 on her hip though.

[Johnny Dangerr]

Hope you get the big one - - bump.................

[slayr]

Maybe by the end of the weekend….

[Roger]

Who Let the Dogs Out

After no bear Wednesday, Hunter decides he'd like to run the hounds on Thirsday and see what happens. We had already talked and decided to use the rifle if treeing a bear. A bow shot ip into all those limbs as high as Micah's bear went is extremely problematic. With hounds the hunt is mostly the striking, the chase, a cat and mouse game between bear, dog, and man. The shot is simply a culmination of the dance. And, while most of us would hope a dance wouldn't end in gunfire, I've been a few places in my youth where that was a distinct possibility.

My alarm rudely jolts me awake at 5am. At least it's not 3am like yesterday. Guides get there and Brook asks me if I want to try for a bear with dogs also. I politely decline and tell her I'm in it with bait and a bow to the end. Bear or no bear. They have the other guide again with a second set of dogs. Hunter goes with guide Micah in his truck and we go in my guides truck and follow the second hound truck. Here I think there was some misunderstanding. I reiterated that I wasn't shooting a bear and wanted to be with Hunter if he got on one. She radioed other guide and he said he'd radio if they struck something.

Very quickly our houndsman's dogs blew up. He stopped and released his strike dogs. Theg went off hot so the release procession began of the other dogs. Brook radios "we have a trail" and hears back "we are turned out on one, it just ran back across the road in front of us." Things are getting exciting in a hurry. Literally minutes later we get a "we're treed" call. They had turned out right on top of a bear that had just crossed the road. Guide thinks it treed so quick because it came back on the road again and tried to run down it about 300 yards. This let the dogs use their flat out speed to close on it, so the bear dove off the road and went up a tree. Guide radios where they are and says "get here now. This is a good bear and if it tries to come down we are going ahead and shooting." Fair enough. We left the other guide monitoring his dogs and hightailed it. Part of me was thinking, we have to stay in one piece as we booked it around those forrest service roads.

We pull up to see Hunter and the guide literally sitting on the edge of the road watching this bear. Dogs are going nuts doing their job of keeping it treed. I'm firmly convinced at least a few of them were really saying "come down here and fight", not "you stay up there." After admiring the bear a moment, guide ties his dogs and discusses the shot with Hunter. No good shot angle. Hunter is using the guides tripod trigher stick, so super locked in and steady. Micah beats on the tree with a big stick to get the bear to move. Unfortunately, it scrambles up higher into more dense limbs. We play a squirrel hunter game and move around the tree to get it to move. Guess this bear knew it wasn't a squirrel, 'cause it didn't play. It's kind of in a fork in the tree. Micah radios other houndsman and asks " you got your chainsaw in the truck?" I guess if that bear hangs up, this tree is coming down!

That's Was A Hell Of A Shot

Finally the bear presents a small window to hit the vitals. Guide tells him "whatever you do don't hit that leg crossed in front of its chest or we will have one very ****** off bear coming down the tree looking for revenge." The bear then lowers its head, blocking the shot. New plan. Beat on tree again with bigger stick to get bear to move its head. Hunter says ok and Robin yells, he's shooting so guide can retreat from tree base as bear gets shot. Nothing can possibly go wrong here. And it didn't. Hunter squeezes off the shot with my 7 mag. The bear trues to climb, thus clearing himself from the fork, and then falls. It is DOA at the base of the tree. Once he knows it's dead, guide rolls bear over as we are scrambling downhill to look. He is so pumped and yells, " Hunter, that was a hell of a shot. I was worried about that shot, but you drilled him!" At this point, we get a radio call saying the other guide has a shooter treed. Do I want to go get him? Politely as possible, "nope, bait and bow or nothing for me."

Lots of picture taking and back slapping going on. Such a beatiful chocolate bear with a huge white patch on the chest. Guide says it's one of the fastest trees he's ever had. They quite literally turned those dogs out right on top of the bear without knowing it. I think Micah is half hound himself. The obvious exuberance he has when working his dogs is infectious. It's almost a show in of itself. We loaded the bear whole, since it was so close to the road, and were back at the lodge by 9:35am. I'm now the last one with a tag and have yet to see a bear. Maybe my fortunes will change this afternoon.



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[dgilbert]

Great story, congrats to all so far

[Roger]

An Apology

No matter how much I edit my fat fingered tying on this phone, I still end up with a ton of typos and weirdness. My apologies. And yes, correcting every other word is part of what's taking so long, but the tale is almost told.

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[Drycreek3189]

Come on Roger……..

[CabezaBlanca]

Awesome thread! Congrats to all!

[Colton]

If you could get on that finale that would be great

[Roger]

The Road Less Traveled

While Brook skins Hunter's bear, the landowner has called our outfitter. He baited and checked trail cams this morning. He reports that six different bears hit the ladder stand bait while Hunter and I were sitting the other baits Wednesday evening. Guess that settles discussion of what play to make for Thursday evening. High ho, off to the ladder I go.

This treck entails a truck ride past the bait I'd been hunting way up on a mountain. Lots of curves with big drop offs! It's ok. I'm not scared of heights. It's the distance to the bottom that worries me. I informed Brook of my fear of heights. (It's completely irrational, I know, but also very real.) She said "uh, oh." I told her it's fine. Hunter has already briefed me on the sketchy 4 wheeler ride about to carry me the rest of the way. Hang on to your bow, try to hang on to 4 wheeler, try to keep bow out of brush along trail, pushing with feet so hard to keep balance that calves are screaming by the time it's over, wheels right on the edge of a massive drop off, bouncing around. We eventually made it to the stopping point and walked in from there.

It was really cool to see what Hunter had been seeing. First thing I noticed as I climbed up was that stupid arm rest. At this point, we still had never discussed that protruding arm rest and its possible role in his miss, but I knew it was problematic before even making it to the seat. I settled in and drew to evaluate clearance of the "arm." It was apparent I could only shoot at about half of the small clearing in front of me, so I would need a bear to be completely in front of the sideways bait barrel. No worries. Just don't hit that arm rest when you shoot.

I had only been in the stand about 30 minutes when I catch movement in the trail right below me. It's a smaller blonde/red bear. It grabs a piece of meat and retreats back down the hill below me. There was a bone in that meat because I hear him crunching it up as if he were eating a bag of chips. This bear visits the bait seven times between 6 and 6:50. On his last trip, he stands up on his back legs and peers down the hill. He then drops down and walks away a different direction. I'm getting ready as there must be a bigger bear down the hill. If there was, it was napping. I saw nothing else until about 8:35. Another smaller red bear comes up the same trail. It didn't mess with the barrel but focused on licking an adjacent tree which was covered with a smorgasbord of old fry grease, molasses, and cake frosting. This bear hangs around about 10 minutes. It suddenly looks downhill, then scrambles up in the tree it's licking. I see movement in the bushes on the trail below me. Bear. Big bear.

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[Drycreek3189]

No time to stop now !!!

[Roger]

The Final Chapter

As I earlier sat watching the smaller bear make trips to the bait, I pondered a question. Do I take a bear if I see a good one, or do I hold out for the giant? I don't care much about record books, so the fact that the big one would sail into P&Y isn't really a consideration factor. Something to know about me. When researching this bear hunt idea, my dream was always a color phase bear, hence Idaho. I came with a mindset of any decent color phase bear or a black one has to be huge for me to shoot it. Hmmm. I decided it would be a game time decision. If I see a bear and my heart says I want it, I'm shooting.

Back to this big bear below me. It's not the big black. But it seems huge right under me. Wide head, furrowed forhead, smallish looking ears. But mainly, chocolate with blonde and black highlights and a black robbers mask over the face. Cool bear! I'm shooting if I get a chance.

This bear was cautious. Two steps and stop to look around and test the wind. Two more steps, rinse and repeat. Two steps at a time. Now, what you don't yet know is a storm was blowing in. I'm way up on a mountain with lightning crashing, sky is very dark, wind kicking up, and an occasional rain drop. It was very dark. The bear made it in front of the barrel. Quartering away. Draw, settle pin, move sight to reverify dark target, settle pin, move and reverify, settle again, squeeze shot. Crap! I feel the bow jump slightly and know I just hit that stupid arm rest. Can't tell where the arrow went, but bear growled and spun around to bite at its side. I heard the broadhead smash the barrel so I know it was a passthrough.
The bear lunges into the brush downhill and crashes around. Remember, it's an hour till dark, but dark as night due to the storm clouds. I see a dark shadow move across an opening downhill and hear a little more brush breaking. Now silence. And thunder, of course. No death moans. I'm worried. Check my bow and find no damage on limb or cam. It's beyond parallel, so I think the limb hit but escaped damage due to that. I radio Brook and fill her in. She comes up on the four wheeler. One of the outfitters daughters was hanging out with Brook this evening, so she's on the four wheeler also.
Before I can get all the way down the ladder Brook says "here's your arrow. You've got good blood." I go to start trying to find a blood trail and Brook piles off into chest high brush in the direction I last heard noise. I'm still searching for blood when she calls out that she found it. The bear made it about 60 yards down the mountain. Brook said we need to hurry and get the bear up top for pictures before true dark set in. The sky had brightened back up considerably at this point. " Do we drag it?", I asked, concerned about damaging the hide by dragging. "I'm going to carry it" says Brook. What? Remember my description of her? This is a seriously steep mountain covered with brush and some giant blowdown. So, she sits down and the outfitters daughter and I worked the bear onto her shoulders. We had to pull her to her feet. Up the hill she goes. It is so steep, she has to lean to keep from rolling off the hill and practically has her ears between her knees as she climbs. After a couple of rest stops, she carries that 200 pound bear up a mountain. The most bad a thing I have ever witnessed. Girl is tough as it comes.

Shot went in high and behind last rib. Came out low and in crease of off side front shoulder. Got everything. Liver, diaphragm, both lungs. I have my color phase bear! We went 4 for 4 on bears. Wow!

We spent Friday exploring and pretending to fly fish. Then a 6:30 am start home on Saturday. Stayed overnight in Ft. Collins, CO and made it back home about 7:30pm Sunday. What a ride.

About our outfitter. Awesome dude and family. His daughters, 13 and 15, did all the cooking for us. Outstanding food! Since we were leaving early each day. There was breakfast hot in the oven when we got up and outstanding sack lunches waiting to take with us. Dinner every night was fantastic. Lodge was super spacious and comfortable. Couldn't have asked for more. I would recommend Hell's Canyon Outfitters and Brad Walters highly. Thanks for following along.

Note: For some reason Tapatalk won't post my pictures now. I'll keep trying until I get them to post.

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[Roger]

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