Successful Hunting

I just had a friend finish a bear skull project by following these steps:

How To Make A European Bear Skull

He did a great job and I am sure you will after reading this artice.

I just came across this video on youtube. It is insane! The video quality is not professional but the event is quite unreal. I would love to have this experience with a grizzly bear, especially on camera. I wonder what would have happened if they drove away with it in the truck?

At 4:00am the alarm went off but even though I felt disgusting waking up that early, I know that it is the only way I will help my hunting partner be successful. We were hunting locally around the area in which we live, which is a crowded area. I know if we are not finished by 8am all the campers and quaders will be tearing up all the mountain sides within one hours driving distance. Besides when I shot my bear a few weeks back it was at around 5:30 am.

We travelled in my partners 4×4 up the steep mountain sides after we got our Tim Hortons coffee of course, untill we hit snow. Then when we were above the tree line we headed back down. All of the sudden I spot a black bear about 300 yards away. Chris gets out and loads his rifle but the bear dissapeared behind a bush before he could shoot. We walked on foot to try to cut off the estimated path of travel of the bear and wouldnt you know it, we did. I spotted the bear once more and Chris got into the seated shooting position and with one crack of the .270 Winchester, the black bear was done. We walked up to the carcass and began the skinning and gutting. It was a successful one shot kill and a job well done. I look forward to trying the pepporoni.

I decided to go for an early morning bear hunt locally with a buddy of mine. Wouldn’t you know it, a decent bear crossed the road and ran into a steep ravine at the beginning

of the hunt. Of course we got out and pursued the bruin on foot. As we got to the edge of the bank the bear was visible and I made an off hand shot approximately 100 yards away. I saw the bullet impact right behind the shoulder with a shimmer the bears coat from the Barnes 168 grain TTSX bullet. The echoing of the .300WM carried throughout the valley as I made a second opportune shot and we thought the bear was down.

We started our descent down the hillside getting scratched and clawed by branches and falling over logs, but could not see the bear where we thought it would be. My partner told me to stop because he heard noises. I looked at the top of the hill and saw a black bear crest the bank. Thinking it was not plausible but possible the bear walked past us as we climbed down the hill, we climbed back up. There were no signs of blood where the bear climbed over the hill. We contemplated that it might be a second bear and slid down the hill to continue looking for the first bear. My hunting partner spotted the bear and called me over, it was still moving so I took another freehand shot, this time at 40 yards. The bear bucked and took off.

I began looking in circles for blood and so did my partner, we could not see any spots of red. Worry started setting in and my partner was questioning whether I hit the bear even once so far. I told him I was 100% confident that I hit the bear each time, but he did not believe me. I then started walking to where I would go if I was a bear and wouldn’t you know it, I crossed some fresh bear tracks in the mud, but again no blood. I paced in the direction of the bears travel and was walking over a log crossing a stream when I saw the bear expiring by a turned over tree stump. The bear started getting up and I shot. The bear started moving again so I fired again. The bear expired as smoke was leaving the carcass in two spots.  After skinning the bear we saw that all my bullets connected in the chest cavity and a few of them in the same place leaving a 4" hole in the ribcage. We could not believe how tough this bear was with the direct shots from a .300WM in the boiler room. My partner apologized for doubting my shooting and we got to work skinning and boning out the meat. The bear was a sow and measured a half inch over 6′. I ended the 2009 spring bear season with a great adventure and lesson in persistence. I will make a throw rug out of the hide and enjoy some nice sausage out of the meat.

As you may have been reading I drew a grizzly bear tag for the Horsefly area this spring (2009). I spent a lot of time planning, talking to hunters, going over maps, and google earth before going on this trip. I had a few people bail but a new friend (Nick) was gracious enough to offer his truck and quad to join me in the trip.

When we arrived in the area we were planning on hunting I was soon dissapointed as snow was covering all the areas I had planned to spot for grizzly. Above is a picture of the only grizzly tracks we saw. We staked this area out a few times for hours but there was no new sign or sightings of North Americas top predator.

This scat was found close to the tracks, I can only assume it is grizzly bear scat.

We spent a fair amount of time spotting for grizzly bear but again we were not able to even look in the areas I pre planned from google earth. We could not access the slides but still glassed what we could to no avail.

In total we saw 3 moose, 3 grouse, a porcupine, and 5 black bears. but I connected on this boar on the left. He was not huge but I decided to take a meat bear on the first day of the hunt and invest the rest of the trip searching for the elusive grizzly that never presented itself.

The story was: We were quading down this main forest service road and the bear was 200 yards away on the road. Nick initially wanted a crack at it but it scurried up the hill into the woods. We tried to circle around the area it was travelling and I spotted the bear below me. The bear was walking out to the open so I loaded a shell and anticipated where the bear was going to walk. The bear had other plans and decided to go down accross the road and towards the river. As it was walking through the bush on the other side of the road, I came accross the road and saw the black bear walking through the trees. He stopped and looked towards my direction and his hesitation was his demise. I took a freehand shot and connnected right behind the shoulder.

The bullets I had been using were Barnes TTSX 168grain out of my .300 Winchester Magnum. I hand loaded and tested them at the range as you might have seen on previous posts. The shot was from 60 yards (approximately) and was a one shot kill, the bear did not travel far before piling up on a tree. The boar was 5′4" from nose to tail. I am getting jerky made out of the hind legs, garlic sausage, and chorizo sausage out of the rest.

Below is a picture of the exit wound of the Barnes 168grain TTSX bullet on the aforementioned black bear:

I have been playing with some loads and I have had good results with the barnes 168grain TTSX bullets and IMR4831 powder out of my .300wm. I have 3026 fps at the muzzle and I am sighted in for a 250 yard zero. I went to the range again(I have been spending a fair amount of time there preparing for my grizzly hunt and just made sure I was dialed in. The picture on the left is my group at 200 yards today. Here are my numbers according to the Barnes reloading manual for the BC and muzzle velocity I am getting:

For a 250yd zero.
>
> Yrds velocity trajectory
>
> 0 3000 -1.50
>
> 100 2779 2.58
>
> 200 2568 2.14
>
> 300 2368 -3.57
>
> 400 2178 -15.50
>
> 500 1998 -34.77
>
> 600 1827 -62.77

I only shot out to 300 yards and got a 3 inch group.

I went out to tour some public land forested areas today with a hunting partner to find some black bears. In my part of BC in Canada, the weather is warm but there was still snow on the ground in the higher elevations.

We hiked, and put 345 km on the tachometer and we did not find one bear sighting. We only found one old bear scat. It still must be too early as May usually has these areas crawling with black bears. We tried areas that had grass, feed, streams, swamps, and powerline clear cuts. All areas did not produce a single sighting or promising sign. I hope the bears become more active soon.

To check out a bear hunting video and book that discuss black bear hunting and scouting check out:

The Black Bear Hunting Encyclopedia

Since I made this DVD and Book I will not personally review the product but I will list some facts about it and the people who buy my DVD and Book can leave their own review in the comment section of this post. The Black Bear Hunting Encyclopedia can be purchased here: http://www.black-bear-hunting.com/

There is a 109 page book containing a lot of detailed pictures and a DVD that contains an instructional version, entertainment version and bonus features including: bear hunting stories, making a European mount, and trophy photo tips.

The DVD and book focus on rifle and archery hunting, spot and stalk hunting, baiting, hound hunting, field care, taxidermy tips, recipes, and much much more.

I welcome all who watched the DVD or read the book to leave a review here.

I am happy to announce that the books and DVD’s have arrived and they look awesome! I am very happy of how this product has turned out and I am sure you will be too.

The Black Bear Hunting Encyclopedia book and DVD can be shipped anywhere so now you can place your order with peace of mind.

Be sure to check out: The Black Bear Hunting Encyclopedia Book and DVD

I just tried out a rib recipe from Cooks.com

I have alot of bear ribs and it was time to slow cook them so I could actually eat the ribs. I tried to BBQ bear ribs, and boil them but it was a disaster, bear is way to tuff that way.

Slowcooking in a crock pot is the best way to eat bear and other tough gamey meats. I usually like bear sausage but I find the steak, and roasts a little too strong.

This recipe from cooks.com was excellent for my bear ribs, you should try it!

found here:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1612,156180-244200,00.html

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Let me know if you like it!