bear hunt

After a year of preparation, the wife and I headed off to deepest, darkest Idaho for 6 days of black bear hunting. The weather was typical for northern Idaho for this time of year: cold, windy and lots of rain, making the hunt a bit more interesting. As luck would have it, I was the only one in the group to even see a bear.

I was in a 30 foot tree stand and it was almost too dark to shoot when the bear made its way onto the trail in front of me. He was about 50 yards in front of me and coming down a pretty steep hillside, so he was about the same level as me. A nice looking black bear in color change, with a cinnamon body and black facial details. As soon as he turned broadsides I pulled the trigger on my 300 WSM, sending a 220gr Nosler Partition round nose through both lungs. The bear collapsed immediately, rolling downhill and ending up at the base of the tree that I was in. How convenient. He moaned twice and coughed up a surprising amount of blood before dying.

The Mrs. didn't see a bear, but a wolf walked past her was sizing her up while she was waiting to get picked up after a night of hunting.

T.R. said:

Good shooting! The cinnamon bears are always more desirable in my opinion. What kind of mount is planned?

TR

Click to expand...

Rug mounted on 2 layers of felt. He's been skinned and quartered out, the meat is being processed. Took a second day to get the skull out, the taxidermist will clean it, bleach it and send it with the rug when it's done.

1) The rifle wasn't pointed at me
2) I'm nobody's role model.

I've seen far worse hunting photos.