Bear Season

[courtgreene]

Bear season just started here (in NC), but I actually took my first Bear in September, in Colorado. For a longer write up (a five part mini-series deal) complete with reflective stuff, you are welcome to look at my blog (Courtgreene.com). Here's the THR version.

This season I was invited to go with a friend to Colorado after black bears. He went last year, and was successful, and knew I wanted to try it. So, he invited me and I accepted. The trip out with a trailer and four wheelers was brutal, we stopped for gas and food at gas stations, and that was about it. Having never been west of the Mississippi River other than flying over it to get to Hawaii, that in itself was a new experience. The country is MUCH bigger than you think until you drive it. Eventually we set up camp in unit 23 (I think), and away we go.


Day one we set up to glass the valley in the background, here. We saw very little. Eventually I did see a black bear walking on the same mountain side I am standing on while taking this picture. It was complete dumb luck as I was trying to get out of the sun, and wedging myself between some rocks to the left of this photo forced me to turn to the right, where a few minutes later I saw it walk past about three hundred yards away. It never offered a shot, as it moseyed by. A few more days passed without seeing much. I saw plenty of country, started getting worried that we weren't seeing much, and made my way down into that valley to do something I was pretty sure I could find success doing.

If I don't have a rifle in my hands at any particular time while out in the woods, I try to fill them with a fly rod. The fishing was a great way to cool down after a few days searching for bears. To be honest, though, by this point we were not looking for bears, we were looking for any food source they might use. The plan was to hunt brush oaks, or berries. These food sources either did not produce or had come in early or late. I'm not sure which it was, but there were none to be seen. Back to the drawing board. (Further down)

 

[courtgreene]

We saw elk and free range cattle on the tops of the mountains (but I cannot show you that, because the pictures are too big), and finding life gave us a place to search for food sources. They were not eating berries or acorns, they were digging up roots. I knew bears did that, but it would never have occurred to me to try hunting roots as a food source. I suppose that is because you can't see them as you walk by, like you would when seeing fruit or nut trees.
The problem then became finding out what types of patterns/movement would take them to and from food and water. On a hunch, we found a shaded area that ran between a water source and the places I had seen roots being dug and eaten on this mountain top. (never mind, that pic is too big also)
Eventually I sat under a tree and waited a few days. Having seen elk in the valley I had hopes that it would hold bears as well, and after waiting for elk to clear out of the travel route, eventually one appeared.

Checkin estimated 12 years old. It felt good to check western hunting and black bear off my bucket list. There were other issues at play, but that's not for here. It was a different style of hunting from that which I am used to employing, and myself and the friend who joined me were pretty happy that we could go to parts unknown and do something totally unfamiliar to us. Thanks for your time.

Oh, Remington 700 (not my favorite) in .300wsm (one of my favorites) topped with a vortex (growing on me quickly) diamondback 4-12x40. Shooting 180 barnes tsx (big time favorite) over h414 (what I could get) at 2788fps muzzle velocity. Shot was just under three hundred yards.

 

[courtgreene]

Also that's me looking all haggard and skinny. I was very much underprepared for how dehydrated you get in Colorado, so easterners, you have been warned.

 

[JFrank]

Nice Bear ‘ I would not have guessed the age at 12 but nevertheless, the bears tear the heck out of stumps grubbing around here. I like to track them into the deep dark stuff when I’m feeling up for a challenge.

 

[courtgreene]

I actually have no idea how to age a bear. That's just what the folks at the place told me, so I went with it. This whole thing was quite new for me, so every bit of it was a challenge. Around here (home) they just chase them with dogs, which is its own kind of challenge, but I don't have bear dogs so I took a long drive instead.

 

[H&Hhunter]

We saw elk and free range cattle on the tops of the mountains (but I cannot show you that, because the pictures are too big), and finding life gave us a place to search for food sources. They were not eating berries or acorns, they were digging up roots. I knew bears did that, but it would never have occurred to me to try hunting roots as a food source. I suppose that is because you can't see them as you walk by, like you would when seeing fruit or nut trees.
The problem then became finding out what types of patterns/movement would take them to and from food and water. On a hunch, we found a shaded area that ran between a water source and the places I had seen roots being dug and eaten on this mountain top. (never mind, that pic is too big also)
Eventually I sat under a tree and waited a few days. Having seen elk in the valley I had hopes that it would hold bears as well, and after waiting for elk to clear out of the travel route, eventually one appeared.
View attachment 1109715
Checkin estimated 12 years old. It felt good to check western hunting and black bear off my bucket list. There were other issues at play, but that's not for here. It was a different style of hunting from that which I am used to employing, and myself and the friend who joined me were pretty happy that we could go to parts unknown and do something totally unfamiliar to us. Thanks for your time.

Oh, Remington 700 (not my favorite) in .300wsm (one of my favorites) topped with a vortex (growing on me quickly) diamondback 4-12x40. Shooting 180 barnes tsx (big time favorite) over h414 (what I could get) at 2788fps muzzle velocity. Shot was just under three hundred yards.

So what do you think about all the expert advice you got on here about bear in Colorado hunting being a strictly short range affair?

 

[Ugly Sauce]

 

[courtgreene]

So what do you think about all the expert advice you got on here about bear in Colorado hunting being a strictly short range affair?

Short range by y’all’s western definition is very different than our use of the term

 

[Ugly Sauce]

My Jeager defines it as within 50 yards, and long range being about 120 yards at most. That is probably very different than anyone's definition on this thread.

 

[ms6852]

Appreciate the write up and pictures . Thanks for sharing.
My brother sent me this picture where we are supposed to hunt mule deer this year. It should be interesting . We hunt West Texas and this bear was about 90 miles from Big Bend National Park. HE left the reservation.

 

[JFrank]

I actually have no idea how to age a bear. That's just what the folks at the place told me, so I went with it. This whole thing was quite new for me, so every bit of it was a challenge. Around here (home) they just chase them with dogs, which is its own kind of challenge, but I don't have bear dogs so I took a long drive instead.

I’m no expert but the WFP want a tooth that I’m assuming helps age the bear, myself I think it’s tough to judge from a distance with all the hair so I look at the width of the head between the ears. A bruin is unmistakable yet a sow without cubs could judged as a younger boar and not a shooter.
At a good tannery a bear is measured from the tip of the nose to the rump, others may square the hide including tip of paws, let’s say the length is 63” and the span is 60” giving a total of 123”/2 = 61.5 or 5’1-1/2” Bear.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Aging a bear, the DOW takes a tooth and sections it, I’m not sure what they look for. But the last bear I shot the game warden felt the the canine and told me he was feeling for a wear ridge. Based on that wear pattern he said my boar was 4 years old.

To me trophy Judging a bear in the field is pretty tough to consistently get right.

 

[JFrank]

Aging a bear, the DOW takes a tooth and sections it, I’m not sure what they look for. But the last bear I shot the game warden felt the the canine and told me he was feeling for a wear ridge. Based on that wear pattern he said my boar was 4 years old.

To me trophy Judging a bear in the field is pretty tough to consistently get right.

Yep’

 

[JFrank]

Around here the game dept like to think they know where all the big Grizzly are and have collars on them, well a few months ago a huge Grizz was hit and killed on the Fisher river bridge and the game dept had know idea he was living in that drainage without a collar and judged at 12 years old.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

To me trophy Judging a bear in the field is pretty tough to consistently get right.

You got that right. !! That bear I got, pic posted above, shrunk up quite a bit after it was dead. But, being a camp-robber, it had to be expelled from the gene pool.

 

[Offhand McFlan]

Nett töten. Fröhliches Jagen!

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Ja! (I think)

 

[Ugly Sauce]

Checkin estimated 12 years old. It felt good to check western hunting and black bear off my bucket list. There were other issues at play, but that's not for here. It was a different style of hunting from that which I am used to employing, and myself and the friend who joined me were pretty happy that we could go to parts unknown and do something totally unfamiliar to us. Thanks for your time.

You did good, it took me many years to get a bear. For those of us that have no interest in having hounds chase one up a tree, the success rate is not high, regardless of style of hunting. One really has to enjoy the hunting for it's own sake, success or not, to hunt bear. I know I do. That you succeeded so soon shows that you did indeed: "done good".

Over those many years I saw plenty of bear, but always just a hair out of range (muzzle loaders), or not big enough, or didn't stand still long enough, or saw me before I saw it, or mama bears with cubs, always "something". Or just plain old didn't see one! One time I was bear hunting with my smooth bore musket (Brown Bess) and watched a nice bear grazing in a clear cut for 25 minutes...always staying just out of range, which with the musket is only about 75 yards at the very best. !!! Grass was too high for a sitting position, and nothing close by to take a rest on.

 

[JFrank]

I took my grandson and one of his buddies out deer hunting this morning, they lead the way while I enjoyed the hunt a few hundred yards back and took a couple pictures of bear damage, this guy is big enough to rip a stump in half.