Headed out for a return trip with John Bryson, aka Tater, this past week for spring bear on the Quinault reservation. Yes, baiting is legal there, and we hunted over bait. What a blast! In 4 nights we have seen 4 bears between Hunter and I.

The first night we saw nothing in the blind but crows and bluejays. On the drive out, we ran into Boo-Boo's little brother running down the road.

The second evening we had a nice bear come on, and when it went broadside, there was a large 4" branch in the way so Hunter didn't take the shot.

Tonight we switched up blinds, as it was my turn to hunt. Sat down about 3:30pm, and hung out for a bit. Had a nice raven come in and hang out near us. Heard the crows "meow" for a while, and at 4:27PM the cell phone I thought I had turned off starts to ring. OOPS! Turned off the phone, hanging up on my assistant, and settle back in. 8 minutes later, in walks a bear.

My partner for the night, my father in law, turns on the camera and the bear just hangs out in the shadows, checking for noise, scent, etc. If you didn't know, bears have bionic hearing. After a few minutes of hanging back the bear decides to poke it's nose out and have a look. It slowly got out of the bush, edging closer to us, and then presented a perfect broadside shot.

BOOM! It dropped at the shot, and we got it on tape. Not a huge bear, but big enough that two of us had issues getting it loaded into the truck. Estimated weight about 200+ pounds, and the coat is absolutely beautiful.



Lots of fun! If you are interested in additional details, let me know. John was great to work with throughout the whole set of hunts, and he works hard for his clients.

Congrats on the bear Dogfish!! Looks like good peperoni to me!! Does your boy get another shot to get on also?
Buck

Congrats Andy

Nice bear!

Excellent! Congrats. Nice to that .458 get some work.

I have never shot a bear. Had the chance once with my bow. I was crossing a ravine and when I got down to the bottom I heard some rustling to my right. I thought it was a deer but as I turned my head back to the left I locked eyes with a bear at 20 yards. Once the bear realized that I saw it. The big beast turned broadside and offered me a nice shot. I was new to the mountains so I decided just to watch its behavior and I did not have a tag. It was a big sow with cub. The cub is what I heard rustling around to my right. She started to walk off slowly to my left then I almost SH!T myself when she stood up on a stump (35 yards) and started to snort and jump to see if I would run. I just turned a little sideways so my backpack and bow made me look a little bigger. She had put me between her and the cub. Then she cricled to my left and went her way and I went mine. Apparently we were just using the same path through the ravine and we met face to face at the bottom. SInce then I have seen bears on the roads comming around corners or across a canyon.

congrats andy. nice going!

Nice job Andy! Bummer Hunter didn't get to connect but he's still young
If he got a deer and bear within 6 mos of each other he'd be spoiled. Give him the "it builds character" speach.

We go for Hunter's bear tomorrow. The bait where we saw his bear has been getting hit consistently, so we'll be there at O'dark thirty. He has grown up a lot this week.

I can say it has been a great test for him, sitting in a blind, silent and motionless for hours at a time.

We hope to get his on video as well.

Congrats.
From the pic it looks to be about 150 live weight.

Way to go Andy. Gonna YouTube the video?

Good luck tomorrow.

congrats andy nice bear!!

I'm trying to do "the tube" right now. Got Nero 8, so we'll see how that goes.

Good luck tomorrow Hunter!

Well did He get that Bear?

Andy,
We are waiting for an update and hopefully pictures from a successful bear hunt.

Just got back.

34 hours in a bear blind with him on this quest, saw two on days two and three, nothing on days 5-7. Got mine in an hour on day four when he had school, as I've told him numerous times.

He is a trooper, and he is doing great. Imagine any 11/12 year old, sitting in a blind freezing his butt off. He hasn't complained once, we share an MRE, he sits still, doesn't fidgit, drinks a few pops, and has a great sense of humor. He draws down on every crow that lands nearby, and has had his rifle on the bipod the whole time, except for the few pee breaks (milk jugs have another purpose). If had let him shoot every crow that came by, we'd have a pickup load of them. Good practice anyway, aiming at live game and following them with the sights.

Even without any bears, we're having a good time. They are out there, and Tater has been awesome about moving us around to different blinds. Some baits get hit, then we move there, and others get hit, like the one we were at previously. Musical blinds, but that is all part of hunting.

The only electonic gadget he has had the whole time is the red dot scope on the rifle. I got a shot of him today in the blind, I'll post it up tomorrow.

Sounds like Hunter is determined like the old man. Sounds like you may have some days left so good luck to Hunter.