Some of you saw the clean-up projects that I did earlier this spring, cleaning up trash as part of my Master Hunter projects. Over the period of two weeks I picked up 2 tons of garbage, a few hundred hypodermic needles, and a small mountain of tires.
Working with the WDFW Region 6 staff on these projects was great, and they were happy to have someone take care of items that other Master Hunters thought were "beneath them" to do. After I had my hours in I asked them that if there were other opportunities like animal tagging, or anything else that was "hands on", I would enjoy the opportunity to help out.
Since they knew me from my projects, they gave me a call when there was an opportunity for a hands on project near McCleary. There was a landowner with a lot of bears doing damage to their trees. During the spring bears tear the bark off of trees to get to the cambium layer, which runs sweet this time of year. Bears like sweets. Damage ranges from mild, to severe.
The landowner and forester tried supplemental feeding, but that didn't do much but draw in more bears, unfortunately, and trees still got damaged. So the WDFW issue two tags to the landowner's forester, and the forester assigned the tags to me. The permit allows the use of bait, but only unprocessed foods like fruits, veggies, salmon carcasses, etc. No molasses, doughnuts, cookies, or other processed foods. I chose apples. Cut them in half, and then left them in a small pile about 50 yards from my blind. Also left a hanging bag in a tree above them, (marked with my name, WILD ID#, etc per regulations), so that the wind could carry the scent further. The permit is about 6 pages long, lots of rules, but easy to abide by.
Saw lots of wildlife while I was out there, including this fawn that walked right up to me after spotting me from 40 yards out. He got as close as about 3 feet, and mom was right behind.
Mom's feet are upper right.
Had a doe come up on me one night while I was sitting on stand and she huffed and puffed for a minute or so until walking out of sight. She was snorting for more than 15 minutes in the area. Shortly after that the first bear showed up, a smaller 160lb bear, probably 2-3 years old. Long, lanky. Watched him for a few minutes to make sure it was a boar, and not a sow, and then when I decided to shoot he walked off. Bummer. This was about 8:00pm.
Next night I was in the same blind, and heard branches breaking to my left about 20 yards out. Then a loud "HUFF". Busted, and he crashed away. Again at about 8pm.
Took a few days off to let things calm down, do some fishing, get caught up on my home duties, and then went at it again Wednesday evening. Same blind, got there about 4:30pm, and I waited. Wind was blowing from the hillside where the bear had busted me from before. About 7:45pm I heard brush breaking from the left, so I moved my rifle to look out of the left blind window,
and out steps a very nice bear, less than 8 yards away. BOOM. That left center alder tree was 8 yards from me, and the bear was this side of the alder. Pretty close. By the way, firing a rifle equipped with a muzzlebreak from within a small tent blind is VERY loud.
I heard him crash through the brush, and I was pretty sure I had a solid hit because my red "T-dot" was right on his shoulder. I found blood about 10 feet behind the tree, and then called my son to come and help me find the bear. 15 minutes later, we found him about 40 yards downhill. Hooked up the drag line I bought from FP's buddy, and in no time we had the bear up near the road.
Big freaking paws on this guy.
A .458 caliber 300 grain JHP does a fair amount of damage from 8 yards away when pushed at 1950 FPS.
This is the backside of the shoulder I shot him in. Got both lungs, missed the heart, but he bled out very quickly. Bullet was lodged in the far shoulder, just beneath the skin.
Took him out whole so as to not foul the area with a gutpile and then proceeded to dress him at home, about 8 miles away. Weighed everything as we skinned him, got him broken down into parts small enough to fit in the beer fridge in the shop, and he turned out to be 309 pounds. The next morning we got him boned out and ready for grinding.
The final measurement was to square his hide, measuring nose to tail, and then paw to paw.
Add the two, divide by two, and he was 84", or 7' square. That's a big bear.
Yes, this was a legal hunt, permit attached, names and signatures redacted to protect the landowner and forester.
Still have one tag left, hopefully I fill it tonight. Certainly the most fun I've had on a Master Hunter project.
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