Beauty MT Bear

[thecrittergitter]

Couple nights ago, we glassed up this guy. It was right before dark and couldn't get any pictures as far away as we were. Looked like he was definately worth a second look so last night we hiked in there and waited for him to show himself.........bout 7:30 pm he strolls out at about 550 yards across the canyon. What a beauty of a bear, one of the prettiest bears I've seen. Blonde from his knees up to his back with a dark brown bottom. Thick, long hair without a hint of even a dirt spot on him

I'm hoping that Drake4 will finish this story..................

 

[Carl]

I like where this is going...

 

[Big Fin]

C'mon Drake. What's the deal? Now for the rest of the story .........

 

[Drake4]

Here goes..

This guy walked out onto that hillside, and literally looked like he glowed. I've never seen a color like that on a bear. Just really cool to watch. I was literally freezing my nards off. I put on every piece of clothing I brought with me and still couldn't feel my finger tips.

Critter and I and another friend were trying to size this guy up. Between the three of us, we have seen a lot of bears, and quite a few on the ground. The consensus was, that it was a boar..solid, stocky, but not a huge bear. I went back and forth with my opinion..I initially thought sow, but after getting a better look at his front end and head, I was fairly convinced it was a stocky boar. I was shivering hard enough, it made it tough to sit still behind the spotter. Bottom line is we all thought he was a solid bear, a boar, extremelly pretty, great coat, and decided he was worth a better look.

Critter and I bailed off the hillside and up the other side in record time. The wind was howling..had to be gusting 30+ mph. I don't know that I would have been comfortable shooting 200 yards in those conditions. To give you an idea of how hard it was howling..I kicked a pretty good sized rock down the hill within 75 yards of the bear, and he never heard it. We knew we were going to pop out very close. With a few hand signals from the opposite ridge we were within 50 yards of where we thought he would be. Critter spotted him down below us within 50 yards, feeding behind some trees. It took 5-10 minutes for him to feed out into an opening. When he finally did, he still had his head down mowing down the grass. Critter barked at him, and he picked his head up and looked right us. I made the decision and touched one off. He didn't go far and piled up.

Luckily Matt had his camera with him, because we had dropped our packs down below in the creek bottom. Gorgeous hide and color on this bear...thicker than I have ever seen.

We made it off the rock slides and back to the truck by 11. Only one fall, but luckily Critter's tripod took the brunt of it..and not his noggin.

Very fun night, lots of laughs and great company. We will definitely be doing it again in the near future.

Critter sent the pics to my work email, so I can get a few hero shots posted tomorrow.

 

[JCS]

Good job guys. Can't wait to see some close ups of the bear. It sure does look gorgeous.

 

[mtmiller]

Nice work fellas. Looking forward to the hero shots.

 

[Goldtip]

Looks like a damn pretty bear. Looking forward to on the ground shots!

 

[Sytes]

Wow! Great color! Look forward to the other pics! Grats!

 

[Spitz]

Looks like a great bear to rug! Can't wait for ground photos. Congrats!

 

[snite66]

great job on waiting him out in the cold. can't wait to see the pics of him on the ground.

 

[MN Public Hunter]

Awesome color phase bear...can't wait to see the up close picturesM

 

[174in]

Great bear I cant wait to see the kill pics of the bear close up.

 

[JohnCushman]

awesome bear!!

 

[thecrittergitter]

It is a really cool bear! And it was a great hunt with great guys, probably best part about the hunt.

And by the way, there is a pretty good goose egg on the back of my noggin, so the tripod didn't get all the brunt

Couple great hero shots, look forward them.

Nice work Drake!

 

[----]

Awesome looking bear!
Congrats Drake!

So whats the verdict on size? looks stout for sure.

 

[drahthaar]

Congrats on an awesome bear! Looks like mine from last year.

 

[1_pointer]

Congrats!! SInce I've never killed a 'bar, I'd be happy with any, but one of that color would be quite special. Just beautiful.

 

[Horn Seeker]

OK...where are the hero shots!!

Definitely purty...

So it ended up being a boar? Great fun to get in close... sounds like you guys could have arrow'd him in those conditions! (him feeding, wind good and stiff so no swirls....)

 

[highmountian]

Congrats on a great looking bear, great color and looks to be a good sized bear!

 

[elk_hunter]

NICE bear!!!! Congrats guys!