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Lucky Charm - Bear???

supersider34

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Nov 24, 2003
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Idaho
Way to go. Long long night.
Mossie thats the piles I have at my sights. I tell size by how big around the turds are. Big turds + big hole= big bear.LOL Brought some scat home the other night to show wife.LOL
Congrats can't wait to see the pics.
 
Get this, about 7:30 tonight, my 20 month old kid gets ornery and to calm him down, I decide to take him for a drive and my wife decides to come along. (maybe we'll even see a bear ;) I head to this spot, close to home that I stalked a nice cinnamon with my bow several times last year. I had decided to take him, if I saw him again. I had yet to see him this year, but every time I bring my son with me, I see lots of animals... you never know.

I park the truck, they stay, and I hike about 1km down into the lush draw (Salad Bar). I nearly fall over, when I peer over the edge and there HE is! :eek: I burn back to the truck, grab the '06 loaded w/ 180 grain partitions and head back! :D In about 5 minutes with the familiar territory, I closed the gap and was 50 meters above him...

I look him over, and humm and haww. Damn, I wasn't planning on shooting anything with my family out. After watching him for about 5 minutes...he turns slightly quartering to me......I squeeeeeeze....BANG - he spins to bite at the pain and then hauls a$$ (with one flat tire) for the forest edge. I get to my knees, rechamber another round and take the texas heart just as he rounds a cedar into the darkness... don't know about the 2nd shot... I listened and got some crashing and growling, but it sounded like he was still going. No blood at the site.

I felt good about the shot, but was surprised that he didn't go down right away. I decided to take the LUCKY CHARMS home and figure it out. I decided to leave him for the night and go back early, as is my habit with bowhunting... now, I'm starting to have my doubts about the shot... I'm in for a long night. :confused:

Here he is last year about 50 yards from where he took my bullet:
H-03-ir-belly.jpg


Here's one of his piles (size 12 boots):
H-03-pile.jpg
 
First Off.... You're in America, (Or at least a American Board.. It's Feet and Miles, not 50 Meters and 1 KM...

2nd, If thats BEar Poop then he's Crapping worse then Any bear I've seen !!!!

3rd, I know how Long this nights going to be for ya. And I hope the Morning comes Fast !!!! Good Luck in the AM, As soon as yah Know whats Happening, Fill us in !!
 
Well, the lucky charms came through!! After a replaying the shot over and over, I was up at first light. It had rained in the night and I was prepared for a big grid search. Last year it took me 1.5 tense hours, creeping through the cedars to find the bear I arrowed 150 yards away. Locked and loaded I headed in, but when I got to the cedar that he rounded when I took the Texas heart shot, I spied him about 30 yards over piled up against a cedar in an old wash.

After the rituals, I got to work and was home about 6 hours later with him skinned and the meat boned out. He wasn't quite as long as I figured, squaring about 6 ft, but was definitely well fed. I obviously didn't weigh him, but he was 68" long (nose to tail on the animal) and had a girth that would make a SUMO proud of 50".
To estimate a bear's weight, plug those into this chart: http://www.customosteo.com/news_bear_weight.html

I had a blast with this guy - stalking him 5-6 times last year and looking for him at least twice as many. Hopefully he maximized his time with the ladies last year! :cool: He is a beauty - with a cinnamon red back and chocolate legs and will be admired in the spot I have reserved for him - in front of the fireplace in the new house. Here's a few pics (excuse the dazed look and wads of Kleenex up the nose):
H-db-rear-h.jpg

H-db-front.jpg

H-rug-rear.jpg
 
Thanks boys. Funny, all this talk about judging bears and I still had ground shrinkage. :confused: Just roughin' the skull it appears to be about 19, but we will see. It was fun getting out there and maybe I'll actually get something done on the house this spring... He will be a cool rug and some tastey pepperoni. :cool:

I'll be livin' vicariously for the rest of the season, so make it good! :D
 
No doubt, and there are no horns as with a big ungulate to get ahold of to do a drag out, I would suspect that would be like dragging a three hundred pound noodle thru the woods... ;)
 
Thats kinda what I was thinking too. The first pic, I was like DAMN! that is a 400 pounder, but from the front he doens't look as hefty. Dont get me wrong, in the NW where I've bear hunted for years if you get a bear that weighs 225+ you are doing just fine. That bear is a pig anyway you look at it, and beautiful too.

It would be interesting to see all the individual bear lengths, girths and weights that hack used to make the chart, so you could see the margin of error or derivation from the mean/average. I"ll bet there was upwards of 100 lbs variance in some of the bigger bears weight that were very similar in size. Another thing, the chart lumps 66-78 inch bears together (or something like that) and man, thats alot of difference in length. A 66 inch bear with a 50 girth is going to weigh alot different than a 78 with a 50 inch girth. Thats a foot of length.

Anyhow, it gives a guy a rough idea.

Congrats again,

HS
 
Thanks guys. Hornseeker, my back is still achin' from tryin' to move him around - it was a bitch, but don't think he was that much. (I used a construction tape measure that you can see in one of the photos) I think he'd be lucky to even make 300...
shhh.gif
 
HS - I think you're right, that 66-78" range is huge and it's just a rough guideline. We're just lucky to have a ton of bears up here. I looked at 49 different bears last year (and almost got divorced) and 16 so far this year. I thought he'd be longer that 5'8" from watching him last year. It's all fun and games though! :D
H-03-belly.jpg
 
No doubt, that is incredible to see that many bears (and not get divorced!) You're in Cali right?

I emailed hack to see if he'd send me the data, we'll see if he does.
 

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