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SK hunt with Lost River

mtmiller

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 7, 2001
Messages
11,661
Location
Montana
Alright, I have some pics to prove that I can actually kill a bear.

First I will give you a little back ground. This is the bait I sat over for 4 days. Talk about getting up close. I snapped this pic with my boot in view, so you can get an idea of how tight things were. The base of my tree was only about 4 or 5 yards from the barrel (apparently they know what kind of shot I am). All of the bears that visited the barrel could have easily been jumped on from my stand. I thought it would be pretty good video, but not sure if I would have survived to see it.
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This is a view to the north from my stand. Although I did not walk over to the sandy area, I could see loads of bear track. I also had a grouse that visited the sandlot several times for a good dusting.
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Here is another view from the stand looking east. Awesome country.
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Another view from the stand. This shot was taken about 15 minutes after I killed my bear. The wind was howling and it started spitting, then it became instantly calm, almost spooky calm. Right after that, my bear came to bait.
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OK, dead bear shots.
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As you can see from the arrow placement, I was at quite an angle to the bear. I am sure I would have had a pass-through, but he was nearly laying down when I took the shot, therefore the ground stopped the arrow. I got good video of the shot and saw that the fletch went into the hide, but obviously worked out when he ran off.
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The bear spent about 4 minutes at the barrel before I got the shot I was looking for. After about three strides I could see that he was history, although he did make it about 30 yards before he cashed in his chips. The bear was dead in less than 10 second from the time he was hit, maybe even 5 seconds.
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Now, the rest of the story. Monday, no bears. Tuesday, what I thought was a decent black-faced bear came to the bait. He didn't make me fall out of my stand, so I thought that he was just an average bear. After about 5-10 minutes at the barrel with me video taping, he looks up and away from me, then takes off. Alright, here comes the big boy. No go, it is a smaller brown-nosed bear, so definitely no shooting, but another 20 minutes of video fun.

That night when I showed the tape to Dustin and the fellas, they were shaking their heads. I just passed on a good bear and a very good bear. Oh well, I figure they will be back.

Wednesday. No bears, but I can hear one busting the shit out of trees just out of site.

Thursday. Now I am getting ansy. Did I blow it on Tuesday? Finally at 1912 I see a bear in the shadows. I am hoping for the big blackface, but it is the smaller of the two. I don't care, I will not blow this opportunity and know that I will throw an arow if he comes in.

The rest is history. Good video, good shot, dead bear. I still had nearly four hours to sit in the stand which gave me a good opportunity to take it all in and be very thankful for the opportunities I have been able to enjoy.

Oh yeah, thankfully the big blackface didn't show. Guess I made the right choice.

This bear squared 6'1" and skull is 18".
 
Thanks Troy. I enjoyed your art work on the bedroom wall. :D

How did your hunt go when you were up there?
 
Hey, what was the name of your bait site. Judging by the sand it looks like the "Keys" bait, but if certainly is in a different location than where it was when I was up there, if it is.

One thing is for sure, they have a lot of bears up there especially the size of the one you killed. Which isn't a bad thing at all. There are plenty of bear camps that finding a 6 foot bear with an 18" skull is nothing short of impossible. Glad it worked out for you. Did anyone see or kill any colored bears this year?
 
BigSky.. I said Congrats Before he left.. So you're the 2nd person ;)

But I'll say it again .. CONGRATS MAN !!!!

DID ya kiss ol' Hairy Butt Casey for me ?
 
It may have been Keys. That sounds familiar from last year when I hunted there. It is only about 5 or 6 miles north of camp. I sat on this site last year (actually it has been moved about 200 yards) for 3 1/2 days and only saw a boo-boo at the bait and a boar that skirted the bait at about 60 yards. Go figure, Dan Evans poked a 7'3" from that stand the day I left. I swear I will never buy a Trophy Taker rest now. :D ;)

Out of the the six bears we took last week, mine was 3rd largest I think. We had a guy shoot one the last day that he thought was not a big bear, but it ended up nearly 19" so he was pretty fired up and after skinning until 0400 he went out with Dustin and hammered walleye until we got ready to leave on Sat. He was happy to say the least. The biggest bear from our group went 19.5" and was shot at the radio tower. I think that is where Wylee got eyeball to eyeball with one last year while Moosie taped and laughed.

Snake River Rufus saw a nearly blond one at his site, unfortunately it showed 3 minutes after he put another one on the ground. A blond one was taken from this stand with a bow on the last day as well. Not a huge bear, but talk about beautiful. I only saw it at night, but hopefully the pics turn out and I will post them when I get the roll developed.

This was only the second week of hunters. The first week they went 3 for 3 with rifle hunters. If I remember correctly, 18+", 19+" and 20+".
 
Ole harry ass Casey was too busy taking care of bad guys in MT, so he was not in attendance. From the sounds of it, he might not make it up this spring.

Dustin carried the ball and caried it well. I have never met a nicer guy. He goes above and beyond to satisfy the hunters in camp.
 
WOW... 18"s .. Bragger ;)

Looking foward to more Pictures !!! Whats the Odds of getting all your Video to put in the HuntTalk Video ? Send all the raw footage if ya don't mind


What did Bigsky Draw in the chitter ? All I remember there was a Porn mag ..
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Yup that sure sounds like the "Keys" bait. That tower bait is a good'un as well. It sure sounds like they are having a great year thus far. I was up there nearly a month and not a single colored bear was seen let alone killed. I swear I have colored bear repellant on me. Next year I might try Idaho in an area my friends swears there are virtually no black phased bears. I told him I could fix that. He was pretty confident that I'd see colored bears...he don't know me very well, do he.
 
Thanks Troy. I enjoyed your art work on the bedroom wall.
What did Bigsky Draw in the chitter ? All I remember there was a Porn mag ..
You sleep in some strange places man. ;) Actually the art work was in the autograph bedroom in the main cabin. It was a bear thieving a bait bucket. funny sheet...

No porn mag this year. Or at least they hid it from me.
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Moosie- I will dub a VHS and send it to you. I will be a pretty rough 45 minutes of tape with about 1/2 of bears. You know me, I had to tape squirrels and birds as well. :rolleyes:
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Oh yah, they have stupid antelope in SK. ;)
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Hopefully I can get some video from another guy on the hunt. Hehammered one when it had it's paw up on the tree. I don't think the bear would have even know it was hit if the arrow hadn't smacked the barrel after it passed through.

Also, the five bears that fell to arrows traveled--7, 10, 12, 30 and 90 yards. Stormy was pissed.
 
I'd like to see it but I'm only using guys video that post here :D

Cool Bird and Squirl ;) Whats that Middle Critter and Why didn't you shoot him for me ?
 
It is a pine martin. Cool little critters. This is only the third one I have ever seen.
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Well if I get the video I will send it to you anyway for your enjoyment. It is a pretty cool shot.
 
oh yea, your still ugly as a cat with a shaved ass walkin backwads
 
mtmiller, that was good reading. Thanks for the story of your hunt. Those pictures are great, all of them. Congrats again to you. :cool:
 
Nice bear. Congrats!

Miller, I think you once corrected me when I called it a pine martIN. So I'm going to tell you that it's actually a pine martEN. ;)

Oak
 
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