MontanaWild
New member
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2012
- Messages
- 299
Well it's been a great spring here in Montana. My brother and I started hunting for black bears on April 12th. We went four days without a bear sighting, but it was just awesome to be back in the mountains and beating the body back into shape. In May we really started hunting hard. The weather felt more like summer than it did spring with the temps reaching the mid 70s multiple times. This made for a fast transition from brown to green. We finally started seeing some sign in an area where I killed my bear last year and decided to keep after it.
Finally they started popping out of the woodwork and we had our first bear of the year spotted. It was a mature bear and had a small white blaze on it's chest. Unfortunately, I fell down a gravel bank right above a logging road trying to stalk to withing bow range and the gig was up. We ended up seeing bears over the next four days without sealing the deal. This last Saturday we decided to hit up some new country. After seeing fresh sign on the road but no bears in sight I started laying into the distress call. About 5 minutes later I had a very pretty chocolate phase brown bear at 40 yards.
I had set out to arrow a bear this year but of course I had my bow on my back at the time, idiot! I honestly didn't expect to call a bear in and if I did I figured it be a big boy that I'd just be lucky to take a shot at with the .300. Well after the bear came into 30 yards I figured it was just too good to be true and with the camera running I'd take it with the rifle. No sooner and it ran off about 70 yards. To make a long story short it eventually came up on the road and I was able to get my hands on my bow. Unfortunately I rushed a shot at just over 50 yards and missed just over the back. Those bears sure can duck! I broke two of my rules for the season. 1 - shooting at an alert animal past the 35-50 yard mark (depends on animal as to how far I'll take that shot) and 2 - I rushed the shot. I really wanted every shot to be a lethal shot that I feel good about and so far it hasn't worked out. It's just so much different when things just come together so fast and that adrenaline hits you. If you guys have any ways of practicing for these situations leave them in the comments, I'd love to try some. Man I was down after that but hey it's another day in God's country.
Well we figured we better go back to the honey hole and take the tent this time. We got up the mountain in the morning and set up camp. In the evening we glassed for over an hour before getting anxious. We looped the logging road around the basin and were filming a moose when I spotted a bear back where we had just come from. We started speed walking and jogging back around the basin on the logging road as light was starting to fade. We located the bear and set up on the road. After loosing her for a few minutes she popped out at 240 yards and feeding away. Travis lit off a round and just missed her right. I told him shoot again and this time he connected with the camera running to boot. She spun and tumbled and was immediately down. Travis had his first Montana black bear.
She was a nice mature sow. She had great character, a broken canine, and a white blaze on her chest. This was the bear that we had tried to stalk with the bow earlier in the year so it was fitting that we got it done the second time around. Also with all the bears we saw in the area it was good to thin the population a bit. We've seen more bears than deer this year and no elk. Seen about 6 moose though and one's living right in the midst of all these bears as happy as can be.
It was a great time and we've got a lot of great footage so far. Hopefully I can arrow bear in the coming weeks but I won't be upset if I don't get another chance. I almost got to within range last night but couldn't seal the deal. I hope to see a few more bears showing up on the forums. Go get em guys. If you haven't bear hunted I highly recommend it. If nothing else it's gonna get you butt in shape. I'm probably in better shape right now than parts of last elk season.
Finally they started popping out of the woodwork and we had our first bear of the year spotted. It was a mature bear and had a small white blaze on it's chest. Unfortunately, I fell down a gravel bank right above a logging road trying to stalk to withing bow range and the gig was up. We ended up seeing bears over the next four days without sealing the deal. This last Saturday we decided to hit up some new country. After seeing fresh sign on the road but no bears in sight I started laying into the distress call. About 5 minutes later I had a very pretty chocolate phase brown bear at 40 yards.
I had set out to arrow a bear this year but of course I had my bow on my back at the time, idiot! I honestly didn't expect to call a bear in and if I did I figured it be a big boy that I'd just be lucky to take a shot at with the .300. Well after the bear came into 30 yards I figured it was just too good to be true and with the camera running I'd take it with the rifle. No sooner and it ran off about 70 yards. To make a long story short it eventually came up on the road and I was able to get my hands on my bow. Unfortunately I rushed a shot at just over 50 yards and missed just over the back. Those bears sure can duck! I broke two of my rules for the season. 1 - shooting at an alert animal past the 35-50 yard mark (depends on animal as to how far I'll take that shot) and 2 - I rushed the shot. I really wanted every shot to be a lethal shot that I feel good about and so far it hasn't worked out. It's just so much different when things just come together so fast and that adrenaline hits you. If you guys have any ways of practicing for these situations leave them in the comments, I'd love to try some. Man I was down after that but hey it's another day in God's country.
Well we figured we better go back to the honey hole and take the tent this time. We got up the mountain in the morning and set up camp. In the evening we glassed for over an hour before getting anxious. We looped the logging road around the basin and were filming a moose when I spotted a bear back where we had just come from. We started speed walking and jogging back around the basin on the logging road as light was starting to fade. We located the bear and set up on the road. After loosing her for a few minutes she popped out at 240 yards and feeding away. Travis lit off a round and just missed her right. I told him shoot again and this time he connected with the camera running to boot. She spun and tumbled and was immediately down. Travis had his first Montana black bear.
She was a nice mature sow. She had great character, a broken canine, and a white blaze on her chest. This was the bear that we had tried to stalk with the bow earlier in the year so it was fitting that we got it done the second time around. Also with all the bears we saw in the area it was good to thin the population a bit. We've seen more bears than deer this year and no elk. Seen about 6 moose though and one's living right in the midst of all these bears as happy as can be.
It was a great time and we've got a lot of great footage so far. Hopefully I can arrow bear in the coming weeks but I won't be upset if I don't get another chance. I almost got to within range last night but couldn't seal the deal. I hope to see a few more bears showing up on the forums. Go get em guys. If you haven't bear hunted I highly recommend it. If nothing else it's gonna get you butt in shape. I'm probably in better shape right now than parts of last elk season.
