Mothrs Day black bear story

[srupp]

Spring 2010 trophy black bear ..

I had recently purchased a new set of ITP Baja Cross ATV tires for my Honda quad , from Huntbc member Eric..aka Neeha..and was itching to see what they would do..So having a reasonably good day as far as health goes I had two options go glass for Cali sheep or go look for a black bear…I chose the bear option because I would encounter snow there also…and I had promised the wife of my pilot to get her a good bear for their lodge..

So I packed the big green diesel with hunting gear, quad, and everything I thought I might need for a couple of hours riding and headed out towards Horsefly some 60 minutes away…the trip was short and enjoyable as a few mule deer were encountered as they fed in the warm spring heat…I had taken Leaseman and his son in here on Nicks deer hunt, and also Dave..AKA BIGBORE 14 on a bear hunt a couple years prior and knew after 3 decades of hunting this place held a decent amount of bears AND 40 % of them sported non traditional black bear colors...my “Farrah Fawcett” blond black bear was harvested in this area as well as numerous other bears..

I unloaded the quad , loaded up the gun case and the day box and slowly headed down the trail….INSTANTLY I appreciated the choice of new tires..they were awesome providing a much better ride , more responsive feel and now I knew how the bike would respond…..no more squirmy ride..the radial design and 8 plys made for a much much better tire. THANKS ERIC.

I ended up climbing up towards the alpine even though I knew from years of experience that the bears would be lower down feeding on the new pockets of greening grasses…but I wanted to sit and glass a few likely locations from one of the many vantage lookout spots I had discovered over the years , and soon I found a good one and grabbed my 4 litres of water and binos and spotting scope and sat down back against the now warm quad looking out over the wide vista of the area surrounding Horsefly lake far below. Before I could even lift the Swarovski binos I spotted a bear on one of the trails leading to a cutblock….a casual scan of the area soon revealed yet another black bear munching happily down another trail ….wow… 2 bears in under a minute without even using the binoculars so I instinctively turned to a small little cutblock that has in the past decades held some of the best bears...and immediately I caught movement along the back of the overgrown cutblock yet another black bear however this one was noticeably larger, much larger, and carried a deep luxurious brown colored coat…

So I picked up the 8 power Swaros and glassed the bear..and man did I ever get a surprise..the bear was facing me some 3 kilometers away and far, far below...however the instant I laid eyes upon him I kew he was a special bear...he was huge in a big and “blocky” way..his back side rose in elevation to his front end....always a good sign of size , the hide was a glorious chocolate brown that shimmered and danced in the spring sun.,.his neck was thick and massive and the hair here was highlighted and showed just how long and thick his hair was…and even from here the head looked massive especially wide…now this was a guy that deserved…no demanded a closer look .

One of the things about knowing….I mean REALLY knowing an area intimately is that not only do you know the normal places to stop and glass…places others would drive on by without giving it a look over, let alone a second glance but you also know HOW to approach each area…..the trails and how close I could get on the Honda. .and where I could hide the ride while I snuck in for a closer look..and the size and shape and layout of the cut block the thicker forest behind and feeder trails, and small creeks to cover any errant noises..

I got on the Honda and cracked her open, the tires now aggressively grabbing the dirt and mud , shooting me down the hill and towards an encounter with MR Bruno..yet being careful enough that I didn’t dump the ride and ruin the whole scheme..I quickly covered the ground down toward the bear, first this trail then that one, then another one..all the while formulating the rest of the plan literally “on the fly”..

Soon I had descended into the valley below and slowed down looking for “THE” place to ditch the Honda now some 20 kilometers from my truck...it would be nice to have a ride still there to take me to the Ford diesel at the end of the adventure regardless of the outcome….I found the spot and pulled the bike in on the back of some thick trees..turned the 500cc machine off and pocketed the keys..ensuring the pocket of the coat that held these precious keys was securely and completely zipped…I donned my day pack carrying I SPOT..rangefinder, knifes,licences, tags, sildome,blood finder..water hydration bag, soap,camera , GPS, and everything I might need…

I took out my Sako.338 model 85 in synthetic stock with Corlanes custom 3 piece muzzle brake.., I snapped the clip into the rifle confident in the 225 grain Barnes tsx bullets that had been specially worked up for this rife by my great friend Garry Deane checked the leupold variable rifle scopes optics were clear and clean, and flipped up the scope caps..I then racked a shell and placed the safety carefully on and keeping the rifle in hand turned and slowly headed into the woods towards the bear.

[srupp]

I figured I was some 600 yards or so from where I knew I had last seen the brown bear some 30 minutes earlier, but since I had not been able to keep my eyes on him I was forced to start slowly in case the bear had moved any distance. I would take a step and glance carefully around…and since the area had been logged and burned there were an amazing amount of large round black tree hollows that resembled black bears all through this cut. After some 20 minutes of carefully checking each and every depression, each and every nook and cranny I spotted some fresh bear prints , very fresh tracks headed in the same direction I was….these tracks were in excess of 6 inch width on the front pads…and from years of checking I have relied on whatever width of the front pad change from inches to feet and add one..so my find of 6 inch plus width front pads ,could mean a 7 foot bear…WOW he was big..and the tracks clearly showed it to be a black bears track and that the claws were also large..

So with this added incentive I headed on even slower and with more diligence..quietly, slowly..watching the wind and what I was walking on..anytime I could get “the high ground” gain any elevation I chose that route so as to see “down “ into the hundreds of small depressions that held pooled water and green grass around it..stopping to listen looking at everything for movement for brown for more tracks….anything and everything…all the while my legs both of them started to burn in the knees..and I was pretty certain that was “all I had” the knew just wouldn’t let me carry on much further…sheesh…a lousy 600 yards MAX..thats all pretty pathetic Rupp.. hopefully I can get this surgery done and have more to offer…In fact I had not even gone 600 yards more likely maybe 250 yards..when I stopped for a moment to rest the knees..I sat on a log and was thinking strategy when I heard a distinctive “SNAP” now I cant tell you how loud that “snap” was, however ,what I can tell you is it got and held my complete and undivided attention…

I sat for some 5 minutes and nothing further was heard..so I slowly and carefully got to my feet..looked around and somewhat backtracked some 25 feet to get some higher ground visibility, and there was a slight sliver of brown along the yellow dried grasses…my heart skipped a beat..as the brown was so small but exactly the same shade of brown as the bear sported I had seen some 90 minutes earlier….I sloooooooly eased around a massive dead stump still standing and could see the movement and there he was. Now there has been talk..a lot of talk on judging bears..and I admit they are indeed one of the hardest animals to judge as the don’t sport any sort of antlers to help define a big one or a trophy or even a mature animal but in this case one look on the hill instantly let me know a closer look was warranted..no spotting scope no discussion with myself..I just knew…..experience..

Now with the bear a scant 30 -40 yards max. away, again , there was no need to talk myself into anything….what I saw was a very large brown phased black bear…I estimated over 400 pounds….heavy boar. This bear also had amazing gorgeous flawless primo coat….no rubs that I could see..the feet were massive and ended in tan colored large claws…the head was especially wide with the ears hanging off the sides..and add to this the most wonderful shade of chocolate and reddish brown color coat…..wow….almost too good to shoot…I did say “almost”..not wantint to risk movement or be discovered by a fickle shifting wind I slowly lifted the muzzle of the rifle and slowly “snicked “ off the safety and increased the variable scope power from 2x up to 4 x…everything till now was going smoothly…too smoothly and now the bear was feeding away into the big dark forest where I could not follow..and the shot offered was from the shoulders back to his rump..no shoulder shot…DARN ! (or something similar was muttered) I only had the vital chest from the side behind the shoulder…I only had literally seconds before the brown ghost would slowly and forever silently dissolve into the woods..so I slowly squeezed off a shot.


Now the instant the shot boomed through the forest I expected 2 things to happen both at the sam time..I would hear a “smack “ as the bullet tore through both sides entering AND leaving..and that this same bear would be dropped like a rock stone dead to the ground..a completely reasonable expectation…but neither happened !The bear didn’t even react like he had been hit merely scared and ran off…color me surprised..actually I was STUNNED..what the HECK JUST HAPPENED..??Did I miss a 7 foor bear at under 40 yards some 400 pound bear broadside standing and me shooting with a rest and miss???


Surely a .338 win mag expelling a .225 grain TSX would garner some sort of reaction??something???But nothing..I played back the sequence of events..several times in my mind , not reaching any solution that made any sense.. MAYBE JUST MAYBE MR. DEANE HAD MADE A DUD bullet as he had so many times promised..I then chambered a fresh round and pocketed the spent casing and slowly walked forward rifle at the ready…when I got to the spot Houdini HAD been standing I could clearly see the tracks frantically dug out of the wet ground as the bear had left exit stage left..in four wheel drive everything pumping and going..but no signs of a hit..no hair…no blood no poop nothing..so I slowly got off to the side of the tracks and started following the tracks..but from the side JUST in case the bear was alive wounded or merely upset and scared and watching his backtrack..I wound around 3 maybe 4 big trees and there laying in a small depression was a large..a very large and very dead brown bear..I instantly put the rifle on him and watched..nothing..slowly and carefully going in and I ensured he was expired before realizing he was better MUCH BETTER than I had even hoped for…

Later on I realized that I heard no WHUMP because the animal was so close the BOOM and the THUMP were all together, why he didn’t “react” I don’t know…as I usually never try anything but the shoulder shot


So some day If your ever in Nimpo lake and are in the neighborhood of Pine Point Lodge and have a few moments or are even looking for a good place to camp or cabin it…you could always stop in and se Rollie or Tamara..and their new addition for their wall…

Cheers

Steven Rupp

[R.Bergmann]

Good story & very well written! Enjoyed reading it very much!

[Leaseman]

Quality story as expected Mr. Rupster!

Felt like I was there (as usual)... will have to re-live it step by step on the next fishing trip!


Mike

[the rifleman]

That is one beautiful bear Steve. Congrats!

Great story, and so glad to hear your able to get out in the bush again, and enjoying what you love to do.

[CanuckShooter]

Great story...you making hams and pepperoni??

[Cariboo]

Great story as usual Steven.

It's good to see you up and about.

[srupp]

Thanks Guys..one day hunting and glassing tomorrow off to Hospital in Kamloops never know what the heck tomorrow will bring...

hope they get to the bottom of it..no Mike not THAT bottom..lol

Steven

[Cariboo]

Originally Posted by srupp

never know what the heck tomorrow will bring...

Ain't that the truth .............

I made a visit to see my new neurosurgeon last week in Kelowna. I thought the reason for the trip was to go further with pain management procedure following the facet joint injections I had a couple of months ago. It turns out he wants to open up my back again to clean up 3 levels of discs & vertebrae. In his words he wants to do it while I can still walk and before I loose bowel and bladder control ......

The good news is that the abdominal aortic aneurysm they found during a CT scan on my back turned out to be not a true aneurysm yet but rather a minimal widening that is just a mm or two over normal diameter. Just another reason to visit the lovely ladies at the radiology department every few months!

I am ramping up a new pain medication now that prevents me from having even the occasional beer but the good news is that I feel stoned for the better part of the day just by taking the new pills .................

[srupp]

hmmmm we NEED to get out hunting together Boo..I would REALLY like that only problem is can the 30 foot Citation carry BOTH our meds at once..

Im off to Kamloops in the AM but lets do coffe next week my treat BUD..

cheers

your friend

Steven

[Springer]

Steve ,you and Garry can line up the hunt, I'll Sherpa the meds for both but you might have to share as a tradeoff.
Sorry to hear about your pain as well Bou. We all have to appreciate our good days,because when you hear stories like yours ,it shows good health can be taken for granted.