jmden
WKR
Posted a few days ago originally on longrangehunting.com...
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The hunting season starting off a bit unexpectedly this this year. On the morning of August 4 I received a call from the local WDFW Conflict Management Specialist. I'd been blessed to draw one of ten local master hunter elk tags and of those ten tags had been ranked number one and so was the first one to be called after the August 1 start of that particular season. I was assigned a property where the elk had been causing significant landowner trouble and was supposed to shoot the lead cow elk if possible as it was thought this elk was leading the herd back and forth across a state highway causing trouble with motorists while damaging crops as well. Not expecting to be called that early in the season (it runs until March 31, 2017), I was not ready to hunt. I told the conflict management specialist that'd I'd be at the property that night (about an hour drive). As you might imagine, it was a major thrash that day to get my gear together and go make sure my rifle was zeroed before late afternoon.
That evening found my brother and myself hunkered down behind a fenceline scanning for elk. On these 'hunts' on urban/wildland interface areas, it's very important to be careful where bullets are going. Many thanks to my brother for helping on this 'hunt' (hard to call shooting an elk in a farmer's field hunting, but it is meat in the freezer, which I'm thankful for) and sticking around to help me cut it up.
About a month later, Thursday, Sept. 8, I decided it was time to check out the bear situation in the huckleberries up high. 3500' vertical later I was in a great spotting location. Almost immediately, I noticed a bear about 2.5 miles distant on a big huck patch. It would take 4-5 hours to get over there and then would be in a completely different drainage, etc. and packout would be crazy, not to mention having to come back up 2700' to get camp out. Keep that one on the back burner... Didn't see anything else that evening even though there's some great huck patches right in range. Next morning, there's the bear 2.5 distant...hmm...seems pretty happy over there...hmm... About an hour later, I spotted a decent sized bear at 1866 yards. Not a shot I would take in the conditions and without a spotter, so it was 'game on' to get in range. I headed down the mountain to camp as fast as I could and then up the other side of the ridge as fast as I could. An hour later I was in range, but no bear...never saw it again. It was getting warmer by mid morning on a warm summer day, so it might have been naptime for the bear. Two more hours waiting for it and I decided it probably wasn't going to show until the evening and even then it could be in completely different spot that I couldn't see. I had stuff to do at home, mainly getting ready for another bear hunt and the start of High Buck with a 36 hour work shift in between so back to camp and down the very steep trail.
At home I bought food for the next couple of hunts and unpacked and organized and repacked that night and the next day, Saturday. That night I worked an extra 12 hour overtime shift in which we were up most of the night with calls, and then right into a normal 24 shift on September 11. The next morning found me working hard to get out of town and up high. I'd decided to go after the bear that I'd seen earlier '2.5 miles distant', but go in a much more direct route to it. So, up the hill 2800' vertical to 6300' elevation, where I made camp next to a little tarn and had a jaw dropping view. Even if you don't come home with something up here, the rewards of getting to be up there are great. Beautiful. I filtered water from the tarn and headed over to look down into the meadow, almost stepping on some very unconcerned ptarmigan along the way. No bear, so thought I'd try a different angle on the meadow and relocated...no bear. Well, it was early afternoon naptime for bears. I re-positioned again about 3 o'clock and a few minutes later...bear walking out from some scattered trees! It looked decent sized. And, I can shoot from right here! 630 yards, 30 deg down angle.
Bear was in center left of pic.
There was a quartering to upslope wind, as you might imagine from the pic, with the afternoon sun hitting the SW aspect slope directly. The 300g Berger with 100.5g Retumbo behind it, and .018 off the lands, came out of the 29" barreled .338 Lapua Mag Improved (Kirby Allen's 338 AX) at 2996fps and met it's mark on the slightly quartering away bear going through the chest and smashing the offside. Recovering site picture, I could see the bear tumbling down the hill, somehow regain it's footing and limp a step behind a few trees. I watched for quite awhile for any more movement. Nothing. Heading back to camp, I ditched all the gear I could and just packed my .40 (potent bear loads equal to typical .357 mag energy) down the hill going as light as possible. Finding the spot of trees where the bear disappeared, I also found blood and then a few feet below, a lot of blood on on a small ledge. From there, looking back on it later, it appeared the bear tumbled straight downhill getting caught up in a wad of trees, but again, blood trailing in what is largely red huckleberry leaves can be a challenge. I lost the trail and had to go back and get at it again looking for spot of blood on rocks here and there.
It was 1000' vertical back up to where I shot from now and so the work started as I was going to be racing the setting sun at this point. This was one fat bear. Not as much meat as you might expect given it's size. Like I thought when I first saw it from 2.5 miles away a few days earlier, it was living good in that huge meadow with big blue huckleberries like you've never seen... It was a huffer workout steeply back up to camp and I arrived just as it was getting dark. Dinner was a can of cold Nalley chili (cheap, easy and tasty and pretty good nutrition) and off to bed. Froze good that night at that elevation, but I was nice and warm in a Marmot Hydrogen, Tarptent Rainbow and Thermarest NeoAir X-Light pad--pad, bag and roomy one-man tent weigh less than 5 pounds combined. The next morning I was woken up by a flock of ptarmigan, at least some of which were trying to do a rooster imitation. First I'd hear that. At breakfast, I packed up and headed down the hill with an 80 lb. pack nearly 3000' vertical.
I had to get back home soon and get ready to leave the next day to be in place for the opener of Washington State High Buck Hunt starting Sept. 15. Go...go...go! So, got the meat taken care of for the time being and unpacked and repacked with gear in the car at least for nearly a week, if needed.
Next afternoon found me driving across the state for High Buck opener in one of the open Wilderness Areas. Then it was nearly 2000' vertical up the hill on a 30-45 deg slope with no trail packing 70 lbs. This is a dry camp, so I had 18 lbs of water alone along with 3 days of food. Along with a 13lb long range rifle, spotter, tripod, rangefinder/binos, kestrel, etc.--that long range gear adds up in weight, but some might say it's worth it's weight...
Looking down to where shot to in bottom of meadow just after the shot. 603 yds, 23 deg down angle.
It was a warm night at 7200' elevation and I slept pretty well, but was quite tired. (I figured out on the way home that between these three hunts in a week, I'd done over 12,500' vertical--maybe that's why...) The next morning found me at up on the peak overlooking two alpine basins. I was not immediately seeing deer, which is usually not a good sign. Soon, I saw a bear over in the left side of the meadow about 650 yards away. I had a second black bear tag in my pocket, but was here for deer and not going to ruin a deer hunt for a bear. I finally spotted a doe and fawn 1300 yards away in an opening, but no bucks. A few minutes later, I spotted 3 deer right below me as they fed out of scattered trees at about 600 yds. I put the spotter on them, two were does and the other a legal buck! I could see 4 pts for sure on one side. Good enough. Looked like a decent sized deer. No trophy size, but pretty representative of a good buck here. At the shot, the buck collapsed and the does were looking around, then finally ran off. I noticed the bear off to my left was gone too. He'd been there right before I shot. I guess the huckleberries weren't enough of a magnet once the shot went off.
Can see the downed buck just right of top of tree. Pic was about as good as I could do with an iPhone through the spotting scope.
Next post...
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The hunting season starting off a bit unexpectedly this this year. On the morning of August 4 I received a call from the local WDFW Conflict Management Specialist. I'd been blessed to draw one of ten local master hunter elk tags and of those ten tags had been ranked number one and so was the first one to be called after the August 1 start of that particular season. I was assigned a property where the elk had been causing significant landowner trouble and was supposed to shoot the lead cow elk if possible as it was thought this elk was leading the herd back and forth across a state highway causing trouble with motorists while damaging crops as well. Not expecting to be called that early in the season (it runs until March 31, 2017), I was not ready to hunt. I told the conflict management specialist that'd I'd be at the property that night (about an hour drive). As you might imagine, it was a major thrash that day to get my gear together and go make sure my rifle was zeroed before late afternoon.
That evening found my brother and myself hunkered down behind a fenceline scanning for elk. On these 'hunts' on urban/wildland interface areas, it's very important to be careful where bullets are going. Many thanks to my brother for helping on this 'hunt' (hard to call shooting an elk in a farmer's field hunting, but it is meat in the freezer, which I'm thankful for) and sticking around to help me cut it up.
About a month later, Thursday, Sept. 8, I decided it was time to check out the bear situation in the huckleberries up high. 3500' vertical later I was in a great spotting location. Almost immediately, I noticed a bear about 2.5 miles distant on a big huck patch. It would take 4-5 hours to get over there and then would be in a completely different drainage, etc. and packout would be crazy, not to mention having to come back up 2700' to get camp out. Keep that one on the back burner... Didn't see anything else that evening even though there's some great huck patches right in range. Next morning, there's the bear 2.5 distant...hmm...seems pretty happy over there...hmm... About an hour later, I spotted a decent sized bear at 1866 yards. Not a shot I would take in the conditions and without a spotter, so it was 'game on' to get in range. I headed down the mountain to camp as fast as I could and then up the other side of the ridge as fast as I could. An hour later I was in range, but no bear...never saw it again. It was getting warmer by mid morning on a warm summer day, so it might have been naptime for the bear. Two more hours waiting for it and I decided it probably wasn't going to show until the evening and even then it could be in completely different spot that I couldn't see. I had stuff to do at home, mainly getting ready for another bear hunt and the start of High Buck with a 36 hour work shift in between so back to camp and down the very steep trail.
At home I bought food for the next couple of hunts and unpacked and organized and repacked that night and the next day, Saturday. That night I worked an extra 12 hour overtime shift in which we were up most of the night with calls, and then right into a normal 24 shift on September 11. The next morning found me working hard to get out of town and up high. I'd decided to go after the bear that I'd seen earlier '2.5 miles distant', but go in a much more direct route to it. So, up the hill 2800' vertical to 6300' elevation, where I made camp next to a little tarn and had a jaw dropping view. Even if you don't come home with something up here, the rewards of getting to be up there are great. Beautiful. I filtered water from the tarn and headed over to look down into the meadow, almost stepping on some very unconcerned ptarmigan along the way. No bear, so thought I'd try a different angle on the meadow and relocated...no bear. Well, it was early afternoon naptime for bears. I re-positioned again about 3 o'clock and a few minutes later...bear walking out from some scattered trees! It looked decent sized. And, I can shoot from right here! 630 yards, 30 deg down angle.
Bear was in center left of pic.
There was a quartering to upslope wind, as you might imagine from the pic, with the afternoon sun hitting the SW aspect slope directly. The 300g Berger with 100.5g Retumbo behind it, and .018 off the lands, came out of the 29" barreled .338 Lapua Mag Improved (Kirby Allen's 338 AX) at 2996fps and met it's mark on the slightly quartering away bear going through the chest and smashing the offside. Recovering site picture, I could see the bear tumbling down the hill, somehow regain it's footing and limp a step behind a few trees. I watched for quite awhile for any more movement. Nothing. Heading back to camp, I ditched all the gear I could and just packed my .40 (potent bear loads equal to typical .357 mag energy) down the hill going as light as possible. Finding the spot of trees where the bear disappeared, I also found blood and then a few feet below, a lot of blood on on a small ledge. From there, looking back on it later, it appeared the bear tumbled straight downhill getting caught up in a wad of trees, but again, blood trailing in what is largely red huckleberry leaves can be a challenge. I lost the trail and had to go back and get at it again looking for spot of blood on rocks here and there.
It was 1000' vertical back up to where I shot from now and so the work started as I was going to be racing the setting sun at this point. This was one fat bear. Not as much meat as you might expect given it's size. Like I thought when I first saw it from 2.5 miles away a few days earlier, it was living good in that huge meadow with big blue huckleberries like you've never seen... It was a huffer workout steeply back up to camp and I arrived just as it was getting dark. Dinner was a can of cold Nalley chili (cheap, easy and tasty and pretty good nutrition) and off to bed. Froze good that night at that elevation, but I was nice and warm in a Marmot Hydrogen, Tarptent Rainbow and Thermarest NeoAir X-Light pad--pad, bag and roomy one-man tent weigh less than 5 pounds combined. The next morning I was woken up by a flock of ptarmigan, at least some of which were trying to do a rooster imitation. First I'd hear that. At breakfast, I packed up and headed down the hill with an 80 lb. pack nearly 3000' vertical.
I had to get back home soon and get ready to leave the next day to be in place for the opener of Washington State High Buck Hunt starting Sept. 15. Go...go...go! So, got the meat taken care of for the time being and unpacked and repacked with gear in the car at least for nearly a week, if needed.
Next afternoon found me driving across the state for High Buck opener in one of the open Wilderness Areas. Then it was nearly 2000' vertical up the hill on a 30-45 deg slope with no trail packing 70 lbs. This is a dry camp, so I had 18 lbs of water alone along with 3 days of food. Along with a 13lb long range rifle, spotter, tripod, rangefinder/binos, kestrel, etc.--that long range gear adds up in weight, but some might say it's worth it's weight...
Looking down to where shot to in bottom of meadow just after the shot. 603 yds, 23 deg down angle.
It was a warm night at 7200' elevation and I slept pretty well, but was quite tired. (I figured out on the way home that between these three hunts in a week, I'd done over 12,500' vertical--maybe that's why...) The next morning found me at up on the peak overlooking two alpine basins. I was not immediately seeing deer, which is usually not a good sign. Soon, I saw a bear over in the left side of the meadow about 650 yards away. I had a second black bear tag in my pocket, but was here for deer and not going to ruin a deer hunt for a bear. I finally spotted a doe and fawn 1300 yards away in an opening, but no bucks. A few minutes later, I spotted 3 deer right below me as they fed out of scattered trees at about 600 yds. I put the spotter on them, two were does and the other a legal buck! I could see 4 pts for sure on one side. Good enough. Looked like a decent sized deer. No trophy size, but pretty representative of a good buck here. At the shot, the buck collapsed and the does were looking around, then finally ran off. I noticed the bear off to my left was gone too. He'd been there right before I shot. I guess the huckleberries weren't enough of a magnet once the shot went off.
Can see the downed buck just right of top of tree. Pic was about as good as I could do with an iPhone through the spotting scope.
Next post...
