Idaho Unit 1 2022 - Someone took my bear!!!

[h2so4]

BEAR OF A LIFETIME

BOAL

 

[Brentreese]

Here's my critique. You abandoned the blood trail at 6:30 PM. You still had 2.5 hours of daylight left. You should have stuck it out and found the bear. I completely understand the terrain in that area, it is not pleasant to navigate in the dark, but sometimes that is what's required to be successful.

How many bullet holes were in the carcass? It is entirely possible that you did not fatally shoot that bear, at least not immediately fatal. Another hunter could have come across that bear after you left and shot it themselves. Even if there weren't any bullet holes in the carcass, they might have shot it in the head, which would leave no new evidence for you to find in the morning. I've been on several bear blood trails that ended in finding a live bear even though it was shot in the chest. In one case we didn't find the bear for over an hour and it was still alive. My point is, you can't be certain the other hunters found it dead. And if they had to shoot it, then they have as much or more claim to it than you, especially if you were gone.

I feel for you, I really do. Maybe some additional information would clear things up for me, but right now it seems like you gave up you search with a lot of daylight left for someone else to come in and finish the job. If you never knew other hunters were around, then it is entirely possible that they didn't know you were there either.

Thats a fair critique. We did have daylight left - Exactly the 2.5 hours you note. We made a calculated choice since we were hiking out a new route, mainly because the heavy rain and snow melt was really pushing our comfort level on some of the crossings. Hiked plenty of rough mountain miles in the dark before in the Fall, but there is definitely something about Spring in Northern ID that will firmly hand you your own ass....

Fair point on shot. If the bear was alive when another hunter came upon it I have no right to that animal and owe the other hunter a debt for finishing my job. The kicker is we hit the bear with a 7mm Rem Mag. It knocked over and twitched for 10 seconds, giving us plenty of time for a follow-up, but we were sure it was going to expire right there. It finally did backward summersaults down the hill and out of sight - shocked it wasn't piled up against the next tree... much less able to take off from there.

Anyway, it was a crappy lesson to learn. Still had a great time in some gorgeous country and will be back one day - next time with a follow up shot and a workout for my headlamp.

 

[rclouse79]

Lost blood in heavy rain in a huge section of willows. No choice but to begin a grid search, as the bear at that time was an unknown distance from last blood. Soaking wet and far from camp, we decided to come back in the morning for the recovery - which I believe to be a fairly common practice.

Packing out someone else's bear does not seem to be an ethical or common practice among the hunters I know. We were pretty surprised to find what we did. Had we been aware that some hunters in Idaho jump at the chance to take hides from non-trophy bears they did not harvest, we would have stuck it out later.

I think the “fairly common practice” of leaving them overnight for the morning has been spread by flat brimmed YouTubers. I had to make a follow up shot on my last bear at last light when I was solo. To be completely honest I was s****** bricks, but there was no way I was leaving it overnight. At the time I was worried about meat spoilage. If I had known there were WKR’s lurking around every tree waiting to steal my bear I would have never gave up the search.

 

[mcr-85]

I think proper protocol is to wait 164 days or so to post about WKR game theft.

Sent from my SM-G981V using Tapatalk

 

[EdP]

From your more detailed description of events you had a bad set of conditions to deal with, but someone else dealt with those conditions and took out the bear you shot. Your initial thought that the bear was hurt bad was correct and you had 2 1/2 hours to work with. Doing a grid may have turned up your bear in a short time given that it was only 100 yds away. More importantly, as a hunter you had a responsibility to do all you could to make sure the bear was dead and not just injured and suffering.

 

[Dos Perros]

 

[carsonkeys]

Don't let this thread distract you from the fact that @well_known_rokslider is still lurking in the shadows. Anxiously waiting with at least two of his well known buddies to steal your bucks this fall.

I tried to warn you...

 

[87TT]

Meat and probably the hide would have been spoiled by the next day anyway.
On a side note, probably won't get much sympathy here.

 

[FlyGuy]

FWIW, I don’t think the OP did anything wrong here. I feel like some of you guys are being a bit harsh. We can all Monday morning quarterback decisions made in the mtns, but I understand his logic.

I don’t know how much experience the OP has in the mtns to begin with, but he was certainly unsure of the area he was in for the hunt. We all know that when you are deep in the backcountry, your “margin of error” is very small. Help is a long ways away, so it’s prudent to use caution and be conservative with your decision making relative to your level of experience and expertise. So many on here have been doing this for so long that they have long forgotten what it’s like to be inexperienced and a little intimated by the circumstances they find themselves in. But pushing out of your comfort zone is where you learn.

It sounds like they were very unsure of what they would find at that river crossing and it was the biggest driver behind the decision to bug out and come back in fresh the next day. I can understand the drive to hit that river in the daylight so that you can get a good view of the situation before committing to crossing. The last thing anyone wants is for a couple of hunters to push way, way past their limits and then someone find their bodies 8 miles downstream.

Also, I don’t think it’s ever a bad move to give a potentially wounded (ie: very aggressive, pissed off and cornered) apex predator some extra time. Based on the bear’s behavior after the shot they really didn’t know what they were dealing with. One minute they are high diving a bear that was “down right there”, and the next minute it’s on its feet and making tracks. Walking up on a wounded elk or deer is one thing, but walking up on a wounded bear could go bad wrong in a hurry.

So, I get it and they made the best decision they could with the information they had available to them at the time. They didn’t get mauled, they didn’t drown, and they got home safely - which is everyone’s #1 priority.

I’m sure they regret the decision in hindsight, but at the time they didn’t know it was dead only 100 yards away.

It’s very unfortunate the way it worked out for them, but this scenario is extremely unlikely to happen. 100’s of animals are left over night for all kinds of reasons and I’d bet that less than 1% are ever claimed by another hunter.



Now, can we go back to some drama lama memes?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[FLATHEAD]

Stuff happens, learning experience.
No Big Whoop, really.
Forge ahead.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

Thats a fair critique. We did have daylight left - Exactly the 2.5 hours you note. We made a calculated choice since we were hiking out a new route, mainly because the heavy rain and snow melt was really pushing our comfort level on some of the crossings. Hiked plenty of rough mountain miles in the dark before in the Fall, but there is definitely something about Spring in Northern ID that will firmly hand you your own ass....

Fair point on shot. If the bear was alive when another hunter came upon it I have no right to that animal and owe the other hunter a debt for finishing my job. The kicker is we hit the bear with a 7mm Rem Mag. It knocked over and twitched for 10 seconds, giving us plenty of time for a follow-up, but we were sure it was going to expire right there. It finally did backward summersaults down the hill and out of sight - shocked it wasn't piled up against the next tree... much less able to take off from there.

Anyway, it was a crappy lesson to learn. Still had a great time in some gorgeous country and will be back one day - next time with a follow up shot and a workout for my headlamp.

It is likely you made a bad shot and didn’t kill the bear. Another hunter came along and finished it off. I can’t tell you how many hunters I have heard say they made a great shot only to never find the animal. Doesn’t matter if it was a 223 or a 7mm or 338 lapua, got to hit them in the vitals, which are further back on bears.

Also pretty weak that you gave up so quickly…sorry man, you don’t deserve that bear. Gotta be better than that. And that fact that you show up on the interweb claiming you deserve that bear, at least the hide is super laughable…

 

[well_known_rokslider]

I tried to warn you...

I have no idea what you’re talking about…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[beachbunny]

what is wko and jhsoi?
ive had that happen to me once.my fault,lesson learned

 

[NorthIDHunter]

FWIW, I don’t think the OP did anything wrong here. I feel like some of you guys are being a bit harsh. We can all Monday morning quarterback decisions made in the mtns, but I understand his logic.

I don’t know how much experience the OP has in the mtns to begin with, but he was certainly unsure of the area he was in for the hunt. We all know that when you are deep in the backcountry, your “margin of error” is very small. Help is a long ways away, so it’s prudent to use caution and be conservative with your decision making relative to your level of experience and expertise. So many on here have been doing this for so long that they have long forgotten what it’s like to be inexperienced and a little intimated by the circumstances they find themselves in. But pushing out of your comfort zone is where you learn.

It sounds like they were very unsure of what they would find at that river crossing and it was the biggest driver behind the decision to bug out and come back in fresh the next day. I can understand the drive to hit that river in the daylight so that you can get a good view of the situation before committing to crossing. The last thing anyone wants is for a couple of hunters to push way, way past their limits and then someone find their bodies 8 miles downstream.

Also, I don’t think it’s ever a bad move to give a potentially wounded (ie: very aggressive, pissed off and cornered) apex predator some extra time. Based on the bear’s behavior after the shot they really didn’t know what they were dealing with. One minute they are high diving a bear that was “down right there”, and the next minute it’s on its feet and making tracks. Walking up on a wounded elk or deer is one thing, but walking up on a wounded bear could go bad wrong in a hurry.

So, I get it and they made the best decision they could with the information they had available to them at the time. They didn’t get mauled, they didn’t drown, and they got home safely - which is everyone’s #1 priority.

I’m sure they regret the decision in hindsight, but at the time they didn’t know it was dead only 100 yards away.

It’s very unfortunate the way it worked out for them, but this scenario is extremely unlikely to happen. 100’s of animals are left over night for all kinds of reasons and I’d bet that less than 1% are ever claimed by another hunter.



Now, can we go back to some drama lama memes?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Given that this hunt seems to have taken place in the past 2 weeks its likely quite plausible that the river crossing was far more intense than typical because of the incredible amount of rain we have gotten up here in the past 2 weeks, nearly every river and stream has been flood stage. So yea I agree 100% my life and me getting back to my wife and children far exceeds the importance of me finding an animal. Maybe I shouldn't hunt I guess, but that's just how I am. It's not that I don't respect the animals or the tradition or am not serious about taking another living things life, but I for sure put human life far above an animals. I am not condoning shooting things and walking away, I am not condoning walking around for 10 minutes and giving up, not at all. But for sure there are scenarios that constitute giving up. Doesn't it happen all the time in the sheep and goat mountains? Do you guys sit and rip guys who have to make that gut wrenching decision that its far to dangerous to recover the animal? Maybe this scenario wasn't as dangerous as a goat hunt, but being soaking wet in North Idaho with historical low temps, below freezing night time temps in the mountains, considerable snow still in the mountains, and a looming water crossing that like I said previously was likely pretty damn sketch due to flood stage river and creek levels. But of course you will get 40 more comments about how big of a sissy you were and how that bear required you to give your life for it, hell they might as well sign up for PETA

 

[InkedElkSlayer]

I rarely chime in on these, but I know N ID pretty well and have some broader thoughts. FlyGuy’s reasoning above was almost certainly what was going through their minds. However, PredatorSlayer and others are cold, harsh…and correct.
How many first posts are on here each week from some guy who’s going “Out West” on his first hunt? Looking to “go deep” in the “backcountry”. Wanting to know how many miles until he should bone vs. quarter. What layering system is recommended. Are the ticks bad…
What I’m getting at is what FlyGuy was saying, this shit takes time. It takes experience. It also takes restraint. A lot of restraint. Restraint will keep you from loosing an animal in a situation that you should never have been in.
So many guys watch YouTube then dive in way over their head. This is a prime example. They pulled the trigger and were not fully prepared for the consequence. Was the reasoning behind turning back the correct decision given their knowledge and experience level? Probably. But THAT is the issue… If you are not experienced enough, knowledgeable enough, fit enough, prepared enough, etc. to go into an animal’s domain. Then hunt, kill, process and pack him out ethically without cheating, then you shouldn’t be there. Period. Everyone wants a short cut. They want a motorized wheel barrow, an atv, blow the lock off a gate, they want to YouTube killing a bull 12mi in at 80 degrees only to call a packer on their Sat phone so they can race off to the next state for another YouTube hunt.
NO ONE deserves it, you MAY be able to earn it. An animal that you put lead into and didn’t recover, isn’t “yours”. You have to respect the animal. One of the biggest things you can do to respect the animal is to be prepared and know your limitations. When you are first starting out, you have no business going certain places and hunting certain ways. You need to restrict your hunting radius accordingly. After a while. Some experience, some F-ups, you get there. You can pretty much hunt anywhere you want and you are truly prepared… Or you have the knowledge to not put yourself into a precarious situation. Then, then, you start to get old, and your damn radius starts going back the other way.
I’m not ripping on these guys about the exact situation. Maybe preaching a tad on a broader topic. But I think new hunters need to ease into things.

 

[ljalberta]

Congrats on pushing through some challenging conditions and making it happen on a bear. Brutal luck the way it worked out with someone else taking the hide, but it seems you have the right attitude about it.

You’ve just gained a huge amount of knowledge about the area, hunting, and bears that you didn’t have before. The next one you shoot will be just that much sweeter to recover.

I think Flyguy nailed it with his posts. Don’t let the hardcore keyboard hunters discourage you. You get out there, you learn some hard lessons, and you build that experience. Half the internet hunters these days probably wouldn’t have even made it back there to begin with.

 

[mtnwrunner]

Hmmmmm.........that area is really really close to some VERY well known roksliders. Just sayin.....

Randy

 

[BAKPAKR]

After reading about two BOALs - one a buck and the other a bear - I know that if I get get a chance at a BOAL (bull) in Idaho this fall, I am going to use the BOTW high shoulder shot so it is DRT and does not end up MIA or being skinned by a WKR.

 

[Geewhiz]

tough crowd

 

[BAKPAKR]

Actual Thread. Pic taken June 10.

If I was back in as far as your description suggests and I found that, and thought it was my bear, I would be looking up in the trees around me.



On a more serious note, is the right side of the carcass, behind the shoulder, flyblown? If so, how late in the day did you find it?

You may have already said, but was there only one entrance hole and one exit hole in the carcass?