Jkean949
FNG
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2019
- Messages
- 55
I made the drive from Kansas City to Libby, Montana for a week of Spring Black Bear hunting. I used a service cap with a cot on my truck for camping and stayed the night at a truck stop in Spearfish along the way that was so windy my truck was rocking all night. I make the drive to Wyoming a couple of times a year, but first trip into Montana. Just beautiful country...some of the views of the Flathead and Clark Fork are about as picturesque as it gets.
My first day into Kootenai NF, my OnX had places all over that I had marked and I figured I would just try getting to as many as I could on the first day to either see what looked better in person or what I found along the way. A few miles North of Troy I took the Yaak River Rd and went to my first waypoint. I took the access I chose because it had a pretty large South Facing side...yes and thick, and steep! The logging roads looked pretty closed in too so, off to the next waypoint. I saw one truck at the end of the access road.
The next access road I took...the logging roads were a bit more open here and the cuts gave a better view. There was a nice thermal pushing up and the cut was below so I spent some time on the logging roads. Within 10 minutes I had seen sign of deer, elk, and moose on the road and there was "decent" open enough cut areas. I marked it as a possible and went to the next place. I did not see any other trucks while on/around this access road.
The next place I had marked out looked to be a logging road going right into B.C. When I got there and started down the path while there was decent visibility the wind was going directly at my back. I decided to just get a bit of a view and back out. In the short time I was there I found a handful of grass that almost looked like it had been cut by a florist laying on the road...good sign (also one I likely pushed). This was a long access road, but I saw two vehicles while driving and two others parked at TH's. This was clearly the busy section.
I went around past Yaak heading West instead of South to check out some other POI I had marked. This was an interesting drive, after passing through Yaak, I only saw one other vehicle for the rest of the day. At one point during the drive I passed a fresh fully stripped spinal column on the road. I wished I had gotten a photo of it...plenty of predators out there and others cleaning up, but just struck me as an odd one.
I made it to my next point and this time the road was gated much sooner than I thought. I had thought I was going to be able to get up the road a bit and then ride my bike up the "hill". Looking at the distance on the map to where I had thought via OnX looked to be a good area to hunt and in person seeing the hill I calculated it wasn't going to happen. Later, looking at the map again with 'Slope Angle' turned on I decided it was a good thing I called off the bike ride. I stopped doing the "marathon" day one stuff a while back...never seem to fully get recovered after doing that on day one. Still got a bit of a walk in...second place I stopped was looking better. I decided to continue on my loop though...I had places marked near the lake.
The road on the way to the lake was a narrow road marked as two lane, but was really only wide enough for one way traffic. Some great scenery on the way, a few places where the snow was still over the road, but nothing I was planning to try getting out for. I camped at McGilvray Campground that night...the only place on my trip I payed to stay. The campground host was a nice older gent who was actually originally from Kansas. The next morning I decided to grab a breakfast burrito and coffee in Libby.
The next morning after breakfast I headed North out of Libby to a few points I had marked...this was much more approachable for me. Larger areas cut, not as steep, more vehicles on the main road, but not too bad on the access roads. In the places I walked great deer/elk/moose sign...pretty sure I heard a moose which was a first for me. By mid day, I had found me spot where I would remain to the end of the hunt.
It had rained or heavy misted the entire time I had been there to this point, but at about 11:30 Thursday morning the sun decided to pop out...and about ten minutes later so did this guy. It was my first time and all I kept saying to myself was "Bear, Bear, Bear..." while running through my mind "okay, black bear, appeared alone, scanning and looking, alone". Let's do it! He seemed to be on a mission looking for something, but I made a fawn sound and he stopped and wheeled right at me to look. 7mm RM, pushing 160 AB, with 61 grains of N165 at just short of 200yards and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. I held over him for a few, but never saw movement again...I put a second shot down anyway.
I am right at 6' tall and he had a noticeable wider arm span and snout to tail on him. I wanted to do a sort of necropsy to see exactly where he was hit, but appeared to be double lunged. I was alone and had heard something growl from down the hill at my second trip for meat, so I didn't want to spend too much extra time at the kill site. 11:45 shot, 4:25 starting the truck...I didn't think I did too bad.
As a follow up...he tastes great! So please share any of your bear recipes!
My first day into Kootenai NF, my OnX had places all over that I had marked and I figured I would just try getting to as many as I could on the first day to either see what looked better in person or what I found along the way. A few miles North of Troy I took the Yaak River Rd and went to my first waypoint. I took the access I chose because it had a pretty large South Facing side...yes and thick, and steep! The logging roads looked pretty closed in too so, off to the next waypoint. I saw one truck at the end of the access road.
The next access road I took...the logging roads were a bit more open here and the cuts gave a better view. There was a nice thermal pushing up and the cut was below so I spent some time on the logging roads. Within 10 minutes I had seen sign of deer, elk, and moose on the road and there was "decent" open enough cut areas. I marked it as a possible and went to the next place. I did not see any other trucks while on/around this access road.
The next place I had marked out looked to be a logging road going right into B.C. When I got there and started down the path while there was decent visibility the wind was going directly at my back. I decided to just get a bit of a view and back out. In the short time I was there I found a handful of grass that almost looked like it had been cut by a florist laying on the road...good sign (also one I likely pushed). This was a long access road, but I saw two vehicles while driving and two others parked at TH's. This was clearly the busy section.
I went around past Yaak heading West instead of South to check out some other POI I had marked. This was an interesting drive, after passing through Yaak, I only saw one other vehicle for the rest of the day. At one point during the drive I passed a fresh fully stripped spinal column on the road. I wished I had gotten a photo of it...plenty of predators out there and others cleaning up, but just struck me as an odd one.
I made it to my next point and this time the road was gated much sooner than I thought. I had thought I was going to be able to get up the road a bit and then ride my bike up the "hill". Looking at the distance on the map to where I had thought via OnX looked to be a good area to hunt and in person seeing the hill I calculated it wasn't going to happen. Later, looking at the map again with 'Slope Angle' turned on I decided it was a good thing I called off the bike ride. I stopped doing the "marathon" day one stuff a while back...never seem to fully get recovered after doing that on day one. Still got a bit of a walk in...second place I stopped was looking better. I decided to continue on my loop though...I had places marked near the lake.
The road on the way to the lake was a narrow road marked as two lane, but was really only wide enough for one way traffic. Some great scenery on the way, a few places where the snow was still over the road, but nothing I was planning to try getting out for. I camped at McGilvray Campground that night...the only place on my trip I payed to stay. The campground host was a nice older gent who was actually originally from Kansas. The next morning I decided to grab a breakfast burrito and coffee in Libby.
The next morning after breakfast I headed North out of Libby to a few points I had marked...this was much more approachable for me. Larger areas cut, not as steep, more vehicles on the main road, but not too bad on the access roads. In the places I walked great deer/elk/moose sign...pretty sure I heard a moose which was a first for me. By mid day, I had found me spot where I would remain to the end of the hunt.
It had rained or heavy misted the entire time I had been there to this point, but at about 11:30 Thursday morning the sun decided to pop out...and about ten minutes later so did this guy. It was my first time and all I kept saying to myself was "Bear, Bear, Bear..." while running through my mind "okay, black bear, appeared alone, scanning and looking, alone". Let's do it! He seemed to be on a mission looking for something, but I made a fawn sound and he stopped and wheeled right at me to look. 7mm RM, pushing 160 AB, with 61 grains of N165 at just short of 200yards and he dropped like a sack of potatoes. I held over him for a few, but never saw movement again...I put a second shot down anyway.
I am right at 6' tall and he had a noticeable wider arm span and snout to tail on him. I wanted to do a sort of necropsy to see exactly where he was hit, but appeared to be double lunged. I was alone and had heard something growl from down the hill at my second trip for meat, so I didn't want to spend too much extra time at the kill site. 11:45 shot, 4:25 starting the truck...I didn't think I did too bad.
As a follow up...he tastes great! So please share any of your bear recipes!
