Re-finding bumped bears

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

Through a really bizarre series of events and a little bad luck, I’ve bumped two really nice bears in the last few days. Considering they were both large bears, and didn’t get that way being stupid, I’m guessing they are gone.
I’m just curious if anyone has re-found a bear they bumped in the spring? Did it go a drainage over? Same spot? How much time had passed? If they didn’t come back, did another bear move in? Interested to hear some experiences.

 

[Jason Snyder]

I wouldn’t expect them to be all that far away.

 

[Hnthrdr]

I’d imagine it depends how hard they were bumped… get some good angles and glass them back up! Good luck! Keep us updated

 

[liv4thehunt1]

We bumped a giant last year. By bumped I mean missed him 4 times. He came back out in the same clear-cut a week later. He probably never left, just stayed in the shadows for several days.

 

[SaltySailor]

Impossible to know IMO, personality of the bear. I've seen em 'bump' 100 yards or straight up a mountain 3000' and out of sight with no signs of slowing down.

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

I’d imagine it depends how hard they were bumped… get some good angles and glass them back up! Good luck! Keep us updated

One was bumped hard, like me yelling and hollering at it, on the stalk there was another bear, not the friendly kind, a predator call and some charging…. Got a little wild.
The second he must of caught my wind when it swirled after being constant for hrs, I was in tight (50 yards) but he never saw or heard me.
I’m not giving up, got several more days.

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

Impossible to know IMO, personality of the bear. I've seen em 'bump' 100 yards or straight up a mountain 3000' and out of sight with no signs of slowing down.

Yea I know, I’ll find out one way or another, still working the general area. Just wondering other’s experiences.

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

Bit of an update. It's been three days since I bumped the bear that smelled me. There was a different bear on the same face this evening. No sign of the original.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

One was bumped hard, like me yelling and hollering at it, on the stalk there was another bear, not the friendly kind, a predator call and some charging…. Got a little wild.
The second he must of caught my wind when it swirled after being constant for hrs, I was in tight (50 yards) but he never saw or heard me.
I’m not giving up, got several more days.

Can you tell me what exactly you said and what call you were using?

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

Found him! The one that winded me, 1.2 miles away as the crow flies

 

[Doepee]

Congrats! Nice bear!

 

[Hnthrdr]

Found him! The one that winded me, 1.2 miles away as the crow flies
View attachment 715158

Awesome man! Good work, and nice bear

 

[SaltySailor]

Hell yeah!!

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

Thanks everyone. I actually have some history with this bear. I missed him last year at 70 yards. It was a last light thing, he caught me off guard and I forgot everything I’ve ever learned and rushed a shot. I’ve been torn up about it since.
Fast forward to a few days ago, I spot him generally in his same zone. You can imagine my excitement and then the crushing disappointment that the stalk ended in him winding me. Needless to say I was pretty down.
I’d been thinking about where he might go and set up there last night. I had just gotten set up, it’s a haul in there so was digging for some snacks in my pack, turned around and there he was feeding in front of me at 120 yards. Made a good shot, he went about 20 yards. He was standing in the exact place I was standing last year when I took the shot that missed him!

 

[Blind Squirrel]

That’s awesome!

 

[Rogue Bay]

Beautiful bear! Congrats and way to stick with it. There’s something special about an animal you have history with.

 

[Andyram_18]

Dang. What a stud!!!

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

Can you tell me what exactly you said and what call you were using?

I can, though it might not make sense out of context from the entire story, so what had happened was….
We spot a nice bear about the last hour of light. He’s to the right side of a timbered creek with a cut road running above him. We make a quick move, get to the top cut road and start heading towards him, wind blowing up the drainage. I have four family members with me, three stay back on the road about 300 yards from the creek but can see into parts of it and I take my cousin (the shooter) around the road to see if we can get a shot. We wrap around and cannot get eyes on the bear, it’s open but still interspersed trees and cannot see as well as I thought we’d be able to. I decide to go back, drop down to the bears elevation, work through the timber and try to pop out on the other side of the creek for a tight shot.
As we are working through the timber about at the creek, a roar comes from about 30 yards below us. Not a huff or bark, straight movie level roar, then stomping the ground/thumping. I cannot see the bear because it’s getting dark and it’s just in the timber, there is about 20 yards of clearing below us. In my mind, I think here is our bear, he must of fed back into the timber, he doesn’t smell us, he knows something is up here, if I can get it to charge out my cousin can get a shot. I jump up on a stump to get a better view and a clear shooting lane in case my cousin doesn’t drop him, line my cousin up, tell him to get ready, he’s gonna come, and blow a Phelp’s fawn in distress call.

I maybe give three bleats, and then I hear something breaking branches and running in from our left, from where I thought the bear would be originally. The bear below us is still there was well, continuing to stomp the ground and making a commotion. We then realize there are two bears, neither can smell us, one might know we aren’t food but the other heard a bear then something dying and is coming in hot for a meal, the situation was getting out of hand. I start yelling “HEY HEY HEY BEAR”, we start trying to work back to the road, neither bear is really running away, but can here movement all around us. We make it back to the road, everyone looking very concerned and my cousin, who was on his first ever western hunt, got more than he bargained for. Everyone on the road could hear the commotion and see flashes of our orange, but didn’t really know what was happening.

In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t of tried to get the first bear to charge with a novice hunter I wasn’t really thinking, just reacting, and knew I had a clear lane and could drop it before it got to us. It wasn’t until after, when I really got to thinking about it, that I realized most likely we jumped a grizzly in the creek. For a black bear to buck up like that, roar, and then have the heft/weight to be stomping the ground and creating a thud that you could feel is unlikely. Then when I called the original large black bear was coming in from exactly where I thought he would be, also unable to smell us or the other bear, just hearing the commotion.

Long way of saying, Phelps fawn call and hey hey bear.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

I can, though it might not make sense out of context from the entire story, so what had happened was….
We spot a nice bear about the last hour of light. He’s to the right side of a timbered creek with a cut road running above him. We make a quick move, get to the top cut road and start heading towards him, wind blowing up the drainage. I have four family members with me, three stay back on the road about 300 yards from the creek but can see into parts of it and I take my cousin (the shooter) around the road to see if we can get a shot. We wrap around and cannot get eyes on the bear, it’s open but still interspersed trees and cannot see as well as I thought we’d be able to. I decide to go back, drop down to the bears elevation, work through the timber and try to pop out on the other side of the creek for a tight shot.
As we are working through the timber about at the creek, a roar comes from about 30 yards below us. Not a huff or bark, straight movie level roar, then stomping the ground/thumping. I cannot see the bear because it’s getting dark and it’s just in the timber, there is about 20 yards of clearing below us. In my mind, I think here is our bear, he must of fed back into the timber, he doesn’t smell us, he knows something is up here, if I can get it to charge out my cousin can get a shot. I jump up on a stump to get a better view and a clear shooting lane in case my cousin doesn’t drop him, line my cousin up, tell him to get ready, he’s gonna come, and blow a Phelp’s fawn in distress call.

I maybe give three bleats, and then I hear something breaking branches and running in from our left, from where I thought the bear would be originally. The bear below us is still there was well, continuing to stomp the ground and making a commotion. We then realize there are two bears, neither can smell us, one might know we aren’t food but the other heard a bear then something dying and is coming in hot for a meal, the situation was getting out of hand. I start yelling “HEY HEY HEY BEAR”, we start trying to work back to the road, neither bear is really running away, but can here movement all around us. We make it back to the road, everyone looking very concerned and my cousin, who was on his first ever western hunt, got more than he bargained for. Everyone on the road could hear the commotion and see flashes of our orange, but didn’t really know what was happening.

In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t of tried to get the first bear to charge with a novice hunter I wasn’t really thinking, just reacting, and knew I had a clear lane and could drop it before it got to us. It wasn’t until after, when I really got to thinking about it, that I realized most likely we jumped a grizzly in the creek. For a black bear to buck up like that, roar, and then have the heft/weight to be stomping the ground and creating a thud that you could feel is unlikely. Then when I called the original large black bear was coming in from exactly where I thought he would be, also unable to smell us or the other bear, just hearing the commotion.

Long way of saying, Phelps fawn call and hey hey bear.

I’m gonna try that tactic.

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

I’m gonna try that tactic.

I mean if anything it works too well