JJHACK
Lil-Rokslider
From the early 80's through the mid 90's I was the wildlife manager for the weyerhaeuser tree farms in Washington state. My primary responsibility was in the reduction of tree damage by bears in the spring. In population studies, and damage control planning. There was special limits and regulations on the tree farms when damage permits were issued. Here is an event that occurred during this period of Washington's bear season when hounds and Bait hunting were allowed. I was guiding for about 20-30 bear hunters a year, and many hunters could get an additional bear tag for use on the damage control properties only.
The Tunnel of Horror
It was getting dark about 7PM this time of year, the end of September. It would be light in an open meadow until well after 7PM. However here in the dark second growth with such full limbed Douglas fir’s on the tree farm the canopy made up of these giant Christmas trees shut down the remaining light from the setting sun much earlier in the evening. We had been hunting over this bait for about 7 years now, and have taken some monster black bears here. The very first true giant I shot in my life was here several years before with a .44 magnum Ruger Redhawk. I was just getting settled in for the wait when he showed up early in the evening. This was very strange for a big bear. It was only about 6:00 PM when he came strolling in, stretched with his front legs out and then arched his back like a cat and yawned. Then proceeded to walk over to the bait. He moved like he did not have a care in the world. It was obvious from his actions he was the bear in charge of this tree farm, or so he thought.
He stood and reached the food items I placed high in the tree on the ends of limbs. I did it by reaching up as high as I could with my hands; he pulled them down with his mouth! Up to that point I was enjoying myself just to watch him. However when I realized he was that tall I started to get nervous. All at once I realized just how huge he was. I had been telling clients for years that they should be patient and wait for the right opportunity and look over many different bears before they take one. I found I was listening to my own advice and I should have been preparing to shoot this one!
The bear lowered himself to the ground back to all fours and went direct to the bait drum. He proceeded to eat from the drum that I realized was about the same size as his body. I pulled the hammer back on the Ruger Redhawk which was loaded with 300 grain Hornady XTP bullets and lots of WW296 powder. When the hammer clicked to the rear position he stood facing me at 25 yards and started sniffing the air staring right at me. He looked to the right for a second and in my mind I thought I should have raised the gun to shoot, it was too late he was looking at me again. I was careful never to make eye contact. I learned long ago to never look a wild animal in the eyes it spooks them nearly every time. He looked down at the food and I raised the gun taking aim while he was still standing upright. His neck and head snapped back to my direction with his mouth opened, drooling and slobbering the way they always do when they study their options. I have seen this a thousand times when a bear is testing the air trying to identify the other bears coming into his area. They are tasting the air trying to figure out what it is that they cannot see. I’m sure he was wondering what the big lump in the tree was on that shaky little platform. That big revolver fully loaded is a heavy weight to hold steady with your arms extended for more then a minute or two. I needed just a bit of movement from him to clear the limbs between us. While he was looking me over his footing shifted slightly. At that instant the recoil and the smoke disrupted my view for a moment and the sound from the muzzle blast of the big 44 dissipated throughout the forest. The bear was as dead as a rock laying right in his tracks where he was standing just the previous second.
He turned out to be a real beauty of exactly 7 foot. His skull would be 1/16” short of the record book minimum! He was 10.5 years old and by weight just over 400 pounds.
I had a hunter on this same stand that had been doing a lot of work for me. I felt I owed him a good hunt. He was very responsible and made a great effort to help me throughout the season maintaining feeding stations and baiting them. Honestly without his effort it would have been tough to do all this work myself. Unfortunately I also had clients that should have been hunting this stand for the trophy bears remaining. Since I promised this guy a good bear I really had no choice but to get him set up and let him take the big bear using this bait. I dropped him off and knew he was responsible enough to take care of anything that came up. I did not need to wait for him until dark to pick him up. We drove in with two trucks. He parked his about ¾ mile down the road and I drove him into the site. He climbed into the stand and set himself up while I refilled the bait and reset the game camera. I drove off and left him for the evening hunt. He has a CB radio in his truck that would reach to my house if he managed to harvest the big bear. He also had strict instructions to only shoot the big red colored bear that was on this bait. If he were to get the bear he would call me on the radio and I would drive down and skin it and we would pack it out.
One problem occurred during this plan of ours. There was a great disturbance at the bait this evening and lots of long hair from a dog was scattered about the bait site! From all indications a bear and a dog had one heck of a fight here and there was no sign the bear was the loser. The hair was long and “collie” colored not like what you would expect from a hound hunters dogs. I had seen loose dogs running around here in the past but never gave it much thought. I suppose this one found the bait and got caught by a bear sneaking in or made the foolish attempt at defending his food from the bear. The clumps of hair were big enough to indicate the dog would not likely be back to this site again!
This disruption was funny to me when I drove away thinking how much I would have loved to have been in the stand to watch this battle! Unfortunately my hunter would have to pay the price for this situation. He sat until dark as he was told to, however right at dark the big bear came to the bait and ran off the smaller bear that was on the site. This running and fighting with the associated growls and bawling from their fights scared the interest out of the hunter! He waited until it was quiet for a few moments at which time he climbed down and ran to the truck. He told me of the bear activity and seemed excited to go back the next night. I was mistaken though. I confused his fear of being there at night with excitement of going back for another chance. The next night our plan was the same even though it was obvious the dog episode had made the bears come quite a bit later in the evening when they feel more comfortable being out in a more open site.
Everything was about the same for this evenings hunt. The big bear came in and stayed eating and crunching the bones from the meat scraps we were using as bait. It was too dark to see his scopes crosshairs by this time in the evening. Yet he could not get down and spook this bear while it was there eating. He sat until well after dark before climbing down and getting the heck out of there. This exact program went on for several day’s, I had no idea what was going on, as he would never say. I was beginning to wonder if he was falling asleep and snoring or just not seeing the bear? Then one day he called me after a week of this same evening setup and poor results. While listening to him tell me about his evening of hunting on the phone I was looking out the window, it was light enough to read the newspaper outside yet he was already home!
I said to him, “What the heck are you doing home now, you’re missing the prime time to be bear hunting!” He tried to make a few excuses but slipped up and mentioned he had been coming home at this time for several days now! I was very angry and disappointed he was not hunting during the best hour of the day. He agreed, but finished by saying he was afraid to climb down after dark and walk out after hearing the bears fighting and knowing they likely killed the dog that was at the bait.
I said that I was going to kill that big bear myself if he would not sit there after dark. His reply was “that’s fine you go see how easy it is to sit there hearing bones crunching and bears fighting in total darkness!” We changed places and I went up with my then new Mathews bow. I sat and watched several bears come to the site and leave after about 3 to 5 minutes. They really had no interest in the area that probably smelled so much like the local boss bear. They all managed to leave with a mouthful of food though. After a while it was really getting dark. It was probably fully light in the open but under this canopy it was racing to darkness. There was still almost an hour of legal hunting light left but the canopy made it very dark in here already. The overcast sky from the storm that was moving in was no help either. The activity from squirrels and those big friendly birds we call whiskey jacks was dying out to. The forest was in the transition from day to night with all the daytime species heading off to their burrows or to roost in the trees. This period of time is always dead quite in the forest. There is very little wildlife movement during this hour or so of twilight. The wind was picking up due to the approaching storm. Gusts of wind with the smell of rain in the air came blowing through. It was very warm for this time of year in the evening because of the cloud cover. The humidity made it uncomfortable and I felt sweaty and sticky. The night species would just now start to become active. About the time I was figuring I should leave I could hear faint breathing. It was deep and labored breathing. I could not figure out what it was at first but thought that it had to be the big bear approaching. It is actually common for these bigger bears to have loud labored breathing even while slowly walking.
Sure enough it was a bear walking along the trail right under my stand, just about 8 feet away directly under me. It was so dark in here I was afraid I would have the same problem my previous hunter had seeing through his rifle scope. The bear walked in and started eating. I could see the shape but nothing clear to aim at. I lifted the bow and and had to focus with great effort to get my sight picture correct on this dark reddish brown bear. While I was looking for a solid aim point on him I realized he was straddling the 30-gallon drum. I knew he was big but I had no idea he was this big! I held just behind the shoulder and and steadied the sight pin. When the bear moved just slightly quartering away I took him through the lungs with a clean pass through of the arrow.
He jumped, bucked and rolled over and was up and gone in a less then a second. My eyes were struggling in the dark. I was trying to refocus on the area he was standing. He ran into a tunnel of black berries that was a main entry and exit for the bears using this site. We had never gone into this berry tunnel before in all the years we had been using this site. I was about to crawl through it, into this never never land which is highly off limits to anything but bears. Not even a mean old dog willing to stand up to a bear and fight survived this tunnel trip! Now in the dark I will have to take a flash light and crawl on my hands and knees to see where this bear had gone! Of all the bears I have just dumped in their tracks with good shots using a gun, in the wide open why did this one have to run off! Do I dare call my buddy on the radio and tell him? What if I don’t find the bear? I will never hear the end of this from him especially after the ridicule I gave him for chickening out of the hunt the way he did. Now I have a arrowed bear and I’m stuck here by myself, unless I eat my pride and get some help! Nope, too stubborn or maybe too stupid? Probably to proud to know what’s in my best interest at times like this.
The Tunnel of Horror
It was getting dark about 7PM this time of year, the end of September. It would be light in an open meadow until well after 7PM. However here in the dark second growth with such full limbed Douglas fir’s on the tree farm the canopy made up of these giant Christmas trees shut down the remaining light from the setting sun much earlier in the evening. We had been hunting over this bait for about 7 years now, and have taken some monster black bears here. The very first true giant I shot in my life was here several years before with a .44 magnum Ruger Redhawk. I was just getting settled in for the wait when he showed up early in the evening. This was very strange for a big bear. It was only about 6:00 PM when he came strolling in, stretched with his front legs out and then arched his back like a cat and yawned. Then proceeded to walk over to the bait. He moved like he did not have a care in the world. It was obvious from his actions he was the bear in charge of this tree farm, or so he thought.
He stood and reached the food items I placed high in the tree on the ends of limbs. I did it by reaching up as high as I could with my hands; he pulled them down with his mouth! Up to that point I was enjoying myself just to watch him. However when I realized he was that tall I started to get nervous. All at once I realized just how huge he was. I had been telling clients for years that they should be patient and wait for the right opportunity and look over many different bears before they take one. I found I was listening to my own advice and I should have been preparing to shoot this one!
The bear lowered himself to the ground back to all fours and went direct to the bait drum. He proceeded to eat from the drum that I realized was about the same size as his body. I pulled the hammer back on the Ruger Redhawk which was loaded with 300 grain Hornady XTP bullets and lots of WW296 powder. When the hammer clicked to the rear position he stood facing me at 25 yards and started sniffing the air staring right at me. He looked to the right for a second and in my mind I thought I should have raised the gun to shoot, it was too late he was looking at me again. I was careful never to make eye contact. I learned long ago to never look a wild animal in the eyes it spooks them nearly every time. He looked down at the food and I raised the gun taking aim while he was still standing upright. His neck and head snapped back to my direction with his mouth opened, drooling and slobbering the way they always do when they study their options. I have seen this a thousand times when a bear is testing the air trying to identify the other bears coming into his area. They are tasting the air trying to figure out what it is that they cannot see. I’m sure he was wondering what the big lump in the tree was on that shaky little platform. That big revolver fully loaded is a heavy weight to hold steady with your arms extended for more then a minute or two. I needed just a bit of movement from him to clear the limbs between us. While he was looking me over his footing shifted slightly. At that instant the recoil and the smoke disrupted my view for a moment and the sound from the muzzle blast of the big 44 dissipated throughout the forest. The bear was as dead as a rock laying right in his tracks where he was standing just the previous second.
He turned out to be a real beauty of exactly 7 foot. His skull would be 1/16” short of the record book minimum! He was 10.5 years old and by weight just over 400 pounds.
I had a hunter on this same stand that had been doing a lot of work for me. I felt I owed him a good hunt. He was very responsible and made a great effort to help me throughout the season maintaining feeding stations and baiting them. Honestly without his effort it would have been tough to do all this work myself. Unfortunately I also had clients that should have been hunting this stand for the trophy bears remaining. Since I promised this guy a good bear I really had no choice but to get him set up and let him take the big bear using this bait. I dropped him off and knew he was responsible enough to take care of anything that came up. I did not need to wait for him until dark to pick him up. We drove in with two trucks. He parked his about ¾ mile down the road and I drove him into the site. He climbed into the stand and set himself up while I refilled the bait and reset the game camera. I drove off and left him for the evening hunt. He has a CB radio in his truck that would reach to my house if he managed to harvest the big bear. He also had strict instructions to only shoot the big red colored bear that was on this bait. If he were to get the bear he would call me on the radio and I would drive down and skin it and we would pack it out.
One problem occurred during this plan of ours. There was a great disturbance at the bait this evening and lots of long hair from a dog was scattered about the bait site! From all indications a bear and a dog had one heck of a fight here and there was no sign the bear was the loser. The hair was long and “collie” colored not like what you would expect from a hound hunters dogs. I had seen loose dogs running around here in the past but never gave it much thought. I suppose this one found the bait and got caught by a bear sneaking in or made the foolish attempt at defending his food from the bear. The clumps of hair were big enough to indicate the dog would not likely be back to this site again!
This disruption was funny to me when I drove away thinking how much I would have loved to have been in the stand to watch this battle! Unfortunately my hunter would have to pay the price for this situation. He sat until dark as he was told to, however right at dark the big bear came to the bait and ran off the smaller bear that was on the site. This running and fighting with the associated growls and bawling from their fights scared the interest out of the hunter! He waited until it was quiet for a few moments at which time he climbed down and ran to the truck. He told me of the bear activity and seemed excited to go back the next night. I was mistaken though. I confused his fear of being there at night with excitement of going back for another chance. The next night our plan was the same even though it was obvious the dog episode had made the bears come quite a bit later in the evening when they feel more comfortable being out in a more open site.
Everything was about the same for this evenings hunt. The big bear came in and stayed eating and crunching the bones from the meat scraps we were using as bait. It was too dark to see his scopes crosshairs by this time in the evening. Yet he could not get down and spook this bear while it was there eating. He sat until well after dark before climbing down and getting the heck out of there. This exact program went on for several day’s, I had no idea what was going on, as he would never say. I was beginning to wonder if he was falling asleep and snoring or just not seeing the bear? Then one day he called me after a week of this same evening setup and poor results. While listening to him tell me about his evening of hunting on the phone I was looking out the window, it was light enough to read the newspaper outside yet he was already home!
I said to him, “What the heck are you doing home now, you’re missing the prime time to be bear hunting!” He tried to make a few excuses but slipped up and mentioned he had been coming home at this time for several days now! I was very angry and disappointed he was not hunting during the best hour of the day. He agreed, but finished by saying he was afraid to climb down after dark and walk out after hearing the bears fighting and knowing they likely killed the dog that was at the bait.
I said that I was going to kill that big bear myself if he would not sit there after dark. His reply was “that’s fine you go see how easy it is to sit there hearing bones crunching and bears fighting in total darkness!” We changed places and I went up with my then new Mathews bow. I sat and watched several bears come to the site and leave after about 3 to 5 minutes. They really had no interest in the area that probably smelled so much like the local boss bear. They all managed to leave with a mouthful of food though. After a while it was really getting dark. It was probably fully light in the open but under this canopy it was racing to darkness. There was still almost an hour of legal hunting light left but the canopy made it very dark in here already. The overcast sky from the storm that was moving in was no help either. The activity from squirrels and those big friendly birds we call whiskey jacks was dying out to. The forest was in the transition from day to night with all the daytime species heading off to their burrows or to roost in the trees. This period of time is always dead quite in the forest. There is very little wildlife movement during this hour or so of twilight. The wind was picking up due to the approaching storm. Gusts of wind with the smell of rain in the air came blowing through. It was very warm for this time of year in the evening because of the cloud cover. The humidity made it uncomfortable and I felt sweaty and sticky. The night species would just now start to become active. About the time I was figuring I should leave I could hear faint breathing. It was deep and labored breathing. I could not figure out what it was at first but thought that it had to be the big bear approaching. It is actually common for these bigger bears to have loud labored breathing even while slowly walking.
Sure enough it was a bear walking along the trail right under my stand, just about 8 feet away directly under me. It was so dark in here I was afraid I would have the same problem my previous hunter had seeing through his rifle scope. The bear walked in and started eating. I could see the shape but nothing clear to aim at. I lifted the bow and and had to focus with great effort to get my sight picture correct on this dark reddish brown bear. While I was looking for a solid aim point on him I realized he was straddling the 30-gallon drum. I knew he was big but I had no idea he was this big! I held just behind the shoulder and and steadied the sight pin. When the bear moved just slightly quartering away I took him through the lungs with a clean pass through of the arrow.
He jumped, bucked and rolled over and was up and gone in a less then a second. My eyes were struggling in the dark. I was trying to refocus on the area he was standing. He ran into a tunnel of black berries that was a main entry and exit for the bears using this site. We had never gone into this berry tunnel before in all the years we had been using this site. I was about to crawl through it, into this never never land which is highly off limits to anything but bears. Not even a mean old dog willing to stand up to a bear and fight survived this tunnel trip! Now in the dark I will have to take a flash light and crawl on my hands and knees to see where this bear had gone! Of all the bears I have just dumped in their tracks with good shots using a gun, in the wide open why did this one have to run off! Do I dare call my buddy on the radio and tell him? What if I don’t find the bear? I will never hear the end of this from him especially after the ridicule I gave him for chickening out of the hunt the way he did. Now I have a arrowed bear and I’m stuck here by myself, unless I eat my pride and get some help! Nope, too stubborn or maybe too stupid? Probably to proud to know what’s in my best interest at times like this.
