Welcome to the site where the owners and members have had it with playing "nice" and being "inclusive" and "tolerant" of points of view that are destroying the fabric of what made this country great. The members here are sick and tired of politicians of all parties lying, deceiving, stealing, and pretending they are doing it all for the good of the country while selling out to special interests who have the set goal of destroying this country. We have had enough of career politicians who use their office only for personal gain, and who refuse to listen to the people who put them in office. The membership is no longer part of the silent majority who play nice and get along while getting screwed by anyone with a loud voice and an agenda. We will no longer allow anyone to piss down our back and tell us it's raining. And we like guns too.



Go Back   DIRTYDOZENSBUNKER, LLC > Outdoor Sports & Activities > Hunting
Photo Gallery DDB Store Arcade rel="nofollow">Mark Forums Read

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 04-15-2011, 11:22 PM   #1
Desert Rat
Junior Woodchuck
 
Desert Rat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 4,592
Default Bear Hunting

Nothing I'd rather do than regale you guys with my bear hunting stories. Only problem is I ain't got any.

I've never seen hide nor hair of a bear in the wild. Even with all my thousands of hours flying up and down the mountains of Colo, NM, Utah, etc. I've never seen a damn bear.

So, I'll disqualify myself from this thread and hope others here can fill in the gaps. I'm stumped.
Desert Rat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2011, 01:16 AM   #2
5knives
KaBoom Kontrol Modulator
 
5knives's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Colorado, Western Slope
Posts: 16,229
Default

Hmmm,

Must have been late '60's.

Wi. 'Big Game' license was good for either Deer or Bear, Early Archery season was also Deer or Bear, no separate license, if you were foolish enough to hunt with a bow you just used your regular license. Archery hunter success was right around 10%.

We were hunting 'either' (about 2 miles south of Lake Superior, near the Stone River, east of Cornucopia, for any WI hunters here.)

Lane ran about a mile straight south from the highway, then Tee'd with a rarely used track.

I rode on the hood of the Suburban as we went down the fire lane, looking for sign. Deer tracks all over the place.

We parked at the tee, I went back toward the hwy, and my partner Leonard, took off down one of the tracks toward the river.

As we got out of the truck, I noticed something black bouncing around in the middle of a hillside pasture we could see and I told Leonard "Hey, there's your Bear!"

He looked carefully and said "That's a black lab, not a bear! Just a farm dog." well he's got three black labs at home, he must know what one looks like.

Umm ... okay.

Now I need to digress a bit and report that a couple of months prior a 73 year old guy was pounced on while he was cutting pulp wood, by a 350 pound blackie. Out came the Buck 110 and the fight was on. after a half hour or so the guy got to his truck and headed for town (and a hospital) he was tore up pretty bad. Some guys went out to track and finish the bear, and found him dead about 150 yards from the scene of the fight. The guy healed up just fine!

Said the secret of his success was not letting the bear get him down on the ground, makes sense.

Leonard was taken with the idea and wanted to get a bear with a pocket knife. Yeah, that's the kind of guy he was.

Any how, I snuck back toward he highway, spotted a couple of good ambush spots for later in the day, or the next morning. I was returning to the tee with the idea of following Leonard and I'm about 200 yards from the truck when when BEHOLD!

Small bear (probably 150 pounds or so) small but legal, messing around in the middle of the lane (I'd had an apple scent on my boots and I figured that's what intrigued him/her.)

Now I had a self imposed limit of 35 yards for deer or bear in those days, and he was 65-75 yards away, both of us in the middle of the damn fire lane.

Time to remember what my Grandfather taught me.

bear raises his head, I freeze, bear lowers his nose and I take a very small very slow step and repeat and repeat and repeat.

After 30 or 40 hours of this process I figured I was just another step maybe two from getting my first bear with a Bow and Arrow.

Then ... the HUGE boulder 30-40 feet the other side of the bear, stood up and woofed!

Junior trotted over to her, she'd been laying next to a 5 strand barbed wire fence and I swear this is true, she didn't crouch or take a step she just sailed over that fence and disappeared back into the thick brush and woods, Junior right behind her except he went under the fence!

Hmmm female bear with a cub!


Calm and cool as always I unholstered my Ruger MK ! (Target. We usually popped a couple of squirrels for dinner each day) cocked it and sidled down that lane toward the truck. Never took my eyes off that woods for a moment.

Got to the truck and started to shake, big time.

Cool and collected I re-holstered the Ruger ... and shot the bottom of a damn expensive Lawrence full flap holster.

The trigger shoe hung up on the holster and of course the safety wasn't on.

About a half hour later I stopped shaking (with a little help from the brandy we had along to celebrate our bear(s)

Then I went looking for Leonard, found him taking a nap in a bear den about a mile away.

Leonard said he couldn't find a good stand, so he figured the owner of the den would probably wake him up if it returned.

But I noticed he was sleeping with his Buck knife open and in his hand.

Leonard was like that!

Hunted the next two weeks, never saw another bear, well except for the dump bears every night of course, so we decided to save our tags for the gun season and went home to tell our wives lies about our exciting adventures.

Some might consider that a bad hunt, maybe so, but it's one I'll never forget.

I can see those bears, that fence and that patch of woods as clear or clearer than if it happened yesterday.

Regards,
...
5knives is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2011, 04:22 AM   #3
4thIDvet
slug
 
4thIDvet's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Astor Florida
Posts: 48,284
Default Please please....

You want too bear hunt. Wednesday is trash day here in our small forest community.
Tuesday night is bear buffet night.
They come out of the forest like the night of the living dead. Like Army ants on the march.
Very polite they are. Take turns ripping my garbage cans apart. Put the trash in the shed. They rip the door off the hinges.
Bounce a full beer can off their heads. They laugh at me.
Use a bow and arrow so we dont wake the neighbors. Kill them.
I cant do it but I need someone who can.
I will cover you with a gun in case they get pissed when you stick em with the arrow.
Can you run pretty fast in case I miss. I cant see too good.
__________________
God Bless Americas Veterans. All who are serving and have served.
4thIDvet is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2011, 04:32 AM   #4
Desert Rat
Junior Woodchuck
 
Desert Rat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 4,592
Default

I'd say that was a good hunt, 5K. Neither you nor the crazy Leonard got et.

My sister's father-in-law owned a cabin deep in the Sacramento Mtns of NM. In fact, he and his wife lived there. My folks and I went up many weekends so the adults could play cards and I (Junior Rat) at the time was left to his own devices but heavily armed with a Daisy RR.

I prowled to the north, south, east and west. Wherever I went, there were bear tracks. The FIL told me there had been seven bears harvested the previous hunting season from the Mtn directly behind the cabin. But he told me not to worry as all the bears were terrified of peeps. He told me sometimes he sat silently out on the porch at night and would see a black blob come wobbling down the moonlit road in front of the cabin. He let them get fairly close before yelling at them, whereupon they always shit and beat feet away.

No problem, I thought. But I could never make myself go up the "bear mtn." Several times I upbraided myself as a coward, took my BB gun and started up the mountain or into the jungle-like canyon between it and the next one.

The higher I climbed, the lonelier it got. The more I missed my mother. The more I became sorry for all my bad deeds in life. The more my feet betrayed me until half way up, they no longer worked.

I was 40+ years old and armed with a S&W model 10 and some nasty reloads before I ever made it to the top of that mountain. No bears. Just tracks. It's actually pleasant on top of that mountain. Pleasant but creepy.

My nephew owns the cabin and land now. I've been back several times since me and the 38 Spl climbed to the top. Nephew runs around like an idiot and never thinks of bears.

Would I spend a night unarmed and sleeping under the stars up there?
Not in this life. I've never scared easily but I've never stuck my hand in a snake den to see if anyone was home.

Color me yellow but I'm here to tell the tale.

PS - Roswell, NM Zoo has a beautiful black bear (boar) who tops the scales at 600 lbs according to the zoo. All I know is he looks like a Volkswagen with fur. Each time I look at that bear and we lock eyes, he knows about me. I know about him. And then I have to go pee.
Desert Rat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2011, 04:34 AM   #5
Desert Rat
Junior Woodchuck
 
Desert Rat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 4,592
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by 4thIDvet View Post
You want too bear hunt. Wednesday is trash day here in our small forest community.
Tuesday night is bear buffet night.
They come out of the forest like the night of the living dead. Like Army ants on the march.
Very polite they are. Take turns ripping my garbage cans apart. Put the trash in the shed. They rip the door off the hinges.
Bounce a full beer can off their heads. They laugh at me.
Use a bow and arrow so we dont wake the neighbors. Kill them.
I cant do it but I need someone who can.
I will cover you with a gun in case they get pissed when you stick em with the arrow.
Can you run pretty fast in case I miss. I cant see too good.
Hell, shoot the damn bear. If the neighbors don't like it, shoot the neighbors.
Desert Rat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2011, 11:46 AM   #6
5knives
KaBoom Kontrol Modulator
 
5knives's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Colorado, Western Slope
Posts: 16,229
Default

It's a cool foggy overcast Wisconsin morning, visibility is maybe 100 feet in the low spots. It's just barely hunting hours and as dead still as only the woods can be on a wet cool foggy morning. You've got on your favorite Camo, face paint, scent, your trusty 55# Fred bear recurve and a quiver full of sticks with feathers and razor sharp metal tips.

You find the overgrown fire lane you were looking for, and the still hunt begins.

You're about 40 yards in when the lane turns into a foot path. deep woods closing in on all sides and a mud hole right smack dab in the middle of the trail.

Right there on the edge of the mud is a paw print ... minuts old, water still seeping in ... the paw is about the size of a dinner plate!

You freeze, listen carefully for any sound at all, visually examine (with great care) everything in sight.

And then you proceed VERY slowly and quietly up the trail, following the bear track.

On your third step ...

a Grouse flushes from about 6 inches in front of your moccasin toe!

...

Plan 'B' goes into efect immediately!

You return to your vehicle, change underwear, freshen your cover scent (lots of cover scent) consider and reject the idea of digging out the skunk scent and spend the rest of the day tramping around the woods and seeing ... nothing.

But confident in the knowledge that you will not have to waste hunting time having a BM (for at least a week) and won't need to pee for a day or two!

Just another great day in the woods 'Up North".

Regards,
...
5knives is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2011, 12:02 PM   #7
Desert Rat
Junior Woodchuck
 
Desert Rat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 4,592
Default

I've had quail pull the same trick on me and make me pee down both legs and there wasn't a bear within 100 miles.

Damn birds. No wonder people shoot and eat them.
Desert Rat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2011, 02:02 PM   #8
Rew
Junior Member
 
Rew's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Colorado
Posts: 9,710
Default

Back about 8 years I was hunting a place called "Table Mt."We had just got back to camp when Mike say's "What's that?". Sure enough there is a bear moving on the skyline about 350 yards away. I grabbed my rifle and took an intercept course. Got 100 yards closer when I realized something. I'm carrying a single shot rifle, my cartridge belt is back in camp, even my K-Bar in on that belt. I slowed down, and backed 100 yards back to camp.By the time I got there it was to dark to shoot.
Rew is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2011, 04:37 PM   #9
OldBob
Member
 
OldBob's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Way Upstate NY
Posts: 760
Default

Went to a hunting camp in the Adirondacks with a couple of buddies back in the early 70"s, a bow season hunt for whitetail. Got out nice and early that first morning with my trusty recurve and a handful of sharp sticks, dark, overcast can't see crap morning. Followed Ruy down a trail and he points off to the left and whispers "Go over there about 50 yards and get set up in that orchard.......... well ok, I can do that. Tippy toe my ass off that way until I see shapes that look like apple trees and figure this is the place. I get set down and wait foir it to get light enough to see, and when it does I notice that every damn tree in this "orchard" has a bunck of broken limbs and is generally screwed up......... yep, bear have stripped it pretty clean, up until that point that bow seemed like a pretty good weapon.
__________________
"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child - miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats."
-- P.J. O'Rourke
OldBob is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2011, 06:13 PM   #10
Desert Rat
Junior Woodchuck
 
Desert Rat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 4,592
Default

Not to worry, Ancient Robert. Indians used to kill bears with bows and "arraz" all the time.

Of course there were usually 20 Injuns per bear each time.
Desert Rat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2011, 07:52 PM   #11
10 Bears
Moderator
Ron North's Jewels Champion, Flash Poker Champion
 
10 Bears's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: E-Da-How
Posts: 137,846
Default

Made me a spear, one time, had a piece of metal, about six inches (or so) long, with a knobby thing on the back end, it kinda looked like a spear head so I let imagination take it's course and gathered up a long stick, six or seven feet of nice straight wood.
Clampled it in the post vice and proceed to saw into one end to receive that deadly point.
Pa and one of my uncles was watching, not really commenting on what I was doing as they walked by. Cutting that thing, with a saw, instead of spliting it was very laborious. Then I found that the knobby end of the metal was too large to fit, so I took that chunk of steel over to the anvil and began beating hell out of it to make it a little more fitting.

Felt like I was just like one of the grownups, banging on metal, on that anvil, shaping something.
Then I started tapping the metal point piece into my cut end, trying real hard to just hit the back end so I wouldn't mess up the point, as I drove it into the cut. I remember that feeling of "uh oh" when the stick split a little, just about the time the back end set.
I studied it for a while and decided it might work anyway.
While that shaft was still in the vice I got some wire and wrapped it as tight as I could, figuring the split would close a little along with holding the point in place. Looked darned good to me, even after all these years I can see that project in my minds eye still.

Studdied my blade and come up with an idea for sharpening it. Held the whole works in one hand, over the anvil and peened the edge untill it flattened, kinda sharp like.

Everyone just seemed to ignore me, even when they passed by where I was working, didn't seem at all interested so there was no interruptions.

Sometime in the afternoon I figured I had done all the damage possible, now it was time to see how well it would fly. First time I gave it a mighty heave, through the air it tumbled and the butt end stuck in the dirt, before it fell over.
Kept that up several times, getting a little more frustrated with each throw.
Finally my dad come over and asked to see my creation. He studied it, complimented me on parts of it, then gave me a little "instruction" on throwing a spear.

"Hold it like this..." "Back about this far..." "Now when you turn it loose you use your finger tips to give it a little spin"

He tossed my spear, straight as an arrow, about a mile or so across the yard! I was impressed. Ran out and pulled it loose from the dirt. When I looked back dad had allready gone into the house and my uncle was nowhere to be seen.

Interesting, figuring out what he had told me, and directly, after two or three (or maybe 20) attempts I figured out how to make it fly straight, but nowhere near as far as he had thrown it.
Actually made it stick in a tree, for just a bit, before it sagged down to the ground.

Little did I know, and not untill a few years later, that they had all been watching my progress.
When I decided to "Go Hunting" I guess it was kinda obvious, because those two sneaky guys followed me. I walked all over, up in those woods, looking for some critter to stab or just throw at. Kept hearing things crash, in the brush, or something up in a tree that would cause a chunk of branch to fall down. I'd study those areas, trying to figure out what kind of critter was in there or WAS up there and now gone. Dang things were allways running away, or something.

Getting long in the afternoon, and I could hear a voice, seemed to be way off, calling to me to come home. Well heck, I ain't doing any good up here, might as well go back.
My uncle was the first to speak, when I came back into the yard, "Hey, did you see anything?"
I told him that I figured there was a bear up there and I was going to bring it home, but the darned thing kept running away from me. Course I KNEW it had to be a tricky bear, all the noise it was making in the bushes and stuff.
He said something about, 'maybe it was a good thing you didn't spot that huge old bear that we've been trying to ketch,' and scarey stuff like that.

Shortly after that was when I lost my dad.
I think I was about 14 when during a family gathering, my uncle began to tell the story of my spear making and bear hunting expedition. It was the first time I had ever heard reference to the "hunting" part and that he and dad had followed me, all that afternoon, pitching rocks and sticks into places where I thought there was a bear.
He kind of embelished that story some, describing my "Injun Prowess in Stalking."

I was old enough, by then, to appreciate the story as though it were about somebody else.

I made that spear when I was 9 years old. used to carry it a lot.
Kinda wonder what ever happened to it.
Never did have an opportunity to stick a bear with it though.
10 Bears is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-16-2011, 08:22 PM   #12
Boris
Senior Member
 
Boris's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: N Michigan
Posts: 11,030
Default

2 years ago my wife and I were sitting in our deer blind behind our house,,our property borders federal forest and some guy goes in to find a spot to sit,,about 5 minutes later a black bear comes strolling out and walks right in front of us,about 20 yards,my wife was shitting her pants and freaking out and said she was gonna shoot it if it got closer,so I said loudly "BOO!".,,the bear looked at me for a quick second and then high tailed it for my swamp,,we laughed a commenced our hunt,,after about an hour a gray fox snuck by,and a coyote,but no deer.as for bear hunting storys I have none,but I have seen at least 1 bear
__________________
The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.”

Patrick Henry
Boris is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2011, 01:04 AM   #13
Desert Rat
Junior Woodchuck
 
Desert Rat's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 4,592
Default

It's the thought and effort that ultimately count most in all hunts, 10B. But you know that. My childhood spears were all simple wooden things. Somehow I killed all manner of things...except they were imaginary.

---------------
Boris, your account certainly aligns with all the things I was told about black bears. 99% of them will haul ass at sight or sound of a person. But I've lived in terror of the 1% unaccounted for.
Desert Rat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2011, 09:49 AM   #14
OldBob
Member
 
OldBob's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Way Upstate NY
Posts: 760
Default

Ha ! Just had a flashback...... about 6-7 years old , sitting in my Grandpa's kitchen, asking him if he thought I could kill a bear with my BB gun if I shot it right in the eye....... in those days I was a deadly accurate marksman with nerves of steel....and a Daisy Red Ryder.

Did ya ever marvel at how the mind saves little snippets of life like that ?? No particular great significance, they just are there......
OldBob is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2011, 10:20 AM   #15
Boris
Senior Member
 
Boris's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: N Michigan
Posts: 11,030
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Desert Rat View Post
It's the thought and effort that ultimately count most in all hunts, 10B. But you know that. My childhood spears were all simple wooden things. Somehow I killed all manner of things...except they were imaginary.

---------------
Boris, your account certainly aligns with all the things I was told about black bears. 99% of them will haul ass at sight or sound of a person. But I've lived in terror of the 1% unaccounted for. [/
well,I may not have been as brave if I had a pocket knife and not a 30.06 in my hand either,,he's been around here for awhile now,my cousin seen while bow hunting about a 1/2 mile back in the fed.I have seen glimpses of him since then but he always keeps his distance,or her distance,not sure which one this is,but here is a little info,this was less than 2 miles from my place

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/i...eana_coun.html
Boris is online now   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump




All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:11 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.5
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.