.50-70 on Bear

[Todd Birch]

Jerry

We have a similar toast at our re-enactments - "To absent friends!"

My ride today was up a stretch of the old wagon road that goes through a Columbia Sharptail Grouse Conservancy and parallels a local ranch.
You're in 'granny-gear' from the get-go and the ride down is MUCH faster!

In a feed lot on the ranch, I counted 35 Black Angus ball-bearing cows!
They looked sleek and ready for a party compared to the shaggy local buffs that are shedding their winter coats.
I'll be gathering some of that wool for the ladies in our re-enactment group that spin and weave.

You look down at a beautiful view of the ranch with the irrigation sprinklers describing huge arcs across the fields. For a while I was eye-ball to eye-ball with a red-tailed hawk that was cruising on the thermals coming up the slope. It was 85'F, so he was really soaring.

You also go by an abandoned mine site. Lots of ghosts. If you listen, you can hear the cussin' of the mule skinners, teamsters and drovers over the squeak of wagon wheels and wooden brakes.

There are many aspen groves with small ponds that are frequented by mule deer and bears. I'm no scatologist, from the droppings I saw, the grouse conservancy is serving the local coyote population well.
Later during huckleberry season, the scatalogical evidence will be bear.

Still snow and ice in the gully where the creek runs. Hell of a day!

Grilled deer chops and salad for supper. Life is good.

Todd

[DR308]

Todd: Sounds right out of a book! The mountain roads here will be open within the next 3 weeks. So I am getting my trusty steed ready to "ride!"
I will be up in those mountains alot this summer. The Veterans trip is going on the end of June, to about the middle of August. Alot of fishing, shooting, and exploring planned for this year. I will also be using my metal detector alot I hope. I am also going to order another Shiloh within the next six months. This one will be my hunting rifle. Until then, I will use Big Aggie for everything. Josh A's engraving is really impressive. I plan on doing something like it also. It won't be as nice, but it will be mine! I think everyone on this forum is ready for a nice LONG spell of warm nice weather. I know I am ready! I think I will go load more rounds now. Take care, and enjoy what you have. -------Jerry

[Todd Birch]

Jerry

Yes, I get to live the life I imagined as a kid and the one most adults can only dream of.
Most modern people can only talk the talk. I get to walk the walk. It will get better when I have the home and property I want with a minimum 200 yard range, preferably more, but I like to inject a modicum of reality into my dreams.
That will enable me to keep my hand in for hunting and let me become accomplished as an off-hand rifleman, not to mention long range handgunner.

I have access to a good 500m range 1/2 hour away, but that isn't the same as stepping onto the front porch with a .44 Dragoon in hand. 'Yotes and ravens won't even dare to set foot.....

Todd

[Bearbait2]

Mr. Birch,
Have been spending as much time on the trail as possible and just now catching up. Greatly enjoyed your "tongue in cheek" rewrite of the hunt! It really does fit several individuals on this forum, based on my limited experience. No insult intended, just the way they come across to me. But that is my problem and one I can live with.
I respect you honesty and look forward to hearing more of your adventures.
Some days are like that.
Best Wishes

[Todd Birch]

Bearbait2

Thanks for the positive comments! I was really caught off guard by some of the negative stuff I got, but I've made peace with one of them in off site email and consider him a friend.
Actually, I plagiarized my 'tongue-in-cheek' story from an account in an unnamed magazine. It was done in fun and to show the difference between a manufactured hunting experience and a real life happening.

I get people stopping me in the street asking if the story going 'round is true. Even in this red neck of the woods, most hunting stories aren't very dramatic, and some downright depressing.

Next time I meet the local Conservation Officer, I'm going to ask him if he'll bust me if I'm packing iron. The previous guy would not if it was duly registered and you weren't shooting up the country doing damage to private property.
I've got both a Walker and a 3rd Model Dragoon. Either one should be bear medicine if I keep the distance down to 50 yards or less. A treed bear would be no problem at all.

Now that would be a bear story......

T

[Psycho]

Good job on the bear and congrats. I was a guide for bear hunters and sometimes you have to do things like that as its your only choice. I think its far worse to show up to your first bear hunt with you brand new weatherby 460 which you have no busness shooting because you think you need a cannon to hunt bears. then wound the animal as you cant shot the cannon for crap. then your guide has to go into the bush and dispatch the wounded bear for you. so good on you for having the balls to do the job right and if anyone gives you crap i say you did what you had to do. Also everyone will have a time when the shot is not ideal and if you say it wont happen to me come up to canada and work with me for a few weeks and you will see it first hand.

[Todd Birch]

Thanks Psycho!

As you read, some of the comments I got were less complimentary.

In the latest issue of "Rifle" magazine, Mike Venturino talks about some of his hunting fubars, all of them resulting from shooting errors. My bear problem did not stem from misplaced shots.
Anyone who hasn't had some tough situations to deal with hasn't hunted long enough.

I just shot in A Cowboy Action match and one of my possee members was a Forestry employee. He and some co-workers recently under went a pilot program that involved shooting at advancing cougar or bear silhouettes with 12 gauge shotguns.
The targets approached at speeds up to 60 kph and the ammo was 000 buck and slugs. They stopped one metre in front of the shooter. He said it was unnerving and many people had to be prevented from turning away with a loaded gun!

They were told that the best shot on a charging bear was a shoulder shot to knock it down or at least slow it up.

The first shot on my bear did just that - broke a shoulder and went through the neck. The second perforated a lung and exited throught the other upper leg. The last broke a hip.
I've been told since that I could have waited it out and he would have died momentarily. I couldn't do that and I'd do the same thing on a replay.

Todd

[Ken Hartlein]

Hey Todd, you deserve that bear claw necklace!! Like you said, we all screw up once in a while and don't take every thing with us. We think of it later, I've done it and we all have. I envy you for having bear hunting so close by.

[Todd Birch]

Ken

I'm in the process of relocating 5 hours further north to a property on a lake.
When I toured the property with the current owner (an elderly concert pianist), she warned me not to step in the bear poop! She told me that she encountered a sow with 2 cubs the day before. I asked her what she did and she calmly said "I stopped and let them walk by me."

The area abounds in meese, bears and deer. Oh yeah - and mosquitoes!The hell of it is, I'm gonna have to learn how to fish as well.

I'm looking forward to hunting season already!

Todd