Fall 2007 Hunt

This year I drew on a late bull hunt. As you can see I was very successful. I took ten days off to go hunting this year. I went up a day or two before opening day. We did some scouting but we weren't finding much down low. So we decided to head to the back country. We spent all of opening day hauling back in. Then the next day it snowed 8 to 10 inches on us. It made the hunting very tough. It was great for tracking but was crunchy to the ear. Elk could hear us coming a mile away. There were a few more elk in the back country but we couldn't get close or find any good bulls. My dad almost had a monster bull but it went over a shale mountain on him like a mountain goat into the other unit. One night we started talking about bear tracks we had seen above camp and joked about hunting down the bear. I buy a tag every year just in case I see a bear and I told everyone I'd shoot it tomorrow, after all I'm the only one with a bear tag. Long behold the next day I was working my way up a bench above the creek toward a bull I heard bugle when I a blur of blackness, just a little black movement through the timber. I thought to myself that's to big for a squirrel. So I tiptoed another 40 yards and then I saw it again, just a blur the timber was pretty thick and it was moving fast. Then I stalked another 10 yards and it finally came into open view 20 yards away! It was going back and forth in a small opening like it was looking for something. I sat there and watched him trying to decide to shoot him or not. I new if I shot him, I'd spook the Elk on the other side of him some 500 yards away. I wished I had my bow it would have been a great shot. After watching him for 1 or 2 minutes, I decided he was a good sized bear and I had never shot one before and this was a golden opportunity. My family stopped bear hunting just before I got to hunting age. So I took aim and shot. After the first shot he ran at an angle almost right by me about 15 yards away heading down hill towards the creek. As he ran by I shot at him two more times. I only hit him with one of the two. We found him down next the creek in a perfect spot not to far from camp.