This was the
first time in several years that I did not tag a Spring bear. I spent and
amazing 8 days in a public access road closure area in the rugged Western
Oregon Mountains. The first three days of the hunt, I brought along my 52 year
old friend and first time hunter Sharon. The rain was pouring down and it was
COLD. Making the best of the trip, we did quite a bit of scouting in the back
country and we were able to determine some great hunting areas that had all the
makings for great bear habitat; steep rugged Western slopes, thick heavy cover,
open clear cuts loaded with grass, numerous water sources and lots of game
populations such as Roosevelt Elk and Blacktail Deer.
The next three
days were spent hunting with James Kussman. Having successfully scouted
and located some extremely remote, road less areas, our first day out was
rather successful. That first night we made a spot and stalk on a gorgeous
chocolate bruin and set up to take the shot at a mere 300 yards when along came
her tiny twin cubs. The next day we encountered no bear, but did manage
to get 25 yards and some incredible footage of a herd of Roosevelt Elk in a
clear cut and located a really nice solo 4x4 bull. James even managed to
find a nice Roosevelt shed antler.
The final three
days, I spent solo. I was able to stalk within 10-30 yards of four different
Blacktail bucks a series of clear cuts and attain some great video footage. On
my walk out one night, with the wind in my favor, I nearly walked into a black
bear as I was heading down the closed road. He was hidden within in the thick
black berry vines and reprod and even being less than 10 feet from the bruin, I
could only hear him run off and never got to see him. Later that same night, I
saw another bruin funneling through the thick brush and vines, only to see his
face and never receive a clear shot or a decipherable shot as to his body
angle.
After glassing
clear cuts without much success at locating a bruin, my last night bear
hunting, I returned to the location where I had nearly walked into the bruin on
the road. The bear had been clawing trees and shredding bushes in a territorial
display, so I was fairly certain he would be in the area. I brought along my
Montana Fawn Decoy and set it up alongside the closed road and proceeded to do
a series of cow/calf distress calling with my diaphragm call with the hopes of
drawing in the territorial bruin without luck.
.jpg)
.jpg)
