Coach Potter
Life of the Party
We have a bye week in our football schedule so we had yesterday off. That gave me the afternoon to go look for a bear
. I have been patiently waiting for a window to get up to an area where I found three bears in an evening back in late July. The spot is about an hour and a half from my house but most of the drive is along the river so it doesn’t suck. I found a hillside that still had some berries on it but too thick to hunt from that side. The main road wrapped all the way around to the opposite side. It was about 1500 yards across, way too far to shoot, but it gave me great visibility to glass that side. With 4 hours to hunt my expectations off getting a shot aren’t high but I’m stoked at the opportunity to sit behind glass on a tripod for the magic hours of an overcast 65 degree September. On any other Monday night I’d be at the practice field. It was just what I needed to recharge.
I drove around to the other side, parked, and started to set up my tripod. I threw up my glass really quick to look at one of 100 burned black stumps before screwing it into my tripod and I’ll be damned if that stump didn’t start to waddle across the hill side feeding…and it’s a big one! My glass never even made it to the tripod. I took another look really quick to make sure I had a landmark to reference. It always looks different when you get on the same side with them. I had a reasonable path to him so I hauled ass back over there. I had about 4 miles of road to get over there but he wasn’t going anywhere. I was able to park about a half mile away and there was a ridge between us so I was confident I could get fairly close before he would ever have a chance to see, hear or smell me.
My gun was packed away, my pack wasn’t together and I was still in my crocks when I parked
. I had appropriate expectations for the evening! I threw my pack together really quick, got my boots on and rifle loaded. There was an overgrown spur road running diagonally along the hillside above where I had last seen the bear. I had a 1/4 mile and a small ridge between me and that spur road. If I could get there he’d be around 200-250 yards, possibly closer as he was walking in the direction I was coming from. I was about 100 yards from the top of the ridge when I stopped to calm my heart rate as I had been in a hurry up to that point. I don’t like feeling that way when there could be a shot opportunity.
I’m standing there settling myself when some movement catches my eye uphill and to my left. Out from behind a big blow down comes a bear and I’m still 400+ yards from the bear I’m trying to move in on. This bear is about 40 yards from me and has no clue I’m there. I have the wind, he’s looking straight down hill and I’m parallel to him. I can tell right away that it’s not a big bear. He can’t see me so I just watch him for a minute when I notice he’s got a limp but I haven’t seen his entire body yet. After another 2-3 steps he clears some brush and I can see a massive wound on his neck/shoulder area. He was really laboring with each step. All of the sudden I find myself wrestling with the decision between shooting this bear or not.
If I shoot him, I likely blow my opportunity at the big one. However, I do have two tags, I have a ridge between us and the other bear but not a lot of wind to muffle the blast of a magnum rifle. It would be quite a night if I were to pull off a double. Then the thought of blowing a chance at a big one says, “don’t screw this up”. In the end, I decided I was more concerned about that bear possibly dying a miserable death. Odds are that he had been shot poorly by another hunter and I’m certain that guy would have loved the opportunity for a follow up shot. None of us takes pleasure in the suffering of animals. All of this gets processed very quickly and now he’s broadside at 25 yards. It ended very quickly and he never knew it was coming.
In seconds he was still and I started hustling my butt up to the top of the ridge to see if I can locate the bear I was there for. I had to pass by the bear to get there. I didn’t stop when I passed by him but I noticed the big hole in his shoulder was crawling with maggots. That’s going to be fun to deal with
. I had about an hour of daylight left and spent it glassing everything I could see in hopes of finding the big bear. It got dark and I never saw him. It doesn’t mean he wasn’t there but he also could have heard my shot and boogied out. Either way, I didn’t see him. I got back to the other bear and worked him up under a headlamp and full moon. I didn’t get as much meat as I would have liked. He was smaller to begin with and I steered clear of the meat around the wound. It was really gnarly!
I got both hind quarters and 2/3 of both back straps. The real bounty was the 20# of fat I was able to recover. That thing was a butterball! I’ll be rendering fat after practice tomorrow. I’m so fortunate to live in a place where these opportunities are with in reach for an evening hunt and I didn’t see a soul all evening. I was alone so the pics are lame but it wasn’t an impressive specimen anyway.
. I have been patiently waiting for a window to get up to an area where I found three bears in an evening back in late July. The spot is about an hour and a half from my house but most of the drive is along the river so it doesn’t suck. I found a hillside that still had some berries on it but too thick to hunt from that side. The main road wrapped all the way around to the opposite side. It was about 1500 yards across, way too far to shoot, but it gave me great visibility to glass that side. With 4 hours to hunt my expectations off getting a shot aren’t high but I’m stoked at the opportunity to sit behind glass on a tripod for the magic hours of an overcast 65 degree September. On any other Monday night I’d be at the practice field. It was just what I needed to recharge. I drove around to the other side, parked, and started to set up my tripod. I threw up my glass really quick to look at one of 100 burned black stumps before screwing it into my tripod and I’ll be damned if that stump didn’t start to waddle across the hill side feeding…and it’s a big one! My glass never even made it to the tripod. I took another look really quick to make sure I had a landmark to reference. It always looks different when you get on the same side with them. I had a reasonable path to him so I hauled ass back over there. I had about 4 miles of road to get over there but he wasn’t going anywhere. I was able to park about a half mile away and there was a ridge between us so I was confident I could get fairly close before he would ever have a chance to see, hear or smell me.
My gun was packed away, my pack wasn’t together and I was still in my crocks when I parked
. I had appropriate expectations for the evening! I threw my pack together really quick, got my boots on and rifle loaded. There was an overgrown spur road running diagonally along the hillside above where I had last seen the bear. I had a 1/4 mile and a small ridge between me and that spur road. If I could get there he’d be around 200-250 yards, possibly closer as he was walking in the direction I was coming from. I was about 100 yards from the top of the ridge when I stopped to calm my heart rate as I had been in a hurry up to that point. I don’t like feeling that way when there could be a shot opportunity.I’m standing there settling myself when some movement catches my eye uphill and to my left. Out from behind a big blow down comes a bear and I’m still 400+ yards from the bear I’m trying to move in on. This bear is about 40 yards from me and has no clue I’m there. I have the wind, he’s looking straight down hill and I’m parallel to him. I can tell right away that it’s not a big bear. He can’t see me so I just watch him for a minute when I notice he’s got a limp but I haven’t seen his entire body yet. After another 2-3 steps he clears some brush and I can see a massive wound on his neck/shoulder area. He was really laboring with each step. All of the sudden I find myself wrestling with the decision between shooting this bear or not.
If I shoot him, I likely blow my opportunity at the big one. However, I do have two tags, I have a ridge between us and the other bear but not a lot of wind to muffle the blast of a magnum rifle. It would be quite a night if I were to pull off a double. Then the thought of blowing a chance at a big one says, “don’t screw this up”. In the end, I decided I was more concerned about that bear possibly dying a miserable death. Odds are that he had been shot poorly by another hunter and I’m certain that guy would have loved the opportunity for a follow up shot. None of us takes pleasure in the suffering of animals. All of this gets processed very quickly and now he’s broadside at 25 yards. It ended very quickly and he never knew it was coming.
In seconds he was still and I started hustling my butt up to the top of the ridge to see if I can locate the bear I was there for. I had to pass by the bear to get there. I didn’t stop when I passed by him but I noticed the big hole in his shoulder was crawling with maggots. That’s going to be fun to deal with
. I had about an hour of daylight left and spent it glassing everything I could see in hopes of finding the big bear. It got dark and I never saw him. It doesn’t mean he wasn’t there but he also could have heard my shot and boogied out. Either way, I didn’t see him. I got back to the other bear and worked him up under a headlamp and full moon. I didn’t get as much meat as I would have liked. He was smaller to begin with and I steered clear of the meat around the wound. It was really gnarly!I got both hind quarters and 2/3 of both back straps. The real bounty was the 20# of fat I was able to recover. That thing was a butterball! I’ll be rendering fat after practice tomorrow. I’m so fortunate to live in a place where these opportunities are with in reach for an evening hunt and I didn’t see a soul all evening. I was alone so the pics are lame but it wasn’t an impressive specimen anyway.
