I.m telling it to you like I am telling it to my friends, which on this forum you guys are. It is also kind of long.
This is my first bear hunt. My friend Eric from Montana called me and told me he had been talking to an outfitter in Riggins Idaho about bear hunting. He said they sounded like a couple good old boys. Eric said they were real knowledgeable about bear hunting and the bears in their area. Eric is a very knowledgeable bear hunter himself with 28 bears under his belt. He said it sounded like a good hunt with a very good chance of taking a good bear. Eric told me to call them and gave me their number. I called and talked to Andrew, told him that I am new at bear hunting and asked him a lot of . He said they had dogs that would get on the scent of the bear and chase it up a tree. Then in the afternoons you could sit on a bait barrel to see if a bear comes in. So I told Andrew I would check to see if I could get that time off from work. I called Andrew back a couple days later and got the details on sending in a deposit to secure my place in the first week with Arnie, Andrews partner.
I googled driving from Arizona to Riggins Idaho which is about 20hrs and 1100 miles. So I would have a good long drive ahead of me. I had 2 weeks to prepare. Got the Contender and some ammo and off to the range to verify 100yds zero and 200yds drop. It was a little rough trying to shoot at the range because a thousand of these little knats invaded my shooting space crawling all over my hands and face so it was hard to concentrate and hold the pistol steady and squeeze off some good groups. It is chambered in 338JDJ which is a 444 Marlin case necked down to 33 cal and shoots a 160gr Ballistic tip at 2500fps.
Eric and I haven't hunted together in 15yrs so it's going to be fun. We arrived on Saturday to get settled in before our hunt on Monday morning. Eric was going to hunt with Andrew and I was to hunt with Arnie. Arnie's family owns 6000 acres north of Riggins in a town called Lucile.
Andrew showed up at the hotel at 5am to pick up Eric and I was to follow them to where we would meet Arnie and start our hunt. In a small ravine we met up with Arnie and Sam and a bunch of dogs running around. Eric and Andrew went to the other edge of the property to hunt the north side. We loaded the 4wheelers up with the gear and the dogs and into the woods we went. Sam was in the lead with his best dog names Spot on the passenger seat. After 5 minutes Sam let's Spot out, with nose glued to the ground runs down the trail seeking the faint scent of any bear that might of been traveling thru. Back to 4 wheeler and farther into the woods we go. After 20 minutes of tryin Spot gets on a scent and off he goes barking up a storm. Arnie and Sam let the rest of the dogs out of the box and they follow spot barking away down into the ravine thru the trees. Arnie asked me how big of a bear I was looking for? Eric told me that any bear over 5 1\2 foot is a respectable bear. So I told Arnie at least 5 1\2 foot, he said that is achievable with the quality of bears we have here.
The dogs wear a GPS collar and Arnie and Sam have little hand held that shows where the dogs are and gives you distance and terrain elevations. After about 20 minutes Sam said the dogs have a bear treed. So Sam grabbed some leashes and headed down the hill towards the dogs. He said they were about 250 yds away and would go see how big the bear was. He calls back on the radio and said the bear is a small one, so Arnie heads down there to bring his dogs back.
This was the bear that was in the tree, about a 5 footer they said.
The bear was treed down the hill behind the 4 wheelers.
So we break for lunch because Arnie says we can only run the dogs once a day because it is still pretty warm out. So I come back later in the afternoon to go sit on a bait barrel, which is an hour drive in the four wheeler. With no luck that afternoon we will try again in the am.
This is the blind I sat in in the afternoons about 100yds from the bait barrel.
We go out and check the baits and the dogs get on a bear, so the chase begins following the dogs bark and checking the GPS to see where they are. We are driving the old logging roads trying to head off the bear so he doesn't get out of our area. Your heart is beating faster hoping to get a glimpse of the bear that the dogs are on the tail of. Well after about an hour and a half of going back and forth we see that the dogs have stopped moving, but they are not all bunched up in one spot. Arnie says that is not good, I said what do you mean. He said if all the dogs are in one spot that means they have the bear treed. But if they are in different places means that the bear outran the dogs, bears have a lot of stamina and can run longer than the dogs can chase him. So we gather up the dogs and call it a morning. We came back that afternoon to sit at the bait barrel again with no luck. That happens again to us on Wednesday we get on a bear that outruns the dogs again. I am getting a little discouraged, but remained positive because of the bears that were taken in the spring.
These are the 2 bears my friend Eric shot on the second and third days of our hunt. One with a 44Mag revolver and one with a bow.
To be continued.
This is my first bear hunt. My friend Eric from Montana called me and told me he had been talking to an outfitter in Riggins Idaho about bear hunting. He said they sounded like a couple good old boys. Eric said they were real knowledgeable about bear hunting and the bears in their area. Eric is a very knowledgeable bear hunter himself with 28 bears under his belt. He said it sounded like a good hunt with a very good chance of taking a good bear. Eric told me to call them and gave me their number. I called and talked to Andrew, told him that I am new at bear hunting and asked him a lot of . He said they had dogs that would get on the scent of the bear and chase it up a tree. Then in the afternoons you could sit on a bait barrel to see if a bear comes in. So I told Andrew I would check to see if I could get that time off from work. I called Andrew back a couple days later and got the details on sending in a deposit to secure my place in the first week with Arnie, Andrews partner.
I googled driving from Arizona to Riggins Idaho which is about 20hrs and 1100 miles. So I would have a good long drive ahead of me. I had 2 weeks to prepare. Got the Contender and some ammo and off to the range to verify 100yds zero and 200yds drop. It was a little rough trying to shoot at the range because a thousand of these little knats invaded my shooting space crawling all over my hands and face so it was hard to concentrate and hold the pistol steady and squeeze off some good groups. It is chambered in 338JDJ which is a 444 Marlin case necked down to 33 cal and shoots a 160gr Ballistic tip at 2500fps.
Eric and I haven't hunted together in 15yrs so it's going to be fun. We arrived on Saturday to get settled in before our hunt on Monday morning. Eric was going to hunt with Andrew and I was to hunt with Arnie. Arnie's family owns 6000 acres north of Riggins in a town called Lucile.
Andrew showed up at the hotel at 5am to pick up Eric and I was to follow them to where we would meet Arnie and start our hunt. In a small ravine we met up with Arnie and Sam and a bunch of dogs running around. Eric and Andrew went to the other edge of the property to hunt the north side. We loaded the 4wheelers up with the gear and the dogs and into the woods we went. Sam was in the lead with his best dog names Spot on the passenger seat. After 5 minutes Sam let's Spot out, with nose glued to the ground runs down the trail seeking the faint scent of any bear that might of been traveling thru. Back to 4 wheeler and farther into the woods we go. After 20 minutes of tryin Spot gets on a scent and off he goes barking up a storm. Arnie and Sam let the rest of the dogs out of the box and they follow spot barking away down into the ravine thru the trees. Arnie asked me how big of a bear I was looking for? Eric told me that any bear over 5 1\2 foot is a respectable bear. So I told Arnie at least 5 1\2 foot, he said that is achievable with the quality of bears we have here.
The dogs wear a GPS collar and Arnie and Sam have little hand held that shows where the dogs are and gives you distance and terrain elevations. After about 20 minutes Sam said the dogs have a bear treed. So Sam grabbed some leashes and headed down the hill towards the dogs. He said they were about 250 yds away and would go see how big the bear was. He calls back on the radio and said the bear is a small one, so Arnie heads down there to bring his dogs back.
This was the bear that was in the tree, about a 5 footer they said.
The bear was treed down the hill behind the 4 wheelers.
So we break for lunch because Arnie says we can only run the dogs once a day because it is still pretty warm out. So I come back later in the afternoon to go sit on a bait barrel, which is an hour drive in the four wheeler. With no luck that afternoon we will try again in the am.
This is the blind I sat in in the afternoons about 100yds from the bait barrel.
We go out and check the baits and the dogs get on a bear, so the chase begins following the dogs bark and checking the GPS to see where they are. We are driving the old logging roads trying to head off the bear so he doesn't get out of our area. Your heart is beating faster hoping to get a glimpse of the bear that the dogs are on the tail of. Well after about an hour and a half of going back and forth we see that the dogs have stopped moving, but they are not all bunched up in one spot. Arnie says that is not good, I said what do you mean. He said if all the dogs are in one spot that means they have the bear treed. But if they are in different places means that the bear outran the dogs, bears have a lot of stamina and can run longer than the dogs can chase him. So we gather up the dogs and call it a morning. We came back that afternoon to sit at the bait barrel again with no luck. That happens again to us on Wednesday we get on a bear that outruns the dogs again. I am getting a little discouraged, but remained positive because of the bears that were taken in the spring.
These are the 2 bears my friend Eric shot on the second and third days of our hunt. One with a 44Mag revolver and one with a bow.
To be continued.
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