So day four was Wednesday and after a really good lunch we headed out to a bait area that was the farthest yet. We drove for well over an hour to a spot my guide promised would be hot with bear movement. The camera there was sending pictures of multiple bears back to Duke, lead guide, in Camp. When we walked into this particular bait area the place reminded me of the Forest moon of Endor from the Star Wars movie. The trees were thick and blow down was everywhere. There was a good trail in to a small clearing and beyond that looked to be something I wouldn’t want to try to get through. The chair and pop up blind went into a position 10 yards from where the guide set the barrel back up. He tied it to a sapling and then dumped a sack full of stinking stuff into into the void. The second sack held the skinned beaver which he tied to a tree maybe five yards beyond the barrel and just on the tree line. I asked my guide, Chad, to trim a few branches off to the right which would give me a better view of the tree line on that side of the blind which was about 25 yards away. With eight my sites to bait he left me to sit and watch around 4:15. The last thing he said was that he should be finished baiting other areas around 8:30 if I needed anything. So for 4 hours I sat in my blind without seeing so much as a squirrel. At 8:30 I texted Chad to let him know all was well but that I had seen no activity. No sooner had I hit send that I looked up and a color phase bear was standing on a log just behind the tree with the beaver. I had not heard a thing nor seen even a glimpse of this animal as it approached my position. But sure enough there one was 15 yards away . As I sized the animal up I decided it could be a shooter but only on the last day if I had no bear at all. But given that I already had a very good black bear in the salt I decided not to shoot. This bear started to mo e off to my left through the brush that I could see moving out of his way as he walked out of sight and up the hill. So I sat there for a few minutes with my head on a swivel but seeing nothing. I texted my guide at about 9:10 that I had some activity and to stand by for news. I heard crashing noise and running to my left and I looked up just in time to see the color phase bear running across the hill as fast as he could. It occurred to me that the running bear might indicate a bigger bear could be around. Like a ghost there he was standing on the same log the other bear stood on earlier. Where in the heck did this animal come from. It had moved through all that blow down with complete stealth. Rifle in had I knew this bear was a shooter. He was staring right at me and sort of swaying from side to side. I think he was deciding if he wanted to advance towards the barrel. He quartered towards me and I leveled the Ruger #1 on him. With the crosshairs on the point of his right shoulder I let the 375 thunder in the forest. The shot literally knocked him backwards off the log and flipped him over. I ejected the spent Federal cartridge and slipped another into the breach. As soon as I pulled up on the lever I could see the bear getting up so I very quickly got off another shot. Mind you all of the shots taken on both bears were off hand with no assistance from a shooting rest And I was sitting in a low to the ground chair. As he moved off to the right I wasn’t sure if I had struck home with the second shot or not. Now I had to dig into my pack for the cartridge wallet and draw out the last three rounds I had with me this night. One was loaded into the #1 and the other two went in my jacket pocket.I could see the bear stumbling to my right but there wasn’t a possibility of a third shot until he hit the lane that I had asked the guide to trim some limbs from. At about 25 yards all I could see was his right side so I punched a hole through that. He took a couple of steps and disappeared. I could hear him move off and away from the blind area and for a few seconds I could hear him. Then there was silence. Was he dead? It’s now 9 pm and I text Chad to come …..we got a wounded bear. Although in the back of my mind I am thinking no way this animal is not going to die soon if not already. Well guess what…..Chad says he is helping another guide lot another hunters bear and that he is 30 minutes away. Crap it will be sunset in 30 minutes and dark by 10, but even sooner in this thick forest. I get out of the blind and walk over to the log where I shot the bear and knocked him over backwards. What I saw immediately behind the log was what looked like someone had thrown a bucket of blood all over the ground. I turned on my head lamp and crossed over this first log only to see a second log with blood on it. Carefully I crossed the second log and stepped onto a rotten one which gave way under foot. I looked off to the right and frankly as far as I could see there was blood trail. Frankly my six year old grandson could follow this blood trail. But damn this stuff was thick. I stepped over another long or two looking in every direction but I didn’t see a bear. I decided to go back to the clearing and await me guide. He arrived sooner than I thought just before sunset.
Good story Charlie! I got to the cliffhanger end of your last post, and I figuratively fell off. Looking forward to more.
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