now THAT was western!

[model 70]

got my bear this last weekend. let out 7 dogs into this canyon and they split up into three groups. 2 went right, 3 went ledt and 2 went straight to the bottom. from the sound, the ones in the bottom had one treed so that's where we went...about a half an hour before the sun went down and about 5 hours after we first heard them barking in the bottom of the canyon. did i mention all the snow? anyway. we walked on TOP of the thisck manzanita that covered the hill side. never even touched the ground.

so we get to the dead snag that the dogs barking at we can't see a bear. just this BIG dead snag that forks up at the top. se we circle up hill and see the dogs got his head inside this hole. sure enough, that bear was holding it's self up inside that hollowed out snag. so with shooting light getting real low we thought i could lay down with my front half inside that hole and shoot up at the bear inside. then, they would pull me out by my legs as soon as i shoot and i get out of there, mean while the other kid at the tree with a rifle would put a round or two in it when it drops down. i didn't like that idea much

one of the guys had the idea to smoke it out. so he took some t.p. he had and lit it inside that hole. sure enough a minute later the bear popped out the top and as soon as i saw the head i let loose on it. while i was about to shoot the bear kept climbing out and i drilled it a bit far back behind the shoulder. it climbed up one of the forks and the other kid drilled it from below. there went part of one of the hams . i took a couple more shots at what was nothing but a dark blob on the side of this snag hitting it once more i believe. the bear fell out of the snag and we put one in its melon. dead bear. it was well past dark before we rolled it to the bottom and there we gutted it and left it for the night. most of the guts were nothing but pulp. those 130gr. gamekings are nasty that close.

the next morning we hiked back down into this canyon and saw a bald eagle about where the bear was. that sow was pretty stiff but we snapped some pics, skinned and quartered it there at the creek and hauled out the head and the meat. i had the head(no cape) and the bacik straps in my pack and i swear it weighed around 30lbs.

it wasn't a big bear, maybe a bit over 200lbs. but it was a hell of an adventure.

[rick savage]

great hunt, any dogs get cut?

[model 70]

naw, dags were safe and happy.