Bear hunt success

[03mossy]

Sun set thursday was at 7:48 so I could shoot till 8:18. My stand is positioned on a wide "V" in the trail. Bait barrel 50 yards to the left, trail I walk in is to the right. Can't see more than a few yards in front. About 8:00 I heard a twig snap in front of me then caught a glimpse of movement. I got ready and he popped out by the barrel. He instantly ran to it, grabbed it and turned it. Turning the bait hole for a perfect broadside shot away from me 45°. All I could see while he was digging in the barrel was from his ribs to his tail, no good... I keep my crosshairs on him waiting for a shot, longest 10 mins ever!. By this time it was getting tough to see the cross hairs. Then he sat back on his rump and gave me a shot and I sent one through both shoulders. He tipped right over and didn't even twitch. Looked at my watch and it was 8:16. By the time I stopped shaking and was able to get down it was well past dark. So I didn't get any good pics of him at the site. I gutted him right there at the bait using the headlights on my wheeler. Left my trail camera still in the tree to see what critters come eat the guts and to see what bears remain and finish off the bait.
He's not the biggest bear in the woods but for my first bear it's a trophy. Looking back through all my trail cam pics he is the guy who rolled my barrel away in the pics.
It was an unbelievable rush that I can't wait to do again. Got him all butchered and packed away in the freezer. We did have some chops Friday night and I was pleasantly surprised how good they were.
I'll post a pic on monday.

 

[cayuga]

congratulations on the bear harvest. You have some good eating ahead of you.

 

[flounder]

Congrats!

 

[Widude]

Great job! It's very exciting seeing a bear come in. The few times you may see one in the woods they are usually high tailing it away(chance encounter).

It will be interesting to see what becomes of your pile. It will get scavenged, the Bears may not care for it, in daylight anyway for a while.


What gun and load did you use?

 

[sqezer]

Congrats Buddy.

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

Congrats! Great shot :yeah:

 

[Redsky]

Cheers to ya, congrats! Now we can get a good view of the white blaze circle?

 

[ShawnT]

Congrads on your first Bear. artyman: It is quite a rush hunting them. The Meat is real good too, at least all of them I had was great eating.

 

[WV Hunter]

Congrats! Looking fwd to the pics

 

[03mossy]

Pics aren't great as the sunrise in the background isn't ideal for picture taking but here he is.

And after about 8 hours of work in the driveway yesterday the skull is looking good. Just need to whiten it yet and build some sort of plaque/display. I am going to have a few pics of him alive and messing with the bait barrel by the mount since I wasn't able to get a good after pic when I shot him and I have a couple hundred pics of him alive.

 

[Redsky]

:yeah: Way to go!

 

[emrah]

Congrats!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BuckDoeHunter]

That's gonna be a nice mount :yeah:

 

[ShawnT]

Nice bear Congrads again on your first. Nice work on the skull, it will make a great mount.

 

[WV Hunter]

Sweet! So how much did he weigh?

 

[sqezer]

Congrats on your BEAR. :yeah: :applause:

 

[toytruck]

Congrats here as well! That should be a good eatin size bear. I have eaten some good bear meat an some not so good, doubt I will ever kill one. VA has a new bear license this year which I didn't buy so will probably have them all around me...

 

[03mossy]

Thanks guys.

For the load I used my Savage 116 Classic in 30-06 with a 168 grain Barnes TTSX, bullet did a darn fine job! Not only was this my first bear but it was my first kill with this rifle. It's a rifle I will pass down someday with hopefully many more kills under its belt. It's got a nicely figured walnut stock with a stainless action and stainless fluted barrel, nicest looking gun I own.

It wasn't the bear with the white circle on his chest. Our 82 year old neighbor with the lease next to us was lucky enough to get him opening night. I'm happy for him, couldn't have happened to a more deserving hunter. He's getting a full body mount done. I'm going to make a flash drive of all the pics I have of that bear on my camera and it's cub.

We are guessing my bear weighed about 200 dressed.