I'd loaded up some 165 gr Nosler Partitions for our 95 year old .30-06 Model of 1917 rifle. A few days before the hunt we went to the range, my son popped down into sitting position, resting the rifle on the tall bipod and using the 6x Leupold. I put up paper plates at 100, 200 and 300 yards. He shot the 100 yard target, moved to the 200 yard target and put one in it. I was watching through the spotting scope and it looked a smidge off center to me, so I fussed with the windage adjustment and he sent a second shot into that target. Turns out that little windage adjustment zeroed it very nicely at 200 yards. Cool. On to 300 yards, and he put another one through the middle of the target. Four shots, four hits, from 100 - 300 yards. He looked over at me and said "I'm done, shoot more if you want." Cheeky kid.
A couple of days later we spotted a bear, far, far below us moving. Looked big and brown, so we went after it to close the distance. The bear and the three of us all pushed deeper into the canyon. Finally it held up near a long-abandoned homestead site, where a few ancient fruit trees were still bearing apples & pears. Unusual, the bear happily shared the trees with another, smaller black bear. I'm thinking that one was a female. We scurried to a rocky outcropping. I lasered the bear at 320 yards, told that to my son and glanced his way. He was sitting there with the rifle on the bipod just as he had a couple of days earlier, while practicing at the range. I knew that bear was in trouble!
Turned back to my scope. Heard the boom of the .30-06, saw the bullet strike and the bear spin, then drop! He tumbled, then bounced back up and vanished into the brush. Uh oh. We got down there and followed him into the brush, and made quick work of him at close range.
Good looking bear, well earned! The young man isn't sweating at all, but my shirt is soaked. What is up with that?
The hide is actually a deep, rich, chocolate brown. We estimated the bear at about 350 pounds, but it's hard to say. The skull should be back for measurement soon, I'm thinking it will be in the 18" range. The hide is just being tanned, not turned into a rug. We're kind of running out of wall space for bear rugs! This one seems to be a little larger than the two we shot in 2010.
I hauled the meat out in my pack. Up, up, and up some more to the truck. It was a long, tough hike getting back up to the truck, waaaay above us. Young John had the meat made into bratwurst sausages and also pepperoni snack sticks. Great flavor! I've got some brats thawing out now. They're great boiled in beer, butter & onions, then finished off for a couple of minutes over the coals. Mmmmmmm good! These bears are eating berries at this time of year, and the meat is very good, if a tad oily.
Great hunt, and I'm real glad we went. Good father-son time as he works his way through college.
Regards, Guy
