Bear Season Today.

hope ya get you a bear. what kind are you hunting?

Meathunter13, Reading your post got my blood flowing. I am really excited for you and can't wait to hear back from you when you get back.
It sounds like you found them and you're in the right area. :thumb Did that area have a acorn crop this year?

Cody, Meat is hunting here in CO and all we have in Colorado is Black. Though we might have a grizz or two but DOW hasn't confirmed that, yet.

oh ok i didnt see what state he was hunting in

Tomorrow is Tuesday, hope you had some fun. :thumb

Yes yes we can hardly wait for the report in. :)

.... back from weekend 1. It was a great and informative trip. Day 1 I hiked up into a main concentration area for bears. Ranging from about 8500-9500ft. Went in about 3 miles. On the way in I noticed many of the berries in the area had been foraged. I saw a nice 8pt muley in velvet browsing through the high grass early in the morning on my way up. My setup was a little critical as I was up there calling in bears by myself (head on a swivel) and so I debated much about a good place to setup. There were 2 creeks that converged in the area and a V shaped island that began at there head waters seemed to give me the advantage I needed to see any bruins approaching from any side. The calling commenced for about an hour until suddenly a loud crashing came out of the timber from my left. Holy elk... a herd came busting into the open and nearly had me running back down the hill. The herd seemed more curious to my predator calling then they did fear it and walked across the park looking in my direction and then once to the other side of the park began busting through trees again. This I was sure meant a bear had pushed them through the area on his way to come make me his chew toy... But after another 40minutes of calling and then an hour of waiting for late comers nothing showed. That evening after I rested up by chopping firewood, I hike up another drainage where we have successfully called bears in. Unfortunately my luck from the morning continued that night. Not that watching a herd of elk walk by and watch a Very nice 6x6 from 8 yards annihilate a tree for half an hour isnt fun. But a week before my MZ tags was a little saddening. I moved up into another park with dead fall in the middle to break up my cover. There were alot of berries in there as well that hadnt been eaten on. Calling for another hour and half didnt pay off. The elk began bugling below me and seemed to be interested in my call as was the other group. Knowing that my brother was showing up with his archery tag in the area I snuck out careful not to bust the elk and headed down unsuccessful again. The next morning my brother and I woke before dawn and hiked up. The bugling was intense and the cow talk very active. We got a line on the big bull I saw and video'd the previous night and started for him wind in our face. Im writing some up for the elk threads so Ill skip over the details of the elk hunt. My brother and I decided to do some bear calling in a small park away from the elk. For a older brother that is always cool and collect Ive never seen anyone so rattled before as when I hit that bear call the first time. The 5ft of space in between us ended up being 5in apart about the 2nd rep. I dont believe he could have pulled his bow back on a bear, he was shaking worse then the aspens in our high wind bowl. "Its all fun and games talking about calling bears until that calling starts" was his exact phrase. With no avail with the bears again we decided we would re-position for a nap and wait out the elk for the evening stalk. We decided that we would walk through the park I had called bears from the previous night. As soon as we got there I could tell something was a miss. The berries had been hit hard over the night... walking through the trail we had to have seen at least 6 sets of bear scat with berries in my boot tracks. Some nice sized prints and my hidey hole in the park demolished. Dead falls and all. It seems as the bears moved in right behind me after I snuck out. The chilling part is the bear scat and trail followed my trail 2.4 miles from the park almost to my truck. Good thing my tent wasnt there and was in another spot or I believe I may have had company that night. Now I know the big boy is late to come and truely did want to eat me. So next time I will be more patient for him to come cash in. I will be there next week for 9 days. With muzzeloader tags for deer and elk and still tags for bears. Hopefully this story ends with a dead bruin, but again just as I, you will have to wait.


ps. If I can figure out how to post video up. I have some good elk footage that ill put in the elk section.

ask Brett he'll tell ya

Meathunter13, I have been looking forward to your post. Thanks for sharing the hunt with us. I hope everything works out for you and your brother next week.

One of the many elk that wasnt a bear, but was black from his wallowing. 4c hopefully see him next week.

Really enjoyed your story and picture. Hope you tag out on all of your hunts, I sent you a PM on the videos.

Brett

great story and i love the pic - cant wait to see the video's!!

if you ever decide to turn to hounds (not sure what your take is on me, some people hate the idea but just thought id throw the offer out) I personally dont train for bears but ive seen on another forum a guide willing to run some free bear hunts (id suggest a tank of gas at least, but thats up to you if you take it).. Im not familiar with the guide, he has a website ill look up and post here if you want. I know it sounds weird but i can understand where he's coming from with running a free hunt or two just wanting to get the dogs off the chain. I'll tell you though, dont criticize the hunt til you try it out, hunting behind a good, true hound is a blast!!! anyways, lemme know and i can put the post up on here if your not against hound hunters..

if not i respect the ways your tryin to hunt, i think thats awesome and i really do hope ya get one, thatd be a story for the grandchildren right there!!

hound_hunter, Do you hunt Cougars with your dogs? Meathunter13 has a big Tom here in Colorado that he's been after for a few years. The problem is the season is only open a few weeks before they close the area down. If you are open to coming over here and go after that cat, I'd love to be in on it.

Meat, Nice photo.

i love chasin down a lion on a cold winter day :thumb :thumb .

shoot me a PM with some info. on how far into colorado id be goin and how long your season is for that area and id love to hook a hunt up with you guys if it works out for me, never ran em over there yet :)

Muleymadness- I appreciate the luck, As we all know its never a for sure thing. Hopefully come the 18th when im back Ill have some really good stories and pics.Thanks for the line on the video's too. Ill work on that today.

Hound_hunter- Id love to try and run some bears or cats with hounds. As long as its legal Im down with it. It sounds like a blast too, Ive seen alot of videos and read up on it running hounds. I just dont have any room for more dogs. My poor old lab couldnt track his tail. The cat would the edge I need. I have been watching him for years. I was going to try and
call him from the ground this year. He is a large tom and I have seen him quite a few times in the area. Im not too sure I want to call him and get snuck on or sit one of his kills. It seems his range is pretty short for a lion, I see him and his sign in the same 5 mile radius constantly and he has great feed. He loves to scream at me when I get too close (3X now) and follow me out after Ive killed my deer. And to say the least Im done with that game. I know of a 3 spots in the area that Ive seen cats and/or good sign as well so we maybe able to make a couple days out of it and get a couple tags. The drive from bountiful, Ut would be 297.4 miles. Wow only a couple miles more than I go each time. Bears or Cats would be great, cats would probably work better as my bear tags end at the end of Sept and I have deer and elk tags coming up. Jeff- that would be a wonderful time if you made it up to chase cats with hounds if we can all organize it.

I would love to do a cat hunt with you two. I'll PM you guys. :thumb

(hiker - havent checked the pm yet, but noticed i have one new one and im sure its from you)

anyways.. 300 miles is alright with me if youve got an area like your saying.. sounds too me like not too many other hound hunters are in the area if there that undisterbed and seem to be in the same are. just a question, how big of a hike is it from the nearest road to get into the general area? This really sounds like an ideal area for hound hunting, i feel like ive died and gone to heaven - i thought every slope was filled with 2 dozen different houndsmen and no cats over 3 yrs. left in this world. Itd be nice to see one someone might consider harvesting, haha!

Meat, are you seeing any bruins?