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2018 Sierra Nevada Archery Bear

sierrahunter

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Joined
Feb 14, 2015
Messages
131
Hi Everyone,
It’s been awhile since I posted here, so I thought I’d tell you all about my fall archery bear from early September here in California:

I had spent eight days out in the woods in search of bears, and again woke up early for my ninth day in the field. I had come across a number of bears during my time in the woods. One small bear crossed the trail in front of me at 8 yards when I was hiking to my destination. That blew my mind. Another was walking toward me on a logging road. We saw each other simultaneously at 30 yards, and I froze. The bear came within 20 yards to check me out before he ran off. I was never able to draw back my bow. Yet another time I stood on the edge of a berry thicket for an hour listening to a bear munching and breaking branches. It is amazing how many bears seem to be out this year.

For this particular morning, I decided to hunt the same area where I killed a bear last year. I hiked in a short distance and sat on the edge of a meadow. I could hear multiple bears foraging in the alder thickets below me, and hoped they would exit in my direction when done feeding. I checked the wind, and was bummed to see that I was upwind of them. Oh well, I figured I could at least watch the sun rise since I couldn’t get downwind quietly. After about an hour of waiting, I heard some rustling above me, and turned around to see a bear moving behind me at 10 yards. I drew back my bow and watched as he moved through a tangle of tree branches. His head poked through a small opening, and he took his time smelling the air for danger. Satisfied that it was safe, he moved forward, and when his vitals were visible, I released an arrow.

The bear was hit in the lungs, and he turned and ran for about 40 yards before he collapsed and died. I could hear his last breaths, which were within 3 minutes of my shot. I am so grateful for this bear, which will feed my wife and I for the next year. Interestingly, when skinning him, I came across multiple yellow jackets attached by their stingers to his skin (see pic). It’s the price he paid for digging up their nests.

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In your face action with teeth and claws!

I can't quite make out what is attached to his ear?
 
That’s the tag. It was rolled up before, and kept its shape on the ear. California requires that bears be tagged immediately (even before pictures). My question is this: how do they expect the tag to stay attached throughout the skinning/quartering and pack out? In my case, that was a six hour process.
 
That’s the tag. It was rolled up before, and kept its shape on the ear. California requires that bears be tagged immediately (even before pictures). My question is this: how do they expect the tag to stay attached throughout the skinning/quartering and pack out? In my case, that was a six hour process.

Years ago my dad got a bear and we called the game warden to validate it the next day at our house because it was late by the time we got it home. The warden said he was going to write my dad a citation because my he pulled the tag out of his pocket to validate it. I told him if he did he was the biggest *explitive*er if he did because it took us half a day to get ahold of a warden to validate the tag..some of them have serious little man syndrome
 
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