It all started in January 2011 when my son called and told me to submit my name on-line for the spring black bear tag drawing in the Book Cliffs area of the Unitah mountains. I had actually never thought of hunting bears in Utah? in the spring? {Crap-o-rama there is snow up there, think about it -- I have been living in the desert for over 25 years.} My son had been putting in for the bear drawing for 8 - 9 years and thought he had a good chance to draw a tag with his 8 + bonus points and all. There were only 16 tags issued for this hunt. I think he wanted me to put in to let me feel part of the adventure even though neither of us though I had a snowballs chance in HECK to draw a tag. He was confident he would draw a tag and wanted me to come hunt with him. I am always up for a hunt even if I just got out of the hospital from a heart problem. I can hold binoculars and watch for bears as well as the next old man.
I got a major surprise when I received an e-mail from the drawing agency in Nevada that I had indeed drawn a spring black bear tag! I felt more lucky than a vampire working in the Red Cross blood bank. I called my son and told him I drew the tag. He cautioned me to not over react as I was probably reading the notice wrong, "really there was no way I could draw a tag with zero bonus points." Heck, lightning had struck and I was holding a five-iron up high in the air when it happened.
I immediately went into hunt planning mode. I was wondering what gear to take, how many sets of thermal underwear I could wear at the same time and still have mobility, and what caliber rifle I needed to handle the bruin. I decided I could wear only one pair of thermals and still get my pants to zip up. Check. I thought my good old "go-to rifle" a Ruger .338 Winchester Magnum with a Burris 4.5-14X 44mm scope combined with 225 gr. Hornady hand-loaded bullets would be the best set up for the job. This rifle has handled bison, kudu, oryx, red hartebeest, springbok, warthog, jackel, coyote, and Utah elk. I was confident it would do the job if I did mine. The Book Cliff bears usually are between 180 - 280 pounds so the bullet would be a soft tip expander loaded to about 2,800 feet per second muzzle velocity. Gosh, if the 250 pound bear could take a heart/lung shot with 3,500 + foot pounds of energy and still come over and bite me or make deep bear tracks on me I deserved it. I sighted the rifle in to be 2" high at 100 yards so I would be dead on at 200 yards and only 8" low at 300 yards. I felt black-bear-confident when exploding two liter pop bottles filled with water in three out of three shots at 250 yards. I also took a Ruger .30-06 light weight rifle for backup. When I travel more than 100 miles from home to hunt I always take a backup. The .30-06 has taken mule deer, antelope (prong horn), coyotes, jack rabbits, and various other critters. I know it shoots straight. I hand-loaded some new Hornady 165 gr. GMX bullets that left the 20" muzzle at 2,950 ft. per second. I figured if I had to walk very far it would be good to have a rifle that is 2 pounds lighter for me to carry. The bullet trajectory is almost the same as the .338 Win. Mag. so no big deal there.
We arrived at camp in a big time frog-drowning rain. The mud was seriously deep and all over the place. The roads, especially the hunt area roads, were like parallel Grand Canyons rutted to the max. I think I could smell chow mien cooking coming from the bottom of some of them. We were 4X4ing all over the place and saw several hounds men but no bears. I didn't see any bears hanging in camps or in the back of trucks. The bears are not idiots, they were staying warm and dry in their dens and we were the ones getting significantly mudded up and wet all day long.
We encountered a group of very fun hounds men my son knew and we hunted together for two days. We "rigged" up on some bears and let the dogs go investigate with their noses but didn't come on to any treeable bears. The third day my son had to go back to work so I went out on my own. While glassing a recent forest fire burn in the early morning I was approached by some more friendly hounds men that also knew my son. They offered to take me hunting with them. They had fine dogs and we crossed over lots of territory without getting onto a true bear. These guys were friendly as could be and I enjoyed the day with them. I like this bear hunting thing, even though I hadn't seen a bear yet after three all-day-longs looking. I was just enjoying the comradery and the beautiful country. These fellows let me off at my truck at the burn I was watching at around 3:30 p.m. They went back to their camp and home to work rather discouraged. I sat down to watch the burn as the afternoon progressed toward sundown.
After an MRE for lunch and dinner, linner, I thought of Tred Barta who says "90% of life is showing up." I thought I should move to a likely confluence of three canyons about 2.3 miles further east and watch for bears to come through as the sun goes down. I had taken a photo of a reasonable bear track near there the day before with my phone. (No cel. service but the camera is easy to carry in my pocket.) I parked on the road 100 yards east of bear track and changed from my .338 Win. Mag. to my light weight .30-06 for the up coming hike and maybe to change my luck. I walked very slowly into the convergence of canyons. I only moved a few yards at a time. I tried to not make any noise and stay in the darker treelines so I wouldn't be seen. It took me about 2 hours to make the hike from my truck 3/4 of a mile up the aspen filled canyons convergence. I was looking at all the spring grass, the abundant water flowing, and the beautiful trees when I noticed a blond or tan calf walking down a game trail about 100 yards ahead of me to the east. I did a double take and realized it was a bear. I looked for cubs and didn't see any. I watch the bear walk along biting some grass here and there not knowing I was in the area. He seemed to be pigeon toed as he walked and had the attitude "I'm Bad, oh yeah, I'm bad." The bear and I were face to face a football field away from each other. When he bent his head down for some grass I raised my rifle and put the cross hairs on his neck just behind his head knowing he couldn't see my movement. The wind was at my back my scent would betray me any second. I took steady aim and flipped off the safety. I was standing and hadn't even taken my backpack off. The rifle went off and it was a surprise to both me and the bear. The GMX bullet flew true and the bear collapsed. I lazered the range for my mental notes, 90 yards even. I walked to within about 30 yards of the downed bear and sat on a log on the side of the game trail. I was ready for him to get up and come bite me or run away or something. His eyes were open and I wasn't going to approach him quickly in case he had some more fight in him. I sat on the log and thanked my maker for allowing me to harvest this beautiful bear. I was impressed with the beauty of the area and the beauty of the bear's coat. It was so quiet. The sun was going down, I looked for the time and it was 7:09 p.m. I watched the bear until 7:30 p.m. or so then ever so cautiously approached him with my rifle fully loaded and off safety. I touched him on the eye brow and he didn't blink then I knew he was gone. WOW! I GOT A BEAR. It was a boar, and I think he weighed 230 - 250 pounds and was around 4 years old.
I got to work skinning and transporting the hide and skull to the road where my truck was parked. I got near the road at about 9:30 p.m. My son had come back to camp from work and not finding me at there came looking for me. He saw my truck and looked up the canyon a way and saw my head lamp working on bring the hide and skull down to the road. He hiked up to me and had a incredulous time recognizing I harvested a bear without bait and without dogs. Just lucky I guess. He helped me haul the bear trophies down to the truck and we went back to camp.
