My son drew a black bear rifle tag to hunt in Colorado and I wanted to go along for the adventure. He allowed the old guy (me) to tag along and I had a great time. He is so good to me.
We hunted near the Utah-Colorado boarder in the Bookcliffs area. We were at approx. 8,800 ft. elevation and in a large patch of service berries and quacking aspens. Kind of west from Rangely, Colorado if you are familiar with the area. We found many, many fresh bear droppings, and a reasonable variety of different sized tracks but were unable to catch any bear in the act of making those tracks, . . . and etc. We were up early (5:oo a.m.ish) and watching water holes hiding in the extra dense service berry laden bushes on the north side of various hillsides. I watched like a marine scout sniper assistant with my binoculars and had a radio to tell Dax if I saw a bear or even a shadow that looked like a bear in the service berries. We hunted Monday evening 9-2-2019 and mornings and evenings until 9-4-2019.
On late Wednesday afternoon 9-4-2019, Dax was sitting on a hillside nestled in service berries waiting for a bear to come to water in a pond about 200 yards and 30º angle below him. As the evening grew abit dimmer with the setting sun he heard a noise behind him. He thought a deer or an elk had come down the trail behind him and was making the noise. NOT SO !!! He turned to look and now a boar black bear was maybe hunting him??? Dax looked for cubs as he did not want to shoot a sow bear. NO CUBS. He took aim and made the shot with his .338 Win Mag and the 225 gr. Barnes bullet flew true to the mark and smacked the bear.
The photos tell the rest of the story.
Hearing the shot I hiked to were I though Dax was but the forestation was so dense I could not find him. After looking around I hiked back to get the truck and drive it down a fire break road as close as possible to the downed bear general area. Dax gutted the critter on the hillside and made a very hard hike bringing the bear out. We loaded it and went to a open place a mile away to take photos and skin it. The hide was in excellent condition. There was a significant amount of bear fat all around the carcass. This old boy was ready for the long winter hibernation nap. Fat and hairy.
Spending the hours traveling to and from the bear hunt camp, then hunting a few days with my son was wonderful. We could talk and not be interrupted by phones or kids or wives. The trip was well worth my 1,000 mile round trip. The bear itself was a bonus.
God is so good to me.
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