Lone Star Hunting Forum

Before we got moved up to Olney, I was spending the week up here in a cabin on one of the properties, then going home on the weekends.

On the 25th. of August 2010, Lora and I left Azle and made the run up to the cabin. Once there, we finished loading the pick up and turned in for some sleep. we got up at 4 the next morning and shortly before 6, we pulled out of the gate headed west for my 60th. birthday adventure.

I had started getting this worked up back in October/November 2009. The last big adventure we had been on was the trip to Canada and the Musk Ox-Caribou hunt for my 50th. birthday.

Over the years, one animal that I had held licenses for, but had never killed or even seen was a black bear. I decided that I was going to remedy that as a birthday present to myself.

I don't have any pictures at this time, but when I get some I will post them. I am not goiong to go into a lot of detail about what all we did or saw, we were gone from Texas from the 26th. of August until the 16th. of september.

I did get my bear, a 150 to 175 pound chocolate bear with a blond stripe down its back. I shot it with my 1894 Winchester Chief Crazy Horse commerative in 38-55 caliber. I was shooting handloads I worked up for this rifle using 255 grain .377 diameter Barnes original bullets and 32.0 grains of 3031 powder.

Sounds like a great time, I bet you enjoyed the cooler weather for a few weeks.

Congratulations Randall, that is very cool. I can't wait to see the pictures.

This hunt was the first major expedition Lora and I had undertaken since 2000 when for my 50th. birthday, we ended up in Edmonton Alberta Canada and I flew, for the first time in my life, above the Arctic Circle to hunt Musk Ox and Barren Ground Caribou.

I had held bear tags in Colorado twice and in Newfoundland once, but had never been able to connect with a bear.

We spent our first night on this trip in a motel outside Walsenberg Colorado. We had intended on camping out, but things sort of snowballed on us, and in the long run, staying in the motel that first night was a good thing.

Some of the things we got to do on the trip up, were some trout fishing in the Arkansas River, spending two nights with long time friends, visiting Sacagawea's and Chief Washakie's graves on ther Wind River Indian Reservation outside of Lander Wyoming, spending 6 or 7 hours at the Buffalo Bill Center in Cody Wyoming and eating at the Irma Hotel in Cody, that was built by Buffalo Bill and named for his daughter.

We also went thru Red Lodge Montana, the town where the mountain man, John "liver eatin" Johnson, the man the Robert Redford movie Jeremiah Johnson made, was town sheriff in his later years.

We spent two nights at Buffalo Bill State Park/Buffalo Bill Resivoir out west of Cody. Spent one night at the Headwaters of the Missouri State Park, east of Butte. this is where the Gallitan/Madison, and Jefferson Rivers meet to form the Missouri River.

Descibing the whole trip and hunt will take several posts, so please bear with me.

Sounds awesome!! Congrats on your bear, can't wait to see the pics.

I am ready for the next update, thanks for posting!

We got into Idaho 3 days before the bear hunt started. This was Lora's first time to actually be in one of the camps with me on one of the big hunts.

We would be hunting outside the small town of Elk City Idaho. Elk City is about 45 miles southeast of Grangeville. One of the first things we found out about that part of Idaho, is that there are two directions, up and down. Nothing is flat, the highways are buillt along the banks of the rivers and streams.

Mileage is evidently measured in air miles, because it seemed a lot further than 50 miles to Grangeville. Those first three days, we camped at Castle Creek campground, on the north bank of the South Fork of the Clearwater River. The first morning there, at about 6:30, some elk were whistling on trop of the ridge across the river from our camp.

Before going into bear camp, we made contact with the outfitters wife to let them know we had made it up there. We spent the time before going in to camp, sight seeing and getting in some trout fishing.

Fishing in the river was pretty tough for Lora, due to all the rocks and walking around on them. We did find a pond that turned out to be only about 6 or 7 miles away from where bear camp turned out to be. The pond covered about 2 acres and is kept stocked with keeper size rainbows and cutthroats. Many of these fish weighed over a pound each and the limit was 6 per person, so we had a few trout suppers.

My hunt was scheduled to start on Sunday the 5th. of September and end on Thursday, the 9th., the day before my 60th. birthday.

I really did not know what to expect as far as how the hunt worked, only that the hunting was done during the afternoon and that mornings were free to go fishing.

Still got more to go as things got interesting quick starting on Sunday.

Congrats on the bear & happy 60th birthday. Would love to shoot one w/ my bow someday.

Wow, congrats on your birthday and a great vacation.

Lora and I drove in to camp shortly before noon on Saturday, Sept. 4, and got ready to settle in. One thing we were not aware of, was that Lora and I would be the only folks in camp to hunt that week. It was also the first trime in all of the guided hunts I have been on where I stayed in a wall tent.

We got aquainted with the outfitter, Richard "Stitch" Kaech and his wife Joannie. They reminded me and Lora so much of Pudge and Julia Cox, the folks we have hunted elk with in Colorado over the years, that I was constantly calling "Stitch", "Pudge".

Talk around the campfire turned to bear hunting and what it was like to live in Idaho. Somehow during the discussion, I failed to hear just exactly how I would get to my stand the next day. I had noticed 3 or 4 four wheelers setting at the edge of camp, but I guess I was a little slow on the uptake as to their use.

Our camp set at around 7500 feet in elevation ion the Nez Perce National Forest, I found out however that the stand I would be hunting sat at about 7800 feet, and was 10 miles one way from camp. I realized the next day as I was getting my gear together for the first afternoons hunt, just exactly what the four wheelers were for.

I am used to driving a Polaris Ranger, but in all of my years of hunting, I had never driven a normal four wheeler and really was not interested in learning. Problem was, if I was going to hunt bear, I was going to have to learn, as that is how I would be getting to my stand every afternoon for the next 5 days.

The first afternoon, I slowly followed "Stitch" to my stand, and after getting the machine parked and all my stuff at the base of the tree where the stand was located, "Stitch" told me to call camp on the two way radio I was carrying when I got ready to come out of the stand, and he would meet me on the way to camp.

For some reason, "Stitch" seemed to have more faith in my ability to find my way back to camp than I did. Fortunately for me, I had paid attention, mostly, to how we had came from camp to the stand.

I came out of stand around 6:30, called camp and said that I was on my way, loaded my gear on the bike, and headed thru the timber. About three miles from the stand, I rode up to where "Stitch" was waiting, and he told me to lead out. This was the one spot where I messed up on the first evening, but "Stitch" got me shut down before I went too far off course.

I did not see anything that first day, but it was an interesting way of hunting.

I was setting in a tree stand, about 18 feet off the ground, overlooking a bait site that was about 40 yards downhill from me. The way things were set up, when or if a bear came out, it would be looking straight uphill at the bait and the stand.

After supper that evening, while having a couple of beers at the campfire, "Stitch" asked me if I thought that I could find my way back to the stand the next day by myself. Don't know if it was the beer or the altitude, but I said I thought that I could.

I eventually did, but for the day to turn out the way it did, I did almost everything possible to mess up that days hunt.

Next installment will be about a Labor Day I will never forget.

I will be waiting!

Monday, September 6, Labor Day from Hell.

Lora and I got up fairly early so we could make the 50 mile drive to Grangeville for some supplies and to phone a few folks on how we were doing.

We found out before we went into camp, that the only place we had cell service started about 3 miles outside of Grangeville. The problem was, we did not really realize how long it would take us to drive to Grangeville from camp or how long to get back. We did not leave camp until 9 a.m., I was supposed to be back and headed to camp by 2 p.m..

Due to the way the roads up there are laid out and the speed limits on those roads, we did not make it to Grangeville until after 11 a.m., a little over 2 hours to drive 50 miles. We did everything possible to get headed back to camp as soon as possible, and we managed to pull out of town slightly after High Noon.

I did every little trick I could to get us back to camp by 2, but forgot that when we got to the Forest Service road that we used to get to camp, I had a six or seven mile uphill drive on a really winding, gravel mountain road. We climbed about 2000 feet or so in altitude in that distance. We pull in to camp at 2:30.

While Lora gets me some snacks ready, I change clothes grab my gun and shells and get ready to saddle up and head for my stand. "Stitch" and Joannie both asked me several times if I thought that I could find my way to the stand okay, and I said I could. Liar!

I finally pulled from camp at 3:15 and have 10 miles to go on a vehicle I ain't really used to and find a stand on the side of a hill that I had been to one time.

I get headed out the right direction, and after about 3 miles, shoot right past the trail I am supposed to go down. I realized I had messed up after about a half mile run, and turn around and go back towards camp to see where I messed up.

I spent fifteen minutes and made 3 seperate little runs, but realized none of them were the trail I was looking for. At this point, I decided that I was just going to go back to camp and ask directions to Wally World or blow the evenings hunt off.

At this point, I was passing by a trail I had not tried yet, but thought looked familiiar. I turned down it, and there was the land mark I had been looking for.

Now, I am three miles or so from camp with 7 more to go to the stand and it is 3:45. I drive as fast as I can, and don't make any more mistakes, until I drop over the ridge into the drainage my stand was in. I forgot that there was two smaller ridges that I had to cross over to get to my stand.

I get over the first, drive down hill to the place where I thought I had parked the day before, get off the bike, and can not find my stand. I looked for about 5 minutes, but no stand. So, I get back on the bike and head down hill some more, come to the second ridge, cross it and go a little way, and find the place I had parked the day before and there was my stand.

By the time I get in to the stand, it is a little after 4 p.m., so I settle in and get ready for what I figure is going to be a fruitless 2 hour wait.

Next time will be about things that can go right even though you worked like hell to screw it up.

LOL!

Okay, there I sat, just got settled into my stand a little after 4 o'clock, when I should have been there an hour earlier.

I had gotten a late start, then got lost on my way, then could not find my stand. Yes Sir, this had all of the elements of being one real successful afternoon.

What went to happening over the next few minutes, did in some ways seem to be taking place in slow motion. However, when it was all over, everything actually happened really quickly.

I had been in the stand what seemed like a good while, but in reality, looking back at the actual time frame, it had only been about 15 minutes or so, when I saw a bear stick its head around one of the big trees behind the bait site and look up hill at the bait.

It stood there for about 1 minute, then turned around and went out of site. I thought, well at least I saw a bear, maybe I could get my act together the next day and get out there when I was supposed to and get settled in and have another chance at this one or another one.

I went ahead and got my rifle up so that if the bear did come back out, I would not have to make a lot of movement to get my sights on it.
I was not real optomistic about it coming back out, getting into the stand as late as I did and making as much noise as I did getting there.

I sat there watching and listening for what seemed like a long time, when all of a sudden, here comes Brother Bear out from behind the big trees down below the bait site and heads right uphill, toward the bait, and me.

Brother Bear reaches the bait and commences to chow down. Now, I am faced with the problem of having the rifle up and my sights on Brother Bear, but he is standing in such a way, that my only shot is between his shoulder blades, thru his back, something I really don't want to try.

This goes on for what seems ro be a very long time. He has his head down eating, then every few minutes, he lifts his head, looks off to his right or left for a couple of seconds, then looks the other direction for about the same amount of time, then drops his head and goes back to eating.

I watch this for a long time, or so it seemed as it was happening, and make my mind up about the shot I am going to take.

During the times when he would have his head up looking around, I noticed that in the middle of his chest, he had a white vee of hair, stretching from one arm pit, across his chest to the other arm pit. I decided that the next time he raised up to look around, I was going to try and put my bullet as close to the center of that vee as I could.

Now I was using my 1894 Chief Crazy Horse Commerative Winchester in 38-55 caliber. For those that have never seen one, it is basically a straight walled 30-30 case, with a 255 grain .375 caliber bullet loaded into it. I had been working on loads for this rifle for about 6 months before the trip to make sure I had the best load worked up for the rifle that I could come up with.

One of the quirky things about the 38-55, even the modern ones, is that while they are listed as a .375 caliber, they tend to be over bored, so my bullet of choice ended up being .377 diameter, 255 grain Barnes Originals. In discussing the hunt with the outfitters wife during the planning stages, I learned that shots would be 50 yards maximum, so all sighting in was done at 60 yards plus just for a confidence factor. The load that worked the best for my rifle turned out to be 32.0 grains of IMR 3031.

Anyway, I am setting there ready to go, and finally, Brother Bear raises his head, looks right, then swings his head around to the left. For some reason, know only to Brother Bear or my God, Brother Bear, raises himself up as high as he can on his front legs while looking left.

I figured it was now or never, placed the bead on the center of the vee and let the hammer down.

At the shot, the bear pitched forward on to his face, his hind legs coming completely off the ground. Then, in the next instant, he flipped completely over backwards, rolled down hill a short way, jumped up and headed down hill into the brush. At the shot I had levered another round into the chamber, but everything stopped being in slow motion and was happening really fast.

At this point, I get the two way and call camp and let them know I had hit a bear. Lora even got on the radio to congratulate me. "Stitch" said that he would head that way, but evidently did not get in a real big hurry from Lora's description of what was going on at camp. I got to getting my stuff together, called camp again and old them I was getting out of the stand and at least try to find a blood trail .

In talking to Lora later, it was at this point that "Stitch" stated that only about 5% of his clients ever get out of the stand to look for their bear, most just sit there waiting for him to get there. I was not real concerned, because I had 6 rounds in the rifle, and am used to hunting javelina in brush. Now I know a bear can do a lot more damage than a javelina, but the javelina don't know that so it pays to drop one as fast as possible if it decides your ankle looks like a good place to start gnawing.

I felt really good about the shot, the reaction of Brother Bear, and the performance of the bullet, so I figured I would find a dead bear, if I could find a blood trail. My starting point was the bait sight, where he had been standing when I shot. I looked around real good, but found nothing there. I called camp, informed them of what was going on, finished getting my stuff containerized and then started back down hill in the direction Brother Bear had went.

This time, I went down to two really large evergreen logs that were laying on the ground about 20 yards down hill from the bait site. As I got to them, at first I did not see anything on the uphill side of the first log, but on the uphill side of the second log, there was a big splash of blood. These two logs were each about 3 feet in diameter, and laying about 2 feet or so apart, paralelle to each other.

When I found the blood, I called camp again and told them what I had found, and that I was going to keep looking so that we would have a starting point when "Stitch" got there. I crossed the second log, found more blood and headed on down hill. The trail went thru a small thicket of brush, and as I came out the other side, I looked off to my left and there lay brother Bear, it appeared that he died in my stride as he was going down hill.

In all, he had covered about 30 maybe 40 yards from where I had hit him. On finding hoim, I called camp and said, " I found him, he is chocolate, and he is dead". At that point, more congratulations came from camp and "Stitch", as he was headed my way. I put the radio back in my pocket, looked at the bear for a couple of minutes, and then started dragging him uphill. I got him to the big logs and that was as far as I could make it.

The main reason I wanted to find my bear or at least a blood trail, is that there are over 1000 wolves in that part of Idaho, and I knew that if we did not find him, the wolves would and they would eat him and I would lose my bear. I was not going to let that happen if I could help it.

"Stitch" finally shows up, and we celebrate my kill a little, take some pictures and head back to camp. Once we get there, I find out, that when I made the call telling them I had shot the bear, it was straight up 5 p.m.

Everything had taken place in a roughly 45 minute period, but as it was taking place it seemed to be hours.

The final installment will be about the trip back to camp, the rest of the hunt and the trip back to Texas.

Thats awsome congrats again!

When "Stitch" showed up, he had his bear recovery gear with him. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of it before we loaded Brother Bear on it and took him to my bike. The reocvery tool, was an old military surplus field stretcher for carrying people.

It worked really good, but I thought that it probably looked pretty strange, two guys carrying a bear on a stretcher. We got Brother Bear loaded into the rear carrier on my bike and we headed to camp. Lora and Joannie were waiting for us and another round of congratulations was handed out. "Stitch" and I unloaded the bear and got things ready to start processing him.

This was a fairly strange situation for "Stitch" and Joannie, because they were going to get to set around and watch, while Lora and I skinned and butchered the bear. One of my little hang ups on all of the guided hunts I have been on, is that I want to skin the critter I shot. The only one where I really had or needed help was with my Musk Ox. I did my part on him but one person would have had a really hard job.

"Stitch" got a tarp layed out by the skinning hoist and we layed Brother Bear on it and Lora and I went to work. "Stitch" kept asking what he could do to help, and I told him to set back and enjoy not having to skin the critter and if he just needed to do something, he could bring me a beer when I needed one.

I skinned the bear out for a full body rug, which we have hanging on the wall here at the house. The bear was a deep chocolate color with a blonde stripe down the center of his back. The only skin that was lost in the skinning process, was the strip of skin on his bottom jaw. In making my initial cuts, i went straight up the midline of his stomach up to a point about 2 inches or so back from the corners of his mouth.

At that point, I cut over to each corner and then pulled that strip off. We dropped the hide off at a tannery in Denver on our way home and they shipped it to us when it was finished. I saved the claws to make a necklace, 18 of them will go on the necklace I am building for myself, two will go on a necklace Lora is making for herself.

After getting the skin off his hind legs, we then hung him up, and pulled the rest of the hide off down to his head and cut it off and set that all to the side to finish skinning out the skull later. With that out of the way, we gutted the bear, and pulled it up as high as possible and let it hang for the night.

At that point, Lora went off to bed, and I parked myself by the fire for a few beers and just to take in the experience. One of the I guess "neat" things, was that all during the skinning process, wolves were howling around the camp. By the time I was finished and setting by the fire, some of the wolves were within a hundred yards or so of camp.

Next morning, Lora and I got up, i finished skinning out the skull, and then we spent an hour or so cutting up the bear and getting it into an ice chest. Once the head was skinned out the hide was rolled up, placed in a trash bag and taken in to town band placed in a freezer.

Unlike many of "Stitch's" other clients, I went out hunting that afternoon. Seems that many folks after they kill one bear, they sort of lay back for the rest of the trip. Not this fat boy, once we got the bear butchered and the hide headed to town, Lora and I loaded up, went to town and for $35.00, bought my second bear tag and headed back to camp and I headed for the stand.

This was where I may have messed up and did something that caused me to not get my second bear. By the time we got back to camp, "Stitch" had taken time to go and freshen up the bait pile where I got Brother Bear, and he was excited, because there was sign, that a larger bear had been on the bait sometime after I got my bear.

My plan had been to try for a second bear with my 351 Winchester Self Loader. "Stitch" was of the opinion that I might want to use something bigger, so I break out my 375 H&H. I tend to be supersticious about such things, and feel that by changing what gun I took out, it messed up the chance of getting a shot at a second bear.

That may all be rectified, as we are planning on going back up there in 2012. The rest of the week went by with no other bear sightings, and on Friday, Sept.10, we loaded our gear, said our Good Byes and drove out of camp for the last time, for now.

One thing I really did not spend as much time doing as I had intended, was hunting blue grouse. I tried it one morning, saw one bird but did not connect with it. We headed back over Lolo Pass and into Montana. Our return trip took us down thru Pinedale Wyoming, where we picked up the Pronghorn mount from the taxidermist my boss had left his head and cape with from the previous years hunt, and to visit the Museum of the Mountain Man that is located in Pinedale.

We got to spend another night with some friends that live between Buena Vista and Leadville Colorado on the Arkansas River. Next morning we made our way to Denver, dropped off the bear hide at the tanner, then headed for Pueblo Resivior where we set up the teepee for the night. The next day, we broke camp and headed east across Colorado to visit Bent's Old Fort National Historic site and toured it.

This was the 15th. of september and after we left Bent's Fort, e ended up deciding on driving on to the cabin instead of spending another night on the way, we pulled up in front of the cabin at 2:30 on the morning of the 16th..

Awesome story!!

Thats a long story, thanks for posting!

Thanks for the kind words.

Lora and I try to make an adventure out of everything we do, even before we retired.

With our jobs, we were able to arrange enough time off to make the month long trips to Canada, and I was able to do some of the western hunts in the short period of time that I did.

Life is too short, and too many folks do not get the chances to live that I have had.

I will forever be grateful that Lora has been there with me on many of those adventures.

At present, I am working on putting together a Coues deer hunt to Arizona this fall, providing I get drawn for a tag.

Sounds like you have been on some awesome hunts!! Someday, when I can afford to not have to work so much, I'm hoping to have some hunts like that myself.

I hope you will be able to. I am in a unique situation, in never having had any kids and being married o a wonderful person that really enjoys these trips.

Life is too short, and I have worked around too many folks that worked their arses off, just waiting and planning and dreaming of taking such trips and then 2 days after thjey retyired, fell over dead.

I made my mind up a long time ago, I was not going to be caught up in that trap.

All of us make choices in our lives, many of us choose to do the things that other people expect us to do, hoping that one day we will be able to do what we want to.

Too many of us when we reach that "point" are not able to obtain our dreams because we have spent our lives making other peoples lives better, while ours goes down the crapper.

I see folks everyday that say I wished I could have done stuff like that, problem is they could have, but they made the choice to live up to other peoples expectations.