Full Cry for Bruins

Hunting behind a pack of hounds is more exciting than most know.
By Chuck Adams

It was late morning when we found the track—a kidney-shaped flat spot on a snow-covered bank by the road. My heart leaped to my throat. The print was made by a hind foot … an oval impression wider than my hand. It was the biggest I had seen on the hunt.
Bucky Stone inspected the track, falling on one knee to study every detail.

“Nice bear,” Bucky finally said. “Let’s try him.”

Bow Shooting

He dropped the tailgate on the 4×4 pickup, exposing two dogbox doors with wire-mesh centers. Behind milled a dozen Walker hounds, scrunching their noses against the wire with nervous whines. Bucky slipped an arm behind one door and pulled out Toughie, a raw-boned hound with badly tattered ears. He closed the door and led the dog to the track. Toughie sucked in air and uttered a drawn-out bawl of joy. The other dogs went absolutely nuts. It looked like we might have a bear race after all.

Four days of hunting had made me begin to wonder. Bucky was one of northern California’s most widely respected bear guides, scoring close to l00 percent for hunters every year. As a matter of fact, he operated on a no-kill, no-pay basis—proof of his ability to produce. If a hunter wanted a bear, Bucky could get him one for sure. The only hunters who did not score were too soft to walk to the bear once hounds put it up a tree.

The past few days had not been dull. I had seen a bear every day but one. My problem was a desire to shoot a really big bruin with a bow. It was November l98l, and I had taken average bears with archery tackle in the past. Now, I wanted a magnum hide with thick, late-fall fur. I knew that California produced some of the biggest bears on the continent. All I had to do was find one.

What to Look For

Track size is not always an indicator of trophy size, but it usually tells the tale. A few small bears have big feet—just as a few small people wear size l2 shoes. But a bear with big feet normally has a big frame and a big skull to match. As Bucky opened both hound boxes and a stream of dog flesh poured over the tailgate, I crossed my fingers and hoped the bear at the end of the tracks had plenty of distance between its ears.

On the surface of things, hound hunting seems simple. Hunters drive roads until a bear track is found along a cutbank or road shoulder. A sharp-eyed hound man can spot a track in the snow at 30 miles per hour. For insurance, a “strike dog” is put on the back of the pickup to test the wind as the rig moves along. When air currents are right, a seasoned strike dog can smell a bear track up to eight hours old. If scent remains, the hound bawls its head off.

Excerpted from a recent issue of Bow and Arrow.

Post Source: http://bowandarrow.blog.com/2012/12/06/full-cry-for-bruins/

Early Elk - Bow Hunting

Don’t resist the chance to bowhunt elk before the rut – it’s not as challenging as you might think.
By Jason Stafford

The author's dad took his

first-ever archery elk during

 a mid-August hunting trip to Wyoming

As darkness turned into dawn, my dad and buddy Ron could see 11 velvet-clad bulls feeding on an open hillside. The elk were above several fingers of dark timber.  It was late August and two days into Wyoming’s early archery elk season. 

They had no problem finding bulls feeding out in the open during various scouting trips and for each day of the season so far. The animals were around, it was just a matter of playing cat and mouse in the woods and setting up a shot. So far that hadn’t happened, though. Dad was the shooter on this hunt, and he was hoping for a pretty slam-dunk shot on what would be his first-ever archery bull. 

As the scorching sun began to warm the hillside, three bulls broke away from the big group and headed for a patch of trees that Ron was very familiar with. It was the moment to strike, but they had to move fast in order to intercept the bulls before they got into timber too dense and noisy for quiet stalking.

The jungle-like timber was in a deep canyon along with a small spring pond. They moved in and set up near this pond and a small clearing.

Moments later, the bulls fed out in front of them, just inside dad’s effective range. Once Ron checked the distance with his Nikon rangefinder, old pop came to full draw and let ‘er rip. The arrow flew true, and the nice velvet-antlered bull was down for good.

Most guys who bowhunt elk prefer to call or chase them when they are bugling, rutting, and chasing cows around. They enjoy the excitement and thrill of hearing thunderous bull elk talk echoing through the trees and canyons.

There’s no doubt mid-to-late September elk hunting can be exhilarating and productive, especially for those that love to call. But I’ve found bow hunting elk earlier on to be such as effective if not more so. During the rut, bulls become rivals and separate in order to sort out their dominance and to search for cows in estrous. This makes them harder to follow at times, I believe, which can add frustration to the hunt.

Whereas, during the early season, elk follow a consistent pattern, the same one they followed during the late-summer and the weeks leading up to opening day. This means if you’ve located elk during your scouting trips, then you can find them in the same place again.    

August and early September can surely bring warmer temperatures, but sometimes this can actually make animals more concentrated near water sources. This can make for more hunting action.

Also, in most western states, such as New Mexico, earlier hunts are much easier to draw. This could make them even more attractive if you know how to approach this kind of hunting. 

In this article I would like to offer a few tips for harvesting early-season elk. Each one has been proven to work well for me and my close hunting buddies. 

Pattern & Ambush
Like early whitetails, early elk are easy to pattern. Their daily rituals are straightforward -- they bed in heavy cover during the heat of the day, and then they move to feed, usually along open hillsides.

In the evenings, when they first start moving, they often prefer to water. They also like to water just prior to bedding in the morning.

Understanding these basic patterns will allow you to take an effective ambush somewhere along their travel routes – to and from feed or water. It’s that simple.

Another great thing about early elk is that they are still in summer bachelor groups. During August bowhunts, mature bulls are commonly seen in groups of three to ten, all feeding together. They are easier to locate this way, and more bulls in one spot means a high chance for shooting opportunity.

Be Patient & Aggressive
Depending on the terrain, early elk are ideal for employing spot and stalk. If you can glass them, then you should be able to move on them. The key is glassing them up early enough in the day so you can catch them in a vulnerable spot.

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