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fishoutawaterSouthernOregon
- Thread Starter John316
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Welcome to NWFA. Did you get a bear last fall?
- Thread Starter
- #3
I'm not good navigating forums so don't know how to post the question asked, so I'll just answer, "Did you get a bear last year?" The answer is yes. I was able to hunt some last fall so was seeing about 3 bears a day. I know of at least two large bears in here, but I would actually estimate 20 bears or so in the canyon I hunt in September. I watch water holes and still hunt. I actually heard this bear ripping apart logs from a distance, worked in close and called him in with a fawn bleat. He was a good bear, not huge, between 5 1/2' and 6'. He fell reluctantly and with reservation to a well placed 185 grain Barnes triple shock from a Sako 338 Federal at 50 yards. If you're not familiar with the 338 Federal cartridge, it's a 338 based on a 308 case. Very nice to shoot, perfect balance of power and recoil for me. I also use a 450 Marlin in a Browning BLR stainless for crawling through manzanita thickets. Haven't taken anything with the 450 yet. Recoil stiff, power good, trajectory... well, it's a brush gun. I find bears feed on nuts, seeds, ants, berries mostly. I'm fascinated by how much weight they can gain eating such small seeds and nuts...They are an impressive animal.
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I would love a bear rug!
And welcome to NWFA.
And welcome to NWFA.
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Nice, my family and I go down to the Mapleton/Florence area and hunt bear on some relatives property every year. There aren't a lot of bears there but we average about one bear a year between the four of us. I didn't get one this year, but my father got a nice three year old that made some tasty bear hams.
- Thread Starter
- #7
Yeah, I've tried the coast bear hunting and elk too but it's not too easy for me to hunt well. I just can't figure it out I guess. Southern Oregon has more stinking bears than anywhere I've been, including the Snake River. You can't always see them as easy as over east, but they are very concentrated on food sources. Since they follow the food supply, they move around and you have to be willing to move too. One day a couple years ago I took two friends to a honey hole at just the right time and we saw eight different bears in about a 1/2 mile area in one day hunt. Those are the days to remember! We've seen blonde, brown, black, and one little brown with a blonde shoulder hump. If I was in grizzly country I would say it was one, but I'm not so... Couple old guys I ran into were filming bears and they say they saw one with very strong grizzly traits including head and hump. They know bears but I'm just not convinced. Could be some recessive genes left over I suppose, but do black and grizzlies mate? Who knows.
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Welcome to this site. I really appreciate hearing from another "brush buster".
FYI, I sight my rifles @ a inch or so high @100, but that puts them right on @ 50!
FYI, I sight my rifles @ a inch or so high @100, but that puts them right on @ 50!
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Welcome. SO Oregon here too.
- Thread Starter
- #10
Ah! That makes sense as most guys sight in an inch high at 100 for a little under 200 yard zero. I find a 50 yard zero allows me to poke them exactly where I want to. I'm not the running shot I used to be when I hunted jackrabbits more so now I try to get close. For long shots I use shooting stix and rest my back against something like a rock or tree if I can. That's solid as it gets. I grew up hunting blacktails with my grandpa and dad so brush hunting is like an old pair of sneakers, very comfortable. My favorite rifle for brush is a Savage 99 375 Winchester, but I don't carry it in the rain anymore, so that limits me to the Browning BLR or Sako stainless guns. I tried a BLR in 270 WSM thinking it would be perfect for both brush and open country, again in stainless. I didn't like it with a scope for brush because by the time I flip 2 scope covers, cock the hammer, and get back on target it was all over and I was standing there alone. It was ok for open country, but the trigger was horrible. The 450 BLR is fine as it has no scope and is much shorter and lighter so is very fast for brush. The 338 Federal is probably going to be just fine for long range, we'll see as time goes on. I may try another 270 wsm but in a Remington model 7 xcr camo/stainless with 22" barrel. Not sure yet...
