EP 34: Treed By A Grizzly with John Alderson. In this episode we talk with Epic Outdoors member, John Alderson. After getting to know John, we dive into an unforgettable story of a Grizzly Bear encounter John had while hunting elk in Wyoming. After the bull John shot was claimed by a big boar Grizzly, the bear charges John and forces him to climb a tree to escape. John, barely out of reach of the bear climbs high into a tree where he sits to contemplate his situation. This is an unforgettable story you won’t forget.
Disclaimer: this podcast has been transcribed from the original audio and likely contains errors. This transcription does not reflect the views and opinions of Epic Outdoors LLC. Please consult the original audio with any concerns.
00:00:01:07 –> 00:00:03:12
More bearing encounters than anybody I’ve ever met.
00:00:03:24 –> 00:00:08:26
That is not a black bear. And this is not California. That’s a Griz.
00:00:09:07 –> 00:00:12:10
He’s in gear and he’s headed at you. It’s full bore
00:00:13:02 –> 00:00:14:11
Anything to do with Western Big Games.
00:00:17:20 –> 00:00:18:05
Welcome
00:00:18:05 –> 00:00:21:09
To the Epic Outdoors Podcast, powered by Under Armour.
00:00:22:13 –> 00:01:26:21
Hey everybody, Jason Carter and Adam Bronson here with the Epic Outdoors Podcast, with another podcast coming at you. Today’s kind of a fun one. We’ve got a special guest, John Alderson. We, it’s one of the first we’ve done like this one. He’s actually been a client for years and years, Adam, and dealt with him and a super good guy, drew a tag there, an elk tag there in Wyoming and had kind of an interesting grizzly experience, which we’re way excited to get into with him. Just quite comical, especially now that he’s still alive. But anyway, we wanted to talk about that and just talk about some of the tags he’s drawn over the west. And the name of the game is drawing tags out there. And so we do wanna know everything that you draw. Doesn’t matter how easy it is to draw or tough, we wanna know about it. We can help you one way or another. We’ve got a member draw database where we could send you a list of members who’ve hunted in the past. You know, we’ve got a lot of experience here in the office across the west. If it’s something that you’ve drawn, that we have experience in, we’ll definitely want to help you with that as well. Or find an outfitter for it.
00:01:26:29 –> 00:02:09:27
That’s right. These tags, in many cases, are worth tens, or in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars if you were to have to go out and buy them on the open market, so to speak. So we realized that applying for a lot of years is only part of it. When you draw the tag, that’s when it really starts to maximize what you have. So encourage you to make the most of it if you’re gonna do it on your own, call in, get a a Epic member experience database list from us. Get prepared, have gear questions. We give you our take on it, whatnot. If you need an outfitter for the unit that you’ve drawn, we work with the best. We stay on top of that. We write the magazines so that that allows us to stay in touch with outfitters that are killing the best stuff on the specific units in the West. So, yeah.
00:02:09:28 –> 00:02:42:14
So to get in touch with us, go to epic outdoors.com. You can email us, of course, [email protected], or [email protected]. General questions [email protected], as well as 4 3 5 2 6 3 0 7 7 7. Anyway, before we get started on that, we’d like to thank Under Armour for the sponsorship they give us here at Epic Outdoors and a wide variety of aspects including this podcast, YouTube, and, and magazine and whatnot. And so, anyway, really appreciate them. And with that, let’s give him a call.
00:02:47:09 –> 00:02:48:03
John Alderson.
00:02:48:12 –> 00:02:51:09
Hey John, it’s Jason Carter and Adam Bronson. How are you?
00:02:52:02 –> 00:02:54:05
I’m good. Good morning. How are you folks?
00:02:54:17 –> 00:02:55:11
Oh, we’re doing good.
00:02:55:28 –> 00:02:58:23
Good. John. Hey, how’s things in California treating you?
00:02:59:17 –> 00:03:01:17
Hot, hot. Very hot down here.
00:03:02:03 –> 00:03:32:28
Yeah, just wanted to kind of introduce you a little bit and kind of introduce this podcast. This is a little different than we normally do. You’re gonna be one of the first of just kind of something from a, you know, a Hunter’s perspective that’s a member of Epic Outdoors. And of course you had an unbelievable experience there in Wyoming and, and that’s kind of what triggered it. Of course, you know, we’ve known you, I don’t know how many years, can you remember how many years, you know, we’ve been affiliated with each other, you and Adam and I,
00:03:34:09 –> 00:04:32:04
I started building preference point 16 years ago, and when I was with another consultant and he was with them. And during the time I was with them, we were both with them. We, we talked occasionally and, and then when I heard you, you and Adam had both were set up your own operation with some of the other really experienced consultants that were available. Yeah. And once I heard you left, I started looking for you found you guys. Yeah, so we’re, it’s, it’s been well over a decade I would expect. And as a result of my work with, with you, been able to draw two big horn sheep tags and that’s, I really enjoy that.
00:04:32:23 –> 00:04:36:22
Well, that’s great. And so tell us a little more about the sheep tags you drew.
00:04:37:10 –> 00:04:39:08
I know one of ’em was in Montana, wasn’t it?
00:04:40:16 –> 00:05:36:17
Yeah, I drew a 4,000 to one odds for a non-resident big horn sheep tag in the Missouri break. Geez. And we, we got out and one of the, one of the guides had scouted and seen a, a big old ram in this one area. And we, we got out, I think the first day I was there and started glassing and looked and looked and looked. And we were just about to give up and one of the guides peeked over a little rise and, and spotted him and I, I missed, missed him no less than three times, which was very humbling since it was video
00:05:37:11 –> 00:05:41:07
No less, huh? We won’t say exactly how many, but just no less.
00:05:47:04 –> 00:05:56:02
But we eventually tracked and tracked him, tracked him down, and I, I got another shot and I connected on that one. And
00:05:56:09 –> 00:06:10:11
That’s awesome. Yeah, Jason and I are still waiting for that. Maybe, you know, it’s never, it’s always something you think about, but a Montana rocky tag’s kind of at the top of everybody’s wishlist. Where was your other sheep tag you drew?
00:06:12:25 –> 00:07:03:13
I drew a thousand to one odds tag in the Clark Kingston area, Southeast California. It’s, if you go up 15, like you were going to Las Vegas just before you go into Nevada. It’s on kind of the east side, northeast side of the road back in there. And some mountains just absolutely desolate country. But, but drawing both those tags draws a, draws a good point for any big game hunter in that it just really pays to apply, apply, apply. Because if you do the, do the math, even though the odds are really long and you’re, you’re applying for enough tags, the the odds are your number’s going to come up.
00:07:04:08 –> 00:07:56:25
Well, you, it’s not gonna, if you don’t apply. And with sheep, you know, for most people, applying is for a rocky and desert is the only legitimate option you’ve got. So what else you gonna do? Not dream about it, are you gonna for a few bucks a year, especially if it’s in a state where you’re already buying a hunting license or applying anyway added on and yeah, there you go. A lightning struck a couple of times in your case. So you’re right, sheep, sheep are, are kind of the epitome of what we all hope for, but you can’t base your plans upon it. Jason and I have both had the opportunity to draw non-resident sheep tags as well in Oregon. And so we know, we know what happens. Jason’s also drawn a desert sheep tag in Utah after accumulating a bunch of points. I’m still waiting in mine, but it’s, I don’t know, those experiences are pretty rare.
00:07:56:29 –> 00:08:44:22
And, and for you to be able to get a rock in the desert through draw that’s, that’s as good as it gets. And in the meantime build a lot of other points for a lot of other species. Like, like you alluded to elk and mule deer and, and things like that. And that, you know, a couple years ago, I remember we had this conversation like we always do multiple times throughout the, the year, but at the start of the year, we’re talking about your, your max points in Wyoming and you wanted to use them and tell us a little bit about that. And if you, what you remember, we settled on a unit and, and we knew you were pretty much gonna draw from the get go. And, and then that’ll get maybe the ball rolling. We’ll talk about this, this hunt that we, we published in, in our June july issue that we was well received. And we can get into that a little bit.
00:08:46:16 –> 00:09:46:20
Well, every, every year I check and we kind of sit down on the phone and have a discussion about how, how many points I have where and where the best chances of drawing are and based on, and the, and the different conditions because units change and rules and laws change. So we have an annual discussion as to where the best places to apply are. And this particular year we decided that units 63 and 64 were the best place to apply in Wyoming for elk with the new special draw rules they had that allowed you to pay a little bit more to improve your odds of drawing. And I got a tag and headed out for unit 63 and 64.
00:09:47:11 –> 00:10:14:26
And if I remember right, once we knew you had that, just due to the staggered application schedule, Wyoming has, we, once you, you knew you had that, you said, Hey, I wanna use my antelope points too, because I’m gonna be all the way out there. It saves me a trip not having to go all the way to Wyoming just for an antelope. And so I think we applied knowing you were gonna get a unit 64 antelope tag, which you did as well, just to hunt either just before or just after
00:10:16:06 –> 00:10:50:02
Adam had gotten me a excellent antelope tag. And once I got to the hunt area, the, the unit I was almost continuously inside of, of antelope and stalking antelope and there were some real trophies in there as it turned out. I didn’t end up with one of those, but I, I chased trophy antelope until I was so exhausted I could hardly walk.
00:10:52:02 –> 00:11:17:14
That’s good. Well, as we dive into that a little bit on your outcome, just tell us a little bit about the preparation, you know, how you chose to go, you know, guided unguided, your prep learning the unit. Just tell us a little bit about your preparation that 63, 64, you know, would take a little bit of that preparation to do well on it. And of course you got into the middle of Elkin, so just tell us a little bit about that.
00:11:18:27 –> 00:12:01:18
Well, Adam had advised me that, that Wood River ranch was a great place to go based on his experience and knowledge. And it, it turned out to be be great a, a great outfitter with a, with a great, great hunt. I actually got there a few days before we were scheduled to go into the, into the wilderness and they, they suggested that I try some, some of the local hunting and it, it was incredible. And,
00:12:01:25 –> 00:12:03:16
And the bulls right off the bat, huh?
00:12:06:19 –> 00:13:15:06
The first, first morning? Well, we, we went out in the afternoon the first time, but we called a bull in that was probably within 20 yards. The brush was too thick to shoot through, but right off first, first evening we had a, we had a bull come in and then the next morning we hiked into an area that there was a, there was a basin in there and we could see any number of really big bulls and, and cows. And in fact, on the way in, we, we tiptoed passed a, a bull that I thought he was 300. The guy, the guy I think thought he thought he was three 40, but we tiptoe a bull somewhere in that quality that to get to the bigger bulls at, I mean, 20 yards yard by walking every time he put his head down in the grass and getting by him so he wouldn’t blow up and scare everything else off.
00:13:15:25 –> 00:13:29:04
Was this, remind me how early, well, how, how early in the archery hunt or roughly what part of September was that in that you, you booked your, your guided hunt there? Was it early, middle? Think towards the last 10 days, what you remember where it was?
00:13:30:08 –> 00:13:52:17
I think I got there some somewhere between the 10th or 12th. And it seemed to me that the, the rutt peaked about the 15th, but as the rutt peaked, the, the really big bull dominant bulls seem to have their herd of cows and they stopped responding.
00:13:53:08 –> 00:13:57:24
Yeah, they had what they want and they’d scream at you, but they weren’t coming. Yeah. Pretty tips. Yeah.
00:13:57:24 –> 00:14:46:02
They, they, they, they would talk to you. There, there was one, one instance when the guy set me up on this place and hiding behind the tree. And then he got behind me and called and the, the bull came straight at me and I’m, I’m behind the tree, so I have no way to step from behind the tree and, and pull and, and draw my bull, my bow. And the, the first thing I saw of that bull is the time, time of the, of the antler came around the side of the tree at a so close I could have hit it with a stick. The next thing I knew, I’m at a point blank range like six feet looking into the eye of a,
00:14:48:29 –> 00:14:49:26
Geez, that’s a,
00:14:51:27 –> 00:15:25:10
Yeah, I, I didn’t get him. He, he blew up of course. And by the time I, I drew, well I, I did, I did shave him with an arrow, I think, and he went off about 40 yards and I tried to put in another arrow and I, I pulled back, but I made the novice error of putting my finger over the release and in my excitement I released the arrow when it was about halfway drawn and shot the ground. We’ve all
00:15:25:24 –> 00:15:28:20
Done that once or twice in our lives. Everybody lives.
00:15:28:20 –> 00:15:32:02
So we, let’s see. We missed him no less than two times.
00:15:33:05 –> 00:15:33:22
That’s right.
00:15:36:24 –> 00:15:36:28
I
00:15:37:23 –> 00:16:05:04
I, I hadn’t hunted anything with a bow since I, since I was a kid and there, and I had practiced long and hard, but there’s a hell of a lot of difference between punching holes and paper on a range and a nice warm, comfortable day and standing out there on the side of a hill with the wind blowing and the elk screaming in your heart, heart pounding and trying to hold on the target.
00:16:05:20 –> 00:16:17:00
Oh, so, so set us up with this hunt. You’ve got, basically, you booked a guided hunt, you went six or seven days, guided, and then, and then went and hunted antelope and then came back self-guided. Is that right?
00:16:17:25 –> 00:16:18:12
That’s right.
00:16:18:25 –> 00:16:43:12
Okay. All right. And so you go, you go on the guided hunt, you get into a 360 bull, you have a great hunt, just didn’t connect, just being archery equipment and we’ve all hunted plenty with archery and so totally understandable, but, but good enough hunt that you wanted to go back and you were hunting country, you didn’t need a guide in like, wasn’t necessarily designated wilderness. You can go back and go on your own if you’d like
00:16:44:09 –> 00:16:58:04
That. That’s right. The, the Wood River ranch did a great job for me and, but they, they had a, they had a novice client that just didn’t get it done. Yeah.
00:16:58:17 –> 00:17:28:14
And I, if I remember right, yeah, you were still, I don’t remember if you still stayed with them but just hunted on your own or just were in contact with them in case you killed the bull and, you know, needed their horses or, or all of that. So it’s not like you were totally on your own, but yeah, you did stick to more of the day hunting type country that you could go out and get into elk. So you got some shot opportunities on the guided hunt portion. Tell us more about, I guess then is how the, how the hunt proceeded from there as you, as you kept hunting, trying to find the bull kill.
00:17:28:23 –> 00:18:15:07
Well, that, I had figured out that the elk were coming down to the low meadows at night and the, the big bulls were herded up with big herds of cows and there was an incredible number of satellite bulls circling around them. And the satellite bulls were coming in and challenging the herd bulls were trying to pick off loose cows and putting on quite a show, but they were out in the middle of, of the pastures. And I, I did get one to come by me and I did call one bull in, but I got excited and didn’t look through my peach site and missed him.
00:18:17:06 –> 00:18:17:20
You sound
00:18:17:22 –> 00:18:19:19
Missed him no less than once. Right?
00:18:21:10 –> 00:18:22:02
No, less than once.
00:18:24:11 –> 00:18:30:09
I love hearing your stories because we’ve all chuckle and we’ve all been there, done it with the bow and it doesn’t matter.
00:18:30:22 –> 00:18:42:28
But this is all leading up to the most epic story we’ve ever heard in our lives. Yeah. And so, and we’re gonna learn a lot from it too, because we don’t have grizzlies here, but not to ruin it. We’re gonna let you keep go forward with the story,
00:18:43:26 –> 00:19:31:10
But Well, I was floundering around, down towards the bottom of the mountain with the meadows. I, I, I heard the bulls and saw the bulls going up the, up the mountain bugling as they would go up and then I could hear ’em on top. So one morning I, I got up, got started at three o’clock in the morning and, and beat the bulls up to the, up to the top. And when they got up to the top, they’d be by themselves. They’d get up to the top and they would kind of break over the edge of the, the ridge into the rolling more level country on top, and they’d let out a huge bugle light. Any, any girls up here looking for a date here, I’m,
00:19:33:00 –> 00:19:42:26
And that’s where you, that’s where you start keying in on where you’re cashing, leaving the, leaving the feeding stuff down there up into the in between before they’re going to bed or whatever for the rest of the day. Yep.
00:19:44:00 –> 00:20:30:08
And, and they, they were ready to, ready to, to work and I, I would call and they would, they would come in and they would hang up somewhere between 40 to 20 to 40 yards and looked for the cow. And one of the things I’d, I’d learned on one of the previous hunts is I, the guide and I had called and a cow came from half a mile away across a big draw. Geez. And the guide was hidden in some brush and without any more calling from a half mile away, she went right exactly to the spot where he was hiding and looked over to log down at him. So,
00:20:34:15 –> 00:21:13:19
So when you call, they, they know exactly where you’re at. You have got to be camouflaged and, and, and motionless and ready. There was one big bull came in and was, was was looking and he, he came in, he was at 20 yards or or less and was broadside to me. And as I was about to draw my bow, I was waiting for him to turn his head. I kind of squiggled my left foot about a half an inch as iied myself to draw. That’s all it took. He saw that and he blew up and, and ran. Yeah.
00:21:14:02 –> 00:21:31:29
Geez. So sooner or later you, it had to happen. It had to line up, you know, in terms of you’d had some good opportunities, some big bulls, you’d either missed a couple shots, punched a release, forgot to look to the peep, but you just did the normal stuff. Finally it came together for you.
00:21:33:03 –> 00:22:10:19
Well, yeah. One of these bulls finally came in and he wasn’t a good bull, but he wasn’t, he was a good bull, but he wasn’t one of the giants. But he came in at about 30 yards and hung up behind some brush, but there was a hole through that brush about the size of a basketball. And he was close enough to that hole that I thought I could thread an arrow through there, right. Right into his boiler room without worrying about the drop too much on the other side. In other words, if he’s too far from the, from the hole in the brush, your arrow’s gonna go through the hole in arc down too low.
00:22:13:03 –> 00:23:05:04
But that threaded an arrow through there and it went in almost all the way up to the fletching and he ran off. And I, I spent hours looking for a blood trail. I I could, I tracked him two or 300 yards just on his tracks. But then he got into tracks with a lot of other elk that were fresh and I, I lost him. I never found a blood trail, but I, I looked for him and I looked for him for two or three days. And one, one day I went over this, over this hill down into a big meadow and I wasn’t carrying a bow or a pistol or anything, and I looked out into this meadow and I can see the back of a bear out in the tall grass. Well, I’m from California and the bears I see here are black bears. Right. So
00:23:06:04 –> 00:23:10:04
Not so you’re assuming you’re not, you’re assuming it’s this is a black bear. I might even pet it.
00:23:11:11 –> 00:23:17:16
I’m, I’m over there. I’m thinking, I’m thinking, oh, that’s a trophy black bear,
00:23:18:15 –> 00:23:20:07
Big hump on him in a dish face
00:23:23:09 –> 00:23:37:01
As I’m kicking myself in the, in the posterior for not having my rifle in a bear tag. Yeah. And I made a couple little squeaks with my lips, like a mouse or something, just
00:23:37:09 –> 00:23:38:05
Call his thing in
00:23:39:11 –> 00:23:43:07
And, and trying to get him to just move so I can see him better.
00:23:44:05 –> 00:23:45:05
He dinner.
00:23:47:05 –> 00:23:57:16
Well he, he, he, he turned around and when he turned around where I can see him, I remember thinking, John, that that is,
00:23:58:18 –> 00:24:01:04
Sorry. Holy cow.
00:24:01:04 –> 00:24:05:29
That is not a black bear. And this is not California. That’s ariz.
00:24:07:01 –> 00:24:11:05
And I have no gun or no arrows, nothing.
00:24:11:24 –> 00:24:13:29
I, I had about a three inch pocket dive.
00:24:15:09 –> 00:24:15:23
I’m naked.
00:24:16:07 –> 00:24:19:01
How far are you from this bear? This first one, I’m,
00:24:19:16 –> 00:24:45:01
I’m probably 70, 80 yards from him. And, and it looked like a female from the shape of the head and the body and everything. And she comes by, runs by me about 30 or 40 yards away like a big puppy dog. You know how a puppy will throw its front seat up at the air and kind of bounce? Yeah. Well, she comes bouncing by me like that, looking at me. And I I was told you called her in,
00:24:45:01 –> 00:24:46:12
Told later you called her in
00:24:48:02 –> 00:24:57:00
Y yes, I did. But she didn’t come directly to me. She definitely could see me, but I was told later that they’ll do that to take a better look at you, just figure
00:24:57:00 –> 00:24:58:18
Out what you were, yeah.
00:24:59:21 –> 00:25:08:04
Yep. She ran right by me, but I wasn’t comfortable in that area anymore. So I, I started back up the mountain and
00:25:08:21 –> 00:25:20:23
I you’re, you’re still, you’re still, you’re basically looking for your, your bull from a couple days earlier. That’s basically what your mission is. You’re looking for that you’re figuring I know I hit him. Good. I’m, I’m, you’re in recovery mode. Hopefully you can find him.
00:25:21:16 –> 00:25:44:01
Yeah, that’s why I don’t, don’t have a bow or anything with me. I’m just, I’m walking, I’m looking for birds. I’m looking where I’ve seen the elk hanging out. I’m hoping I’ll get lucky and found because I, I’ve felt like I’d killed, killed him. Killed. But based on the arrow placement. So I’m, I’m not trying to get another bull. You
00:25:44:05 –> 00:25:47:15
You got pepper spray or anything? Or you just your pocket knife?
00:25:48:29 –> 00:25:49:19
I don’t have anything
00:25:51:01 –> 00:25:53:14
Looking, looking for meat laying,
00:25:53:15 –> 00:25:56:18
Looking for rotting meat on
00:25:56:18 –> 00:25:56:27
The mal
00:25:56:27 –> 00:26:04:20
Country. We don’t wanna make too light of it, but we’re, this is education. This is an educational program here too. So we’re just, that’s why we’re pointing some things out.
00:26:05:02 –> 00:26:08:20
It is such a good story. You just, you just don’t get these stories very often
00:26:10:01 –> 00:26:40:05
And No, I, I, part of my problem was I wasn’t taking the bears seriously. Everybody had warned me, but you know, I’ve been, I’ve been in, I’ve been in Grizz country before, but never had any problem with them. And the black bears, I’ve had problems with black bears, but not like I had with these guys. Yeah. So I get about, I get about halfway up the mountain and here comes a herd of cows bawling and running uphill. Well, I’ve never seen
00:26:40:25 –> 00:26:41:25
Cattle or
00:26:42:02 –> 00:27:26:10
Cow elk. No. Cattle. Cattle. Cattle, okay. Cattle. And I’ve never seen cows run uphill, much less bawling. So they, they saw, they came up to right below where I was at and turned and went contoured around the mountain and I kept going and a few minutes later, here comes another herd of cows. And they, they went past me and got ahead of me quite a ways. And I keep going. And as I’m approaching, as I’m going up the mountain, I’m approaching these cows and they’re all herded up real tight. And you know how animals that are stressed and feel like predators are after Yeah. Are after ’em.
00:27:26:14 –> 00:27:31:16
We’ve hunted elk on wolves Yeah. With wolves around. And they, they, do they ball up like that, like a school of fish?
00:27:31:19 –> 00:27:32:00
Yep, yep,
00:27:32:03 –> 00:28:02:06
Yep. Waterfowl do it too. So I was very suspicious when they were in, in a very tight bunch like that. The next thing I see in the grass from my angle, I can see the griz stalking them like a big house cat. Well, the, the cows evidently winded the bear or something. And, and they took off up the, up the mountain again. And so
00:28:02:08 –> 00:28:05:08
Do you have a, do you have your bow with you at this point? Is
00:28:05:08 –> 00:28:05:16
It the
00:28:05:16 –> 00:28:41:24
Same? No, I don’t, I don’t have anything. Same, same, same day when I, okay. Okay. Same, same day going up from when I called, made the mouse calls and had the one called the, the bear in probably the same bear. And it’s getting dark by this time. So after the cows run run off, I lose sight of the bear. So it’s, it’s getting dark. I’m in chest deep grass and I’ve got a bear in that grass somewhere aggressive enough to chase cows up a mountain. And I have no idea where that bear is. So
00:28:42:08 –> 00:28:44:11
It’s time to, it’s time to call it a day.
00:28:46:18 –> 00:29:11:17
I, I found the best path I could up through the shortest grass that I could see up over the ridge and, and got out of there and didn’t see that bear anymore that day. So I, I continue looking for the, the, the, the carcass. But I, I, I started hunting the next,
00:29:11:24 –> 00:29:12:04
I started
00:29:12:07 –> 00:29:12:23
Taking my
00:29:12:23 –> 00:29:17:05
Bow the next, the, the next day you’re like, all right, I gotta carry a bow again. Yeah. Have something with it. Yep.
00:29:17:13 –> 00:29:24:17
Most people would go home, but John grabs his bow, no bear, no bear sprain.
00:29:24:17 –> 00:29:30:17
Those are people, those are people with good SSIDs that would never, never fallen into that category. So
00:29:31:12 –> 00:29:32:16
You get up the next day,
00:29:32:24 –> 00:29:34:24
You head back in that area and you’re,
00:29:35:13 –> 00:30:36:08
Well, I was, I was, I was up higher and I’m looking for birds at first light. And I saw one, one raven fly across the sky and drop down into the timber like a dive bomber. Like he was on a mission. And I thought, woo, ravens don’t do that very often. He’s got something that he’s going to. Yeah. So then the next day, the next day, I went back to the area where I saw the raven drop out of the sky too. And I, there was a bull with a herd of cows and I’m working a bull and the, the, the bull and the cows are working enough wind away from me. And I can’t, I can’t get ’em to stop. And every time I call, he bugles, but moves a little further away. So I’m following him, hoping I’ll get him irritated enough or some of his cows will wander out and he’ll go try to get ’em or something.
00:30:37:02 –> 00:31:19:25
And while I’m doing this, I go through this air area where I pick up the smell of rotting, rotting meat. So I marked it on my g p s and I, I keep going. And finally this bull slows down and I’m, I’m starting close in on him and I’m getting close enough that I’m, I’m thinking I might get a shot and I see a big brown side coming through the brush. And I think here he, here he comes. So I notch an arrow and then I think, wait a minute, that brown side was too low for a, for an elk. What the hell was that?
00:31:22:18 –> 00:31:27:05
It’s a bear. I got one guess it’s a bear.
00:31:29:01 –> 00:31:42:14
The next thing I know, a so pokes her nose, nose out of the brush and right beside her, a a little cub pokes his nose out of the brush at about 20 yards.
00:31:42:25 –> 00:31:44:04
Alright, that’s close enough.
00:31:47:08 –> 00:33:27:17
Way too close. So they then start to circle downwind, and the cub runs into a big dead bush and makes a, makes a big racket. Well the, the south that really makes the mama bear mad. And she turns around and swats him three or four times, obviously disciplining him for being so noisy. And I’m standing there thinking, what in the hell am I gonna do? So all my life when I’ve been running into black bears and they’re too close for comfort, I just let out a big yell and they run off. So I, that’s what I do. I let out my loudest fiercest yell and they, they run off just lickety split. The, the little, little cub is the cutest critter I’ve ever seen. He’s running all for all, he is worth to stay up with mama. And they disappear. Well, after I’ve yelled, I don’t figure I’m gonna call in any, any bulls, it’s, it’s over for the day. So I, I take my G p s and I go back to that area where I had the smell and I, I laid out a grid and started going back and forth, back and forth. And finally I find the carcass of my bull. Well it is about a quarter eaten by a bear and it’s covered with dirt and leaves and pine needles. And my first impulse was, there’s a bear feeding on that. I need to get the hell outta there.
00:33:28:02 –> 00:33:36:04
I need to go back to California, John, I can’t hardly hold it in. You’ve had more bearing encounters than anybody I’ve ever met in two days
00:33:36:17 –> 00:33:40:24
And, and taking them on the chins and came back for more so to speak.
00:33:41:28 –> 00:33:44:10
You, you are afraid of nothing, John.
00:33:46:18 –> 00:34:25:22
Well what, what is, what is the, I was, it was either, I was either fearless or stupid, one of the two. And but you, you, you really do need to take these gas seriously. And and I wasn’t. And, and what I dec what I, what I decided was, hey, I can go up here on the hillside a little bit away, eat, eat my, eat my sandwich and then I’ll take my bone saw and get those antlers off. There was a nice six by five rack. I’ll do that real quick before that bear comes back. He’s probably sleeping during the middle of the day. So I walk up there to where I’m gonna eat my lunch and gonna get,
00:34:26:17 –> 00:34:30:22
You’re gonna get some more, you’re gonna get some more food out at a carcass.
00:34:32:14 –> 00:34:32:23
Some
00:34:32:23 –> 00:34:34:25
More Good point. Some more scent floating around
00:34:36:08 –> 00:34:44:26
Kipper snacks. Alright, so here we are, we’re at the lunch site. So you’re gonna saw these antlers off
00:34:45:17 –> 00:34:46:12
Then what? So
00:34:48:04 –> 00:35:27:04
I, I had just dropped my vest on the ground and I hear something that sounds like a, a bulldozer coming through the brush from down the draw. And I look and the, there is a boar coming up the draw that it, I mean he is, he is probably about 800 pounds. He’s, he’s a good, good size grizzly. He’s, he’s bigger than anything I’ve seen. Said Well, I’ll, I’ll do what I did this morning. I’ll let out my loudest fiercest yell and he will run off. Well, I I
00:35:27:10 –> 00:35:30:25
Is he running, is he running at you full Bos determined. He, what’s he doing?
00:35:31:09 –> 00:35:31:29
Not running yet.
00:35:33:02 –> 00:36:16:05
He’s just kind of, he isn’t aware of me yet. He hasn’t smelled me. He hasn’t seen me. He is just ambling through the brush and he is, he’s, he’s just so, so big and oblivious to unafraid of anything else in the woods that he is just breaking all kinds of brush and limbs as he is walking through the brush. And I, I start to let out my loudest fiercest yell and I didn’t get out one 10th of the first syllable. And he instantly, instantly through reflex action charges me like a runaway horse. And
00:36:16:28 –> 00:36:26:13
I don’t know why I’m laughing. I’m sorry. I it you’re, you’re alive now. We’re talking to you. That’s the reason why we can laugh, but it that’s intense. He heard
00:36:26:13 –> 00:36:33:02
A dying rabbit. John, you yell was a dying rabbit.
00:36:34:14 –> 00:36:38:07
That’s probably what I sounded like to him. A rabbit call. Yeah.
00:36:39:10 –> 00:36:44:16
So now he’s in gear and he’s headed at you. It’s full bore. How far away is he?
00:36:45:13 –> 00:37:54:24
He, he’s about 80 yards away and I, I considered grabbing my bow and trying to shoot him for a nanosecond. But the one good decision I probably made that day was to not do that. And I was really lucky in that about three running steps behind and below me, there’s a fur tree that’s got a a a branch at about nine feet high. And, and I just turned and ran and jumped and there was a tree and brush leaning across against that tree. And as I was running, I remembered thinking, how am I gonna get through that? But it, it wasn’t a good time for detailed analysis. I just figured I would get my hands on that limb and figure out how to get through the brush in the tree. And the next thing I knew I, I’d, I’d caught the limb and I had swung my legs up over a limb because I could hear the bear coming right behind me. And I wanted to make sure he couldn’t get my legs because they were hanging down and I swung my legs up over another limb and looked down and the bear was at the bottom of the tree.
00:37:55:06 –> 00:37:57:13
And how far up it are you at this point? Like
00:37:58:11 –> 00:38:05:24
I’m, I’m, I’m hanging on that nine foot limb, 10 feet up with my legs over a another branch at about that height. But the bear with
00:38:05:25 –> 00:38:06:08
An eight foot bear
00:38:06:08 –> 00:38:07:24
Isn’t even looking at Huh.
00:38:07:27 –> 00:38:10:08
With an eight foot bear and you’re nine foot up the tree.
00:38:12:28 –> 00:38:32:23
Which, which concerned me greatly because I, I was, I was aware that I wasn’t necessarily out of the reach of a big bear. Yeah. So when I looked down, the bear is not looking at me. In fact, he’s, he’s totally unconcerned with me. He’s walking off towards the carcass. So
00:38:32:23 –> 00:38:38:23
As far as he concerned, he did his job. He ran you off and now he’s going back to guard his kill basically.
00:38:38:23 –> 00:38:45:12
Yeah. And your bow, your bow’s, your bow’s 10 yards away and your arrows 10 yards from your bow and just laying on the ground.
00:38:46:10 –> 00:38:52:08
Right. Your packed your lunch, everything, you have whatever’s on your person and that’s it. And you, you’re now in a tree.
00:38:53:20 –> 00:39:34:13
Yep. So there was so much adrenaline in my system and, and I remember thinking analytically my conscious mind that it, that the bearer is walking away. He is going to the carcass. He is no longer interested in you. But my arms and legs were shaking and there was so much adrenaline in me and just my primal instincts were to keep climbing. And I climbed up that tree and partially to just dissipate the adrenaline in my system and partially because my primal intuitive instincts were to go as survival. That tree survival.
00:39:34:18 –> 00:39:44:19
Yeah. Yeah. You just wanting to survive, get away from that thing. Clima size. It must’ve been a big tree, big diameter if you went, just kept going and going. Not a little, not a little tree by any means.
00:39:46:10 –> 00:39:58:13
It was a big tree. When I, I estimate that when I got to the top where it was and I went so high, there was probably the diameter of my wrist and I was about 80 feet tall, eight feet high.
00:40:01:02 –> 00:40:02:07
Yeah. You’re you’re
00:40:02:07 –> 00:40:03:08
Lucky. Didn’t snap off.
00:40:04:04 –> 00:40:06:28
Oh you way your luck was gone. Yeah. That there’s no wind
00:40:07:11 –> 00:40:09:26
And no, no swaying up there.
00:40:11:10 –> 00:40:34:20
No, it was a, it was a calm day. It and, and part of the reason I kept climbing is that at that time I didn’t know that grizz have pretty well straight nails on their feet, so they aren’t good. Yeah. Climbers. Yeah. Well, whereas black bears can climb like a cat. But I, I wasn’t interested in researching how well they could climb and
00:40:35:21 –> 00:40:36:25
Pull your phone out and Google
00:40:36:25 –> 00:40:50:26
It. You didn’t have three G and you weren’t checking stuff out like that. Yeah. You were just survival instincts kicked in. Like you said, you just get away from, get me away from that. And in the meantime, the bear, what did you go over the carcass and just what’d he do?
00:40:51:27 –> 00:41:40:19
He went over to the carcass and he started eating rot rotten, rotten elk meat. And I can, I can hear him just going chewing rotten elk meat. And then I would hear a big DLP when he swallowed and then he would look up at me in the tree and he would growl and snap his jaws and make hostile noises. And then he would go back to eat, eat, eating rotten elk meat. And this continued for quite a while and I began to contemplate my sit situation because he eaten about a quarter of that elk. And it, it looks like he’s gonna be around there until that elk is eaten. And you’re, I’m
00:41:40:27 –> 00:41:48:16
You’re trying to decide how long am I gonna be stuck up here? Yeah, you’re starting to now rationally think over a few things might be here all
00:41:48:16 –> 00:41:49:04
Night or
00:41:49:05 –> 00:41:57:23
Yeah. Days. Well, how long if he’s gonna sit here for days I can’t get down. What, what, you know, all these realities are kind of hitting you. He’s just,
00:41:57:27 –> 00:42:07:00
He’s just protecting his keel. I mean, you, you could have been another bear for all he cared. He just was running get away. He was thinking you were wanting to eat the meat, you know.
00:42:07:05 –> 00:42:40:20
Oh yeah. He was just, just protecting his meat. He, he obviously preferred his rotten elk meat to, to meat. Yeah. But I’m, I’m sitting in the top of this tree and I’m thinking, well eventually I have to come down out of this tree or fall out of it and he’s gonna be there when I come down. Well, I, I’d by this point I’d been hunting in this basin for 10 or 11 days. I haven’t seen anybody else. I haven’t heard anybody else. I haven’t found a foot track of any other hunters. You’re
00:42:40:20 –> 00:42:40:26
Alone.
00:42:41:08 –> 00:42:45:14
I have no, yeah. I have no hope that anybody’s going to discover me. This
00:42:45:24 –> 00:42:54:23
Maybe drug on for hours or whatever. Did he ever go over to your pack? Did he rummage through that and eat stuff outta that? Or was he just concentrated on the elk and that’s all he cared about?
00:42:55:22 –> 00:44:25:14
The only thing he cared about was that carcass. He had no interest in my pack or my, my sandwich or anything else. But while I met up in the top of that tree trying to figure out what in the hell I’m gonna do, you know, I, I’d pulled up my cell phone and of course there’s no signal. I can’t get 9 1 1 or anything else. Nothing’s, nothing’s working. I hear a horse blow and oh, way, way back when I had started, I had run into some hunters at the trailhead and one of them had limited use of his legs and he had a special tag to that allowed him to rifle hunt during archery season. And I was so impressed that anybody with his challenges was out on horseback hunting elk that I, I gave up what I considered to be one of the better places to hunt elk. And I heard the, heard this horse blow. So I started yelling for all I was worth. Help, help. Yeah. And after a few minutes, these two laconic, Wyoming cowboys come down the, down the mountain side and they’re just laughing like hell. And one of ’em says, boy, what are doing up in the top of that?
00:44:28:00 –> 00:44:28:15
If there’s
00:44:29:06 –> 00:44:38:05
Any other, they knew. They knew that they were going to be getting you out of a situation. There’s probably a story they’re about to hear in just a minute. So
00:44:38:05 –> 00:44:40:26
Did you watch them bump the grizz off like
00:44:40:26 –> 00:44:50:29
You told Yeah. What did they do? What didd the bear do when you started yelling? Did he come back underneath you or did he head come up? Or did he start paying attention to the horse horseback guys?
00:44:52:03 –> 00:45:01:10
Well, when, when they, when they asked me what I was doing up there, I told them there was a bear down there kill them. And they says, no, we like bears. They’re cute.
00:45:02:20 –> 00:45:07:00
They’re, they’re just loving the fact that you’re 80 foot up in this tree.
00:45:07:03 –> 00:45:13:20
They know now that probably the situation’s kind of under control. But they’re gonna, they’re gonna jab you in the ribs a little bit and r you, huh?
00:45:14:22 –> 00:45:56:25
Absolutely. And we, we had this debate back and forth about whether grizzly bears are, are cute and all this, all this yelling and talking made the, the bear nervous. And they had a seven seven mag and they had a big pistol and the, the bear got nervous and he, he kinda ambled off kind of going left and right and every time he would, every, every few steps, he would stop and look up at me and growl and snap. And he, he wandered off and disappeared into, into the timber. And I came down outta the tree and they, they told,
00:45:57:08 –> 00:46:08:28
Did they come right over to you before you got out? ’cause I’m picturing me in that tree. And I wouldn’t come down and tell their horses were on both sides of my tree before I would come down. I’m,
00:46:08:28 –> 00:46:10:16
I’m picturing myself in California,
00:46:12:19 –> 00:46:24:29
You know, I’m not, they’re not gonna be 200 yards away on their way to the tree. They’re gonna be their horses tied to the bottom of my tree before I come back. That’s just the reality of it. After that situation, they,
00:46:26:02 –> 00:47:22:02
They, they, they came right to the, to, to the bottom of the tree and they had had their guns. So they, they escorted me out of there and they told me that what they were, and these were the guys that I had told about this, this area to hunt. And they told me they were sitting up there on the, on the ridge in the sun eating their, eating their lunch. And they heard all this commotion breakout. And then they, and they were talking back and forth and they were, they said, I wonder if that’s somebody down there getting beat up by a bear. Oh geez. They were just, they were, they were just up there debating all that. And what they were hearing is the, the, the bear running through the brush. So
00:47:23:11 –> 00:48:03:12
Wow. So that, and then so they saddled up and just by chance were with, with any earshot of that, which on any wind or you’re over a ridge or something like that. I shudder to think if they didn’t hear you, I don’t know how this story was, would end. I re and I know you’ve probably replayed that in your mind a whole lot, John, if they didn’t hear, because really that initial commotion, the bear charging you, you yelling at it for a brief second and whatever that didn’t, that, that was only a brief period, you know, onto the hours or whatever after that, then you’re pretty silent. You’re up in a tree. The bear’s down there, there’s not a lot to yell and scream about there. You’re just thinking what’s gonna happen, you know, what’s
00:48:03:12 –> 00:48:03:16
Next?
00:48:04:17 –> 00:48:23:23
It they, the only thing that caused me to yell was I happened to hear that horse blow. And I, I started yelling as loud as I could for help at that point. And, and they heard that and they connected my yelling for help with the commotion
00:48:24:05 –> 00:48:24:28
Before that.
00:48:25:17 –> 00:48:49:04
Yeah. The, the, the bear crashing through the brush coming after me. And they, they said, yep, we, we better go check on this. And they, they, they were, they were really good guys and they, they, they saved my keer because I don’t dunno how I’d have gotten outta that area. Area because that bear
00:48:49:16 –> 00:48:50:18
That’s pretty humbling. It’s
00:48:50:18 –> 00:49:07:23
Pretty humbling. Pretty helpless. Yeah. I mean you’re really, yeah. I don’t care how good a shape you’re in when you’re in that situation where dominant Bo Grizzly has exactly what he wants and they also have their disposition. They’re not, you’re not just gonna yell and run ’em off, but they got what they want and you’re up a tree helpless
00:49:08:01 –> 00:49:19:24
Too. Well, at some point you gotta think over the next few days, if I don’t fall asleep and fall out of this tree, he’s gotta leave or go drink water or something. And you’re gonna be able to just kind of skinny out of there. You’re gonna
00:49:19:25 –> 00:49:22:29
Try it and maybe it works. It could be rough. Maybe it doesn’t. Yeah.
00:49:23:20 –> 00:49:30:17
It could be rough. So, so you get down, out of the tree, gather up your bow, you’re geared, you do, you saw the elk antlers off.
00:49:33:14 –> 00:51:00:11
I, what I did is I went back to Wood River Lodge and talked to Pierce Pearson Hodges, the, the ranch manager who was the outfitter and so forth. Yeah. And he, he called up a number of guides and so forth that he uses and, and the first thing that happened and he told him what the situation was and, and then, then, then they called him back and they, they told him, well, listen, I’ve, I’ve got a family that I’ve gotta feed and so forth. I, I don’t think I should be doing this. But finally he, he put together a, a group, I think there was five of us and, and, and the foss the, the two Wyoming cowboys I was talking about that rescued me. Yeah. Yeah. And, and they came with us. So five of us went in there and they were, they were so concerned about the bear that I was carrying a single action 3 57 Magnum. And they wanted me to cock it. They didn’t want me to be standing there pulling the trigger if the bear came charges out. They wanted me to carry a cocked 3 57 because of the, of the, the speed of those animals. And these guys are all veteran hunters and outfitters like, like yourselves. And they, they knew what they were dealing with and they knew how fast these things can be, but Yeah.
00:51:00:11 –> 00:51:24:01
And they were all, they didn’t want to hear, I missed that bear no less than three times. I mean, they wanted everybody to connect. You can tell. I I can only imagine. You know, you’re going back into the, you’re you’re asking for it. You’re going back into save antlers. Yep. A five by six bull. And, and knowing you’re gonna, he’s gonna be there. He’s gonna be there. You know, or figuring it will be.
00:51:24:18 –> 00:51:45:08
Yeah. We, we expected him to be there. And I, I think there was just enough of enough of us that he, he, he decided to lurk off into the brush, slide off into the brush rather than take on five of us. Which is a good thing for everybody. Yeah. But
00:51:45:27 –> 00:51:58:20
Well, looking back on it, you know, what did you learn? Was there any tips you’d give other guys? Would you go back and hunt that same country? What’d you do different, scare you off? Or, I mean, what would you do? Oh,
00:51:59:26 –> 00:52:17:11
Well, the, the first thing I did when I got back, I, I researched pistols to carry, because I have no intention of stopping to bow hunting. Adam got me a a great tag in unit 76 in Colorado this year, which only has black bears. Which are, you’ve actually just,
00:52:18:14 –> 00:52:21:07
They’re, they’re pets compared to grizzlies. That’s right.
00:52:22:22 –> 00:53:04:29
Well, black bears are actually have a higher kill rate per attack than grizzly bears. I’ve, I’ve learned they’re, and the difference between grizzly bears is they’re, they’re fearsome animals and they’ll tear you all the pieces, but they usually attack because you’re close to their food, their salmon stream, their cubs, you’re on their trail. The black bears, when they attack you, they generally kill you and eat you. So there’s a big difference there. But I, I was charged with a black bear and I shot him and killed him. It and in the story, where was that? That was in California. It was actually down almost inside of downtown la
00:53:05:22 –> 00:53:28:22
Come on. So let’s see. Do we have to go in this story too? Like what’s No, how long ago? Okay. Alright. Was it, was it, were you, I mean, you’ve got guts. I’m just gonna with a rifle like I, I don’t know anybody that would stay in grizzly country like you did. So this black bear experience must have been a pretty intense experience. ’cause you probably wouldn’t have killed him if he didn’t need it.
00:53:29:25 –> 00:54:23:08
Well, what happened is my, my friend and I had backpacked in into what’s called the Sesse wilderness. The Sesse wilderness is one of the condor sanctuaries where they, they nest, but you can backpack in there to to, to hunt. There’s, we weren’t in the sanc, the condor sanctuary, but there’s a SSE wilderness and we were in the SSE wilderness Sure. And we had set up camp and we got there a little early. So we started up this canyon to draw kind of a valley. And I heard something way back under a big oak tree that sounded like somebody raking leaves. And I said, that could be a bear raking the leaves looking for acorns. So I started up a, a dry wash and I saw a silhouette way back in the shadows under this tree going from left to right. And I put my scope on him.
00:54:23:29 –> 00:56:00:17
And as I’m tracking him with my scope, he a a big black boar stepped into a ray of sunlight and I let him have it. And the, the bone that, and I tried to do a heart shot, but the bone that comes down the between your elbow and your shoulder, in my efforts to hit the heart, I hit that bone where, and broke it, but it deflected, deflected the bullet. So I didn’t get a killing shot. And he just went berserk. He pulled out small trees, he attacked another tree and I took another shot at him. But just as I shot, he jumped in the air in his frantic rage. And when he hit the ground, he decided I was the source of his problems. And he charged down the, the mountain at me. And one of the things I’d always practiced with a rifle is shooting with both eyes open so I could bring the crosshairs to the target on a moving, moving animal. And I got really lucky I couldn’t do this once in a hundred times. And the, I hit hit the spinal cord in between the head and the shoulders and severed it and blew out the day dorsal aorta at the same time. And he turned two summer stalls and stopped with his nose on the ground and his mouth open. Blood running out 10 feet from me.
00:56:00:29 –> 00:56:04:24
Gee. And so you were, you were bear hunting, you were actually there bear hunting.
00:56:04:29 –> 00:57:05:11
I was, I had a bear tag, but I was primarily deer hunting. And we were in there deep enough that there’s a lot of bear and, and, and, and this, there’s another part to this story. When we were packing that bear out, we, we were carrying it out and we were debating whether to put the meat that we were carrying in a tree and go back or we should keep going in the dark. Well, just about the time that it got dark, we decided to put the meat in a tree. Yeah. And we came up a switch. We came up a switchback slope and came around a turn. And you know how cats get down real low and kind of slither along the ground. Well, here, here comes about a 90 pound female mountain lion with distended ts. It’s right down on the ground with her nose down on the ground, not looking up, tracking us. And I’m sure we were laying down a delicious cent trail with that meat in our backpacks.
00:57:05:24 –> 00:57:07:17
Geez. So
00:57:07:25 –> 00:57:15:02
Now, now what makes this story good? We had decided to leave our rifles and camp because we were carrying all You’re just shuttle
00:57:15:07 –> 00:57:19:13
Meat now. Yeah. You’re just back shuttling meat and stuff. Wow.
00:57:19:13 –> 00:57:39:18
Yeah. And, and my hunting partner, I wanted to take the rifles, but my hunting partner says, no, you’re gonna kill something else. And I don’t wanna help carry anything else outta here. I got, ’cause this was a, this was a, I think this black bear scored 20 and a half and you have to score 20, 21, 21 to score.
00:57:39:25 –> 00:57:40:16
That’s a big bear.
00:57:40:16 –> 00:58:30:28
21. Make Boone and Crockett. And anyway, this, this mountain lion just stops 2020 yards from me staring me right in the eyes with her, with her tail twitching left and right. And I’m yelling for Hirsch to come up so she can see there’s two of us. And finally, Hirsch puffs around the corner. What’s, what’s wrong? What’s the matter? Geez. And I, and, and I pointed at the, about lies staring at us. And when she saw there was two of us, she turned and went back up, the trail turned sideways, stared at us for a moment or two, and then, then lap up into the brush and, and disappeared. But if we’d kept going in the dark, she would’ve probably caught up with us from behind. And it might’ve been very interesting.
00:58:30:28 –> 00:59:17:12
Yeah. Well we know your lions in California, I mean, in general terms, they’ve lost a lot of their inhibitions aversion and fear for humans because the inability to hunt ’em. And so they’re just trying to eat. And when they’re not, don’t associate people with hunters or dogs or hounds men or anything like that. That’s what you get. So, so other than a pistol after your experience in Wyoming and, and, and now after this experience, well probably is earlier than your experience that bear black bear what, other than a pistol, what else did you learn about this that you can maybe help other listeners or sportsman their hunting states like, you know, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, some of the states that they may encounter grizzlys. So you got a pistol. Now if you go back, what else do you think
00:59:18:21 –> 01:00:07:25
You wanna carry a pistol? I research pistols. 44 Magnum is big enough to kill a bear that the research on grizzly bears is, you can shoot a grizzly bear in the heart at a quarter of a mile. He can run a quarter of a mile and they’ve got enough oxygen in their system that if you blow their heart out at a quarter of a mile, they can run to you and still kill you before they die. So you need something like a 44 magnum. But a 44 Magnum is so big and heavy that it’s a real pain Yeah. To carry. So what a lot of people do is instead of carrying a 44 Magnum or some other really large pistol around you, you get a 3 57, that’s a small enough pistol that you can carry it and you just hope you can shoot ’em enough times to deter ’em.
01:00:08:28 –> 01:01:22:20
But you have to take the food Absolutely. Seriously. You don’t, I I don’t cook things like bacon or anything that’s gonna put out a lot of sand in camp. I prefer things that don’t have a lot of sand. You, you seal your food up, you put it in a tree, you don’t store it in camp, you don’t go out hunting with scent from food on your clothes and hands and so forth. You, you probably shouldn’t be hunting in areas with grizzly bears by yourself. Yeah. And you, you stay completely away from any kind of carcass cubs and do, do your research and take ’em seriously because they, they are serious. The the griz are, are impossible to stop. And the black bears are, are crafty. And they will, in, in the Sierras in California, they, they track pack trains to the camp and cause big problems. And they, they’re, they’re like the mountain lions, which are what you, they’re it’s called being habituated. They’re used to people. They’ve lost their fear of you.
01:01:22:29 –> 01:02:22:16
Well, and to some extent we’ve heard the same thing. And that’s why you see such aggressive behavior for, from these grizzly bears in Wyoming through a lot of the other hunters and outfitters. We, we research as we’re talking about sheep or goat or elk units in the, in the state, they, you know, there’s a lot of instances where they’ll kill a bowl or two out of a herd and, and they’ve got bears on ’em within 15 minutes. And you know how, you know, these bears are associating these hunters and gunshots and places like that with, all right, there’s a free, there’s a free meal. And you know, just once again, they’re, they’re, they’re not hunted. Now, there’s been recently some news releases let out the US Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing delisting them, which is, which is good news. They’ve, they’ve far exceeded their initial recovery goals, but we all know that’s probably gonna be a, a fairly long, drawn out legal battle, just like the wolves were until we got to where we are now.
01:02:22:21 –> 01:03:23:23
But regardless of that, for right now in this discussion, yeah, they just don’t have any fear. They’ve, they’ve recovered, they’ve, they’ve been unmolested and, and other than some serious problem bears and really life or death situations, you know, they don’t get removed or killed. So they don’t have any fear. And they associate in some cases every hunter up there in camp and, and that with potential food and they own the mountains. So like you said, you gotta give them all the respect. You, you can and do everything you can, but you’re still gonna encounter ’em more than likely if you’re hunting some of these units. You, a lot of what you said is very, very good information and very wise, I, you know, we’re, we take it for granted. And, and I, I like it. I like hunting, Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, frankly, more because I can throw my bag out wherever I am at night. And of course we all in mountain lion and black bear country down here, but not, not, don’t have to worry about the grizzlies. And it’s a different, if it, it’s a totally different mindset when you’re hunting up there.
01:03:24:15 –> 01:04:25:06
It, yes, it’s, it, it all the predators, your, your, your black bears, your grizzly bears, your mountain lions and wolves have become habituated. The difference with the grizzly bear is once he decides to come get you, he is nearly impossible to stop unless you’ve got a high powered rifle and you make a good shot or a big pistol. And that, that black bear I hit, I couldn’t do that once in a hundred times. You’re not likely to stop them, even if you have a 4 57 magnum when they’re charging you at point blank range, you’re just toasted is the reality. Yeah. So you, I wanna reinforce that all those predators have become habituated, which means used to people and dogs and so forth, and they’re much more dangerous than they used to be. I see a big difference between mountain lions in California, but the, the grizzly bears are just completely off the chart. They have no fear of anything in the woods at all.
01:04:25:11 –> 01:04:44:00
The bigger, and they’re the dominant predator. There’s nothing out there. Plus, with the protection that they’ve had in the lower 48 like we’ve discussed, there’s no, there’s no reason for them to be afraid of people. There’s, they’re food sources and they don’t bother them. They don’t kill ’em, they don’t shoot at ’em, you know, so Yeah, you’re right.
01:04:44:06 –> 01:04:56:12
Well, we wanna thank you, John for spending some time with us. You know, I know you got some hunts lined up and then, you know, your buddy Peter worked with him a little bit and got him drawn on a couple of tags. Did he, did he mention that to you?
01:04:57:16 –> 01:05:05:20
Oh, he called me up. He was so excited. He, he drew unit 55 and 44 for elk and deer.
01:05:06:05 –> 01:05:25:01
I know it, I, I hand, I hand I handpicked those. Well he was actually, you know, he, as you know, he’s a meat hunter and he not even, not nothing to do with the trophy. So he picked some seasons that had a little better drawing ons. I just could not believe it when we looked up his results, I guess he’s gonna have both, I guess he’s gonna have to buy a rifle this year.
01:05:26:28 –> 01:05:40:00
He and I have been talking and emailing at, at length, but I looked up the statistics on those units that you gave him. They’re both, they’re both excellent units with good quality trophy bucks and reasonable odds
01:05:40:01 –> 01:05:42:19
To draw. Yeah, reasonable odds and is
01:05:42:19 –> 01:05:43:19
In to, but Idaho, right?
01:05:43:19 –> 01:05:54:19
Yeah, in Idaho. But, but the, to draw ’em both is just amazing. I mean, at least last year statistics were one in 10 on one and one in five on the other. But still to draw ’em both, it’s pretty awesome.
01:05:55:05 –> 01:06:14:13
Yeah, no points. He wasn’t one of those guys like yourself that’s built a bunch of points and across the west and called us late in the year and wanted to maybe get into a little hunting partly because of your involvement and influence. Exactly. Right. And you know, Idaho fit that bill because there is no point system there. And so I guess
01:06:14:13 –> 01:06:15:23
Anyway, yeah, it was, he’s gonna go
01:06:15:23 –> 01:06:16:06
Have some fun.
01:06:16:22 –> 01:06:23:12
It was awesome. I’m glad he is excited. I left him a message, but I just, I hadn’t heard from him and so anyway, I’m glad he is excited.
01:06:24:10 –> 01:06:51:11
Oh, I, I, I didn’t get your message, but Peter and I were, were waterfowl hunting one day on one of those cold, wet, snowy, icy days and we were kind of grumbling about the weather and waterfowl hunting. So I said, Peter, you gotta take up big game hunting, you’re hunting on dry land often in Indian summer weather and so forth. Convinced him to give you guys a call and try something else.
01:06:51:13 –> 01:07:09:23
Well, well, and we, we appreciate it and we are glad to be able to get him some tags and so anyway, well, we’re looking forward to some more stories from you, John. We sure appreciate the support and appreciate, you know, our relationship over the years and, and we’ll just keep on plugging away and providing you those awesome grizzly opportunities.
01:07:11:24 –> 01:07:22:29
Okay. Well thank, thank you for all your support and over the years it’s, it’s changed my life and look forward to working with you next sprint. All
01:07:22:29 –> 01:07:23:23
Right. Sounds right. Have
01:07:23:23 –> 01:07:24:04
A good fall,
01:07:24:04 –> 01:07:24:20
John. Thanks buddy.
01:07:25:22 –> 01:07:27:02
Okay, bye all. Bye.
Recent Comments