All my life, I had heard the most exciting stories from family members, friends, and associates on big game hunting. This story started in late October of 2020. I was glassing on our family ranch when all of a sudden I saw something that was unusually large on the neighboring property. As I put my binoculars on it, I realized it was the biggest black bear I had ever seen! I glassed several times after that evening, and every time, I saw bears across the canyon on the neighboring property. However, they were always coming from our property.
One morning, my father and I decided to explore and figure out where these bears were coming from. Sure enough, about an hour later, we saw the trail along the fence line and followed it from where they were coming. The family ranch had a unique layout with a creek bottom that ran through it, and it also had huge boulders that created caves. We found out by following the trail that these bears were feeding on acorns in the evening, night, and early mornings and then coming back to the caves through the day to sleep. My father and I decided to set up where we could intercept the bears coming in or out of the caves. The first evening, a bear came through, but we felt it wasn’t the big one we had seen over a month earlier.
On the last day that I was able to hunt for the year, my father and I decided to go out one more time after work to try some luck. By the time we got into position, we only had about an hour and 15 minutes to hunt. It was a chilly December evening, and a storm was brewing. It was silent, like the calm before the storm. I looked at the legal shooting time and told my father that we only had five minutes left before we had to leave. Two minutes later, I heard my father whisper, “There’s a bear!” followed by the words, “It’s the monster.” It was coming out for the evening.
As I looked through my scope, the bear standing there and looking our direction, I knew this was no ordinary bear. I took a deep breath and slowly squeezed the trigger. The bear let out the loudest roar I had ever heard! It echoed through the canyon, which gave us chills. It went spinning out of sight, and everything went silent. I felt confident with the shot. Heart pumping, we decided to be safe and wait 20 minutes before pursuing the bear. With headlamps and extreme caution, we approached about 50 feet from where the bear stood as the rain began to fall. All of a sudden, I saw the bear not 10 feet from where it had stood, lying motionless. As we crept up to it, we tapped the eye. It was all over. The biggest bear I had ever seen was down. It was an honor to have taken such an animal and to have my father with me.
The following year, my father and I decided to see if the bears were still there. We scouted a few months before season and realized the acorns were falling in early summer. Sure enough, the bears were using the same trail and sleeping in the caves again. The steps were dented into the ground where they were using the same ones. There were two bears that were unusually large, and we decided that we should hunt the opening day of rifle season.
Getting into position at daybreak on opening day, we were sitting and watching for about an hour when a bear came heading back into the caves. My father decided to pass. Even though the bear was very large, we felt it wasn’t one of the extremely large bears using the trail. Twenty minutes later, I noticed movement. I told my father, “There’s a bear!” Looking through the binoculars, I realized it was one of the monster bears. I told my father to shoot. As the bear was about to walk out of sight, my father took the shot. The bear twirled, facing us and growling and biting at what had hit him. Then, the bear pushed itself out of sight. Again, we waited 20 minutes before pursuing.
We came up to where the bear was walking when my father took the shot. There was a strong blood trail. We followed it about 60 yards, and it led toward the caves. We slowly looked over the ledge toward the creek bottom and noticed the bear had dove into a spot and turned, facing the trail. He was motionless. We threw a rock at him, and there was no movement. My father crept to the bear with caution and saw he was done. Another bear had been taken on the family ranch. It was an honor to witness my father taking an amazing animal.
In 2022, we decided to see if bears were still using the trail to the caves. As luck would have it, they were there nearly every day. We spoke with my grandpa, who was 88, to see if he would like to try and take an awesome bear. Of course, the answer was yes. We hunted one day, and nothing came on the trail. I told him he was bad luck.
About two weeks later, we went again. We decided to be there 20 minutes before sunrise since the bears were coming right at first shooting light. Everything was perfect. It was a cool October morning, and we could feel fall starting to push out the summer heat for the year. Approximately 45 minutes after daybreak, my father spotted a bear coming down the trail. We realized it was one of the bigger bears that was using the trail that year, and before it walked out of sight, my father and I made a noise to stop it. It did, standing perfectly broadside. I told my grandpa to shoot, and he did. The bear took off like a bolt of lightning, but we could see that it was hit hard. My father and I waited a while and then slowly walked up to where the bear stood. Blood was at the spot, and 30 yards later, there lay the big bear. To see the youth in my grandfather’s face as he walked up to this incredible bear, money cannot buy that feeling! It was an amazing experience to help my nearly 90-year-old grandpa harvest such an awesome bear.
This is an amazing story that I will share for the rest of my life. With three generations, three years in a row, and three giant black bears in one location, I have memories that I will never forget!
Login