# My 2017 Utah Bear Hunt Story



## elkhunterUT (Jan 21, 2008)

I have been acquiring Utah bear bonus points for what feels like an eternity. With 14 points, I decided that 2017 would be the year to cash in & hunt. I knew I had enough points to draw a Premium/Multi-Season tag on several units close to my home, so I started my research by talking to previous tag holders and houndsmen that I knew hunted the various units I was considering. One particular guy I met from Payson (Bruce), who shot a great bear with his bow a few years earlier, was very helpful and generous in sharing some possible bait locations and ideas with me. He even offered to help me with my bait site setup and in keeping the bait stocked – what a great guy!! After a lot of positive input from him and other past hunters, I decided to apply for the Nebo Premium tag. I was beyond excited when I received this email from the DWR in early March:


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## elkhunterUT (Jan 21, 2008)

With my Premium bear tag now in hand, my plans were to spend a little time during the Spring hunt in April and May glassing and getting to know the unit better and possibly going out with some great houndsmen (Hone family from Payson area) that I met through my Brother-in-law. They told me the best time for hounds on the Nebo would likely be during the fall hunt, so I put most of my energy into researching and planning a couple of bait sites that I could hunt hard in early June during the summer hunt. I would hunt the bait sites and if a big bear was hitting, I would shoot him, otherwise I would wait until the fall hunt and try to get it done with the hounds.
I registered my 2 bait sites with the DWR in early April, and by early May I hiked into one of my bait site locations that was now accessible. I was very excited to find multiple piles of bear scat within 100 feet of my chosen bait location. 

Over the next few weeks, I further prepared that location with a “crib” and hung 2 treestands to hunt out of.


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## elkhunterUT (Jan 21, 2008)

On May 20th, with the much appreciated help of my brother Chad (silentstalker), we hauled in a bunch of bait and got things finalized at my first bait location. On the hike out, I stumbled upon this awesome elk shed in the trail. 52” main beam and some serious mass – a real stud for the Nebo unit. I took this as a strong sign of good things to come!!


My 2nd bait site location was at a higher elevation and I could not access it yet due to the roads being gated by the Forest Service. Finally on May 24th, the gate to the road was opened, so I made a quick run up with my Dad, and Bruce from Payson who was helping me, and we got that site ready with a “crib”, bear crack burn, and bait.


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## elkhunterUT (Jan 21, 2008)

My plan was to return on Saturday, May 27th to the 2nd bait to hang my tree stands and be fully ready for the bait hunt to open on June 3rd. That plan changed however, when I got a text from Braxten, one of the houndsmen from Payson. He invited me to see if we could find a bear to chase on Saturday. I was torn on what to do because I knew I needed to finalize my 2nd bait location with that hunt opening soon, and I wasn’t sure how great the hound hunting would be this early based on what they had told me earlier. I finally decided “what the heck” and took them up on their offer to run the dogs. Hunting with hounds was something I had never done before, so I figured if nothing else, it would be good to at least see how they operated for later in the fall if we hunted together then. If we were lucky enough to tree a small bear, I could at least take some cool pics and video of the experience and bank it in my memory file.

My Brother-in-Law Bryon and I met Braxten and his Mom Marne and Dad Alan with their hounds up the canyon at 5:00 AM on Saturday morning, May 27th. Our plan was to drive some of the roads early and let the dogs “rig” up a bear. Braxten’s brother would come up from another canyon road with his dogs and we would meet up at the top at some point. I was beyond excited to be a part of a hunt that I had never experienced before and looked forward to seeing the dogs do their work. Just a few minutes out of the parking lot, the dogs on top of the box started going crazy. We pulled over and decided it was probably a raccoon that they smelled and decided to keep on going, but it was awesome to see the hounds get all worked up and sing their “music”!!

We met up with Riley at the top of the canyon – neither of us came across anything “hot” for the dogs, so we BS’d for a while. It was pretty cold that morning up the canyon with some low clouds and fog, so we felt it would be best to let it warm up a bit and then maybe take the dogs on a walk on one of the trails they have had luck on before. As we were driving towards one of the areas, we ran into a guy that told us about a big bear that had been seen the day before just a little lower down the canyon near a main trail. He said the bear was described as a “Belly Dragger”. That caught all of our interest, so with nothing to lose, we decided to give it a shot. Me, Bryon, Braxten, Riley, and their friend Kory, who joined up with us earlier in the morning, took several dogs on down the trail, while Alan and Marne took the rest of the pack of dogs down the canyon a ways in case we jumped a bear and needed them to let the dogs in lower. Fairly quickly into our hike, the dogs got onto the scent of a bear and were lined out and rolling on the trail pretty quickly.


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

That's not a very nice place to pause in the story!

Sounds like a great adventure so far!


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## elkhunterUT (Jan 21, 2008)

We listened and watched on the guys GPS units as the dogs did their thing, and it wasn’t long before 2 of the dogs appeared to have the bear treed a ways down the canyon. They ended up treeing the bear across the main canyon road from where we were. Bryon and I were so excited that we were going to see a bear in the tree with the hounds below and get some cool pictures and video footage. As we hiked back to the trucks to drive down closer to the treed bear, we all joked about how cool it would be to tree a monster on the very first time out with the hounds. We knew the likelihood of that was extremely low, but I did not care at all, knowing that we would, at the very least, get to see a bear up close.

The bear had treed not too far off of the main canyon road, but it was in some very steep country so we all started to make our ascent in the direction of the dogs. It was slow going, but I was full of adrenaline and excitement and I was moving at a pretty good clip. Everybody told me to move on ahead toward the tree. It was not hard to find the exact tree with the sound of the dogs barking and howling – the echo of that sound in my mind is something I will never forget. As I rounded the tree and looked up to where the bear was, my first sight was 2 very large front paws with what appeared to be huge pads. I knew from past experience that you can tell a lot about the size of a bear from his front pad. This was my first view of the bear (lighting is not the best in the pic-the sun was blaring down directly towards us as we were looking up at the bear)

After seeing the bear’s paws, I had to move out a bit from the tree to get a better overall view of him, due to the sea of pine branches. That is when I got my first look at his head. 

That was all I needed to confirm that this was a BIG Boar and I knew I probably should not pass him up with a Premium tag in hand. It was very early in my hunt and I hadn’t even hunted over my bait sites yet, but this was obviously a big bear. The more I looked at him, the decision to notch my tag was a “no brainer”. By some miracle, the dogs had found and treed the jumbo “Belly Dragger” on our first trip out!! As the rest of the group got to the bear, we all agreed this was a shooter and laughed at our earlier conversation about the unlikelihood of this happening right out of the gate. Not being one to tempt fate or lady luck, I made the decision to shoot and started looking at shot angles and ranging distances. (The bear is directly above my hat brim in the 3rd pic - this is approximately where I would take the shot from)


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## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

Love the pics n story. Can't wait for more


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## elkhunterUT (Jan 21, 2008)

My best shot was out about 17 yards from the bear with a bit of an upward angle into the tree. The bear was very slightly quartering to me and a branch was hanging down blocking the back end of the vitals, so I would need to thread my arrow between that branch and his front shoulder. The sun was also blaring down on us, so I was a little worried about glare and being able to see my sight pin through my peep sight. Coupling that with the nerves of having a bear this size so close, I was a bit of a mess to say the least. I am glad I had plenty of time to assess the shot and work through my nerves a bit.

As I drew back my bow, I did have a tough time seeing my pin through my peep sight against the dark color of the bear, but luckily the tree branch that I thought was going to be a problem for my shot, actually gave me a solid reference point to guide the placement of my sight pin. I put my 20 yard pin just to the right of and below the branch, and slowly executed my shot. I heard the "thump" of the arrow hitting the bear over the barking of the dogs, and he quickly jumped around to the side of the tree. Within seconds he was falling to the ground, dead as he made contact. So much anticipation, preparation, and hard work was over just like that, but I was beyond happy with this animal. As I walked up to him, I could not believe how big and pretty he was. His head and body were huge and his coat was a beautiful mix of chocolate, blonde, and cinnamon color. I couldn't have asked for a better outcome with my tag!!


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## weaversamuel76 (Feb 16, 2017)

Congratulations heck of a bear

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Gorgeous bear! What did he square?


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## 35whelen (Jul 3, 2012)

awesome! congratulations!


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## Bow hunter mojo (Oct 12, 2013)

love the story. Congrats on a great bear!


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## elkhunterUT (Jan 21, 2008)

Thanks guys!! I am not sure what he squared to be honest, we didn't measure. All I know is he was a lot bigger than me:grin:


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## Kevin D (Sep 15, 2007)

Nice!!


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## 300 Wby (Aug 14, 2008)

Congratulations! Super nice bear!


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

What a great story and congratulations on your hunt. Not sure I'd have pulled back on that one, look how tiny his ears are! ;-)

Seriously, congratulations on getting an bruiser of a bear!


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

Sweet!


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## elkhunterUT (Jan 21, 2008)

Thanks guys!! it was fun writing the story and reliving the experience!


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## elkhunterUT (Jan 21, 2008)

Here are several trailcam pics of bears I had coming into one of my bait sites that I never got to hunt. No regrets at all though - I am beyond happy with the bear I killed. He is a lot bigger than any of these bears that were hitting the bait. Still fun to see them all though!!


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

Wow that was awesome and what a beautiful bear !!!


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

Great bear and great story. I've never considered the stress of taking a shot like that--with so much adrenaline and time to overthink things. I'm sure it was quite an experience!


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Good job! Great story, thanks for posting.

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