We had the big bear Friday! Walked the dogs in above a spring and they lit up hard and were gone. They had the bear jumped up in only a few minutes. My friend was along and also had 5 dogs, thought this would be done rather quick. We had to get back to the trucks and back track to try and catch up to the race. We had lost any signal and sound of dogs but knew the direction they were headed. It's really cool when you are hauling a$$ to find dogs and big bear tracks coming ripping into the road with dog tracks all over it. When we finally caught up the dogs had it treed in a nasty canyon for at least 45 mins by the time we got there. By the time we were ready to hike in the bear had jumped and was walking and fighting dogs headed down canyon. We loaded up and again hauled a$$ to try and cut them off. My friend had to stay behind and hike to the tree cause a dog was hung up in the tree. Me and the shooter were in hot pursuit and I knew were they would cross the road again if they didn't hold him. Another 45 mins and again, big bear tracks across the road and dog tracks all over it. Now it was bad, no more roads! We pulled up and must have just missed them, only 250yds to the race. We packed up and ran to catch up. No matter how hard I ran they kept getting further away and going up another peak in the area. My shooter had no chance of keeping up and we had no more cut off points. We tried to call it quits and call the dogs off with absolutely no luck. We came back down and tried to find another way in as the dogs were almost 2 miles away and baying and walking the bear. At one point they had the bear bayed at the top of the mountain and hadn't moved other than circling for almost an hour. Back in on foot again, dog recovery mission is all this was. And as always, I get within 3/4 mile of them the walking starts again, again I can't catch up. Back down to the trucks, again. By now it's getting late, this all started at noon and the sun is dropping fast and weather is moving in. Are only choice was to track them and see what happened. Just as dark started setting in dogs started dropping off coming out. Needless to say we all slept on the mountain and picked up my last dog Saturday at 4pm. I'm beat and the dogs are whooped. The big bear beat us this time but seasons just starting!
NV 2014 bear
- Thread starter JasonGNV
- Start date
Musket Man
Veteran member
Work2hunt
Veteran member
NVBird'n'Big
Veteran member
luckynv
Active Member
Don't want to steal thunder but rumor has it Jason and crew caught a good bear Saturday morning!! God bless ya'll
We did get a good bear Saturday Lucky. We finally got the old fella a bear. This was the 4th bear we'd been on and the first tree he has made. We turned dogs loose about 7:30am Saturday and by 9:00am we were walking in to the tree. Took about 45mins to get the 1/4 mile and when we did get there the bear didn't want to stick around and jumped tree. Dogs were right on it's tail and had it treed again in about 300yds. Worked our way down to what turned out to be a horrible, thick and shorter tree. Also now had 2 more dogs that weren't mine at the tree. I got all the dogs tied up besides one that had worked way up in the tree with the bear (way up being 10'-15'). Walked around trying to find a decent shooting lane but it was gonna be a tight shot. The shooter did his best but I think he might have caught a limb before hitting the bear. It jumped tree again with my dog hot on it's tail. 1 dog on a wounded bear is my worst nightmare so I made a tough decision to turn all dogs loose in hopes of putting the bear in a tree again and avoiding any injuries. The bear did tree again but it took my shooter awhile to make it down. The other houndsmen was there grabbing his dogs and ended up jumping the bear out again, my dogs ended up baying the bear up in a thick willow patch and my shooter was able to finish the bear with 1 clean shot. No dogs were injured and the 73 year old shooter was happy as all get out.
Turned out that the other houndsman had passed us earlier and went up the mountain just a little ways and turned his dogs loose into our race. 2nd instance that I know of this fella has done this. Just bad manners in my opinion. Either wy we got it done and all the dogs are getting some much needed rest. We did run another bear Sunday but it just kept running until I cut the dogs off and ended a long drawn out chase. Back at it again this weekend and my dogs are on fire.
73 year old shooter, not bad.
Turned out that the other houndsman had passed us earlier and went up the mountain just a little ways and turned his dogs loose into our race. 2nd instance that I know of this fella has done this. Just bad manners in my opinion. Either wy we got it done and all the dogs are getting some much needed rest. We did run another bear Sunday but it just kept running until I cut the dogs off and ended a long drawn out chase. Back at it again this weekend and my dogs are on fire.
73 year old shooter, not bad.
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Work2hunt
Veteran member
luckynv
Active Member
Good luck. I've never seen a bear in NV but then again I don't frequent the Tahoe/Trukee area much.
I had a guy tell me a few years ago that he saw one in the Jarbidge wilderness in the Mary's river drainage. I suppose there could
be some there.
I had a guy tell me a few years ago that he saw one in the Jarbidge wilderness in the Mary's river drainage. I suppose there could
be some there.
Sfjeeper
Active Member
This weekend seemed to be disappearing bears. Turned out Saturday morning on the big track, dogs took it well and trailed out of hearing. By the time we could bear them again they sounded like they had him jumped and running. Went up and out of hearing again so we worked up to listen. Race just fell apart and dogs scattered, same stuff Sunday. Not turning out on smaller tracks because we are looking for "the one" and we have run him 2x with out catching him. 6 bears have been taken with 2 being B&C.
Gr8, there are a lot of bears not in the Tahoe area. Tahoe is closed to the bear hunt, would be awesome to run up there with tall trees.
Gr8, there are a lot of bears not in the Tahoe area. Tahoe is closed to the bear hunt, would be awesome to run up there with tall trees.
Missed some hunting time these last few weekends, tag holder had things to take care of. Might have really put a hurting on filling his tag. Went out fri-sun and didn't cut, rig a single thing. Weather was poor Saturday but Friday and Sunday were cool and clear. Movement has basically stopped with the cold temps on the mountain. Planning some more hike-thru hunts to hopefully rustle a bear up. I look at these bear tags like a once in a lifetime NV tag, odds are harder than most other tags in NV. I wish some of these tag holders saw it that way, we'd have his tag filled by now.
Sawfish
Very Active Member
Enjoyed your stories. Since HSUS succeeded in getting hounds eliminated from bear hunting in CA, the bear population is growing rapidly. Conversely, the annual bear kill is down about a third from what it was when dogs were permitted. I expect we will be inundated with bears in a few years. As it is now, there are a number of bears killed on depredation permits. I sure do miss listening to a good bear race.