Bow Hunting Giant BC Bears With Hounds
Having been living in California for the past several years Bear hunting has been something I look forward to every year. Unfortunately though California banned the pursuit of bears with hounds in 2012 which went into effect in 2013. I never did get to do a hound hunt here in California and that had been eating at me for some time now. Every year I would see photos of hunters with a proud team of hounds and Hounds-men in the background. Hounds-men I follow on social media would post short clips of their hounds in action and I could tell this was something I needed to experience. The adventure and excitement of the chase, the passion of hound dog and Hounds-men in the process is what I was after. Oh and BIG Black Bears too!
My good friend Eli and I decided it was British Columbia in the Spring that we would go to get a chance at a big boar with hounds. With some really big bears coming out of BC, Hound Hunting legal and a two bear limit per hunter BC was a no brainer. After speaking with Jason Nutini of JN Outfitting we decided Jason and his team would be a good fit to get us on some big boars over 6 days of hunting behind his hounds and team.
In late May after a couple of short flights Eli and I landed in Prince George, BC and met up with Jason where we made the rest of our journey to camp via pickup truck.
Day one was full of excitement. All in all we treed 6 bears but nothing mature enough to meet the criteria that we were looking for. Right away it was easy to see how valuable of a management tool the hounds were in the targeting of only mature male bears out of the population. Day two came with both Eli and myself filling our first bear tags on nice boars. Both bears were treed by the hounds and provided good archery shot opportunity’s for us. I will say for those looking to pursue bears with hounds, practicing at extreme shot angles with your bow will be a big help. The first shot on my bear was probably somewhere between 60 and 70 degrees and maxed out my bodies ability to rotate at the hips and keep my form true. Although I had practiced steep shot angles I hadn’t maxed myself out and as a result I pulled the shot to the left and my bear then needed a couple follow up shots on the ground at under 10 yards with the hounds bayed up on a wounded bear. It was an adrenaline filled moment that worked out in the end but could have been avoided. Both of our bears were in the mid 6 foot range squared and were great mature bears with great coats on them. For our second tags we were really looking for some giant old boars that were past breeding prime and likely expert calf/fawn/cub killers. Taking a couple boars like this would greatly benefit the ungulate populations and the local bear populations.
Late in the day on day three a couple of the guides were on their way back from a trip to town and spotted a giant color phase boar feeding in a grassy meadow on the edge of the concession we were hunting. When the guys got back to camp that night we all talked and decided they would wake up early and try to get on the boars track as soon as possible, hopes were high that the boars track still had enough scent left in it for the hounds in the am.
The guides were so jacked on getting the dogs on this bear they tore off early in the AM without even eating breakfast! When we caught up to them the dogs had been cold trailing the bear but had yet to jump him. About 3.5 hours into the chase it was clear by the GPS that the dogs had jumped the bear and the chase was on! After monitoring the GPS unit we could see that the bear was likely bayed up on the ground by the hounds. The guides informed us that it’s a common trait of a big boar to stay on the ground and take the dogs on a walk about. It was time for us to get in a position to close the distance and cut them off for a shot opportunity. Myself and two of the guides took off in the direction of the hounds. When we left the truck it showed a little over a mile to cut them off but that quickly turned into two miles… When we finally caught up to the bear he spooked 3 times as we tried to get a shot in the think brush with the bow and all of the chaos of barking and hounds running around the bear. The last time he winded us and blew up the hill on us with the dogs in tow. 200 yards, 300, 500, gone! At this point our only hope was that Eli and the rest of the team could intercept them again as there was no way we were going to catch up again. After about an hour of bushwhacking making our way up out of the hole we had ventured into we got a call on the radio that Eli had arrowed the giant boar and he was down! That was the motivation I needed to hammer out of there and get to the top to meet up with the team and see this beast! Eli and the other guides had managed to get in front of the dogs and bear and get an arrow into the boar at 20 yards. When I got to the top and got to put my hands on Eli’s bear I was shocked. This bear was exactly what we were after and had absolutely zero ground shrinkage! After talking with the rest of the guys we already had a lead on another giant boar for tomorrow! They had seen a bear lumber across the road in front of them while on the chase for the big boar we had just killed and his track in the mud was a solid one at that in the 5 1/2” range! We would be back tomorrow to try to locate a hot track.
Day five had us back in the same area looking to strike a hot track of the big boar we had gotten a glimpse of the day before. Midday we were driving and the dogs blew up into a bawling barking frenzy! We stopped and let a couple of the dogs out to see what they would get. Not 200 yards into the woods the dogs were clearly hot on the trail of a bear. After driving up to a higher road to hopefully cut them off and get a look at the bear he came out and crossed the road in front of us with the hounds not far behind. It was a BIG jet black boar, no reservations from any of us. After determining that he as well was going to be a bay-up we got ourselves in a position to get into bow range on the bear. When we got to within a couple hundred hards it appeared he was taking the dogs up an old overgrown skid road in a roughly 10 year old logging cut. The road had small jack firs growing sporadically in the road that were about 6 Ft tall. As we literally ran at full speed down the road to close the distance on the bear these small firs gave us the cover we needed to stay concealed. Breathing heavily and sweating like a stuck pig we closed the distance to about 20 yards. The old boar was just walking along the old skid road at this point only turning around to bluff charge the hounds. When he gave me a shot opportunity I quickly came to full draw and released an arrow that struck true on a hard quartering away shot. The bear chomped at the arrow as it entered and ran into the logging cut and expired just 20 yards into the cut!
Both Eli and I’s second bears squared into the mid 7’ range with Eli’s bear having a green skull measurement at 20 5/16” and my bear at 19 10/16”. My bear had a split and broken canine that was abscessed and barely hanging on by the gum. We estimate that both our bears are over 20 years old and are the perfect old boars to take out of the population.
Hound hunting BC Black Bears was a truly great experience with great people and I hope to do it again soon. I encourage anyone who has an interest in hunting bears with hounds to get out there and do it! It’s an experience of a lifetime and the opportunity to be a part of a very successful conservation method.
