Black Bears are abundant in the province of BC, but for most hunters the meat isn’t something they are interested in eating, and quite frankly I don’t really have a taste for bear meat either. Having been in on a recent black bear hunt my friend was not interested in processing the meat, so he gave it to me under the premise I would use it to make a natural and healthy food for my dog.
Bear Meat is safe for humans when cooked to specific temperatures, so I really couldn’t see any reason that it wouldn’t be fit for my dog, when cooked properly.

I hit up Google and started looking for some basic dog food recipes, and what
to include for veggies and the like:

• Bear Meat
• Carrots
• Mixed Grain Rice
• Celery
• Sweet Potatoes

It seemed to be widely suggested that you mix your meat and veggies in a 4:1 ratio. 4 Parts meat, to 1 part veggies.

The process was pretty simple as goes as follows.

1. Cut up bear meat. I took my time and cut most the fat off the meat and then trimmed it into thin strips that would easily fit into my Waring Pro meat grinder.

2. Cut up veggies (Carrots/Sweet Potatoes/Celery) and put in big pot of boiling water. Boil till they are somewhat soft.

3. Prepare Rice – I bought a big bag of mixed grain rice from Costco. I think I used about 6 cups of rice and the appropriate amount of water.

4. Grind up meat.

5. Put meat in pot and boil outside! – I let mine go for about 3 hours, and there was 40lbs of meat or so in the first batch.

6. Once meat is cooked, stir in veggies and rice. Let cool.

7. Once cooled, scoop into ziplock bags or containers of some kind and freeze.

Your average back bear should easily provide 200+ lbs of natural, healthy dog food that your pet will love. Your only problem is going to be finding freezer space!

Black Bear hunting the month of May on Vancouver Island is something every hunter should experience just once. The Islands Black Bear population (estimated at 12,000+) is extremely healthy and it’s not uncommon to have days where you’ll see 20 or more bears in a single day. Active logging on the island has created an immense network of accessible forestry roads that are right in the middle of prime bear country making it an easy hunt for access as well.

We set off on Friday morning, May 14th in the direction of Bamfield to a little area that has produced several bears for us and friends over the past few years. It’s a long winding drive, with many miles of pot-hole laden logging roads. The heat had dried out the gravel roads to the point where visibility was about zero if you had a vehicle 1/4 mile ahead of you.

I was travelling solo, and meeting up with some buddies at our predetermined spot. We all met up successfully, and pitched our camp, then ventured out the first late afternoon in search of a bear. A quick 10 minute quad ride from camp, and we’d found our first bear in a clear cut, not a bad bear and he was uphill from the road to boot, close to 6′ but he’d rubbed off a large patch of his fur from his rear quarters and wouldn’t have made much of a rug. We sat and watched him as he slowly worked his way through the clear cut and into the darkness of the dense cedars.

Aside from a bear or two in places we couldn’t get too that first afternoon was pretty uneventful. Onto the second day and we spent most the early part of the day quading along the river trails looking for some fishing holes, we found the holes just not the fish and the best we could do was a a nice sized cutthroat that ended up spitting the hook 30 seconds into the fight. We could see several large steelhead in the river as well, but alas could not find what they were biting or even paying attention too.

As the afternoon approached we took off on the quads out to an area with some accessible cuts that has always managed to produce bears for us, after a few hours of glassing from different vantage points, we were pretty dejected not finding any bears and decided that maybe it was time to just go and do a little fishing again… It’s funny how just a few minutes changes an entire hunting trip.
On the way back to camp, our buddy (eagle eye) he’s a non-hunter too, spotted a great looking bear on one of our accessible clear cuts. We put the spotting scope on him and determine he was a good bear, not a huge bear but at least a mature boar.

There is only one way into this area and as it turned out the wind was just right for us, and we were able to make the short stalk up to the bear. We were separated by a great big pile of logs, immediately followed by a small ravine with a tiny creek in the bottom which provided ample noise cover for the approach of all 5 of us. (2 hunters and 3 non-hunters).

We all made our way to the pile of logs and then I slowly climbed up the pile and had a look for the bear… He’d come our direction and was now wrestling with a tree only 50 or so yards away. I said to my buddy Andy “Get up here on these logs and get ready…” “He’s Right Here!…” I said.

Andy is a newer hunter, who’s introduction to hunting so far hasn’t been the greatest, with his first kill (an island buck) getting away into the thick brush and not being able to be found after extensive efforts. The experience has made him a little trigger shy to say the least and this was the perfect opportunity for him to get back in the game. Andy handed me his rifle as he made his way up the logs and then jacked a shell in the gun… We’d discussed his shot placement earlier and with his calibre 30-06 and bullet weight (180grn) a shoulder shot would anchor the bear and most likely bang flop him right there.

As Andy got himself into position, the bear was already out in the open not even 40 yards away, standing there facing towards us, but he still didn’t know we were even there, despite all 5 of our heads peering over the log. I told Andy to take his time, no rush, get a good bead on the bear. He asked me what power his scope should be on… I said 4… (but he turned it to 5 anyway lol) and then got his hold on the bear. The bear was still quartering towards us, not spooked or even aware of our presence so I kept Andy on hold until the moment was perfect… Finally the bear took a turn and stood broadside, I said “Andy, Now” and BOOM the 30-06 barked only once as the bear fell to the ground immediately without even a twitch. The bullet had entered high in the shoulder and took out the shoulder/spine immediately killing and anchoring the bear.

Some cheers and high fives, then everyone including the non-hunters learned how to skin a bear for a rug and pack it out of the bush… We were able to drag him a little ways and then hook up the winch for the rest. The meat came home with me, and will be posted in a second story as it’s going to be ground up, boiled and mixed with some veggies for a nutrient rich organic dog food.

Happy Hunting!

 Below are a few website links that offer up information and documented studies on Stone's Sheep that you may educational.

Sulphur Creek 8 Mile Sheep Project - This is a Stone's Sheep study currently taking place in the Sulphur Creek/8 Mile region close to Muncho Lake, BC.  Lots of great information on this website, and if you pay attention some good sheep spots too!

Foraging Ecology & Nutrition Of Stone's Sheep – This study was completed in the early/mid 80's and the report itself is 127 pages long.  Great Reading if you want to learn about their food sources, travel routes, winter ranges, and just good information on Stone's Sheep in general.  Being raised in a family that actually outfitted and hunted sheep for over 30 years I even learned a few things.

Sheep Of Stone – A Filmmakers Short Story – If you've ever seen the documentary "Sheep Of Stone" which aired on the Discovery Channel then you may find this interesting.  It's the written account from one of the filmmakers on this trip who'd gotten his first taste of Sheep country… It wasn't the cake walk he expected

Muskwa-Ketchika Stone's Sheep Management Projects – A current list of some of the projects directed at better Sheep Management in this region.

Spring & Winter Habitat Study – Stone's Sheep - A Comparison of winter and spring habitat selection and rates of movement between two populations of Stone's sheep.

There is lots of reading in the links above and the information contained will surely help any Stone's Sheep hunter better understand these magnificent animals. 

Good Luck!

We left the Island via the 5:15am Nanaimo ferry to Vancouver and drove to Grande Prairie AB, where we met up with my Dad (32 years guiding sheep) and went over all our last minute details, where we were hiking in, what areas to concentrate on etc… All really good and appreciated advice.

The following day we once again rose early and began the 2nd leg of our journey…  From Grande Prairie we drove all the way to Muncho lake lodge where we spent the night… Really Nice Place but it's expensive!  This was our last resort as both the other lodges further south were already full… We wanted one more night in a warm bed with a warm shower before starting our hike in.

Anyways… We were on the trail by 7:15am the next morning beginning our long ascent up the mountain.  We followed a game trail for a little while and broke out of the timberline rather quickly.  The first 3/4's of this mountain was a relatively easy climb, It was when we reached that last 1/4 when the going got tough.  We were into the steep shale cliffs and with our 60 pound packs it was an exhilarating climb thats for sure… We had to carefully choose our routes or risk being turned into hamburger at the bottom.

It took us about 5 hours to make the lower top of this mountain where were both out of water…  Never being into this country before we were a little worried about where we might find it…  But as we crested the top we found a snowpack that was draining into a little tiny pond… Just as we got there to fill up our bottles a Duck gracefully flew in and landed on the lack… Trivializing our 5 hour journey to the top.

Coming down the backside of the mountain and dropping into a high saddle in sheep country took us another 3 hours and we had our base camp setup.  We were using my Integral Designs MKIII for this trip and it's a fabulous tent… 

That first late afternoon I was glassing the mountains with my Zeiss 85mm Diascope when I heard a rockslide on the opposing side of the valley…  I quickly spun my scope around and was onto a band of 9+ rams running across the shale about 1000' feet or so above us.  I quickly shouted to my partner (who was napping) I've got RAMS! and he was out of bed faster then if we'd had a Grizzly in camp.

I got a pretty good look at what I thought was the lead ram (there could have been 1 or 2 ahead of him). He was a heavy old ram and a shooter for sure (I won't pull unless 10 years of age or 40" – whichever comes first), the ram behind him looked to easily make 3/4 curl but I didn't get a good enough look at him, as he went over the ridge he was definitely not as heavy as the first ram, the 3rd ram looked to be 3/4 curl and they started getting smaller from there as they were travelling in their peking order.  In short, This band of rams saw us waaay before we spotted them and that messed things up a little for us.  It's critical that you pick apart every part of new real estate in sheep country before you enter… We'd spent a few hours glassing on our descent into the saddle, and a few more from base camp but as we later found out (after hiking the ridge) they had numerous beds where they could see us and we had little to no chance of seeing them.  They definitely don't live long by being stupid.

We spent several more days in this patch of mountains, glassing for hours on end from various vantage points around the valley and surrounding mountains.  We watched Stone's sheep morning, noon and night every day but all were young rams, ewes and lambs with several dozen caribou mixed in for good measure.  Not for lack of trying, we never did find that band of rams again which is something that can happen, even to the most experienced of sheep hunters.

I'd also drawn a Grizzly bear tag for the liard and we went into this patch of mountains expecting to hunt bear afterwards so we'd only packed 6 days worth of food.  We pulled out on day 5 when the weather decided to take a turn for the worst.  Instead of coming in our original route we dropped right down off the saddle and into the creek below.  It was one of the toughest hikes out I've had yet with several impassable waterfalls and cliffs that needed to be carefully navigated.   Several times I slipped on wet rocks and took some good tumbles as did my partner.  We did make it out though…! 

My Dad drove up and met with us and we decided instead of going after Grizzly we'd just keep hunting sheep for a while… The weather was supposed to get better and we'd likely still have a chance at some other rams if we wanted.  We chose sheep!

Most of our hunting from this point on was glassing many of our known spots along the highway and some surrounding roads.  We went for a 54 mile quad ride up and down the Davis Keyes mine rd and saw some sheep up there as well as quite a few other hunters.  There is quite a bit of pressure up here so we opted to just enjoy the scenery and will likely not go back there to hunt again.  It was really pretty country though and the quad ride in was an absolute blast.

We spent another few days up in the area before deciding to head south.  We thought with our trip coming to an end we might as well pickup an Elk tag and see if we couldn't bag a bull off some private land we had permission on…  The rest of the story will follow.

Gear I have reviewed and used on this hunt:

Jetboil Stove Review
Integral Designs MKIII Tent Review
SPOT Satellite Messenger
Review
Hanwag Trapper Top Boot Review
My Backpack Sheep Hunting Gear List

We had a few local connections, that provided us a pile of great information and we decided to head up to Bella Coola on the 8th of May.  The highway from Vancouver up to Williams Lake and then into Anahim lake was great,  It's just a short ways passed Anahim lake you'll run into the legendary "Hill" that the residents simply refer to as "The Hill" and nasty, twisty, steep hill it is too with a near 19% grade and absolutely no guard rails.  It would be fun to a tow boat down, make sure you have good brakes, and enough power and efficient cooling to make it back up. 

My dad has a friend that lives in Bella Coola and was kind enough to loan us his boat which was an 18 foot aluminum.  It handled the local waters great.  We weren't too worried about having a boat to sleep in as we had arranged accommodations at a local resort that is current under construction at the Nascall Bay Hotsprings.

The ride from Bella Coola to Nascall Bay was about 1.5 hours in our boat, and the roughest part was coming around the mesachie nose and into Laboucher Channel.  Once inside Laboucher it was near dead calm, and calm as well through dean channel and right into Nascall Bay where we were Greeted by Frank (lodge owner) and his crew of happy helpers.

The lodge is outfitted with a complete dock and gas facilities, restaurant, cozy cabins, hotsprings, and even wireless satellite Internet.  The Tap Water comes straight out of the mountain springs, and is gravity fed down to the lodge and I must say it's some of the best tasting water I've ever had. 

After we arrived and got settled into our room we decided to head out in the boat and do some fishing so we could catch some bait for our crab traps.  After a few minutes we had a couple of cod that we wired into our traps and dropped them in a little spot called Eucott Bay, just a little ways southwest of the lodge.  This was recommended to us by several different locals and proved to be productive.  We each took home our limit of 12 crabs over the few days our traps were down and these crabs were big, we caught so many that I only selected the finest crabs, with all 8 legs and 2 pinchers throwing everything else back.

While the seafood was great it wasn't the only purpose we were there… Our real goal was to fill a Grizzly bear tag.  And the fishing and crabbing was mainly just a filler during the middle of the day, when the bears are all snoozing like most every other critter.  Once 2 O'clock hit we were at the flats and just still hunted until dark.  2 nights went by without seeing a thing aside from some seals and the odd porpoise or two… 

On the third evening we were sitting in the bay, watching the flats and I decided to crack the new Zeiss Diascope 85m Spotting Scope out and see if I couldn't find some goats… Several hours had gone by without any action so I wanted to pass the time… I started glassing the mountainside across from us in Dean Channel and quickly spotted 3 goats feeding on the edge of a small waterfall… It would have made a nice picture if I weren't close to 2 miles away.  I continued watching the goats until I heard my partner mumble… "I am not sure if this is a black or a grizz…" I quickly turned around and saw a big dark colored mass coming out of the heavy rainforest and onto a small section of tidal flat…  My partner didn't have his binos handy right away so I threw mine up and knew instantly it was a Grizz…

It turned out the bear was about a 7 – 7 1/2 foot boar and he did have a really nice coat on him,  His back was a lighter blond color while his arms, and legs were a very dark brown.  The bear had been in a few tussles as he had a big scar across his forhead.  We hummed and hawwed at the bear for close to 1/2 an hour and then decided we'd hold out for a bigger bear…  You know how it goes sometimes, and we never did see another bear the whole trip!

Click Here To See The Grizzly On Video

This year in November I hunted for 10 days in the cold of region 7. Unlike the last few years there was actually snow this year during deer season. There was at least a foot of snow when I got there and it kept pouring down pretty much daily while I hunted. This was good in a way because it really concentrated the deer into specific areas for feeding and thus they were much easier to pattern and setup for an ambush.

After a few hours of hiking around and checking out some trails and rubs etc.. I went and hopped back into the truck to get ready to still hunt for a whitey. I think trucks and farm equipment make about the best ground blinds you can use when your hunting deer in this type of country. They are used to vehicles driving around.

The whitetail were primarily hanging around the bails of alfalfa on one of the upper fields. This would be the spot for my ambush. I wasn’t there 5 minutes the
1st night and this guy showed up.  He had one really nice eye guard going for him but that was about it.  The opposite eye guard looked like it never actually grew rather then being broke off.  I watched this buck on several occasions and you’ll see him on the video.

The second night was when things heated up a little.  I had arrived in my spot at about 12:30pm and was going to sit there until it was absolutely dark.  There were a few smaller bucks and several more does on and off the bails through out the day.  At around 5:20 pm I happened to look in my rear view and see a big bodied deer coming right up the road behind me.  I turn
around and throw the glasses up and see that he is a pretty good whitetail buck!

He was warry of my truck and was approaching fairly slowly.  I had the video camera on him and could see he was a heavy 5×6 but he didn’t have very
much height to his rack.  His back right G2 was as thick as a banana which I thought was neat.  The buck was probably 400 yards away and still approaching slowly so I decided to help him out a little and sprayed a bunch of doe estrus out the window.  Watching him through binoculars he would curl his lips and then start coming at a quicker pace.  It was snowing heavily and the wind wasn’t in my favor.

You’ll see him in the video as he goes past me and comes out in front… The video cuts off as I was actually getting ready to take this buck.  I got out of the truck and crawled behind a haybail.  I threw a shell in the chamber put the gun up and locked onto the bucks chest as he was facing me… I held there until he quartered and then decided I wasn’t going to shoot.  It was only the 2nd day into my hunt I and knew there were bigger bucks.  He was a nice buck though…

You can find the video of him in my Gallery. 

Big Whitetail Buck Video (For some users the video shows up really dark, others light enough to see fine.  No idea!)

While I was up there I met up with another hunter in the area someone whom I met through HBC when we got to talking we found out we actually had permission on one of the same areas so we went out and checked it out for a day.  Saw a few deer including a smaller 4×4 muley.  He ended up taking a 5×4 whitetail off the property.  A great buck considering the pressure the area seemed to be under this year.  I’ve never seen so much deer sign in one field in my life.  They had actually eaten up entire windrows for the full length of the field…  You could see where the deer had pawed it all up.  Tracks, Trails and Beds everywhere!

Another highlight of the trip was seeing my first Cougar.  We were pulling into the property and about to reach the gate when my partner spotted a buck run across the road 400 yards ahead of us.  It looked like a legal buck but we never did get a closer look.  We stopped and waited a few seconds and another head slowly emerged from the where the buck had came.  I quickly threw my binoculars up and realized right away it wasn’t another deer but the big hairy face of a cougar!  I was surprised to say the least.  There are cougars in this region but they are few and far between.  I tried to get my Camera turned on and ready to get some film but the Cougar had turned tail and run the opposite way before I even had a chance.  We went and checked out his tracks and the snow was so deep  you couldn’t see the paw prints.  Just the marks from it’s belly dragging in the snow.  If we hadn’t of interrupted I
think the cat was probably stalking the buck for dinner.  That would have been awesome to catch on film.

The next few days brought much of the same deer into the area with at least one new buck coming out to feed every day.  By the tracks and trails left by the bucks it was obvious the big guys were coming out later in the evening into dark.  I was hunting the tail end of the season and there was one whitetail taken of this property that I knew of earlier on.

This buck on the left was probably the second biggest whitetail buck that I came across this year.  He
was a good 4×4 but lacked a bit of height and mass.  He is going to be an impressive buck in a few years though.  I’ll be watching for him.

There is some good video footage of this buck play fighting with some of the smaller bucks that were out this particular day.

Most of my time was spent still hunting whitetails.  Although I did go hiking a few days through some of the blocks of timber between fields looking for a muley which turned up nothing but a pile of sign.  I did see plenty of legal bucks while using the truck as a ground blind though   I have held out on mule deer for the last 3 seasons now.  Maybe next year will be the year I run into my buck…

I hunted long hours everyday and never did come across any bucks that I wanted so I’ll be eating tag soup this year.

Here is some of the video footage that I took on this trip. 

The video is almost 5 minutes long and has a few different whitetail and mule deer bucks that I encountered along the way.  I hope you enjoy.  It’s time to get busy planning my LEH Mountain Goat hunt in region 6. 

Happy Hunting!

Carl

PS… I forgot to post this first time around. I purchased a buffalo from a rancher in the FSJ area and went out to the ranch the morning of the day I was leaving. I took a hefty 2 year old bull and ended up with close to 400 pounds of some the finest meat available. No growth hormones.
Click Here For The Buffalo Shooting Video