Tony is nearly dwarfed by his 2011 California black bear.
This is a special SWH edition because I was there when it happened! Tony was introduced to me by our common friend Kirk Edgerton. When Kirk and I planned a weekend bear hunt in the Sierras, he mentioned that Tony was coming along. It was the second to last weekend of deer season, they both had deer and bear tags for the area, and I had a bear tag.
We split up in the morning at daylight and met up later at around noon. Tony and Kirk had seen numerous deer but no legal bucks. They also had spotted 3 bears across the canyon. We decided that finding a vantage point to watch for the rest of the day was a good idea. Tony and I went to the cliff over the canyon while Kirk went to find a buck napping along the ridge crest.
As the sun dropped and the shadows grew long, we heard, then saw a doe eighty yards below us on a trail. We knew the critters would be moving more as the hot day cooled. Soon Tony spotted three bears across the canyon. 600 yards straight line, but probably a mile through the canyon. They were moving through brush and trees and the day was getting late, so we simply watched them disappear in the trees.
Shortly after we heard movement below us. It sounded like a buck raking brush, but then changed to a steady walking gait of something BIG going through the manzanita. We watched the mountainside below us for what seemed like hours when a black spot moved 150 yards below.
“Get above it there so you can get a shot. ” whispered Tony
As I turned to get up, rocks rolled under my feet and I looked back to see Tony with his rifle at his shoulder and knew the bear was alerted. I watched him fire and knew he had made a killing shot. One more shot for insurance and the dust began to settle. He apologized profusely but I was happy for my friend who was successful. Now we had to get the sucker skinned and quartered and up out of the canyon, with less than an hour of daylight left. It was fixing to be a late night.
From Left to Right, Tony Elwell, John C. Martin, and Kirk Edgerton. You can see the cliff above where Tony shot from.
When we got down to the bear, close inspection revealed a big, fat, old, sow with discolored and broken teeth, a jet black coat with two white chest patches , and probably a 300# carcass with a 4-6 inch layer of fat over her entire body. Kirk arrived within minutes and we had a photo session after struggling to position the rolling body on the steep brushy hillside. Between the three of us we had the bear skinned and quartered in short time, with the meat and skull packed in our three backpacks. We hiked up out of the canyon and back the three miles to the pickup as darkness fell.
Headed back to the truck with packs full of bear meat
