I went to Alberta for a hunt with
Swans Point Outfitters the bears had changed their feeding behavior from the previous week where all hunters had opportunities on good bears early in the hunt. The guides said thing vegetation was 2 weeks ahead of normal, the dandelions had mostly gone to see eliminating a tasty food for the bears in the open. We did not see bears that were big enough to shoot for the first three days, in fact we saw few bears. We were covering a lot of ground and out with the guides for 8-10 hours a day, the guides worked it hard. Day three rolled around and we spotted a big boar walking straight away. The grass and weeds were limited allowing me to get into a prone position and told the guide to turn the bear with his predator call.
The bear turned giving me a quartering shot at about 120-150 yards, I squeezed the shot off and heard a very pleasing thump on impact and a hunched up bear, that slowly walked into the brush. We found the bear about 25 yards from where he was hit and he measured 5'-11" from tip of nose to tail, the body was outsized for a 5-11 bear, especially a spring bear. Given the bulk of the bear, the lumbering stride and the width of the ears I think the guide and I both felt there was little ground shrinkage, but a very nice bear.
I was shooting one of 30-06's with a 168 grain ELD-X the impact was 2 inches behind the last rib and the bullet was on the hide just shy of the opposite shoulder. I was surprised that the bullet retained about 40 percent of its weight, I was thinking the ELD-X would have shed more after going through 22-24 inches of bear, although only impacting bone in the last inch. I usually shoot solid copper getting two holes and decided to try a bullet that I was pretty sure would dump all of its energy into the bear by not exiting. Needless to say a dead bear within 25 yards of impact the bullet did its job. That being said there was no blood trail, since there was no large exit, for this bear that was not a problem because we found him easily.
Next bear season I will probably shoot solid copper again for two holes and better chances of a blood trail the way I usually do. I showed to myself at least that dumping all of the energy into the bear works too. I will try for a better blood trail next spring by switching back to solid copper and my 9.3 x 62 or 375 Ruger.
I will say this the ELD-X did its job and they were extremely accurate in that rifle with a stout load of H-4350. I would look at them very close for a whitetail hunt with that gun as I think the more explosive expansion would be just devastating on a deer.
The next day an Austrian couple both got their bears and both were over 6 feet, nice bears. I think the change in the boars movement may have been heat related, the maybe the sows had entered heat.
If you want a spot and stalk bear hunt I would recommend Swans Point Outfitters they have a nice setup for camp. The guides know the country they hunt extremely well and work hard in the hunt and back at camp to help assure you have a good hunt. Only good behavior of the bears can make it a successful hunt.
I would show pictures but I had a power problem, batteries with zero charge.
