On his first day out black bear hunting in the Snowy Range Mountains, River Mossberg got his pickup hopelessly stuck and had to hike out to find help.
His luck changed the next day, however. He spotted a “5XL”-sized bear and stalked to within 118 yards for a clean rifle shot.
His dad and best friend also got large bears, making them some of the most successful hunters so far in Wyoming’s spring bear hunting season.
The Allure Of Spot-And-Stalk Hunting
There are two methods of hunting bears in Wyoming.
Some hunters use bear bait, usually in barrels that are packed into remote areas before hunting season begins.
The hunter sits in a tree stand or blind near the bait, waiting for bears to come in.
Critics say bear baiting gives hunters an unfair advantage. Hunters who use that technique say it allows time to be more carefully selective about which bears they shoot, and which they decide to let go.
Spot-and-stalk hunting is the other approach. That involves trying to spot bears – usually from a distance through binoculars or spotting scopes – and then figuring out how to stalk within rifle or bow range.
Mossberg said he has nothing against using bear bait, but last year he decided to give spot-and-stalk hunting a try.
“Sitting in a blind, I just get too bored. I like to go out and hike, and get my butt kicked trying to find a bear,” he said.
Last year, he hunted for a total of 27 days and spotted six bears before he finally found one big enough to shoot.
Bogged Down
Mossberg likes hunting in the Snowies with his father, Brandon Mossberg, and his friend Morgin Touchton.
They set off on May 9 with high hopes. Mossberg wanted to show his dad a great new hunting area that he’d discovered.
But the road was still full of more muck than he’d counted on.
“I flat-out buried my pickup, even with chains on all four of the tires,” he said. "I had to hike out until I found somebody to come help pull us out."
That pretty much shot that entire day, so Mossberg and his dad headed back to camp, hoping for better luck the next day.
‘Holy Cow!’
While spot-and-stalk hunting might not involve sitting in a blind all day, it still takes plenty of patience, Mossberg said.
“With bears, the important thing is to sit and glass (observe an area through a pair of binoculars and/or a spotting scope)” he said.
Father and son split up and started scanning as much country as they could from their respective positions.
With about two hours of light left, Mossberg got a phone call from his dad.
“He calls me and tells me, ‘There’s a big bear.’ He just couldn’t get close enough to seal the deal,” Mossberg said.
So, Mossberg started looking in the direction his father said the bear might be coming from.
“I finally got a glimpse of him coming up over a ridge toward me through my spotting scope. I thought, ‘Holy cow! This sucker is size 5XL,'” he said.
“He got to the bottom (of the draw) and jumped into the river. It had been a hot day,” Mossberg added.
After waiting for a little while longer, he decided to start moving down off the ridge he’d posted himself on, hoping to find the bear.
When the moment came, it happened fast.
“Finally, I saw him and I ranged him at 118 yards,” Mossberg said.
“I waited for him to come into an opening and I ‘woofed’ at him. He stopped and turned broadside to me, and that was it,” he said.
‘Goofy Big’
With daylight fading fast, Mossberg knew there would probably be no getting the bear out of there that night. So, he gutted the carcass to keep the meat cool overnight.
The next day, he returned with his father and Touchton, so packing out the meat, hide and skull could be a team effort.
“When we got up to the bear, their reaction was ‘goodness gracious, this thing is goofy big,’” Mossberg said.
It was difficult to estimate the bear’s weight and they didn’t have a scale. But it had to have been over 300 pounds, he said.
“Back east, you might find some 700-pound black bears. But for Wyoming, over 300 pounds is huge,” Mossberg said.
They thought that it must be in roughly the same size range as the Wyoming state record black bear.
The Boone and Crockett Club (B&C) scoring system is considered the gold standard for hunting trophies. Black bears are judged by skull measurements.
The first set of measurements, taken right after the animal is killed, is considered a “green score” by B&C. There’s a mandatory 90-day drying period before a final score can be taken, because game animals’ bone, antler or horn material might shrink somewhat as it dries out.
Mossberg said his bear has an estimated green score of 20 ¼ inches.
The B&C Wyoming state record black bear was 23 10/16 inches, taken by Charles W. Nation in Johnson County in 2013.
‘Gorgeous Bear’
Other Wyoming bear hunters extended their congratulations to Mossberg.
Owen Miller, an avid black bear hunter from northeast Wyoming, said pictures from Mossberg’s hunt show a “gorgeous bear.”
Seasoned bear hunter Joe Kondelis of Cody said it was “badass” to get a bear that big through spot-and-stalk hunting.
“Congratulations to the hunter,” said Julie Mccallister of Rock River, who has taken many bears in the Snowy Range.
“Taking a bear of this size on a spot-and-stalk hunt, especially on public land, is a rare accomplishment. Well done,” she said.
Miller said he’s bagged bears weighing up to 400 pounds in Wyoming. Finding big bears is all about finding the right habitat.
“In my opinion, if they have a lot of territory to roam in, they have a good chance of getting old, so they can get big,” Miller said.
“That said, bears are also like people in a way because an old bear can be smaller than a young bear,” he added. “So, genetics play a role in that also.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
