She was actually the one that alerted us to it in the first place. We had stopped to take a break and within a couple minutes of sitting down her hair started to stand up and she kept looking downwind of where we were at. I noticed it, but didn't think much of it until we heard a big stick break. At that point it seemed like every hair on her body stood up and she was staring into the darkness, locked onto something. The bear ended up circling us, while getting closer and we could hear it huffing and slapping it's jaws together by the time it got upwind of us. I don't know how much Rue would've helped us if the bear had decided to charge, but she was certainly ready for a fight

@@HokeOutdoors I started with Fiocchi lead #4s 3inch for squirrels over 20 years ago. Much cheaper than the major brands and just as good kills/knock down power. I have had really good shooting with Fiocchi Steel Shot for ducks. I have a 3.5 inch shell capacity semi-automatic 12GA. I started using BBs in 3.5 Federals & Winchester in the late 1990s because we had so many cripples using steel 4s & 2s. When we used lead shot and transitioned to steel (Federal regulatory mandated) in Louisiana in the early 1990s, all the experts said to go two sizes up (circumference) or down two sizes numbers wise for steel shot. That was bullshit and we proceeded to lose a lot of ducks as cripples. In the group of men that I was hunting with, they refused to go to BBs and stayed frustrated with cripples for years. About 10 years ago, I discovered Fiocchi steel shot BBs and have been very pleased. The are less expensive than Federal or Winchester and I have had good patterns and few cripples with their BBs. Do not make the mistake of thinking BBs are too big for ducks as many hunters have. Lose a few Greenheads and you will be ready to make a switch! I have killed ducks at 100 yards, grave yard dead (head or neck shot) many, many times with BBs. At close ranges, the BBs do not mess up the breasts too badly if you use an improved cylinder choke tube. And, those 100 yards shots, believe it or not, improved cylinder choke on those shots too, but if I know i will do a lot of pass shooting, I go to modified choke tube (which isn't very often, as I usually hunt over a decoy spread). The killing power of BBs is unmatched because #4 & #2 steel lose a great deal of their energy after 40 yards due to the lack of density of steel vs. lead. Therefore, the only way to compensate for this is "shot-size" in steel. Using a semi-auto shotgun, most hunters waste their 3rd shot when using #4s or #2s because the birds are out of range or end up as a cripple and are "gone" by the time you or the dog get there. With BBs, I kill, and I mean KILL, on the third shot very often. I enjoyed the video & subscribed!

It really makes me look like a sharpshooter right? 🤣 It always seems like it makes them look about twice as far as they actually were. We were reaching out a little further than usual on this hunt because of the bad hide, but the furthest shots were still only 45 yards max

That's awesome! Do you do a lot of upland hunting with him?

Thankfully we were taking a break when we ran into it so we didn't have all our gear on our back but the situation was still way less than ideal 🤣

Thanks brother!

Thanks Don! It's truly a place like no other!

Thanks Keith, I really appreciate it! Just dropped a new one!

Much appreciated! I'm getting excited for it too, hoping it'll be a great year for them with all the water we have up here right now!

Love to hear that, congrats on getting your first duck! Hopefully there will be many more to come!

Got a bunch more coming soon!

Thanks big dawg! Gotta get you out after some ducks this year!

Just a couple more short months!

Haha that would be a heck of time! Hoping that I can make it up to Canada one day!

Thanks brother! Not too much longer now!

Thanks David! Much appreciated!

Thanks brother! Hope you enjoy it!

I'm not sure if I'll make it down there this season but I'm hoping I can! Seems like TX has been the place to be in January the last couple years. You definitely need to get up to Alaska though! You won't regret it!

@@HokeOutdoors ive thought about it I just ow there’s a lot of public land but I mainly hunt by myself and to venture into the night by myself with bears and moose in those woods is not something I want to tackle. So to put it short I would t even know where to begin or even what part of Alaska to go to

Thanks brother! I appreciate you watching!

Thanks much! Rue is a beast!

That was the exact load we were using. I have tried them in the past and loved them, I don't know if we got a bad batch or what but they just weren't doing the trick that day

Rue isn't my dog actually, she belongs to Cory Loeffler! She's a great dog and the issues we had at the beginning of the season were due to my inexperience as a handler, once we started to get those ironed out she was a superstar!

Down bad 🥴

@@HokeOutdoors gotta be consistent with the videos even if it’s seasonal

Fiocchi vs brown bear would've been the real test

@@HokeOutdoors What Fiocchi shells were you using? I was going to try the 1 1/5oz #2 and am rethinking that after your frustration.

I'm using a Franchi Affinity 3 with a Carlsons light modified choke

No doubt 😅