Black Bear PICS ADDED PAGE 2 *NEW* STORY PAGE 4

[Hood]

Hey Frank,

Did you ever get the video up of the one your dad shot about a year ago? I sure would like to see it.

What are you going to do with the hide?

Robert

[homerdave]

hey frank, i admire your conviction and persistance in all you apply yourself to.
i hope my boy has some of your attitude when he is grown.
you can get that bear tanned for a lot less than rugging...get it rugged later.
anyhow, i'll donate a bit towards getting it tanned...
guys?

[Frank AK]

Ohhh yeah I still have the video. Maybee I can dig that bad boy up. Well there Dave, I called around and the tanning prices as long as I can flesh out and split lips will only be around 200 dollars. That price is much better and actually affordable.

Thanks for the very kind gesture there Mr HomerDave. But there are many more needy people out there. By the way that reminds me of the St. Judes auction coming up  :D

[curlis]

Good job Frank,

You are turning into quite the bear hunter. I always enjoy your posts. I have a hide that was just tanned and it turned out great.
Way to go!

[Randy Morin]

Nice Work Frank!! Congrats on this one Bud.  He looks like a nice-un for sure.  Lookin forward to a good story and if you would...send a little bear mojo down to me in SW Montana.  I'm doin some lookin...just not much findin!LOL.

[Izzy]

Good example you show to other young people.Congrats and enjoy that barr burger.Very nice rug.By the way, if theres room for a sleeping bag in the shed the longbow and me are on our way.Well bring a flyrod along for good measure.  

[Frank AK]

Okay I guess its story time.

Well I started scouting out area around April 15th. I went up north around talkeetna and drove all the way to homer. Thats a loooong ways I think somewhere around 300+ miles one way. But Since I am from Anchorage, Its only 220 miles to homer and 125 miles to Talkeetna.

To my surprize, the only bear activity that I found was in my old bear hunting spot. So once again I embarked on the 3 mile trip to the "bear hunting grounds"

Anyways the very first day. I saw 3 bears. None of which would have gone over 220 lbs. I was really holding out for a P&Y bear or a solid male over 250. I let my bait sit out for over a week and came back to an empty barrel. That really surprized me because they had just got done hibernating and they usueally dont eat 10lbs of food in a day and for that fact 112lbs of dogfood + bacon oil dripped over it.... From that moment on I knew that I had a LOT of bear activity.

Well I hunted as much as I could afford to ( about 3 times a week ) for about a month strait when this guy showed up to my barrel. I was just sitting in my treestand watching a pine martin eating some of the refill popcorn I brough when he all of a sudden looked up jumped on a log and bolted out of there. I knew there was a bear coming my way for sure. Sure enough I see a bear about 40 yards away. Just a glipse of shiny black fur creeping up to the barrel. Well it gets to the barrel and I watch it smell the wind for a minute. The wind was directly from mee to him and he took off like a bat out of you know where. I was kicking myself in the butt for not changing trees like I was planning on... But I took the slacker rout and jsut went up the same tree and set up in an easy only average spot. Right then I spotted a big black bear right upwind of where the little bear was. It was coming across the creek that is to the left of my stand. He did not act like there was anything for him to worry about. He marched right  up to the barrel and started munching on the popcorn. I decided that he was a nice bear of about 250 lbs... But boy did he have a good sized noggin on him. So once I saw for sure he was a male. I stood up and carefully grabbed an arrow out of my quiver. I just concentrated on a spot then another spot inside that spot and just drilled that spot into my mind. I could almost see a little red dot right where that arrow was going. Before I knew it, I had hit anchor and immediatly dropped the string. Perfect shot from what I could see.... But what I diddnt like was my arrow was still sticking out of the bear. But before I could be worried about it. The bear died only 40 maybee 45 yards away from where I shot it. The big snuffer did its job nicley. I was hard pressed to stay in the stand for more than 15 minutes but I knew it was better to be safe than sorry. He did not twitch once which made me feel much better as I was climbing down the tree. My dad met up with me and we checked on the bear. He was deader than a doornail and we knew we had a full days well actually nights work ahead of us. It took us a LOOOONG time probably 7 or 8 hours of cleaning and packing back all the bear.

The only thing we left in the woods was the gutpile. Nothing else went to waste. My puppy enjoyes all the fat scraps that I baked at 250 for many hours as well as the bones. Every inch of meat went to good use and I am proud of that.

Oh yeah the equipment used with the bow Steve H. built for me and gave to me for my birthday. And the same old heavy as lead laminated birch arrows tipped with a charlie lamb style sharpened snuffer.

One more thing. Upon further review we found that the pyramid tip did not slide around the rib. It blastes right through it and stuck into the opposite leg bone. It was a quartering away shot. I  got both lungs and cut some arteries away from the heart. I dont know what arteries I had hit. But there was a few that were totally lopped off.

okay guys thanks for reading this. I hope you enjoyed it.

[Frank AK]

Oh yeah, I think this is the last bear I kill off a bait stand for a while. I am going to spot and stalk and try to get a bruiser like that. I do enjoy bear meat so I might just get one from my bait station then try some spot and stalk in a 3 bear a year area.

Thanks again for listening.

[Frank AK]

TTT

I dont know if anyone read the story. It sunk down pretty quick haha.

[Ian johnson]

cool story, hope I can do that some day, do you carry a gun for backup?

[Bowspirit]

I don't know about that. Found myself going back to it quite often...

[Frank AK]

When hunting I have my bow, backpack, water bottle, arrows, and maybee some nutri grains or something.

Packing and cleaning the critter. I always have a gun.

Bowspirit what are  you talking about? This thread or the story?

[Bowspirit]

Little bit of both. Just responding to when you said you didn't know if anyone read the story. Tell you the truth, I couldn't stop reading it...

[Ian johnson]

I could not stop reading it either, what kind of bow poundage needed for black bear?

[Frank AK]

I am going to say a minnimum of 40 most likley. 50 and up is much better though

[the Ferret]

Frank with teh Auction going on a lot of threads head to the bottom quicker than they should.

Congrats on an awesome bear. Good story. Taking one spot and stalk would be the pinnacle. Hard to believe they have areas where hunters are allowed 3 bears. You must have a lot of bears.

[Steve H.]

Uncle Steve read it!

[mmgrode]

Very cool story Frank. Great job on the bear! Congrats! Man, must be nice to be able to get multiple bear tags a year up there. In Wisconsin we have to wait 5-9 years to get one tag! Good stuff. Do you ever carry a pistol with you while hunting blackies? Cheers, Matt

[Frank AK]

Well haha we dont need tags for black bears. We have areas where there is one bear a year limits then areas with 3 bears a year limits. When I hunt by myself I always have my pistol. But other than that... Like I said I dont carry much. Plus the pistol I have is a hog leg super red hawk.

And Ferret oh yeah we have a megaton of black bears in certain areas. But a lot of places are just super thick so spotting and stalking can be awfully hard.

Okay thanks for reading guys. I just wasnt sure if anyone had read it yet.