Last year I saw the biggest bear I'd ever seen in my life from this same stand. Tom has it set up perfectly in my opinion. There's a very slight hill straight behind the barrel covered mostly in low brush and thinner trees. It affords incoming bears the ability to oversee the crib and still feel secure with the understory and slight elevation if they should need to run off. I'm convinced most bears know you are there when they enter the bait. The fact is dominant bears will tree subordinates. When they walk in and see someone in the treestand (even if it's a fat guy)they think they are dominant and they have you (the subordinate)treed. Then, it's just a matter of them classifying any additional incoming bears into the pecking order. A big majority of the fun for myself is seeing the inter-actions between the bears. If you watch close you will see specific personalities arise amongst them. That's one of the major reasons I don't like to tag out early. I knew it was going to be a great week when I saw eight different bears the first day. At 6:05 PM I had a big sow approach from my right. Then her boyfriend angled in just above and to the right of her. As I stated previously, he sat on the sidelines like a gentleman and let her feed. Then he started to circle. When he got directly behind me I heard a ruckus and a bear tree. It was then I knew he was likely keeping another bear at bay while his girlfriend ate. A few minutes later he stepped out to my left at about eight yards. Man.. this was a nice big boar. I mean.. really nice. The only thing that kept me from shooting him right then were flashbacks of King Kong from last year standing in the exact same spot. I let him walk by. He circled again making sure the other bear was still treed. Fifteen minutes later he again walked by at ten yards. The barrel/crib is about 13-14 yds. from my tree. When I rebaited, I would put 1/3 of the donuts in the barrel, another third in a small pile at about eight yards on the ground between me and the barrel, and another 1/3 about ten yards off to my left. My reasoning on this is to keep multiple adult bears within range feeding at the same time rather than having one take over the barrel. It also gives you the opportunity for varied shot angles when a single bear hits each pile. Anyway, after the big boar circled the second time I heard the bear he'd treed earlier slide down and haul butt. When he heard bear #3 leaving he waddled by me again to make sure the intruder was gone. He stood broadside at five yards looking the other way for almost thirty seconds letting me get some outstanding video footage of him. It was all I could do not to shoot him right then but I was still having flashbacks from King Kong. Finally he just slowly walked off. His girlfriend continued to feed. I could see a wound between her shoulder blade which was obviously a "love bite". That made me feel he'd already bred her. Then I questioned whether she was successfully bred and he'd absandon her for another or continued to pair with her for a few more days giving me other opportunities. After he walked off for the third time I asked myself some serious questions about my sanity. This was a great boar. Although the video footage doesn't do him justice because I kept it mostly on wide angle, he was over 300 lbs. live weight in my opinion, had a great pelt with no rubs, a good head with forehead crease, a double chin and walked with the waddling gait of a mature stud. I was an idiot!
Topic: Bear Quest III >>---> Start Your Engines (Read 22674 times)
