Bear Quest III >>---> Start Your Engines

[BMN]

Great stuff guys. Glad you made it back safely. Keep it coming.    

Bill

[d. ward]

yeah I'am gonna let the cat or really bear out of the bag here and make Tommy start talking...check this out you red meat eaters ? no joke thats 309 pound of Doc Sprigers bear of a like time.
Please note the next time someone says to you I don't want to shoot a big ones because I can't carry it ??? then your good friend and master guide say not to worry.I'll carry it for you buddy.... well as the you can see from the somewhat fuzzy pic the bowdoc took...make it a big one......bd whoops wrong pic

[d. ward]

first off my good friend of many years who I love like my brother or maybe even a bit more then my brother.My good friend who when we first hunted together kind of reminded me of the show Doc Tari the good doctor helps out some crosseyed lion.Doc I love ya man...bd  

[d. ward]

Here doc puts a whoopass on this Canadian slammer with his single bevel glued to a fishing rod whatever team whipped broadhead.Then the man put a real whoopass on no neck Tommy.You can maybe understand why I'am so shakey.First off if you ai'nt excided for you buddy when he just arrowed the slammer bear of his life then you better stay home.Because you missed some of the best part of the hunt.You can ask doc I gave him the biggest huge he ever got from another man because I was so happy for him.Then we lost our balance and I kneed him in the you know where.He thought I lost my balnce....bd  

[d. ward]

and because Tom emailed these to me and I want to hear his story again I got the OK to post these pics.Now if you ai'nt hunted bear before or to often.Feast your eyes on what you should be looking for.Now thats a head on both them boy's.Congrats on one heck of a fine fine bear Tom.bd    

[d. ward]

Thats BQ at its finest for Tommy.bd  

[fatman]

Wednesday morning, and the tension around camp could be cut with a knife.  Not bad tension - just a realization that it was Day 5, three bears down, seven unfilled tags. As my ol' grandad used to say, "It's nut-cuttin' time..."

I truly cannot convey to the reader how much the four guys in this camp CARE.  And Tom, as the leader of the pack, cares ALOT.  While the crew makes sure that everyone is well-fed, happy, and entertained, this is still a BEAR HUNT, not a nature walk.  Tom is an intense guy anyway, and his enthusiasm for the hunt absolutely never waivered, right down until the last vehicle arrived in camp Friday night.  Everyone in camp had seen bears, but it was time to make some decisions and start shooting.  Game on....

After loading up with bait, Lloyd and I jumped in the truck with Allen to go look at some active baits that had yet to be hunted.  Beaver Dam, Mile Marker 41, Black Label...Allen pulled his stand from the Point, determined to find action elsewhere.  The Bowl has been cleaned out, bringing back visions of ol' Big'un from the previous night.  By the time we arrived back in camp, all three of us were scratchin our heads with indecision.

The three of us then grabbed a couple of bait buckets and headed over to the boat dock.  It had been a couple of days since I had visited the Cove, and I was still counting on the smallish bear from the first day as my "ace-in-the-hole".  Still, nothing in hunting is (or should be) a guarantee, so my curiousity was piqued as Lloyd pointed the Mariner outboard up the lake.

Once in the cove, Lloyd nosed the boat in to the bank, and Allen and I grabbed bait and a spray bottle and headed off down the trail.  As we approached the bait, we noticed that considerable activity had taken place over the last 24 hours.  The plastic 55-gallon sweets barrel had been completely pulled out of it's crib, and the meat bucket laid off to the side, licked clean.  But the most compelling evidence was a pile of fresh, green bear turds right at the base of the tree where the stand hung.  Had a new bear moved in to the area?  Was the small bear still coming in?  Still, the vision of Big'un at the bowl played in my mind's eye.  I had some real soul-searching to do before the afternoon hunt.

We motored on over to the Moose Tower, which had again been hammered.  Lloyd pulled the card from his gamecam while Allen and I rebaited and sprayed the area down with Miracle Spray.  Back at the boat, we all began to quiz each other about where we would hunt, and kidding each other that we all had some tough decisions.

When we arrived back at the dock, Tom was right there to greet us, asking us how all of the baits had looked.  After listening to the reports, he asked where everyone would be hunting.  I told him that I was riding the fence between the Bowl and the Cove.  I knew that the Bowl had a big bear close by...but would he EVER present a shot to a hunter in the stand?  We talked about the possibility of hanging another stand close by, hoping to fool the big'un to coming to the bait.  Still, I had sat on the Bowl with no sighting other than a cub two days prior.  The Cove had the possiblility of a new bear in the area, and the probability of the smaller bear still using.  Throughout lunch, I struggled with this dilema, running various scenarios past Allen and Tom.  Ultimately, the decison was mine to make;  time to fish or cut bait.  I was taking a boat ride to the Cove.....

[leatherneck]

"The cove it is then"


Got a question; if the bears were always seeing the hunters, then why not put the stands a little higher or in another tree? Just curious. A bear hunt I was on a few years back had permanent stands at them. We hung our stands in other trees and noticed the bears would walk in and look up at the permanent stands. Unless they smelled us in our stands, they never knew we were there. I'm an amateur to say the least when it comes to bear hunting is the reason I ask. So educate me please.

Not to mention that a bear licking my toes from my stand might be enough to make this salty Marines hair on the back of his neck stand up. Not that I would say that publicly or anything.

[Gatekeeper]

Thursday 6/25/09

The feeling of desperation was starting to set in. This day and the next was all that was left to bring a bear home. Once again the 05:00 hour finds me perched in the Bird Stand. The bait was cleaned out from the night before and the game camera’s SD card held pictures of plenty of bear activity. With the bait barrel refilled with sweets and me settled in the morning hunt/wait began.

There I sat for five hours trying to block out the pain in my neck, shoulders, back and butt. I was looking for anything that would divert my attention from my aching body. I would make my self remain in a position for a minimum of 15 minutes and then look around and change to a different position hold and then repeat. I had been following this regiment for the past 4.5 days. Again, I looked to the smaller wildlife in the area for entertainment and to use as a diversion from my aches and pains. Enough time had been spent in this stand that I could identify the Red Squirrel that owned the bait barrel. I could pick him out by the patch of winter coat that still clung to his hind quarters. If he wasn’t eating, he was chasing the other squirrels and chipmunks away from the steel palace that he had staked-out as his own. Of course when he abandoned his post to defend the booty another rodent would slip in and pack their cheeks with the irresistible sugar or skedaddle with a chunk of the pastry gold. At 10:00 I abandoned my roost and headed back to camp for food and a nap.

The four o’clock hour sucked me back into the crib area where I find the bait had not been touched. For this evening’s hunt there were plans to have a honey burn cooking in the crib and a bottle of sow in heat scent was opened in hopes of sending out the smell of love potion #9 to any near by boars.

Shortly after arriving to the crib a storm started rumbling to the northwest. I watched the clouds boiling in the sky and listened to deep clashes and felt the concussion of the storm’s thunder as the storm rolled in the direction where I set cradled in the wilderness that concealed me. As the storm grew closer lighting began to increase and the wind started to howl at the lip of the ridge to my west and northwest. With all the electricity in the air, I reevaluated my position of being in a tree sitting on a metal platform and made the decision to retreat to the forest floor. At 4:20 the front line of the storm had reached me and with the wind, lighting and thunder came the rain. Luckily I left our camp prepare and weathered the rain under the protection of a raincoat and the fletch of the arrows covered by a Ziplock bag. At one point there was a bright flash from a lighting strike followed instantaneously by a blast of thunder that rocked the area I was in and caused me to flinch….that was close! After 45 minutes the storm had passed and the sun was out. The forest glistened and the smell of the spruce needle floor filled the air. The thought that went through my mind was “look out here they come!” This storm should get the bear moving.

At 7:00 o’clock, or close to seven, I was caught flat footed. Out of the wall of vegetation that surrounded the crib a bruins head appears. DAMNIT! It came in silent and now I can’t move. The first thing the bear does is look directly at me. After a pause it paced back and forth to the back right of the bait barrel. This is not a great looking bear but the decision was made way before its appearance that any bear in the crib was targeted for shooting. The bear was 150/160#, had a light tan scared up muzzle and a long lean body with two rub marks on its left side. After pacing back and forth behind the crib the bear worked up the courage, or gave into its desire to eat, and approached the crib area. My breathing and heart rate was starting to increased. The main problem at that moment was my bow was still hanging on the bow holder. The bear approached the crib from the northwest, my front right. During the approach the bear kept one eye on me and one on the bait. Licking its lips while slinking in, it was obvious that hunger was taking precedence over fear. The bear’s body language reminded me of a dog doing something it didn’t want to do or knew to be wrong. Its head was low and its ears were back, wary and ready to bold at any moment the bear continued to ease forward. All the body pains that had fatigue me for the past 4.5 days had vanished and adrenaline was pumping through my veins. My only focus was the bear.

The bear’s approach was very slow, a few steps forward…pause and reverse the steps that were taken. When reversing its steps the bear did something that I had never witness an animal do before, it would back its way out rather than turn around. Turning around would require it to take its eyes off of me and that wasn’t going to happen in such close quarters.

The bear attempted to enter the crib on three occasions with the first two attempts ending in a hasty retreat sending the bear to its pacing area behind the crib. On its third attempt the bear, again approached from the northwest in the same manner as described above but this time it had committed itself to the interior of the crib. Now standing, and having one hand on my bow, I was confident that I was going to be able to free the bow from the hanger and have a chance at shooting the bear. The bear approached the barrel, still tense and ready to bolt at any second, it inched forward continuing to glance at me but determined to bury its muzzle in the pile of sweets. All I needed was it to stick its head in the barrel deep enough to cover its eyes with the lip of the barrel and I could remove the bow from the hook…

With its nose a mere three feet from the barrel all hell breaks loose…that little ****er that had spend every second of every day guarding the bait barrel sprung out from around the outside left of the barrel chasing another squirrel through the crib. This of course made the bear turn inside out and it bolted to the northwest behind the crib. Using this commotion to my advantage I removed the bow from the hook and hooked my fingers on the string. The bear stood broadside to me less than 10 yards away looking directly at me. The only thing between us was a large birch tree, a tree big enough to cover everything except its head and rump. Meanwhile, the little buggards that spooked him decided to climb up the tree I was in and chase each other around the trunk at neck level to me! I could feel the air current that they created and hear their claws raking across the bark as they ran around the tree’s trunk. Naturally the bear’s attention was drawn to this ruckus and I’m sure, equated this disturbance to me. That was it the bear had had enough and decided enough of this crap I’m leaving.

Moments later as I watch the bear disappear in the thick green foliage, I found myself occupying the now quiet crib with one content greedy Red Squirrel until 9:30.

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by leatherneck:
"The cove it is then"


Got a question; if the bears were always seeing the hunters, then why not put the stands a little higher or in another tree? Just curious. A bear hunt I was on a few years back had permanent stands at them. We hung our stands in other trees and noticed the bears would walk in and look up at the permanent stands. Unless they smelled us in our stands, they never knew we were there. I'm an amateur to say the least when it comes to bear hunting is the reason I ask. So educate me please.

Yep…I was starting to think the same thing but never did it. I’m new to bear hunting too. So listening to the guys that have hunted bear before was the best thing I could. Form a bear’s point of view they may see the person in the tree as a subordinate bear and not a threat because they have treed themselves.

Next year, and yes I am going next year, I am going to take my gillie suit and try setting up  in the outer parameters of the crib to see what happens.

[leatherneck]

Man Tom, I thought the shot was on this time. My adrenaline was pumping with yours.

[fatman]

I think that Tom could sense that the mood needed to be lightened a little at this juncture;  after all, even though the hunt was getting serious, there were still a couple of days left, and this is SUPPOSED to be fun.  He started getting everyone fired up and assembled for the traditional Water Shoot out in the bay.  Everyone strung up their bows, and proceeded to the bank of the river.  Some tested their arrows for sea-worthiness, and soon a big blue block of foam was launched to fire at.  After a time, the foam was carried to a distant beach for some long-range launching.  Here's some pics of the festivities:

Gatekeeper launching an arrow (his didn't float)        
   

Kip shootin'
     

Buschie airing out his Hickory Selfbow
   

Fred Bear is rolling in his grave;  Bowdoc shootin' carbon
   

floating target
   

Lloyd at the helm while Allen and Bobby retrieve
   

[d. ward]

I've had many bears spot me on stand and many have tried a bit of intemadating by woofing and pooping thier teeth at me but thats kind of the up close and personal and I love it.That adds an element to the hunt like no other.They seem to know when we're there mostly I believe because when the baiting is being done and we lieve the sight.There is little if any smell of the thermacell's buring and stinking up the area.When a bear goes around and around your bait sight 10-20 times you can bet his nose is keeping him away rather then actually sighting us.bd

[meathead]

Nice bear Tom.  Fill us in on the details.

[Blue Monday]

Hey Bowdoc, Looks like you smoked em like a nickle cigar! Bill was there a plan to give Matty and I some new tattoos on our faces? I will have to no doze next year. Sleepy

[Gatekeeper]

Friday 6/26/09

This is the last day to hunt. I was a little discouraged and kicking myself for not shooting at the bear I saw on the first night…but that’s hind sight. We could all make perfect decisions if we knew what the future held.

I slept in this day and hunted in the afternoon. I didn’t see any point in going out because I had not had any bear sighting in the A.M. throughout the whole week so my hunt started at 3:30. I hitched a ride with Allen for my last sit on the Bird Stand and as Kevin has described Allen drives his truck like he stole it. As we bounce our way down camp road, road 10 and the bait road Allen and I discuss the possibility that bears that don’t commit to his site (Moose Path) may turn and come to mine and vice versa, because the baits are fairly close together.

At 3:30 my final night of bear hunting began. Before climbing into the stand I retrieve the SD card from the game camera and guess what…. There was bear activity from 05:00 until 08:00 that morning. I came close to falling on an arrow at that point. These bears had me figured out!

From 3:30 until 9:00 there was no activity and then a little after nine I heard sticks breaking and things being turned over to the north (right) of me. This really perked me up! There was still time for something to happen. There was 30 minutes of shooting light left. I thought how cool would it be to arrow a last minute bear but unfortunately my hopes were snuffed-out with the fading light and so began the final retreat from The Bird Stand with the stand in my hands.

6.5 days of bear hunting, 52 hours spent in a treestand, eight sightings of bear, six very close encounters, two cute first year cubs under my stand, three opportunities to shoot, a camp full of traditional bow hunters and new friends made across this country. I would be hard pressed to say this hunt was a failure. I have never considered any of my hunts failures or a waste of time. If I was guaranteed a kill when I go out the thrill of the hunt would be lost and the experience of a guaranteed kill would make me a poser.   I may have come home empty handed but I am richer from the entire experience and I’m looking forward to the challenge of next year.


Congratulation to all of my fellow Bear Questers and many, many thanks to Tom Phillips and his crew for providing such a great hunt to any Trad Gang member that signs up. The amount of work that goes into this hunt is daunting but Tom and his crew go at it head first and make it look easy. Thanks Tom this was one of the best experiences that I have ever had and I look forward to seeing you next year at Bear Quest IV!


Oh…for anyone that thinks hunting over bait is easy…        spend 52 hours in a treestand and then tell me what you think. I must confess I use to think that way but Quebec University enlightened me on this subject.

Kevin…you have done an excellent job at telling your story! What the hell is going on! Bowdoc is shooting carbon arrows out of foreign made bows and Kevin is using a camera and writing stories…the world must be coming to an end!

[Kip]

Yea bowdoc I sang like a canary b/c I knew you could take it and also b/c we all saw you were really concerned about damanging Allen's property (by accident) and quickly talking to him about it.With all that wiry leather exterior we all know you are a pussycat at heart.You have my utmost respect.Kip

[Curveman]

Great story telling! Having a context in which to put them in (having hunted the Point, Bowl, Long Trail etc.) it really does give me even more of a feeing of actually being there for the two weeks instead of the one! What a bonus!

I should mention that ye olde bowdoc who I love dearly, stated that if I could hit the foam (that was now on the beach diagonally on the other side of the river), he would strip down and swim across and get it for me! Well I sent my arrow in a nice arc only to hit the tree it was resting by. The arrow came down in a straight arc heading for the bullseye only to hit a branch and fall flat on the target! Tom said it was good enough to have bd take a swim anyway but bd was clearly already shriveling up like a spider on a frypan so I didn't have the heart to send him!      

[fatman]

Lloyd had decided to sit the Moose Tower again, but was planning on going out later.  After the water shoot, I had spent some time at the range practicing my 5-10 yard shot, then changed to my hunting clothes.  I was gnawing on the woodwork, ready to go, so I talked Tom and Bobby in to running me out to the Cove.  Tom grabbed a small bait bucket, we'd do the two-in, one-out trick at the stand...

Barnacle Bob got the boat headed up the lake, into the cooling breeze, and we soon turned the bow of the boat into the mouth of the Cove.  At the back of the bay, Tom and I hopped out of the boat and slipped up the trail to the bait.  Tom waited until I got settled in to the seat, then tossed a few sweets into the barrel and sprinkled some on the ground.  He spritzed a little Miracle Spray on the surrounding trees, gave me the "thumbs-up", and headed back to the boat, banging the bucket on random trees along the way.  Presently, I heard the outboard fire up and motor on back to the main lake, where it revved up on plane and back to camp.  I was left with the song of the birds, the chatter of the squirrels, and the constant hum of the mosquitoes and flies...

Settled in, bow across my lap, arrow on the string.  Five hours 'til dark.  Breeze in my face.  Rain predicted for tomorrow.  This was the night, the green light was on.....

[d. ward]

Oh yeah did I forget to mention Uncle Barry left a huge tip for the bowdoc this year ? I been smiling from ear to ear ever since I got home..Thanks U.B. you made this hunt the best trip ever.bd