I'm still a little rummy from the trip and long hours. It doesn't get dark until around 10 PM up there and gets light about 4:20 AM. The long hours are tough for a guy like me who wears hard contact lens, especially with the high pollen count and smokey air from all the Canadian forest fires. I'll go on record saying this was one of my all-time favorite hunts..ever The group in camp could not have been a better bunch of guys. Everyone got along great and everyone helped each other. Another GREAT job by Tom Phillips. Thank you Tom! It doesn't get any better. I frankly don't know where to start. This is my fourth Bear Quest in a row. Tom was kind enough to let me sit the Resurrection Stand for some "unfinished business" from previous years. I won't drag this out but in a nutshell I'm a pretty picky guy. I passed up a total of 28 bears on this hunt waiting for the big guy. He circled downwind once on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, ran other bears off and never came out of the thick stuff. Thursday Mike Mitten graciously offered me some James Valley Sow-In-Heat gel. I painted a branch straight upwind of his previous approach path in hopes he'd hit it before he hit my scent stream. It worked. At 7:32 PM he came in. He was the seventh bear I saw that day.. number 29 that week. Per usual I never heard him approach. When I first saw him he was at 12 yards sniffing the gel. He caught me sitting with the bow hung up. I waited him out. After he stepped through the first opening I got standing and my bow in hand. As I was trying to turn on the camcorder he looked up and saw me, turned and started to leave. I had the choice of filming him and not shooting, or shooting and not getting him on film. I chose door #2 knowing if I didn't shoot (he'd already seen me) he'd swing downwind, smell me and I'd lose my only opportunity. He was standing perfectly broadside at about 13 yards not looking at me. At the shot the shaft appeared to hit him absolutely perfect right behind the shoulder. It blew completely through him and stuck in the dirt on the far side. All I can say is my mind's eye saw it hit no more than two inches higher than if you placed it in by hand. He crashed off into what I refer to as a "death run". I watched him run for maybe 25yds. from entry, then all was quiet. Because I didn't hear a death bawl I played it safe and remained in the stand for a half hour. My arrow shaft was stuck in the ground and literally drenched with bright red blood. I'm not talking smears I'm talking an arrow that looked like you dipped it in a bucket of blood. But because I didn't see an immediate blood trail I decided to again play it safe and back out. Back at camp we made the decision to wait until morning. Because I was seeing so many bears I offered to take Daryl in to sit my stand until 9AM. Then "the crew" would show up, we'd track my bear and have tons of help getting him out, etc. By 9-ish Daryl had already passed up two bears. Now comes the part none of us can explain. It just doesn't seem physiologically possible when compared to what I witnessed. Starting from a blood-saked/drenched arrow thirteen experienced bowhunters and a tracking dog looked for a total of THIRTY man-hours and we never found a single drop of blood. Not a pin-head, not a smear... absolutely nothing. We gridded off the entire area and systematically tried to cover every square foot... absolutely nothing. You guys tell me.. I have no explanation. It just doesn't make any sense. Obviously something freak happened that I/we can't explain. Not just the loss of such a great animal, but the fact I didn't learn anything from the experience really bothers me. If a person screws up and one can capitalize on a mistake for future reference, it could painfully be chalked up as a learning experience. But the fact is if I had the entire experience to do over again I would not have done a thing differently. I want to thank everyone for the extreme effort that was put forth to try to recover my bear. I can walk away knowing we put in a 100% effort but it still hurts knowing I failed. And for that I truly apologize. I guess it's one of those things I can't eplain. Thank you all again for your help and friendships. It was an honor hunting with you guys. BW
Topic: TradGang Bear Quest # 4 2010' Unpacking & Wheels are Turnin for BQ # 5 JUNE 2011' (Read 56647 times)
