TradGang Bear Quest # 4 2010' Unpacking & Wheels are Turnin for BQ # 5 JUNE 2011'

[Matty]

Ha! Tom Thats awesome! What an observation...Good Job Birddog!!

[Missouri CK]

Brandon,

Good post I enjoyed the read. You hit the nail on the head about getting out and making it happen.  Everytime I start planning a hunt their are always things that come up that make me think it might be wiser to put it off or cancel.  Life is short and a person needs to make memories while they still can. All those memories will be great to relive when we are 80 years old. The only way you get like some of these sage vets is by doing it.  Sounds like you had a great time.  Congrats!  Got any pictures?  Would love to see them.

[Herdbull]

Chirs I posted a few pictures I had of Brandan and his bear I think on page 40 or 41. Mike

[d. ward]

Fred not the 5 hour energy in the little orange bottle ?????? yikes man I bet you were wired for sound I'd loved to have seen that bd

[Greyfox54]

The 6th day I sat in the grouper stand most of the morning seeing nothing . I went back to camp for lunch and to check the footage on the trailcam . 3 smaller bears were on night pics and 2 were there at daybreak . That night I decided I would have to choose which of the rubbed bears would make a decent shoulder mount . I sat in the tree enjoying life when a small bear came in with pretty good hair about 6:30 It came in but didn't give me a good shot and left . An hour later a bigger bear showed up but you could almost count the hairs on his side . I wrestled with myself over the shot long enough for him to get his fill and leave . I thought as usual I would regret not shooting as soon as he left but this time I just felt relaxed . That's weird for me . I had borrowed a smudge of "sow in heat " gel from Mike Mitten and placed some on a leaning pole in front of my stand . I noticed that the wind had shifted and was blowing from me to the lure so I got out of the tree and moved it off to the side a little . About 8:30 I was startled to see a good bear sneaking in on my left . He came to the pole that had the lure on it and sniffede it up and down apparently not concerned about my presence . At this point my pulse rate is in overedrive . He walks away from me and goes around behind me and comes out on the other side . I watched him walk under my stand through the grateing , which was only 6' off the ground , and return to the pole and sniff again . He made the mistake of crossing in front of me past the bait to the new lure location when I could control myself no longer and shot him slightly quartering away . He was 10' from the stand and if that doesn't make you sit up and pay attention then you're probably dead .I thought the shot was a little far back but the bear found out otherwise . He ran at top speed crashing through the thick brush for about 80 - 90 yards and let out a long bawl . I thought he was fooling me into thinking he was dead so I would follow him . I waited aboutg 15 minutes and with darkness coming on fast I moseyed over to where I last heard him . Thick trees and 4' high ferns left visibility about 6' . I decided to go back to camp and get some dinner and help , I was drained . Be right back , Fred

[Marty]

Fred- hurry up or I'll finish your story for you! I was there and you're killin me!

[Greyfox54]

Upon ariving in camp I found out I wasn't the only lucky guy , Bill Langer shot a brute as did Tom Porter and Barry shot a good one . After a hurried dinner of I forget what , even though it was very good , Barry decided to take up his trail in the morning and Bill went after his bear with his gang . Tom Porter said he saw his bear go down so finding it wasn't an issue . He said we could help each other get them out , we enlisted Brandan whoi was as excited as we were . Best move of the night , Brandan may say he never hunted bears before but he is a natural at dragging them out . We found Tom's bear easily enough and had a nice drag out on the trail, Tom put an excellant shot on his bear it not going 40 yards . Aftewr getting the bear loaded we headed for my stand which is about 19 miles away . We walked into my stand and got some compass headings for the road as the woods are thick and it gets dark up there . The moon being only a sliver . I could only see the bear run about 30 yards but heard him go about 85 yards . We walked to where I thought I last heard him and we spread out doing a slow cautious search . After about 15 minutes I thought we wandered a little too far off so we took a compass heading and went back to the trail . We again enter the stand site and this time I climbed up into the stand and directed Tom and Brandan to where I last heard the bear by directing them by their flashlights . I then told them to wait there and I came to where they were and noting the location of the stand in relation to where they were we headed out again  about 15 yards apart .  I only took a couple steps and there he was ! 8 inches of my cedar arrow was sticking out of his side and upon pulling it out found it to be undamaged . The boar is a brute , my best so far with a logger-head . We dragged and pulled the bear to the trail and loaded him into the truck arriving back at camp at 1:30 am . Everyone was asleep be we were so fired up we weighed them and went to sleep . I have to find some pics , Fred

[Guru]

Congrats Fred        

[Marty]

Here's a good picture of Fred and his bucket headed bear! Had a great time with you Fred and you are my hero too! Great bear and we all met friends we didn't know we had!

[tippit]

I had planned on using a friend's selfbow and Benjy's tonkin cane arrow with a 300 gr tippit head.  I had to leave the selfbow home as I couldn't get consistent right to left flight from it.  Monday came and it looked like rain,  I chose to leave the cane arrow in camp.  Being longer than my carbon arrows, it didn't fit under a rain shield on my three arrow Eagles Flight quiver. I had made up a carbon team tippit arrow too, so if I got a chance it would be my ammo.

I was in stand around 3 pm and there didn't seem to be any activity around the bait site same as the day before.  I didn't bother to take my card out of my trail camera...mistake #1! The weather changed with some wind and a little rain but it cleared fairly quickly.  At 6pm I saw a large bear come out from the swamp of the beaver pond.  He was about 50 yards behind the bait and limping on his left front leg.  As soon as he hit the main trail, he took off on a dead run...no limp now.  This seems to be the norm for me anyway, you see a bear then it runs away doing that same scenario 3-4 times before they feel confident to come into the bait.  I figured I see he again in an hour or so.

At 7:30 there he was appearing like a silent ghost...course having poor hearing everything in the woods is like a silent ghost     He hit the main trail, but this time he came right into the bait with No Hesitation.  It was so fast I couldn't even turn my camcorder on.  Picking up my bow and he was 4-5 yards right underneath me.  He looked as big as last years Mr Big.  He completely dwarfed the 55 gallon bucket.  Everything was just instinct from that point on.  My arrow hit him a little further back in the rib cage and a little high...but I was 6 feet above him and the shot was angling slightly quartering away.  It wasn't a pass through so that worried me.  Plus I didn't hear a death moan...but he'd have to be within 20 yards for me to hear that!

I waited a 1/2 hour to get down and retrieve my trail camera card.  Getting back in the stand, I viewed the pictures of him coming in.  There were three of them but when he turned toward the barrel, it was so fast that no pictures were recorded of the shot moment.

Looking at the rest of my trail camera card,  there were multiple pictures of some other Big Bears on the bait.  It seems that the boars were checking the bait sites more for sows in heat rather than food.  I decided to slip out and not disturb any other bears...Doc

Here he is on trail camera just before my shot.  I never reset my date and time from deer season sorry...


   

 

 

Here's why I decided to leave the bait undisturbed.  None of these were the bear I had just shot bear.  Look at the size of those Bear Butts!  They completely obscure that 55 gallon barrel.

 

 


 

[Whip]

Oh man it's hard to read this stuff!  Sounds like a great time had once again in the wilds of Quebec.  
Great stories so far, but I know there is more to come.  Out with it boys!  

[Greyfox54]

Mike I really enjoyed your company in camp , you don't always get to hunt with bowhunting legends like You , Barry and Marty . When I stop getting excited about the animals I take I will know it is time to hang up my bow . Hope it never happens . I consider it my priviledge to be there and really apreciate everyone who was in camp this past week .Tom has no equal and Paul took over Bowdocs job in fine style . By the way BD it was the little red ones and they do work ,you don't need them , missed you . Every day was exciting , helping Tom ,Jeff and Bill find Jeff's bear was worth the trip alone . Bill and Darryl had some tough luck but enjoyed themselves all the same .The trip home with Mike was an adventure in itself , but that's another story . I'll give some of the other guys some time , Fred

[Big Ed]

Fred,Congrats on a fine bear!!!

[bill langer]

Great job again Fred! Thanks for letting me help skin your bear. Good times!!
-Bill

[fatman]

Great Googley Moogley!

Them's some big barr's, Jeff!   :eek:

[Herdbull]

With bears like that in the area, you can see why I wasn't in a hurry to fill my tag. Oh that's right I didn't fil it! Ha! Ha! I had a very excellent time!

[Greyfox54]

Thanks BigEd and Bill it's guys like you that make BQ special , everyone pitches in and helps others . I was wore out and appreciated your help more than I let on . Now we have to share a camp again so I can return the favor . Thanks Marty for posting pic of my bear as I may talk fast but I am slow as heck on this computer . 2 finger typing takes time but the fact that it's called "hunt and peck " makes it alright by me . Brandan had said he wasn't sure if he would fit in , well the attitude everyone brought along with them made for a perfect fit . I figure that when I get old I don't want to think of all the jobs I've done or sit around and count all the money I saved by not going on these hunts . heck we ain't standing in line waiting for donuts ! This is life ! God created the outdoors to enjoy and I don't want to dissapoint him by not taking time to appreciate them . You can't go wrong with Bearquest , Solana Ranch , The Piggigs or other hunts with Tradgangers . You will meet the greatest people and have the best times . If your sitting on a fence thinking about going on any hunt or standing on the sidelines watching I can only hope you make the right choice , you will have to live with it . My thoughts , Fred

[wapitimike1]

With out a doubt the best hunting camp I've ever shared. It was great hunt with good action. A laugh a minute with good food and good folks thrown in.
 Let me know Fred when your headen that way again the ride with your "what's in your pockets" storys I'm still laughing at.
I wish I could post some of these game cam pics. You'd get to see the bucket head I missed out on!!
I wish I had more time in life to go on more of these Trad Gang adventures. They truely are the best!

[tippit]

As I stated earlier, I had one Lucky 24 hours.

1) Shot a very big bear in fact it would be the biggest bear ever shot in Tom's camp over the past 21 years!

2) There was no blood trail.  Bill Kissner & Susie, Fred, Tom, I  hiked to the top of a mountain as Suzie was was on bear trails but couldn't key into my bear.  Tom made a last minute detour as Fred & I were headed back to get Bill at the bait sight.  He stumbled upon him.  He had gone about 150 yards. Thanks guys    He got a great kick out of cleaning the bones better than me...but I got a lot of free work from him!

Pierre & I showing off each other cleaned bear shoulders  

 

[tippit]

Last post on Mr Bigger...than last year's Mr Big    

This was a very emotional hunt for me.  This was the first time I took my father with me after he passed away.  He was my Best friend & hunting partner.  Even when he couldn't hunt in this late 80's, he would wait for us to get out of the woods just to be part of the hunt.  I had a few of his ashes put aside so I could share my hunts and have his help in scouting.  

Who knows, he may have even whispered in Tom's ear the location of Mr Bigger's final resting area    

Now I take a few of his ashes in a leather pouch and leave them with the Spirit of my fallen prey...Doc