Well my adventure started on the 9th when I pointed the truck north and headed out of the balmy flat lands of Miami. I took my time getting to Tippit’s on Friday morning with a couple of stops along the way one of which was Cabela’s in Connecticut. Once I got to Jeff’s I was met by his wife Molly who was just coming in from a ride on her horse. For the next hour I learned more about horses than I have over the last 45 years (lots of grooming involved). I finally met Jeff when he returned from the airport with Tom Porter. The rest of the day quickly turned into a blur as we shot some arrows, toured Jeff’s expansive bow collection, had dinner, and loaded up for the overnight ride to La Tuque. We drew straws and I ended up with Marty for the ride up…it’s a good thing he talks in his sleep cause it’s the only thing that kept me awake for the 10 hour ride.
Once settled at camp we got to draw for our stand location, I drew the Grouper. Being from Florida I thought it appropriate. The groups broke up and we set out to get familiar with the stands and re-bait them. The Saturday afternoon hunt was out of the question for me, being up for 36 hours was just too much. Sunday was a different story, refreshed I headed out with Paul V. to bait and begin my schooling for bear hunting. I thought that living in South Florida and spending quit a bit of time tossing out chum would give me an edge with the bait stench, but nothing can prepare you for the smell of rotting fish sealed in a bucket full of water and left to ferment in the sun…insert gag reflex here.
Sunday afternoon came and I got my gear together and headed to the Grouper. At first I was a bit apprehensive walking in thinking that every shadow held a bear waiting to pounce, I guess it wasn’t a good idea to have seen THE EDGE just before leaving Miami. Once I got to the stand I settled in and began to enjoy the sights and smells, well maybe not the smells. The squirrels kept me entertained for most of the afternoon as each jockeyed for position in the bait barrel playing their version of King of the Hill. About 7:00pm I was broken out of a squirrel induced trance by sticks breaking to my left. When I looked over my right shoulder I could see a bear coming in about 25 yards out. The nerves kicked in and I did my best to relax. The bear came right over to my stand and stood just 6 feet below me looking straight up at me. Not knowing what to expect I kept the bear in my peripheral vision. It stared for what seemed to be a long time and then it started to head behind my stand. By this time I had relaxed a bit when it turned around and pretended to head towards the bait. I say pretended cause I think it was testing me to see if I’d move. Every few steps it would jerk its head around to try and catch me moving. Half way to the bait it headed off to the left away from the barrel and I thought ”that’s it I blew it”, but then it stopped did the head jerk to look back at me and I guess it was satisfied that I wasn’t anything to worry about cause it headed straight to the barrel.
I’ve been trying to recall what happened after this point and I can’t remember. I can’t remember if I was sitting or standing, I don’t remember lifting my bow, I don’t remember pulling on the string, and I definetly don’t remember letting go. (I think Marty said I had gone on autopilot). The bear’s growl brought me back to what had just happened. I saw my arrow buried to the fletch in the bear as it bolted to the right. It ran no more than 10 yards bounced into a sapling then another then it just fell to the ground and let out its death moan. It took me a few minutes to gather myself and I kept asking myself if the bear was done. After about 15 minutes I decide to get down and check. Sure enough it was down for good. All this played out in a matter of 15-20 minutes. Not the biggest bear, but I was extremely happy and excited my first big game kill with a trad bow and my first bear.
Now the story doesn’t quite end there. I dragged the bear to my truck tied it down and headed for camp. I had to go about 9 miles on the rough main road that about another 5-6 miles on the rougher camp road before I made it back to camp. When I got to camp Paul and Tom were in the cabin and were surprised to see me back so early, I eagerly let them know that I had gotten one, but when we headed to the back of the truck imagine my surprise when the bear was not there. Wish I had a picture of the look on my face! Apparently in my haste I didn’t secure the bear as well as I should have and it decided to exit the vehicle somewhere between the stand and camp. Luckily we found the bear waiting for us about 4 miles from camp. Here it is…
What I learned about bear hunting and TradGang:
• You can take a group of people from different walks of life and everyone can get along
• You don’t know that you’ve been bitten by black flies until it’s too late.
• The french word for ice is glace
• Marty is quick with a reply
• Barry is a great story teller
• Mike O can tell a joke and he has a great selection of bumper stickers
• Tom can run a camp
• Don’t shoot the first bear that comes out cause then you end up looking at Brandon for the rest of the week.
• The most important tidbit of info Paul gave me was that bears deflate like a balloon once they are pricked; boy did I learn that one.
I will definitely be back.
I gotta thank Brian Wessel for making a great bow and offering some great advice. I also have to thank Terry Barker OneShot-OneKill for helping me tune the bow by sending me a bunch of arrows to try out. Hope to see you out there next year Terry!
Topic: TradGang Bear Quest # 4 2010' Unpacking & Wheels are Turnin for BQ # 5 JUNE 2011' (Read 55906 times)
