My last 5 black bear hunts have come down to the last minute of the last day before I took the bear I wanted. 2013 would be no different. We had returned the last happy bear hunters to the airport, a father and 15 year old son team that had both taken good bears on their first bear hunt. I had not planned to hunt this year but with two full evenings to hunt after closing down our bear camp,I knew that I had plenty of time to take a bear so I decided to go for it.
I decided that I would only shoot a great bear and on video or I would go home empty handed. I would be removing our equipment from the remote baits so I just went to the end of the string and set up a ground blind. I still had a buddy/assistant guide hunting so I put him at the hottest bait. I went to my stand, baited the barrel and drove the truck about a 1/4 mile away. I took my black widow with me for the walk back into the bait site. I just had a feeling that I would need it.
As I turned the corner at the bait site, I was relieved that the bears were not there yet. I relaxed for a moment and knelt down to pick up some gear when I noticed a decent boar at 15 yards. I nocked an arrow as I sized him up. I then reminded myself that no video=no bear so I gave him a deep "woof" and he melted back into the thick cover. I knew he would return. I got the blind set up and it was just a few minutes before a string of medium boar and sows rolled into the bait at 10 yards. One big sow tried to stick her head into the blind. They were good bears but with a full day left to hunt I decided to wait for a great bear.
The last day I decided to move my buddy to where I had hunted the night before. This was his first trad hunt and I desperately wanted him to score. He had arrowed a good bear a few days earlier but the arrow had passed above the lungs doing no real harm. We had seen and videoed the bear a couple of times over the next couple days and he was doing fine.
I decided to hunt a bait where a GIANT sow had given a couple of hunters the slip. I had also caught her on trail cam with a big boar in tow. She seemed to always fade just out of tradbow range so I silently slid in and placed a portable stand where she would not expect me to be. It was a beautiful but quite uneventful sit for 4 hours. As darkness started to set in, I pulled my old Black Widow from the bow hanger and turned to where I felt the bear would appear. A state of absolute calm seemed to come over me and I became 100% sure the bear would show within seconds. At that exact moment, I heard the slightest sound of a distant chipmunk announcing the bears approach.
The bear appeared like black smoke and was incredibly cautious. I eased on the video camera and waited as the bear took a full five minutes to move five yards. There were numerous marginal shot opportunities but it would be the perfect shot or nothing. I could clearly tell that this was a sow and I continued to look down her back trail for a boar but none showed. I was stunned at the size of this sow. It was clearly the same big girl that I had gotten well over 200 pictures and trailcam videos of over the last few weeks. She had a head like a pumpkin.
At one point she looked at me as only a giant bear can do. She then turned to walk away but paused at 14 yards. I bore down on the string and concentrated on hitting her off shoulder. The arrow with the big white fletch suddenly appeared right where I was looking. She roared, stumbled a bit and then tore off into a jungle of head high and very thick ferns. She made it less than 40 yards and popped her teeth 2-3 time before giving a death moan. The big Steelforce 150 head had given that old bear an honorable and quick death.
I crawled into the jungle in near darkness and found her piled up next to an ancient spruce tree. I wondered how many time she had walked under the tree.
She was an absolutely beautiful animal and wore double ear tags that told me she had been a trouble maker at some point in her very long life. I look forward to reporting the tags and finding out her history. In my more than 35 years of bear hunting experience, she was the biggest sow I had ever taken.
The next morning had us skinning and packing up the 2013 bear camp gear. It had been a great season but we were flat out wore down. Still, all we could talk about as we left that wilderness was getting back to bear camp in 2014. Man I already miss that place.
The video is a great one and I will try and produce it along with a full review of a great season as soon as possible.
Topic: Last Minute Bear- Russell Outdoor Guides (Read 681 times)
