Wow! If I would have had any more fun, I would have been arrested.
I didn't bag a bear, but what a blast!!
I drew the Mile Marker 41 stand, but like Matty, I decided to take it easy and catch up on some rest the first night. Here's a summary of my week.
Sunday: I saw a sow and a little cub and then a big boy kept circling and approaching the bait, but would not commit. He was grunting and popping his jaws the whole time. I must admit my you know what was a little puckered when I got down from my stand.
Monday: A nasty thunderstorm rolled in and chased me out of the stand early with no sightings.
Tuesday: Again no sightings, but the bait was hit hard.
Wednesday: I borrowed Paul's trail cam and put it up. At 9:05 pm I was looking down one trail, but when I turned my head back around a big bear sneaked in on me and was only about 2 yards behind the bait. I started to reach for the string and got busted and away it went back up the trail.
Thursday: A couple other guys checked my bait and pulled the sd card from the trail cam while I was out helping recover another hit bear. Turns out that 21 minutes after I left my stand Wednesday night, the big bear was back. There were actually two big bears hitting the bait. So although I wasn't getting many sightings of bears, I decided to "go big or go home" and opted to stick things out at the MM41 stand.
Thursday night was basically a repeat of Wednesday night with a big bear coming down the same trail at 9:15 pm, but this time I was ready and saw it coming. My fingers were already on the string, but for some reason, it got to the same spot as it did the previous night and then bolted back up the trail. I have no idea why. When I told Tom I had a repeat of the previous night, he said we were gonna change things up to try to fool this guy. Maybe it was patterning me and maybe it knew to look at the stand before committing to the bait?????
Friday: Tom and I checked the bait and it was hit hard again. We checked the trail cam and again there were two big bears on it after I had left. So we left the stand where it was and added a new stand thinking that the bear(s) may look at the original stand and seeing nobody in it would then commit to the bait and not notice me in my new ambush spot. We re-baited and put a satellite pile of bait outside of the drum in a good shooting lane from the new stand.
Friday night: Tom loaded me up with everything under the sun to bring a bear in - honey burn, bacon burn, marsh mellows, etc. Perched in my new stand, things were the same as every other night of the week with lots of squirrels and hares running around while I waited for daylight to fade. Then about 9:10 a big bear began approaching from the trail opposite to where it normally came from. It started toward the bait, got directly behind me, but then turned around and backed out. It was pacing around, but then finally came back, and walked the trail behind me directly to the bait and I was so far unnoticed. It turned and started eating the satellite bait pile, but the way it was standing put it somewhat quartering towards me and I didn't feel comfortable attempting a shot. I kept thinking "turn damn it, turn!" After a couple minutes of feeding it finally turned and put its front leg forward offering my shot opportunity. I started to draw and got to about half way when it's head popped up, looked around quickly, and then it took off. Busted again!!!! So close!!!
I climbed down a few minutes later as my shooting light disappeared. It was disappointing that I didn't get a shot, but heck, I got all the thrill of drawing on a big bear without the work that comes after it - LOL. That was well worth the price of admission. I started packing out my gear and Tom and Paul showed up to help me take down and carry out the two tree stands.
What a great week! Made some new friends, had many laughs, had some close encounters with some big bears, and enjoyed the deep conversations with Bowdoc.
I'll definitely be heading back. Maybe not next year, but soon.
TOM - THANK YOU FOR PUTTING ON SUCH A GREAT HUNT FOR ALL OF US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm sure some of the successful week 2 hunters will be chiming in with some stories, so I won't mention who killed what.
Topic: 2016' Trad-Gang Bear Quest "A Successful GREAT TIME" with plenty of BEAR ACtion (Read 11173 times)
