Humble Misses "share"

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Mike Foss
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Humble Misses "share"

Unread postby Mike Foss » Fri Apr 18, 2014 2:16 am

My humble bear video miss in Saskatchewan has got me thinking!!! Most on here, we see and hear the success stories. What about your misses and heart ache stories....What is yours?


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Re: Humble Misses "share"

Unread postby dan » Mon Apr 21, 2014 1:25 pm

I am fortunate to have gotten 7 out of 8 bears I shot at... The one I did not get I hit in the front shoulder and he took me for quite the trip tracking him thru one of the biggest thickest dense dark swamps I have ever been in. Being in true wilderness alone several miles from the nearest road with just a compass made me worry a little...

The one that hurt the most was not mine though, it was one my son James shot while we were hunting with Mike Foss in Northern Wisconsin. We had passed the bear a dozen times or so waiting for a big one that was coming in. James was sick and coughing bad, but what you going to do when you wait 8 years for a tag? Go home?
Anywho, after spooking the big bear that snuck up a ridge to our tree and then crashed off, and with our hunt coming to an end, James decided he would take the smaller average sized bear. The shot looked good, but the bear got away and was never found... James took that loss to heart, and I am still trying to talk him into giving it another try.
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Bearman13
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Re: Humble Misses "share"

Unread postby Bearman13 » Tue Apr 22, 2014 4:40 am

Mine was two seasons ago. It was second week of October and all my clients had killed out by the third week of September. By law I had to drop those baits so I could legally have 6 for me. 3 on hunting tag and 3 on guides license. I ran 4 baits and one I had just started in a thick pine plantation that bordered a tamarack swamp up against the bwca.

The bait got hit by a 300 ish dressed size bear which is right what I was looking for. I'll back up and say I believe I had quite a few sits in without seeing anything on two of those four baits.

So the new bait gets hit I slipped in and hung a lone wolf hang on stand. Baited Nd got out of there. The next night after work I slipped in and baited and lit a scent stick. Which was the first big mistake. The next was I forgot my safety harness. Once you fall you won't hunt without one. So no big deal I've shot about 4 bear just sitting on the ground turkey style in he past.

So I settle in about 5 or so and I was so comfortable I fell asleep on and off. It was about an hour or less before dark and I could see a monster coming through the pines on this hill a hundred or more yards away and he was following this old game path down right to the bait. I had a rifle and I was actually gonna take the shot it would have been clear and clean.

So I just got ready for him to pop up at the bait. After about 10 minutes I thought where the is he? My heart was still racing. But I don't get nervous anymore but my heart pumps.
I then realized with horror the wind switched and that dang scent stick was blowing in my face now as a front was making its way over the hills.

I waited and waited scanning and I knew that scent had screwed me when all of a sudden a heard a stick break. I knew he was behind me and couldn't see me up against this huge pine tree. I slowly turned and saw him looking at bait and smelling the scent stick. I raised my gun slowly spun around and instantly was shocked by his size so much so it seemed like 30 seconds but was prolly three seconds before I shot at him.

It hit him he barreled rolled and roared and took of like a bat out of . I waited about 5 minutes and walked over. Blood and fat all over. I knew I hit him high. It was getting dark I was about a half mile walk into the bait. I ribboned the blood trail for quite always thru he nastiest crap ever. He actually went back the way he came.

I made the decision to back out and comeback in am. It rained that night but the blood was still ok in that mess. I followed him for about 1-2 hours right into the b-dub. Used about a roll of ribbon. He ran up hill not a good sign. And I could tell he was clotting up as less and less blood.

So I left for lunch. I actually went looking for him a couple more times that week and to see if raven were flying as that's a dead give away to a dead animal. I went a little deeper in the brush and looked and never saw sign of the old boy.

Still bugs me to this day. It's the only bear I've shot and never recovered. And I've shot a lot of bears. I didn't bait that bait this year so I don't have a clue if he made it. I'm sure he did.

He was 500 for sure if not 600 on the paw. I've seen a lot of bears killed a lot and guided on some big kills. Most outside a few people know what a true bruiser looks like.

I skinned and quartered a lot of bears and only a couple time have I found broad heads. Never any lead except birdshot in between the skin and fat. Usually around the head area.

Anyway that's my story. And I wish I wasn't sticking to it.

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Schultzy
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Re: Humble Misses "share"

Unread postby Schultzy » Thu Apr 24, 2014 4:27 am

It was back in 1991, I was 17 years old. It was my 3rd year bear hunting. The evening before my brother shot his 1st bear ever. He was 14 years old. Anyhow my brother wanted to sit with me in hopes to see me shoot a bear. At 4:30ish we took off in the truck and a few miles before arriving to where we walk in to hunt a hunter is in the middle of the road waving his hands for me to stop. I stopped and this hunter was a mess. He said he shot a monster bear with his bow. Before he got a shot off he said the bear was chopping its teeth at him below his stand. He said he was a nervous wreck. Finally he got a shot off but didn't know where he hit him. He said he then got down and ran as fast as he could to the road. lol! He asked me if I would give him a ride to a certain town being the bear guide had dropped him off just 45 minutes prior. I didn't want to as I didn't want to be late but this guy was a mess so I figured it was the best thing to do.

Well the town he wanted to go to was 30 minutes away. So yeah I got out late after getting him to where he wanted to go. It was 6:00 when my brother and I started the 3/4 mile walk to the bait. I was leading the way crawling up a steep crick bank. Our bait was just west of this crick bank 30 yards. Just as I got to the top of the bank it sounded like a bulldozer taking off through the woods. I stopped dead in my tracks and told my brother I'd bet my last dollar that we just scared the bear away from the bait. I was ticked off!! It was way to thick to actually see the bear. After putting some treats on the bait and covering the bait back up with logs that the bear just opened up in the tree we went. Maybe 30 minutes later I tell my brother I hear a bear coming from the west. Sure enough here comes this barrel of a bear. I knew he was big but wasn't sure how big being it was only my 3rd year of bear hunting. Anyhow he hit the bait but didn't give me a decent shot at the time. He then back tracked our tracks to the tree we were in and decided he wanted to investigate this blob up in the tree. He crawled up our tree 4 different times. The seat my brother was sitting in was creaking. He was shaking like a leaf. I had my hand on him trying to keep him calm. The tree we were in was a huge basswood tree. It had to be at least 4 feet in diameter. You couldn't see around the back of the tree. The one time the bear crawled up the back of the tree behind us. To this day my brother swears up and down he felt his camo pants press against his leg. The bear had to have been smelling his leg. Anyhow his last trip up the tree he got with in a foot of my stand right below me. I could see the sparkle in his eye's and could hear every little breath he took. Surprisingly I was calm as you could get. He then went back down and FINALLY went back to the bait. He gave me a nice shot at 10 yards just slightly quartering away. I was shooting a compound at the time and put my 10 yard pin where I wanted to hit him. Just like that my nerves hit me. I was shaking like my brother was prior. :lol: I let the arrow go. At the time the shot looked good.

We got down 15 minutes later and headed back to the truck and back to camp to wait for Dad and mom to get back from both of their hunts that evening. They had no luck but my brother and I had one heck of a story. lol! That night we went to track my bear. Only 20 yards down the blood trail we find my arrow. It only shows 3/4 an inch of penetration and the broadhead was bent a tad. Dad looks at me and says Steve you must have hit him in the knuckle in the shoulder. I said no way that's impossible. I told him there was maybe 6 inches of arrow sticking out the right side of the bear which is the side I hit him on. He then says Steve the arrow don't lie, you only got 3/4 of an inch of penetration. I knew dad was right but I was completely floored on what happened. The blood was fairly decent but dad pointed out it seems there's blood in its track. We studied the blood trail even closer and came to a conclusion that I hit the bear in the left front paw/foot. Another 20 yards down the blood trail this bear dug out an ant hill. Sure enough it was with his front left paw. I must have peaked and dropped my bow arm when I shot. It would make perfect sense on a slightly quartering away shot on how I hit him in the left front foot. The reason I thought there was only 6 inches of arrow sticking out was because of the long coat on this bear. The long coat covered my arrow up and made it seem I was at least 6 inches from the bottom of his gut.

The next day it was time to go home. Dad let us miss the 1st week of school to bear hunt. When we went back in the next day to take the stand down I showed dad where the bottom foot of the bear was when he was below me a foot in the stand. We always carry a tape measure with in case we find a track so we can measure it. This bear was no shorter then 8 feet from where his back feet were to where his head was. My best guess from what I can remember is this bear was probably in that 400+ pound dressed range. Maybe even much bigger. No doubt he would've been a P&Y bear.


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