2014 Bear Trip-a bit long winded

[crappieangler]

My dad, a long time friend and I started off our trip to canada a little rocky with lots of little mishaps and then my buddy's truck pooped out on him 30 minutes from home. So that added an extra four hours on to my driving and put us behind schedule quite a ways. After driving through monsoon rain for a few hours putting us further behind we finally were able to cross the border hassle free. We hit up a local bait shop, which I had to dink around b/c they had my name goofed up in their system. We were able to get it all straightened out and get our tags, and arrived in camp about 6 hours behind. Although we were running on little to no sleep, we wanted to get into camp and get our paperwork filled out and get out there.

In little less than an hour after unpacking and showering, we were making the slow hour drive down the remote roads to the bait sites. We planned that I would keep the truck so we planned to set my stand first and then drop the other two off. I stepped out the truck and I could see all sorts of bear tracks in the sandy road. As we approached the bait there were a bunch of spruce grouse with bear dung littered all over. My bait hadn't been hit, which was reportedly the first time since they started baiting this site. The guide was very optimistic, but I was prepared for the long haul with my track record of long sits and little to no interactions with bears. Got my set taken care of, and drove about a mile or so down the road where my buddy was set up to sit a bait that had a very big bear hitting. It was his first ever bear hunt and you could see it in his face that he was pretty amped up. Another couple miles down the road lead us to my dads bait site and sitting from the truck I could see quite a few bear tracks leading into the woods where he was going to sit.

I drove back towards my bait and parked quite a ways away and slipped back into my bait and the grouse had come back out into the trail. I got about 2 feet away before one flew up into my tree stand and sat there until I started climbing up the tree. Already an exciting start to the day. After a couple of hours I started to feel a little tired and restless. I didn't want to get fidgety and being moving around, so I decided to just rest my eyes a bit and try to relax. About 30 seconds later I heard a small sound. I open my eyes and there he was, standing dead ahead facing me. Maybe it was being tired from the long drive or that I was dead set on really looking over the first bear if it was the first day, but I didn't have as huge of a adrenal rush as I anticipated. I didn't get much view of him standing as he immediately got comfy and laid down on the bait, rolling just a log or two off to access the bait and began sticking his head down in between the logs. I sat and observed him for quite a while since I never got a real good glimpse at his body before he laid down and was only getting to see his head when he picked it up from time to time. After about 5 minutes or so he got up on his front paws and shifted his but over as he cleared more logs off. At this point I was able to see that he had a gut on him, uniform arms, good paws, and the more I watched his head looked good sized. Based on his body language he was definitely not worried about any other bears. At this point I knew he was for sure a respectable first bear to take, and that's when the adrenaline kicked in. After a bit more observation and allowing the bear to get at a better angle, I took a slightly quartering to shot. He jumped up and started to run, but sort of hesitated so I put another one in him that was less than 1/2" from the previous shot. This shot spun him and I could see some intestines coming out the other side. He ran a couple more yards, dumped over, twitched twice, and all I could hear was bubbles and blood expelling from the wound. After 130 hours of sitting in the woods, I finally harvested my first bear. I took a bit to soak it all in, a bit in disbelief, as bear hunting has been by far the most frustrating and mind numbing of all game I have pursued. I snapped a few pics and decided to head back to camp to get ice and share the news. I knew the real work was about to begin, but boy was that an understatement. I tried my darndest to get him to the truck so I didn't gut it at the bait, but I was only able to move him 15 yards before I said the heck with it.

After gutting my bear and waiting til dark, I went to pick up the others. I pulled up to my buddy and saw he had a bear sitting on the side of the road. He had a younger bear circle him for a quite a while before deciding to commit about an hour before dark. He was able to double lung the young boar with his crossbow. He told me he heard my dad shoot 3 or 4 times about an hour or so after I shot, so we weren't sure what to expect. As we approached we saw another bear sitting in the road, and to our surprise my dad had taken a real heavy sow. She cautiously approached the bait from the road, before the poor gal suffered a couple shots in the shoulder and a softball sized wound to her back end. She ended up going 330#. Thankfully they both harvested so we didn't have to go back to camp and get help. To keep this long story a little shorter, it took 45 minutes finally get my bear out of the thick bush. To my surprise he went 404# gutted. To top it off, we were able to enjoy the rest of the week helping track other's bears, picking some wild blueberries, taking advantage of the great walleye and pike fishing, and take advantage of the time with new and old friends/family. Definitely a trip I won't forget, and glad I got to have a close friend and my dad along to enjoy the experience with.

[U.P. bownut]

Good job man, sounds like a great adventure! PICS???

[crappieangler]

Thanks. I dont know how to post pictures, I can try to figure it out post them after work.

[natvbearhntr]

congrats on the bear. If you want to e-mail or text me the picture I will post it for you.

rmontez@frontiernet.net
715-881-1299

[natvbearhntr]

Pics posted for crappieangler. If you want to hit the quote button you can add in your captions! Nice bear..

[dan]

Awesome pic's

[Uncle Lou]

Awesome, a triple on the first sit. Those are some big bear. What are you guys doing with them (rug, mount)?

[Mike Foss]

Fantastic

[crappieangler]

Thanks guys, and thanks natvbearhntr for posting the pics. I'm not sure what to do with him yet. Rugs take up a lot of space, which is something I don't have a lot of at the moment. What do you guys recommend? I'm looking for some cool ideas, but as of now I'd guess a rug or 1/2 mount. As for my dad, I'm not sure what he'll be able to do. I don't know if the taxidermist will be able fix the hole he left on his follow up shot.

Do any of you do anything with the claws? I think they'd be cool to make into something if I didn't do a rug, like an old indian necklace or something.

[crappieangler]

Here's my attempt to post my own pics. It's buddy's bear and our group pic, I didn't have them to send today at work.

[Uncle Lou]

awesome pics you posted. Well Done.

I don't have any recommendations on what to do.

[natvbearhntr]

I learned from last season that rugs do take up a lot of space but I am very glad I had one made. If I were you I wouldn't make a bear rug out of 400+lbs bear, I'd do a 3/4 mount.