Anyhow he called me last night after he got In and told me the whole story. One thing he kept on telling me was "this bear Is big". I asked If he had any help for the next day and he said no. I then said alright I'm taking off of work then and I'll leave at 3:00 In the morning and make the 4.5 hour drive up and meet you on the road around 8ish where this bait Is. Dad showed up a little after 8 and off we went to the bait. Dad had a trail cam on the bait when he shot at this bear. I had my digital camera with so we checked the card. He was right, this bear was huge!! While looking at the pics you could see dads arrow going Into the bear. That was real neat!!!
Off we went on the blood trail. It was very tough going with hardly any blood. Most of the blood that we were finding was rub marks on the side of small little pines. Here and there we'd find blood on the ground but hardly a thing. It had been nearly 25 minutes since either one of us had found any blood. I was following a big padded track when all of a sudden I heard what sounded like a whistle. I stopped and listened and heard It again but thought It was a bird. A few seconds later I heard It again and thought hmmm, that's strange. I turned around In the direction I heard It hoping that It was maybe dad whistling that he found some blood (that's how dad and I communicate In the woods together, we Imitate a white throated sparrow Instead of talking). Anyhow I make my way over to him with In 20 yards and he's still whistling but much quicker tones now. I get another 10 feet closer to him and all of a sudden I see that he's got an arrow nocked!! I'm thinking holy balls, It's go time!!! I stopped In my tracks and got my bow ready just In case and watched quietly. I watched dad slowly make his way to the bear and jab him with his arrow and that's when he yelled, he's dead!!! A few other words were said too.
He ended up getting both lungs so he did make a great shot to begin with. A person seems to always second guess themselves It seems. This Is the biggest bear I've ever saw that I've been Involved with. He dressed out at 400 pounds even. He's a tad under 8 feet long and his front pads measured out at 4 7/8. The weight of the bear Is big but what Impressed me the most was the size of his head. This head Is absolutely huge!!! Back In 2000 I shot a chocolate phase bear that dressed out at 325 pounds and It's head measured out at 20 5/16. To me the head on dads bear makes mine look small!! I'm really wondering how big this head Is. I can't wait till dad gets the skull cleaned so we can measure It.
Boy did we have our hands full on getting this bear out. At 9:30 this morning we started skinning and quartering and by 3:00 this afternoon we finally got It loaded up In the truck. Our bait was about a 1/4 mile back In the woods. Thank god It was that close!! We packed this bear out Mountain style using packs. We each made 2 trips. I made sure I loaded my pack up plenty so dad's loads weren't too bad. My one trip was 108 pounds (both hind quarters) and the other was 124 pounds (hide and head). Dads loads were 65 (front quarters) and 100 pounds (carcass). Today Is a day I'll never forget. One of my favorite all time hunts for sure!! Thanks dad and congratulation's on a huge P&Y Bear!!
