Waiting for the stories. Hope all went well for everyone!! :campfire:
Been looking for them myself.
X3..... :campfire:
:campfire: :coffee:
I'm ready :thumbsup:
Rumor has it bears were seen.............. :dunno:
an official thread is forthcoming and yes there was some blood spilled :goldtooth:
:campfire: :coffee:
Oh yeah, bring it on! :coffee: :campfire:
Here's the overview: many bears up there and I took 2 shots, the first a clean miss from a tree stand due to nerves, the second a clean miss due to hitting my bow limb on the blind roof-- darn it I didn't practice for a blind. It was very exciting and very interesting to me to watch an entirely different kind of critter after hunting deer for so many years. Skeeters were relentless and the weather went from really hot to downright chilly with a little rain thrown in.
I think there were 10 hunters, 4 bears taken (2 the last day), two non lethal hits and 2 hits that seemed lethal but were not recovered even with a heavy blood trail. The toughest part for me was eating dinner at 10PM!
I hunted the Moose Path stand for 4 nights, and Coleman one night, in a pop-up blind. I saw 2 yearling cubs (with mama thrashing and popping in the bushes at them as they ate) the first night, 6 different bears, a couple of which were good-sized, the second night, two bears the third, a nice one the fourth and another medium one, kind of leggy, the last night. Biggest bear taken was 123#, smallest 70#. All were sows, I believe. I was delighted to meet fellow T'gangers French Manny, Drew and Bill Terry-- a lot of experience, wisdom and humor among those 3 gentlemen. Tom Phillips worked his a** off to make sure everybody had a good hunt, and it was great to meet Paula and Paxton (the beagle) as well. All in all, an unforgettable experience.
:clapper: :clapper: Glad you had a good time........
Thank you for sharing your experience here with us. Sorry for the misses but, I'll wager you learned some new stuff?! :bigsmyl:
Learned new stuff? Oh yeah :thumbsup:
Tom puts a lot of work into getting everything set up for the hunters weeks before anyone gets there and never seems to sit still the whole week of the hunt. I look forward to seeing him at etar in a few weeks.
Glad you had some action Susan.
I had a great time and meeting Susan just made it that much better , she is a fine lady and hunter.
I was on beaver pond stand the first evening and chased a small bear out to get in the stand. It however came right back and I got to watch it feed in and out for a couple hours . The little bear ran off and sure enough a bigger one came in 15 minutes after that very slowly and carefully , though this looked like a good bear I had decided no shooting on the first night. I did get a couple of pics of each and ended the night with a good look at a couple bears.
I went out to coleman stand the second night in hopes that my son Adam would get a shot at the second bear from beaver pond that night . We switched stands as he had been on coleman the night before with no bears seen.
I got in stand and settled down for what I thought might be a tough wait but soon had a bear behind me in the brush . This bear looked small to start with because of the long legs but after breaking trees and making much noise he came in with many false starts , retreats and do overs , not a bad looking bear but rubbed some on the back . I took some video of him and watched his behavior around the bait and it was pretty cool.
When he ran off I took a chance and added a layer as I was getting cold , I looked back and he was gone. It didn't take long and I had another bear circling to the bait and right away I thought this bear looked fat , bigger around then the barrel I thought and went right into shoot mode . ( no pics before )
She came in and made it to the bait and as I was at half draw she bolted at the sound of a truck coming up the road . She came right back in and once again I went into shoot mode and when the closer leg went forward and her head was down I came to full draw and released . The shot went right in behind that leg and out the bottom between the front legs and fell out down the trail a short ways. I thought I heard a exhale of air after and quietly got down for the night. I thought I saw a big black blob off in the woods and was very confident in the shot .
I returned to camp and after a quick meal we went out to retrieve my bear. The black blob I saw turned out to be a log end and we started to follow the blood . The moss sucks up blood but the trail was pretty easy to follow and into the thick brush I went . I found her in the thick stuff 100 plus yards from the bait , dead in mid stride. Now this bear didn't look as big as before and but a good clean kill and recovery was made , now let me tell ya after the drag out she seemed heavier than before .
We returned to camp after midnight and went to bed . After weigh in she was 113.4, not what I was expecting but I am proud of her all the same . I had a great time and got to meet a great group of folks , Tom and Paula worked there buts off for us. Thanks again Drew
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wuff tracks
Nice pictures Drew...brings back a flood of memories. Congrats on a fine bear!
Thanks Jeff , I now equate bears to cotton candy , all fluff until you get them wet and then they melt into a much smaller package :biglaugh:
Cool beans Drew.........congrats........... :thumbsup: :notworthy: :clapper: :clapper: :campfire:
Drew,
Bears always seem bigger and Hogs are always seem smaller for me...until I find them on the ground :) Weight and size don't mean much compared to the experience. There aren't a whole lot of hunters that can claim the took a black bear with a trad bow in the woods by themselves especially from one of Tom's low stands...pucker factor is huge!
Congrats to those that connected! I know from my hunt up there that everyone had a good time, regardless !!!!
And one more thing Drew, no matter what that bear weighed, he was still as big as a bear!!!!
Bisch
Thanks for the great story and photos, Drew.
Good Lord willing, I'll be up there next year.
Thanks guys it sure was a good time , love hunting bears . I went out with Tom and baited stands the rest of the time I was there and enjoyed that as well. The memories will last a lifetime . :thumbsup:
Congrats Drew!!
Nice bear. I enjoyed your photos too!
See you in a few weeks at Denton?
Congratulations on your bear Drew.
I had no doubt that if you had one within range that you would make a fatal shot. :thumbsup:
Congrats Drew! Great Photos!
Looks like it was a great time, I wish circumstances would have allowed me to share camp with you guys.
Congrats Drew and excellent pics! :clapper: :thumbsup:
Congratulations! Bears are hard to judge until you see quite a few.
Reminds of a bearhunt a few years ago. I dropped off a hunter on the way to my stand. After my hunt ended I had to pull the stand out..
By the time I approached the other hunter, it was a little later than usual. As I drove up, he approached me and said "where have you been"? I replied I had to take down and haul the other stand out. He said
" Dude, I just shot a monster".
When the boys were hauling out the bear, after a break, one guy picked it up, thru it over his shoulder and took off. All I did was look at the other hunter- never said a word.
But, he looked at me and said, " what can I say? I guess he lost a couple hundred pounds as he ran around the lake"!
It was all fun and we had a good time as it sounds you boys did as well.
Congratulations Drew! Well done sir! Bear camp is a special place indeed. Thanks for the story and pictures, loved them :):campfire:
Thanks guys it was fun for sure :thumbsup:
tippit is right.......when your feet are at 6 foot in a tree stand and the bait barrel is 8 yards away.........and the bear is between the tree your in and the bait..........OH BABY........it's exciting to say the least. I need to go back up there again at some point.
Just heard from Tom that week 2 yielded 5 bears-- more stories to come! :campfire:
Congrats on the bears and the close encounters. Bear Quest is a great time for sure!