I just got back from hunting bear in Saskatchewan. For the second year in a row I hunted with Lyndon Gliege of Smoothstone Lake Lodge. Last year I took my 1st bear (a nice Cinnamon bear) on the last evening of the hunt with my Firefly longbow. This year I decided I wanted to try and hunt from a natural ground blind so I could experience the thrill of being right down on the same level as the bears. It turned out to be everything I hoped for and more. I definitely want to get back out there and do that type of hunt again in the near future! I had encounters with 3 different bears under 10 yards and one was as close as 3 yards.
I have always wanted to try and submit an article for publication and I am going to give it a try based on this hunt. For that reason I am not going to go into the full details of the hunt here. If anyone is interested in seeing the rough draft of the story (and giving me some critiques or suggestions) send me an e-mail at bohuntr77@yahoo.com and I will send it your way. I have the basic story written but will need to polish it up considerably to make it more readable and more interesting. The short of it is I shot a beautiful blonde phase bear at 11 yards on my last full evening of hunting. I peeked a little when I shot trying to see the arrow hit causing me to miss several inches high. I ended up spining the bear but it managed to move pretty quickly and effectively to a distance of 5 yards where I sent another arrow through it's lungs to finish it off. Interestingly, it ended up in the same patch of trees where I had originally planned to set up my natural ground blind. I shot the bear with my new favorite bow, an Assenheimer recurve that I had only had about a week prior to the hunt. I got a great deal on the bow from fellow Trad Ganger Ed Long aka Plumber. Thanks again for the great deal Ed!
This is a picture that shows a little of the contrasting colors of the bears coat. Unfortunately, the real beauty of the coat does not show up in the pictures.
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/bohuntr77/Resizeof2011BearHunt004.jpg)
The next two pictures were field photos taken shortly after I shot the bear.
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/bohuntr77/Resizeof2011BearHunt008.jpg)
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/bohuntr77/Resizeof2011BearHunt005.jpg)
This picture shows guide Sean Fezzik standing in my ground blind. I took the picture from the spot the bear was standing when I shot the 1st time. If you look to the left of the blind you will see a 4 wheeler trail which is maybe 6 foot wide. Immediately to the left of that is the clump of trees I was going to set up in that was the spot the bear ended up in. It may have been a different story altogether if I had not decided to sit on the other side of that trail! :scared:
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/bohuntr77/Resizeof2011BearHunt012.jpg)
This picture is of me standing up in my ground blind. In actuality, I was sitting on a walkstool when I took the shot. BTW the bear came into 6 yards and stared straight at me prior to moving out to where I actually shot it. The barrel was 9 yards from me and the bear came between the barrel and the blind slightly closer to me than the barrel.
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/bohuntr77/Bear9.jpg)
The final picture is of me in the ground blind. Sean took this picture without any zoom standing in the spot the bear died. BTW the sound of the death moan at 5 yards will really make an impression on a guy!!!
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m174/bohuntr77/Bear8.jpg)
Congrats on a fine hunt and harvest! Thanks for sharing that story with us. :thumbsup: :clapper:
Congrats for a very thrilling hunt,very cool.But I don't see the blind! Do you mean that you made a natural blind?
Awesome! Really nice looking Bear!! Don makes a great looking and shooting bow.
Nice looking bear
No commercial blind. I just sat in between the trees. I did put a branch from one of the small spruce trees in between my bow quiver and bow so that when the bottom limb of the bow rested on the ground my face was covered by the branch.
beautiful bear! Congratulations!
That is awesome!!
Congratulations! Sounds like you got everything you wanted with this hunt. Very nice looking Bear.
I've always wanted to get one with colors like that, guess I've always leaned toward the non-typical look in game.
Hope to read the story soon.
:campfire: God bless,Mudd :archer:
Great thread and pics. Congratulations.
Awesome job!!! Thanks for sharing!
Dan,way to go!Now that will get the Ol'heart Pounding,Only in Saskatchewan ! LOL All the best my friend.
Wow! What a thrill that must've been! Bravo! :clapper:
Great job Dan! That's a really cool looking bear!
Nice bear, congrats!
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Wow,what a great bear.I really like the colors and man you were close.Way cool stuff right there.
congratulations and those assenheimers are deadly
Awesome bear.great job
Thanks for the congrats everyone, it sure was one of the all time hunting highlights for me!
Congrats, keeping my cool that close and on that level would have been quite a challenge! :)
Congrats Dan! :thumbsup: Very beautiful bear!!
Beautiful Bear!
Congrats , nice bear :clapper:
Beautiful bear! Congrats
Well Done! What a beautiful Bear. Congrats! :clapper:
hey Dan I know you are a big fan of GETTING CLOSE .SO next year maybe you could reach out an touch the bear before shooting it.man what a rush just feet away from a wild animal like that.you could probally smell his breath.way to go Dan.
Beauty Dan!!! Love those colors :archer2:
Nice Bear.. Great Job and with a Assenheimer too
:thumbsup:
Proud for you
:thumbsup:
Man Oh Man!!! It doesn't get any better than that. When I die and go to heaven I am going to do it exactly like you did. That bear has got to be one in a 1000...
Well done ,great gear :thumbsup:
out standing
:thumbsup: Congrats! Beautiful bear.
Well done....and what a beautiful color phase!
Beautiful bear and what an adenture! Close and personal. Looking forward to seeing your story in print! :thumbsup: :clapper: :clapper:
Another beautiful color phase bear good job
That is one cool looking bear!!!
Congrats,
Bisch
Congrates,love that color!
As I go down page 1, I keep finding these bear hunt stories and we are up to three punkin' heads, now. Great bear and your hunt was exciting to say the least. :thumbsup:
Very nice bud!!
Congratulations,great looking bear.I look forward to reading the full story.
Boy up close and personal is an understatement!!
Congrats on a great hunt!
Well done
Beautiful color on that bear....really neat.. :thumbsup:
Really nice bear and a great story. That's what I call stickbow close!!
Ed's a good friend of mine so I've shot that bow. It's a great shooting bow and I loved those curly maple limbs. That was a good buy.
What a great bear and hunt! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: