TradGang Bear Quest # 4 2010' Unpacking & Wheels are Turnin for BQ # 5 JUNE 2011'

[PV]

Knife couldn't be going to a better place Jeff!!


Tom

The pot was won by Chad"cracker" Tomlin.
I believe the weight was around 140#?

Bear had a great coat.It was 1/3 the weight of Tippets bear @ 109#. Going to be another couch throw as well as BBQ at the Poke and Hope next month.

[Bonecracker]

Here is a picture of "BIG COUNTRY" on the way home with his bear! He was one happy camper!!

[Novaln1975]

Now that's a great Pic! Nice going there Chad.

What is Zack's handle on TG?

I wish I could jump in that water right about NOW!

S.

[Greyfox54]

Congrats to everyone on week 2 for getting bears and memories and a big " High Five " to Daryl for winning the Tippit knife ! I admire Daryl and Bill , both from Illinois , for their calm enthusiasm . Both rock solid , glad to have met them . And Paul , you stayed too calm all week , you knew something we didn,t ?
Now come on Tom and finish telling your story !
  Fred

[PV]

Fred that wasn't calm, it was exhaustion from trying to keep up with Tom "the energizer bunny" Phillips  

[Marty]

PV- 8:15 last evening- sounds familiar! Way to go- good karma for giving me LongTrail my last day! You are a closer!

[meathead]

Way to go Paul.  Congrat's on the bear.

[Caddo]

Another great hunt, great guys to share camp with. Tom, as usual, did a great job again. Thanks to you and Bill for making the bait runs.
 I started out this hunt with great expectaions. I knew there were some big bears there, and Tippet's performance again this year, just reaffirmed it. After drawing the Resurection last year, I knew that that stand would be hard to beat. When we met the week one guys in LaTuque, and Mike Mitten said he'd seen 18 bears, I was pumped! Low and behold, I drew the Bird. Man this was gonna be good! The first night I hunted, Sunday, I had a good bear come in about 3:30. He had great hair, I guessed about a 160ish bear. The week was still young and I knew I'd have to go some to even have a chance at getting close to Jeff's bear, so he walked. Then Monday came, bait had been hit, signs were looking good! Monday night, me and the squirrels had a wonderful time, for hours on end. What the heck, no bears? Tuesday night, same thing. Oh no, I'm thinking, I broke the Bird! Wednesday night, yeah baby, here we go. Had a smallish bear come in. Nice fur with two big white blazes on his chest. But he was reluctant to come to my side of the crib, and he was a little smaller than the first one, but it was a bear! Look out now, here they come. Little did I know, that was the last live bear that I'd see. So I guess I'll have to go down in the history of the Bear Quest as the guy who broke the Bird!
 All in all, it was a fantastic time, with a bunch of great guys. Can't wait till next year. Look out Jeff, I'mm gunning for your record!

Congrats to all the guys who took bears home with them. It was a priviledge to be involved with the recoveries and great to see the first timers get their first bear.

Larry and Greg, man I was pulling for ya. Couldn't have been better. You two really have something special.

Big Bill, ya finally did it! Awesome!

Till next year fellas, we'll do it again!

LD


LD

[tippit]

Caddo,
Records are only meant to be broken.  I'm hoping for someone to bring in a spring 400 pounder!  Congrats to all the second week guys...Doc

[Yellow Dog]

LD,

Thanks for "totin" my bear out of the Quebec bush. I plan on returning the favor with your bear on Bear Quest V...Mike

[Bill Kissner]

Congratulations to you Paul and everyone that killed their bear. You did an outstanding job with the camp duties and we all appreciate it. Thanks for all your hard work.

Energizer Bunny! Thats the best description yet I've heard that describes Tom. He is a go getter!

[Gatekeeper]

Continued from page 53

Thursday, June 17th

The light rain had continued throughout the night, but the following morning camp was greeted by the bright warm rays of the rising sun. I was told the day's forecast was calling for warmer temperatures than we had experienced in the previous days. The rule of thumb that Paul recited was "when there's bugs there's bears" so with warmer temperatures plus the rain from the night before, we should have plenty of bugs.

After the bait run I again check the SD cards from my cameras. The bait at my stand had been hit at some point from the time that I left the previous night and the time we re-baited the area on this day. Two of the four piles I put out were gone but the bait in the crib looked untouched. I was hoping the camera caught the rascal with the sweet tooth.

Yep...sure enough the cameras showed two nice size bears had visited the area. Both looked to be in the 150# range. One had a beautiful thick black coat and the other had a hide like Charlie Brown's head. "Great" I said out loud. That's probably the bear I'll see. I didn't want to take back a bald bear. I knew the people back home would never let me live that down. We had missed the two bears captured by the camera by an hour. I again let Tom know that I would like to go out early again and he again offered me his truck.

By early afternoon I'm in the truck and starting to pull away. Tom say's "keep the rubber side down." Oops... how does he know? Later in the evening I was going to deploy a different tactic for this hunt. Tom set me up with everything I needed to do a honey burn. The honey pot, a one gallon coffee can, had a little bit of honey, bacon grease and vanilla in the can. There was just enough of the mixture to boil and then smolder letting the wind carry the aroma of the smoke through the forest.

I got to the entrance of the trail leading to The Glove around 3:00 and like the earlier hunts I slowly crept up the path towards the crib. When I was able to see the rusty barrel lying on its side in the crib, I stopped and began to dissect the forest around the crib. Something looked different. "Are the shadows playing tricks on me?" I quietly wondered within myself. "Is that a rock? I don't remember a rock being there." As I continued to silently question my eyes. I wanted to see a bear so bad that I believed I was starting to see everything dark as a bear, but this was different. A thick black bear coat is like nothing else in the forest. It is such a rich black, it seems to steal the light from everything around it. The way a black hole does in space. What I was staring at was a black of that quality. So there I stood, waiting to see if it might move and ever so slightly it did. BEAR!

With excitement my pulse quickens. As I maintain a fixed stare on the bear, I slowly lean my bow on the nearest tree and then begin to undo the buckles on my All-Day pack. Gently I release the hip buckle and then the sternum buckle and quietly free myself from the shoulder straps. Seeing that the bear hadn't moved from its original spot, I divert my eyes away to focus on setting the pack down without rattling the metal honey burn pot holder strapped to the pack. With that task behind me, I grasp my bow and nocked an arrow. The arrow on the string was tipped with the broadhead that had killed the pig I shot in Texas two weeks prior to this hunt and I was hoping for a repeat performance on this bear.

I checked the feather tied to the tip of my bow and it showed that I had the wind in my favor. With that knowledge I advanced up the trail to the crib and as I changed locations so did the bear. This was the first good look I had at it and I estimated the bear weighed around 120 130#. If given a shot opportunity, I was going to take it. Unaware of my presents, the bear moseyed into the crib. I couldn't believe my luck! The bear was in the crib only a few yards away, eight yards at the most. The only thing that separated us was some scraggly brush. "WOW IS THIS REALLY GOING TO HAPPEN?" I screamed inside my head. Without a care the bear walks up to the base of the tree I had been hunting from, puts his nose to the ground and then looked up at my stand. Knowing that I wasn't in the stand, he turned and casually walked to the trailhead of the trail I was on. Had the bear offered me a quartering away shot at any point while it was in the crib I would have shot, but as it happened all of the bears movements kept it quartering to me or facing me head on.

As the bear neared the trailhead I let my eyes dart around looking for a place where I could step off the trail to keep from being seen. There was no place I could go and be quiet about getting there. I was in a pickle. Moving would alert the bear of my presents whether I was quiet about it or not. It was too close for me to reposition myself. So staying put was my best option. My mind was running through scenarios as I tried to figure out the best way to close this deal. All I needed from the bear was for it to walk past the trailhead. If it does that I will shoot as soon as its front leg swings forward. With my bow raised, I stood ready to shoot. The bear's head appears from behind the scraggly brush and then its neck and then the shoulders. A few more feet and I'll launch the arrow. My heart was racing and I could feel my pounding pulse in my neck and ears. Something was going to have to give or I was going to explode.

At six yards the bear stands quartering towards me and it makes the move I was hoping it wouldn't make, it turns to me and starts walking down the trail towards me. **** NOW WHAT? In situations like this there are no "phone a friend" opportunities this is a pick an option and go with it moment. The only shot I had was a headshot or between the shoulder blade shot. Neither of them appeals to me but I was running short of options, time and more importantly real estate. Even though the situation was a little tense I was dumb founded that the bear hadn't seen me yet. "Damn man I'm standing right in front of you!" I was thinking to myself. At four yards...yes 4 yds I load the arrow with the force of the bowstring and prepare to shoot if things get ugly. With the drawing of the bow, the bear looks up at me with a (can you believe this) surprised look on its face and in a blur it blows, whirls around and disappears into the forest. "Damn" I whispered, "that was worth the price of admission!" Taking a few moments to regain my legs, I went back retrieved gear and head to the treestand to start my evening hunt...

[Bill Kissner]

Great reading Tom!!

[Barry Wensel]

Great job Tom! I know how it ends and I'm still sitting on the edge of my chair. UB

[Marty]

That's cause your chair isn't big enough.    

Tom your story telling is excellent! Are you wearing THE hat while writing?

[Guru]

Wow        

[Shaun]

More good stuff Tom - is it the hat? Hey Whip, do you stock bowler hats?

[Whip]

Would this work?  



Comes in brown too  

[brill16hockey]

Wow, everytime I walked into the stand I was hoping to be able to put a stalk on a bear that was standing there... not so much now after reading that!  Great story!

[Curveman]

I'm really enjoying this Tom!