My First Bear Hunt (STORY)
My First Bear Hunt
In February ’06 My Father and I booked a 5 day black bear hunting and fishing package at a Quebecer outfitter. It would be our first experience at black bear hunting and the first time we would be relying on the services of an outfitter to facilitate our hunt. This is my story.
DAY 1
On Wednesday June 7 2006 we headed out after a long couple of months in anticipation of our first bear hunt. We had an effortless 6 hour drive and were greeted at the front desk of the Pourvoirie Oscar & Farrar in La Tuque QC by 2:00pm. This particular outfitter is renowned to have a great abundance of black bears over its 234km² territory. We were given a map and directions to our camp and were to meet up with the groundskeeper upon arrival at our cabin.
After a quick tour of the camp and a quick bite to eat we headed out to our individual tree stands. Mine was approximately 9km away and after a short quad ride I Baited my site and was sitting quietly in my stand by 5:30pm. I had a cloud of black flies which surrounded me… I would estimate anywhere from 500-1000 of these little blood sucking vampires trying to find their way through my body armor (a.k.a BUG-ME-NOT bug net). I figured this was as good time as any to test out my THERMA CELL, which to my surprise worked like a charm. The cloud of black flies was dramatically reduced to 20-40 and all trace’s of mosquito’s had disappeared!!!
It was 7:50pm when I first spotted some movement in the dense forest approx. 15 yards behind the bait area. I then noticed what seemed like a black fur ball slowly making its way to the bait. At first this seemed like a ‘lil fellow …. 110-150lbs. He nervously made his way to the tree behind the bait and popped out his little head and gave the area a good sniff. I was still having a hard time judging his size as he had found some decent cover behind the tree and 55 gallon bait drum. He then worked his way to the bait, gave it a quick sniff and then bolted into the forest. I suspected he might have picked up my scent, but I sat patiently regardless, knowing this ‘lil piggy could not give up such a tasty treat... He’d be back.
A couple minutes later and as I suspected he came down the same path as he had previously and repeated his little routine. With his nose still pointed to the sky, giving the area a good sniff, he came out from behind his cover. I could now tell he wasn’t as small as I first suspected. He kept his nose to the air and I was under the impression he was looking right at me as he slowly walked passed the bait and crept towards me. He finally stopped and stood up on his hind legs. He Now looked HUGE, He stood 6.5’ and his chest was wider than the bait drum. This is also when I noticed his perfect white “V” stretching across his chest… He was definitely a keeper!!!
I had to be patient and move when the wind allowed, as he stood only 15 yards away and he would not stop looking and smelling in my direction. I slowly began to shoulder my rifle. By the time I had the rifle shouldered he was back on all four’s and heading back towards the barrel. I had put a clump of bait on the drum and knew he was going to go for it first. He slowly placed both paws upon the barrel, leaned forward, and gave me a perfect broadside shot. I placed the cross-hairs slightly behind his shoulder and gently squeezed the trigger. Sending a 180gr Remington core-lokt SP bullet roaring out of my Tikka T-3. Upon impact he twisted like a cat with who had felt the blast of a firecracker in his ass and bolted into the dense forest. It seemed like it took a fraction of a second before he stopped 10 yards further and Begun to show signs of hardship. He slashed at a couple trees in anger and flip flopped on the ground but unfortunately I had a hard time seeing what was going on and wasn’t able to here what was partaking due to the heavy flow of the river near by. He slowly wobbled into the forest and I quickly lost sight of him.
I waited what seemed like the longest 15 minutes in my life and slowly began my decent down the tree stand. I walked back to my quad to lighten my load, and began my search. I walked over to where I shot him and found a square chunk of skin/fur about 1inch² and a thick blood spurt that stretched several inches . I tried looking for a blood trail but this was damn near impossible due to the wet thick moss that covered the forest floor. It was around 8:25pm when I first started looking for him and by 9:20pm the sun was down and I decided it would be safer to not continue my search alone. I went back to meet with my dad and we comb the forest until 11:15pm without any luck. Our search was postponed until the following morning.
DAY 2
By 7:00am I was back in the bush and looking for my fallen bruin. I was dedicated to find him as I was extremely confident in my shot and knew he couldn’t have gone far…. Unfortunately I was wrong. At 10:30am after several hours of combing the dense forest and river banks I had to accept the fact that he wasn’t going to be found. I felt rather crappy
It would be my first time losing a large game animal during a hunt and the thought of his corpse rotting away in the forest irritated me.
We headed back to camp and had lunch. We decided to go and do a little fishing before heading out for our evening hunting shift. We hopped on the quads and drove a short distance to a remote lake a couple K’s further. We started fishing at 12:00pm and were off the lake by 2:15pm with a set of beautiful Touladis (lake Trout). Mine weighted in at 8lbs (30") and my fathers tipped the scale at 4.5lbs (24") . These were great specimens and delivered quite a fight. I must have battled with mine for 6-8minutes before getting him in the net.
Later on that afternoon I had a chat with our guide and we opted to have me switch to a different spot. He gave me 2 new bait sites which were visited regularly by at least 4 bears, one of which was supposed to be a monster. I headed out that evening and stopped to bait my first spot on my way to the second bait. These two baits were on the same route and were about 2km apart. That evening I did not have any visitors but saw a nice big fat Bruin on the road on my way out. I also decided to stop and check if my first bait had been hit, and goddamn… It had!!! I found several nice paw prints in the sand stretching 5 inches wide and my barrel was bone dry. I decided I would stick with that site from there on out.
DAY 3
On the morning of day 3 we did some fishing on a different lake for brook trout and were once again successful! I also took the time to do a tour of all my bait sites to see if they had been hit during the night. I was worried with the full moon quickly approaching that some bears would be nocturnal. I also had the chance to chat with a group of American hunters and with their help and the use of their trial timers we were able to confirm that most bears were hitting the baits at unusual hours. Once again the evening hunt was quiet except for a large moose who cricked cracked his way through the forest about 100 yards away from my stand.
DAY 4
I was up at 4:00am and in my stand before the sun was up. At 10:30am I headed back to camp, took a nap, had some grub, and was back out there before 4:00pm. It was raining hard, as it was the previous night, and I was unsure of the impact that would have on the bears. The wind was turning in circles, coming from the east, then the north and finally the west and I knew my chances of seeing a bruin that evening were slim.
After a couple hours of sitting motionless in my stand I begun to hear what seemed like ground rumbling foot steps coming from behind me. I thought to myself that it sounded like a sumo wrestler trying to creep up on me and didn’t think much of it at first. (I have noticed that when you are sitting quietly in your stand the forest awakes around you and you shouldn’t jump to any conclusions every time you hear something unusual). To protect me from the constant flow of rain I was sitting with my arms crossed, hunched over and had my parka pulled over my head, thus I had no peripheral vision. The foot steps grew louder and louder and my mind started to visualize what was happening as I remained motionless, all of my sense’s seemed to be amplified by ten folds as the beast approached slowly behind me. When the footsteps seemed to be 8’-10’ behind me, they stopped momentarily.
I started to wonder if I was imagining what was happening, that is when I herd him stand on his hind legs and sniff me out. He repeated this a second time and made the hair on my neck stand. I kept repeating to myself to remain motionless, part of me though I might be able to turn around slowly and get a shot off and the rational part of me knew that any movement on my part and he would have been long gone. My only option was to remain immobilized and hope he didn’t realize I had a .30 cal bullet with his name on it. I listened as he retreated from the same path he had come from and waited patiently for him to circle around me allowing him to get to the bait. There I sat lifeless waiting for him to re-appear through the trees to my left or at the bait site… I waited… and waited… and waited, but that moment never came.
DAY 5
I did a shift from 6:00am to 12:00pm on the final morning. I didn’t hear or see anything. I got back to camp by noon to pack and we were off by 2:00pm. Although I left there empty handed I cannot emphasize enough the fun I had that week. I burned through 3 tanks of gas on my quad, saw some awesome scenery, caught some beautiful fish and most importantly I got to spend some quality time with my ‘ol man! …. Not to mention I also got the bear hunting bug!!!
See ya next year Bruins!!!
My First Bear Hunt
In February ’06 My Father and I booked a 5 day black bear hunting and fishing package at a Quebecer outfitter. It would be our first experience at black bear hunting and the first time we would be relying on the services of an outfitter to facilitate our hunt. This is my story.
DAY 1
On Wednesday June 7 2006 we headed out after a long couple of months in anticipation of our first bear hunt. We had an effortless 6 hour drive and were greeted at the front desk of the Pourvoirie Oscar & Farrar in La Tuque QC by 2:00pm. This particular outfitter is renowned to have a great abundance of black bears over its 234km² territory. We were given a map and directions to our camp and were to meet up with the groundskeeper upon arrival at our cabin.
After a quick tour of the camp and a quick bite to eat we headed out to our individual tree stands. Mine was approximately 9km away and after a short quad ride I Baited my site and was sitting quietly in my stand by 5:30pm. I had a cloud of black flies which surrounded me… I would estimate anywhere from 500-1000 of these little blood sucking vampires trying to find their way through my body armor (a.k.a BUG-ME-NOT bug net). I figured this was as good time as any to test out my THERMA CELL, which to my surprise worked like a charm. The cloud of black flies was dramatically reduced to 20-40 and all trace’s of mosquito’s had disappeared!!!
It was 7:50pm when I first spotted some movement in the dense forest approx. 15 yards behind the bait area. I then noticed what seemed like a black fur ball slowly making its way to the bait. At first this seemed like a ‘lil fellow …. 110-150lbs. He nervously made his way to the tree behind the bait and popped out his little head and gave the area a good sniff. I was still having a hard time judging his size as he had found some decent cover behind the tree and 55 gallon bait drum. He then worked his way to the bait, gave it a quick sniff and then bolted into the forest. I suspected he might have picked up my scent, but I sat patiently regardless, knowing this ‘lil piggy could not give up such a tasty treat... He’d be back.
A couple minutes later and as I suspected he came down the same path as he had previously and repeated his little routine. With his nose still pointed to the sky, giving the area a good sniff, he came out from behind his cover. I could now tell he wasn’t as small as I first suspected. He kept his nose to the air and I was under the impression he was looking right at me as he slowly walked passed the bait and crept towards me. He finally stopped and stood up on his hind legs. He Now looked HUGE, He stood 6.5’ and his chest was wider than the bait drum. This is also when I noticed his perfect white “V” stretching across his chest… He was definitely a keeper!!!
I had to be patient and move when the wind allowed, as he stood only 15 yards away and he would not stop looking and smelling in my direction. I slowly began to shoulder my rifle. By the time I had the rifle shouldered he was back on all four’s and heading back towards the barrel. I had put a clump of bait on the drum and knew he was going to go for it first. He slowly placed both paws upon the barrel, leaned forward, and gave me a perfect broadside shot. I placed the cross-hairs slightly behind his shoulder and gently squeezed the trigger. Sending a 180gr Remington core-lokt SP bullet roaring out of my Tikka T-3. Upon impact he twisted like a cat with who had felt the blast of a firecracker in his ass and bolted into the dense forest. It seemed like it took a fraction of a second before he stopped 10 yards further and Begun to show signs of hardship. He slashed at a couple trees in anger and flip flopped on the ground but unfortunately I had a hard time seeing what was going on and wasn’t able to here what was partaking due to the heavy flow of the river near by. He slowly wobbled into the forest and I quickly lost sight of him.
I waited what seemed like the longest 15 minutes in my life and slowly began my decent down the tree stand. I walked back to my quad to lighten my load, and began my search. I walked over to where I shot him and found a square chunk of skin/fur about 1inch² and a thick blood spurt that stretched several inches . I tried looking for a blood trail but this was damn near impossible due to the wet thick moss that covered the forest floor. It was around 8:25pm when I first started looking for him and by 9:20pm the sun was down and I decided it would be safer to not continue my search alone. I went back to meet with my dad and we comb the forest until 11:15pm without any luck. Our search was postponed until the following morning.
DAY 2
By 7:00am I was back in the bush and looking for my fallen bruin. I was dedicated to find him as I was extremely confident in my shot and knew he couldn’t have gone far…. Unfortunately I was wrong. At 10:30am after several hours of combing the dense forest and river banks I had to accept the fact that he wasn’t going to be found. I felt rather crappy
It would be my first time losing a large game animal during a hunt and the thought of his corpse rotting away in the forest irritated me. We headed back to camp and had lunch. We decided to go and do a little fishing before heading out for our evening hunting shift. We hopped on the quads and drove a short distance to a remote lake a couple K’s further. We started fishing at 12:00pm and were off the lake by 2:15pm with a set of beautiful Touladis (lake Trout). Mine weighted in at 8lbs (30") and my fathers tipped the scale at 4.5lbs (24") . These were great specimens and delivered quite a fight. I must have battled with mine for 6-8minutes before getting him in the net.
Later on that afternoon I had a chat with our guide and we opted to have me switch to a different spot. He gave me 2 new bait sites which were visited regularly by at least 4 bears, one of which was supposed to be a monster. I headed out that evening and stopped to bait my first spot on my way to the second bait. These two baits were on the same route and were about 2km apart. That evening I did not have any visitors but saw a nice big fat Bruin on the road on my way out. I also decided to stop and check if my first bait had been hit, and goddamn… It had!!! I found several nice paw prints in the sand stretching 5 inches wide and my barrel was bone dry. I decided I would stick with that site from there on out.
DAY 3
On the morning of day 3 we did some fishing on a different lake for brook trout and were once again successful! I also took the time to do a tour of all my bait sites to see if they had been hit during the night. I was worried with the full moon quickly approaching that some bears would be nocturnal. I also had the chance to chat with a group of American hunters and with their help and the use of their trial timers we were able to confirm that most bears were hitting the baits at unusual hours. Once again the evening hunt was quiet except for a large moose who cricked cracked his way through the forest about 100 yards away from my stand.
DAY 4
I was up at 4:00am and in my stand before the sun was up. At 10:30am I headed back to camp, took a nap, had some grub, and was back out there before 4:00pm. It was raining hard, as it was the previous night, and I was unsure of the impact that would have on the bears. The wind was turning in circles, coming from the east, then the north and finally the west and I knew my chances of seeing a bruin that evening were slim.
After a couple hours of sitting motionless in my stand I begun to hear what seemed like ground rumbling foot steps coming from behind me. I thought to myself that it sounded like a sumo wrestler trying to creep up on me and didn’t think much of it at first. (I have noticed that when you are sitting quietly in your stand the forest awakes around you and you shouldn’t jump to any conclusions every time you hear something unusual). To protect me from the constant flow of rain I was sitting with my arms crossed, hunched over and had my parka pulled over my head, thus I had no peripheral vision. The foot steps grew louder and louder and my mind started to visualize what was happening as I remained motionless, all of my sense’s seemed to be amplified by ten folds as the beast approached slowly behind me. When the footsteps seemed to be 8’-10’ behind me, they stopped momentarily.
I started to wonder if I was imagining what was happening, that is when I herd him stand on his hind legs and sniff me out. He repeated this a second time and made the hair on my neck stand. I kept repeating to myself to remain motionless, part of me though I might be able to turn around slowly and get a shot off and the rational part of me knew that any movement on my part and he would have been long gone. My only option was to remain immobilized and hope he didn’t realize I had a .30 cal bullet with his name on it. I listened as he retreated from the same path he had come from and waited patiently for him to circle around me allowing him to get to the bait. There I sat lifeless waiting for him to re-appear through the trees to my left or at the bait site… I waited… and waited… and waited, but that moment never came.
DAY 5
I did a shift from 6:00am to 12:00pm on the final morning. I didn’t hear or see anything. I got back to camp by noon to pack and we were off by 2:00pm. Although I left there empty handed I cannot emphasize enough the fun I had that week. I burned through 3 tanks of gas on my quad, saw some awesome scenery, caught some beautiful fish and most importantly I got to spend some quality time with my ‘ol man! …. Not to mention I also got the bear hunting bug!!!
See ya next year Bruins!!!
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