Post by dreamrider on Apr 6, 2020 16:18:58 GMT -5
This was a forum hunt made up of members that have since departed and gone their separate ways. What wonderful guys they were.
SPRING BEAR HUNT IN ALBERTA (2012)
I had been thinking for some time that I would really enjoy a hunt with some of the boys from one of the forum; I had talked to a few of them on open forum, but never had the opportunity to meet anyone in person. Then out of the blue, (Dave DOA Guide) suggested a Spring Bear hunt. I’ll be into that I thought, so I promptly sent in my name as a definite starter. Names started to trickle in with CD Burner (Chris) leading the list. 2XR ( Mike)came aboard as of course did Dave.
It was about then that I started talking to Killer Midget (Stan) on the forums. Now I don’t know why, but I had visions of KM being a 6’6” giant. It wasn’t until much later I learnt that he was just another runt like me. After a while I managed to get Stan interested in the hunt and he put his name forward. Next to come aboard was Double D (Danny). After a lot of banter JayB22 (Jay) expressed an interest to come, but only to be at the end of a camera. Dave pulled a few strings and managed to get a free camp pass for Jay, as he was to be our official camera man. Unfortunately 2XR had a conflict of dates and as he couldn’t find a way of being in two places at once, and had to pull out. This made six of us definitely going.
Dave got busy and started research into which place would give us the best bang for our bucks. After a couple of false starts, he settled on Top Notch Adventures in Alberta Canada, it turned out to be a great choice as I will explain later.
Over the next painfully slow year, Stan, Jay and I talked a great deal on SKYPE. Jay very generously offered to transport Stan and me up to the hunting camp from Edmonton. This solved our transport concerns. As I was coming from New Zealand and Stan from Texas it was decided that we would stay a night in Edmonton to catch up on a little sleep before the long haul up to the camp. Over the next few months Stan and I, had a great time working out our rigs for hunting Black Bear plus equipment, clothing etc.
Finally after what seemed a life time I found myself in Edmonton meeting Stan and Jay, although I had met them both using SKYPE , it wasn’t until I was face to face with them in person that I realized that you would have to go long way to meet nicer guys, plus great travelling companions. The trip up to camp was a great experience as we got to know each other better.
Something worthy of note, while I was in the Vancouver airport waiting for my connecting flight to Edmonton, I noticed a tallish gangling young chap lounging back playing with his mobile phone. I walked over and said,” Dave”? This chap gave me such a blank look I thought oh sh-t I have got it wrong. As he stared at me, the blank look slowly disappeared and hesitant recognition spread across his face and with it a big cheesy smile. “Ray? Dream rider? How ya going mate” he said as he proceeded to shake my arm out of its socket. We spent an enjoyable half hour catching up on gossip before embarking on our flights.
Everyone was in camp when we arrived, Handshakes all around and it was time to crack a drink and catch up on the format for the next 6 days. Chris wandered over with his great smoldering fence post he called a cigar and we proceeded to get to know each other. Chris was one that I most wanted to meet, as he was one of the hardest to draw into conversation on the forum. I was pleasantly surprised to find him very enjoyable company, when on the rare occasion I could actually see him through the smoke screen. Danny was another I was looking forward to meeting, he turned out to be a big easy going giant (to me anyway) A slow talking Southerner but what he had to say was worth listening to. Dave was young and full of enthusiasm for the upcoming hunt. He said to me “Ray you have come the furthest of us all, so I am going to put you on a stand that had a giant of a bear photographed under it a few days ago”. Unfortunately the giant must have had a prior engagement as I never saw a single bear that first day.
Camp was very comfortable situated in a couple of containers with a lean too that housed the kitchen and lounge. Our outfitter Frank and his wife made us extremely welcome and fed us like we had been ship wrecked and starved for a year. After a good night’s sleep we roused late morning to another gargantuan meal that was called breakfast. Breakfast to me is a cup of tea and a couple of slices of toast and honey; I knew I wasn’t going to handle these eating marathons that I had inadvertently signed up for.
The mornings were taken up with TLC on the gear with heaps of practice on the foam bear that Jay had made up for us all to get our eye in. I was a little bemused to find out that we weren’t going to set off until mid-afternoon. Why waste time? I thought I didn’t travel all this way just to hunt for a couple of hours, how wrong I was. We were to be in our stands by 5pm and would be up there until 9-10pm. The Canadian days were long and it did not get dark until 11pm which gave us plenty of time in the stands,
Each hunter had a stand and a guide. Stan teamed up with Frank’s young son who had very little experience at guiding; in fact Stan was his first client. But they got on very well and he turned out to be the most successful guide of them all. Danny was teamed up with a very nice chap from down the road. Chris had Frank, and I teamed up with Jay, the camera man and bear spray technician. Dave being the most outdoors experienced through his army officer training chose to hunt on his own. He was also armed to the teeth with Bear spray. All this was new to me. No Bears where I come from, so I just stood back and went with the flow.
We departed camp approximately 3pm; each had a four wheel drive towing trailers that carried three quads and a little four wheel drive buggy. We traveled down a sealed road for approximately 15 minutes then onto a gravel logging road. After another twenty minutes, I thought, wow we must be getting close, not likely. When we reached the end of the gravel we were off on the quads or in my and Jays case the little buggy with Frank at the wheel. We were on logging tracks on a surface that ranged from slippery but firm, to acres of surface water with hidden mud holes. Most times getting through, but sometimes having to winch ourselves out. It was hair raising, it was crazy stuff, it seemed endless, but it was a h-ll lot of fun. After all they do call it Top Notch Adventures. Eventually after over an hours travel, sometimes up to 1 1/2 hrs, we reached our destination. Bait drums were topped up with bait and Frank was off with Chris to their stand, and it suddenly became very quiet and tranquil.
As I said earlier the first day was a bust, but the others all saw bears. Dave saw a large bear but shot a smaller ginger phase bear that he was very proud of, plus a wolf.
The second day Jay and I were put into Dave’s blind from yesterday, he graciously insisted that I have it as he had seen plenty and Jay and I nothing. We had only settled in for a short time when we saw a black object walking towards us, it turned out to be only a small Bear, but I was fascinated, my first Black Bear I had ever seen in the wild. In a short space of time we had three coming in. Two of them entertained us for over thirty minutes with their mock fights and rough and tumble play, Jay was filming and enjoying himself as much as I was. Later in the afternoon we saw a nice looking Bear coming in. It wasn’t the big one that Dave had seen the day before but we estimated him to be around 350-400lb. Big enough for me if he came in.
He continued to come into the bait, tension was mounting, I picked up my bow and readied myself for a shot. Jay was busy with the camera, and the Bear continued to come right up to the bait. He found the bait irresistible and proceeded to lie down beside the barrel without presenting a shot. After a few minutes he gripped a large piece of meat in his mouth and slowly walked across to my left then stopped side on. This was it, drawing back my bow I just managed to place the pin behind the crease of his front leg, but he was on the move again. I waited at full draw but he did not stop, instead to my disappointment he loped off into the bush and out of sight. I had been wound up like a clock spring and when I let down. I got the worst case of the shakes I have ever had, much to Jay’s amusement it took at least twenty minutes for the Adrenalin to wear off.
We settled down and waited to see what would develop during the rest of the afternoon. About an hour later the same Bear came back for another feed out of the drum. Big mistake, he presented a perfect shot at 22yards and only traveled 50 yards after the German Kinetic slipped through both lungs. We were ecstatic, I had my Bear and Jay had some great footage. Jay then wanted to get a shot of me pulling back the bow for padding for the DVD. I pointed out that it would show that I had an arrow missing out of my quiver and that to an experienced hunter he would pick up on the fake padding (a pet hate of mine) We both glanced at the arrow buried in the ground 6 feet past where I had nailed the Bear.” I’ll go down and get it” Jay offered. Now Frank had been quite explicit in his instruction “Don’t get off the stand, wait for me to come around to pick you up”. We discussed it some more then Jay said “you are right we need that arrow”. It was decided that Jay would race across to retrieve the arrow, while I very bravely stayed up on the platform keeping my eyes peeled for any bears coming.
Jay was half way down the ladder when glancing down at him I saw a bear standing 20yards away on the same track that went right under our blind. He appeared to be studying Jay as he went down the ladder, “JAY” I yelled “there’s a bear”. “Yeah yeah” he said “I expected something like that from you “as he reached the ground. “BUT THERE IS A BEAR, LOOK“I pointed as he looked up with a disbelieving smirk on his face. Turning around he saw the very bemused bear staring at him “$$$$” he said as his feet left the ground. I will never know how he did it but I swear that his feet never touched the rungs as he flew up the ladder. As he landed on the platform I shoved the Bear spray in his hands, “here you might need this” I said, as I hastily moved over to the furthest corner from the Bear that I could find.
That Bear never batted an eyelid and he just strolled up to the barrel and proceeded to entertain us for the rest of the evening. Occasionally he would glance up at us as if to say, you stay there and we will all be happy. He knew we were there. We never did bother to retrieve that arrow; somehow it didn’t seem so important anymore.
On the way back to camp the word was out, two Bears were coming in and that the second one was Stan’s. Great stuff, Jay and I couldn’t have been happier. When they were laid out side by side they looked identical in size but when weighed, Stan’s went over the four hundred mark and mine was three hundred and seventy pounds. Frank told me that mine had very little fat on him whereas Stan’s had a good one inch layer which explained the weight difference. No one else had connected. Every day everyone saw bears but was holding out for the 350lb plus bruins.
The third day Jay and I were placed in another blind. Dave had sat in this one the day before and had been entertained by a young cub that had scaled the tree ten feet away from him and proceeded to entertain Dave eyeball to eyeball. While Dave found all this amusing it was big mamma down below that was causing him to sweat, remember he had no firearm backup.
Jay and I had settled into a quiet camaraderie by this time and time passed pleasantly. We had not been up there for long when Jay spotted a Bear coming in. It turned out to be a smallish and very skinny male probably around two hundred pounds. The reason for his very poor condition soon became apparent when we noticed his badly deformed front leg. He proceeded to quietly set about the bait barrel consuming as much as he could, as fast as he could, but was hampered by the deformed front leg. We both agreed that he would struggle to gain enough fat for the winter hibernation. While we were being entertained by his actions it became very obvious that he was in a very nervous state and was ready to bolt at a moment’s notice, obviously with that disability he was right at the bottom of the pecking order.
Suddenly he was out of there like he had all the demons from h-ll after him. At the same time we heard a disturbance behind us and across the other side of the logging track. Jay turned just in time to see a cub race up a tall tree and stop about forty feet off the ground. There was snarling and growling in the bush below it, then silence, “What just happened” I asked Jay “I think momma just sent the cub up the tree “but not sure why” he said. Just then we saw Momma come waddling across the logging track towards the bait barrels, where she started slapping the barrels around. It was one of the funniest sights of my life as she rolled those barrels right across the clearing, trying to get the tastiest morsels out. She really knew her business and the sound of the barrels getting hurled around could have been heard for miles.
Suddenly she gave a growl and tore off across the logging track to where she had come from. A fight was in progress, we couldn’t see what was happening but we saw the cub shoot further up the tree followed by momma, then apart from the occasional growl, peace settled upon us again. While we continued to keep a watch, we couldn’t figure out what had just happened. However the puzzle was soon answered when a huge male came wandering across the logging track and headed for the bait barrel. No wonder momma had sent the cub up the tree before coming across to the bait barrel earlier; she knew the big male was in the area. Then while eating she must have heard a call from the cub when the big boy turned up and she raced across to protect it.
Jay and I took one look at him and instantly knew this was “the one” We estimated that he must have been close to 600lb. I readied myself for a shot and waited, and waited, and waited before he finally presented a shot. Instead of clearing my mind like I have trained myself to do before a shot, I suddenly thought about that first experience with the bear picking up a piece of meat then trotting off with it. I didn’t want that to happen again. I now know I hurried the shot. I released, but the shot went high in the back. Oh no my heart sank, the Bear let out a roar and bolted out of there. Jay quickly replayed the film and confirmed that the shot was quite high. We watched time and again, but no amount of replaying was going to improve that shot. Shortly after we saw momma running across to where he had disappeared, 20 seconds later there was another fearful racket. This told us that he wasn’t dead and there was no way that we were going anywhere near there to find out.
Finally Frank turned up and after a quick explanation; he grabbed his shot gun and we were off. There was blood, and we found where the big male had sent momma up the tree in his injured fury. But that was as far as we went. Frank said sorry boys we are out of here until the morning, something that Jay and I were only too happy to comply with.
Back at camp every one gathered around to watch the film of the monster, and after many replays there were many and varied theories as to whether he was down. A couple like me, thought it was too high, but others thought that with the down angle it may have been a killing shot. Frank had a doubtful look on his face but said “Ray we will be out first thing in the morning to try and find him”. I did not sleep much that night. Next morning to my eternal gratitude nearly the entire camp was ready to go look for my Bear, what a great bunch of guys
We followed a patchy blood trail for approximately 500-600 yards, maybe more, but no Bear. We saw where he had pulled large clumps of moss out of the ground and used it to plug up the hole. We saw where he had laid down several times; we saw where he had laid up for the night. Then nothing! We decided to do a search by following a big loop around his last bed, but nothing. Frank said “Ray we have to get back to camp in order to get the hunters out in time for their afternoon hunt”. When we returned to camp Frank told me that although we had not found him, I had used up my second licence. Fair enough I thought, so I spent the rest of the day in camp. Jay went with Stan that day and filmed, Stan put in a great shot on his second Bear. Although it was slightly smaller than his first, He was a very happy man and Jay as always, shot some great footage.
That evening I had a quiet word with Frank requesting another look for my Bear in the morning. Without hesitation he agreed, even though he was a busy man and it was an hour and a half away, he did not hesitate. What a stand-up guy, but it was to no avail he had vanished. I will never know if he survived or not, but I would like to think so.
Chris put in a great ground stalk on a Bear, placed a good shot on him then had to fish him out of the stream, it’s all on DVD. Although Chris didn’t get “the big one” he was pleased with that performance, I know I admired him for it, he has bigger balls than I have.
Danny was the only one to go home empty handed. It wasn’t that he didn’t see any, he did, but they just weren’t up to the standard that he had set himself. Unfortunately Danny had to go home a day early and Jay run him back to the airport during the night. Before they left Dave had a talk to Frank asking him if he would allow Jay to have a crack at the crippled Bear that he and I had seen earlier. Frank readily agreed (I told you he was a stand-up guy). So when Jay returned from dropping Danny off. He purchased a Bear tag and on our last hunting day I accompanied Jay as the camera man to the same tree stand that we had last seen the cripple.
We had not been there long when out popped the cripple. I grabbed the camera and Jay looked at his bow. I waited, and Jay watched the bear for a while then looked at his bow. I waited…. And….. waited. I had no idea what was going through Jays mind but he sure wasn’t in a hurry. (Maybe learnt off my mistake). I waited….. and…..waited, until finally Jay picked up his bow and placed an arrow on the rest. He set himself up ready to draw the bow, looked at the Bear, still feeding and waited….and …..waited. “SHOOT THE BLOODY THING”, I screamed inside my head. Finally he drew back and put in a spectacular shot, the bear only went 30yards and fell over with hardly a quiver.
I had a great time, the company in camp was great and the hospitality of our hosts was wonderful. Frank and his wife went the extra mile and then some, for us. The food was great; we all had Bear experiences, what more could a hunter from New Zealand want?
One noteworthy happening that I must mention, and that was the midnight archery tournament. Do I hear a collective groan from you guys that participated in it?
On the first day in camp Dave produced a glowing disc approximately the size of a DVD. “Guys we are going to have a midnight competition sometime to see who will be the first to hit it in the dark.” How far should we place it”. “50 yards I said expecting him to say na we will shoot it a lot closer than that. But he readily agreed 50 yards it was to be. Darn I thought I would be lucky to even see it at that distance in the dark, me and my big mouth.
Around midnight on the fourth night, the contest was set up with Danny, Chris, Jay, Dave and I all lined up at the fifty yard mark. Stan had decided not to participate, which was just as well as the way he was hitting his Bears he would probably have cleaned all of us up on the first round. Standing there on the line I could just see a faint soft glow way off in the blackness. First round had us all in the target bale with a couple fairly close. The second round was away with mine only a couple of inches out from the disc everyone was close but a little further out. Right I said to myself I am going to nail it this time, only to let the shot off before I was even ready sh-t I thought, I will be lucky to find that arrow. Fortunately I did find it and still no one had hit the disc, but I noticed that sharp eyed Jay was almost touching it, he is really out to win this I thought. Back to the firing line, we fired again, my shot, was met with total silence as were all the others, except, on Jays shot we heard a faint “tink”. B-gger I thought he has got it. When we walked up to the disc there was an arrow in the outer ring of the disc, it was Jays. But there was another arrow in the hole dead centre of the disc, mine. YeeHaa, this old fart from Kiwi land had beaten the American and Canadian hot shots. Jay not giving up tried to claim that technically he had actually hit the disc, where as I had missed it by hitting the hole in the center. Technically i suppose he was right but I wasn’t going to have a bar of that. What did I win? Nothing, just bragging rights and that’s just what I am doing right now.
It was back to Edmonton where Jay dropped Stan and I off at the hotel then raced off muttering about work he had to catch up on. But Stan and I knew it was his girlfriend not his work he had in mind. Stan and I spent the last day in the huge Edmonton mall where I purchased a replacement camera that I had lost while out looking for my Bear. I enjoyed Stan’s Company immensely and was sorry to see him go.
Two Wee Fellas and their big bears
On the flight back I thought back over the hunt, although I was bitterly disappointed over the loss of my big bear, I had claimed a nice one, plus had a great time. I had met some wonderful people and that’s what life is all about. As I sat there, I started to think about my upcoming hunt for Chital and Rusa deer in Queensland Australia. But, as they say, that’s another story.
This story is dedicated to Jay, camera man extraordinaire, a nicer guy you will not find anywhere. Jay married his sweetheart and last I heard they have had a baby.
Written by Ray Scott (dreamrider)
SPRING BEAR HUNT IN ALBERTA (2012)
I had been thinking for some time that I would really enjoy a hunt with some of the boys from one of the forum; I had talked to a few of them on open forum, but never had the opportunity to meet anyone in person. Then out of the blue, (Dave DOA Guide) suggested a Spring Bear hunt. I’ll be into that I thought, so I promptly sent in my name as a definite starter. Names started to trickle in with CD Burner (Chris) leading the list. 2XR ( Mike)came aboard as of course did Dave.
It was about then that I started talking to Killer Midget (Stan) on the forums. Now I don’t know why, but I had visions of KM being a 6’6” giant. It wasn’t until much later I learnt that he was just another runt like me. After a while I managed to get Stan interested in the hunt and he put his name forward. Next to come aboard was Double D (Danny). After a lot of banter JayB22 (Jay) expressed an interest to come, but only to be at the end of a camera. Dave pulled a few strings and managed to get a free camp pass for Jay, as he was to be our official camera man. Unfortunately 2XR had a conflict of dates and as he couldn’t find a way of being in two places at once, and had to pull out. This made six of us definitely going.
Dave got busy and started research into which place would give us the best bang for our bucks. After a couple of false starts, he settled on Top Notch Adventures in Alberta Canada, it turned out to be a great choice as I will explain later.
Over the next painfully slow year, Stan, Jay and I talked a great deal on SKYPE. Jay very generously offered to transport Stan and me up to the hunting camp from Edmonton. This solved our transport concerns. As I was coming from New Zealand and Stan from Texas it was decided that we would stay a night in Edmonton to catch up on a little sleep before the long haul up to the camp. Over the next few months Stan and I, had a great time working out our rigs for hunting Black Bear plus equipment, clothing etc.
Finally after what seemed a life time I found myself in Edmonton meeting Stan and Jay, although I had met them both using SKYPE , it wasn’t until I was face to face with them in person that I realized that you would have to go long way to meet nicer guys, plus great travelling companions. The trip up to camp was a great experience as we got to know each other better.
Something worthy of note, while I was in the Vancouver airport waiting for my connecting flight to Edmonton, I noticed a tallish gangling young chap lounging back playing with his mobile phone. I walked over and said,” Dave”? This chap gave me such a blank look I thought oh sh-t I have got it wrong. As he stared at me, the blank look slowly disappeared and hesitant recognition spread across his face and with it a big cheesy smile. “Ray? Dream rider? How ya going mate” he said as he proceeded to shake my arm out of its socket. We spent an enjoyable half hour catching up on gossip before embarking on our flights.
Everyone was in camp when we arrived, Handshakes all around and it was time to crack a drink and catch up on the format for the next 6 days. Chris wandered over with his great smoldering fence post he called a cigar and we proceeded to get to know each other. Chris was one that I most wanted to meet, as he was one of the hardest to draw into conversation on the forum. I was pleasantly surprised to find him very enjoyable company, when on the rare occasion I could actually see him through the smoke screen. Danny was another I was looking forward to meeting, he turned out to be a big easy going giant (to me anyway) A slow talking Southerner but what he had to say was worth listening to. Dave was young and full of enthusiasm for the upcoming hunt. He said to me “Ray you have come the furthest of us all, so I am going to put you on a stand that had a giant of a bear photographed under it a few days ago”. Unfortunately the giant must have had a prior engagement as I never saw a single bear that first day.
Camp was very comfortable situated in a couple of containers with a lean too that housed the kitchen and lounge. Our outfitter Frank and his wife made us extremely welcome and fed us like we had been ship wrecked and starved for a year. After a good night’s sleep we roused late morning to another gargantuan meal that was called breakfast. Breakfast to me is a cup of tea and a couple of slices of toast and honey; I knew I wasn’t going to handle these eating marathons that I had inadvertently signed up for.
The mornings were taken up with TLC on the gear with heaps of practice on the foam bear that Jay had made up for us all to get our eye in. I was a little bemused to find out that we weren’t going to set off until mid-afternoon. Why waste time? I thought I didn’t travel all this way just to hunt for a couple of hours, how wrong I was. We were to be in our stands by 5pm and would be up there until 9-10pm. The Canadian days were long and it did not get dark until 11pm which gave us plenty of time in the stands,
Each hunter had a stand and a guide. Stan teamed up with Frank’s young son who had very little experience at guiding; in fact Stan was his first client. But they got on very well and he turned out to be the most successful guide of them all. Danny was teamed up with a very nice chap from down the road. Chris had Frank, and I teamed up with Jay, the camera man and bear spray technician. Dave being the most outdoors experienced through his army officer training chose to hunt on his own. He was also armed to the teeth with Bear spray. All this was new to me. No Bears where I come from, so I just stood back and went with the flow.
We departed camp approximately 3pm; each had a four wheel drive towing trailers that carried three quads and a little four wheel drive buggy. We traveled down a sealed road for approximately 15 minutes then onto a gravel logging road. After another twenty minutes, I thought, wow we must be getting close, not likely. When we reached the end of the gravel we were off on the quads or in my and Jays case the little buggy with Frank at the wheel. We were on logging tracks on a surface that ranged from slippery but firm, to acres of surface water with hidden mud holes. Most times getting through, but sometimes having to winch ourselves out. It was hair raising, it was crazy stuff, it seemed endless, but it was a h-ll lot of fun. After all they do call it Top Notch Adventures. Eventually after over an hours travel, sometimes up to 1 1/2 hrs, we reached our destination. Bait drums were topped up with bait and Frank was off with Chris to their stand, and it suddenly became very quiet and tranquil.
As I said earlier the first day was a bust, but the others all saw bears. Dave saw a large bear but shot a smaller ginger phase bear that he was very proud of, plus a wolf.
The second day Jay and I were put into Dave’s blind from yesterday, he graciously insisted that I have it as he had seen plenty and Jay and I nothing. We had only settled in for a short time when we saw a black object walking towards us, it turned out to be only a small Bear, but I was fascinated, my first Black Bear I had ever seen in the wild. In a short space of time we had three coming in. Two of them entertained us for over thirty minutes with their mock fights and rough and tumble play, Jay was filming and enjoying himself as much as I was. Later in the afternoon we saw a nice looking Bear coming in. It wasn’t the big one that Dave had seen the day before but we estimated him to be around 350-400lb. Big enough for me if he came in.
He continued to come into the bait, tension was mounting, I picked up my bow and readied myself for a shot. Jay was busy with the camera, and the Bear continued to come right up to the bait. He found the bait irresistible and proceeded to lie down beside the barrel without presenting a shot. After a few minutes he gripped a large piece of meat in his mouth and slowly walked across to my left then stopped side on. This was it, drawing back my bow I just managed to place the pin behind the crease of his front leg, but he was on the move again. I waited at full draw but he did not stop, instead to my disappointment he loped off into the bush and out of sight. I had been wound up like a clock spring and when I let down. I got the worst case of the shakes I have ever had, much to Jay’s amusement it took at least twenty minutes for the Adrenalin to wear off.
We settled down and waited to see what would develop during the rest of the afternoon. About an hour later the same Bear came back for another feed out of the drum. Big mistake, he presented a perfect shot at 22yards and only traveled 50 yards after the German Kinetic slipped through both lungs. We were ecstatic, I had my Bear and Jay had some great footage. Jay then wanted to get a shot of me pulling back the bow for padding for the DVD. I pointed out that it would show that I had an arrow missing out of my quiver and that to an experienced hunter he would pick up on the fake padding (a pet hate of mine) We both glanced at the arrow buried in the ground 6 feet past where I had nailed the Bear.” I’ll go down and get it” Jay offered. Now Frank had been quite explicit in his instruction “Don’t get off the stand, wait for me to come around to pick you up”. We discussed it some more then Jay said “you are right we need that arrow”. It was decided that Jay would race across to retrieve the arrow, while I very bravely stayed up on the platform keeping my eyes peeled for any bears coming.
Jay was half way down the ladder when glancing down at him I saw a bear standing 20yards away on the same track that went right under our blind. He appeared to be studying Jay as he went down the ladder, “JAY” I yelled “there’s a bear”. “Yeah yeah” he said “I expected something like that from you “as he reached the ground. “BUT THERE IS A BEAR, LOOK“I pointed as he looked up with a disbelieving smirk on his face. Turning around he saw the very bemused bear staring at him “$$$$” he said as his feet left the ground. I will never know how he did it but I swear that his feet never touched the rungs as he flew up the ladder. As he landed on the platform I shoved the Bear spray in his hands, “here you might need this” I said, as I hastily moved over to the furthest corner from the Bear that I could find.
That Bear never batted an eyelid and he just strolled up to the barrel and proceeded to entertain us for the rest of the evening. Occasionally he would glance up at us as if to say, you stay there and we will all be happy. He knew we were there. We never did bother to retrieve that arrow; somehow it didn’t seem so important anymore.
On the way back to camp the word was out, two Bears were coming in and that the second one was Stan’s. Great stuff, Jay and I couldn’t have been happier. When they were laid out side by side they looked identical in size but when weighed, Stan’s went over the four hundred mark and mine was three hundred and seventy pounds. Frank told me that mine had very little fat on him whereas Stan’s had a good one inch layer which explained the weight difference. No one else had connected. Every day everyone saw bears but was holding out for the 350lb plus bruins.
The third day Jay and I were placed in another blind. Dave had sat in this one the day before and had been entertained by a young cub that had scaled the tree ten feet away from him and proceeded to entertain Dave eyeball to eyeball. While Dave found all this amusing it was big mamma down below that was causing him to sweat, remember he had no firearm backup.
Jay and I had settled into a quiet camaraderie by this time and time passed pleasantly. We had not been up there for long when Jay spotted a Bear coming in. It turned out to be a smallish and very skinny male probably around two hundred pounds. The reason for his very poor condition soon became apparent when we noticed his badly deformed front leg. He proceeded to quietly set about the bait barrel consuming as much as he could, as fast as he could, but was hampered by the deformed front leg. We both agreed that he would struggle to gain enough fat for the winter hibernation. While we were being entertained by his actions it became very obvious that he was in a very nervous state and was ready to bolt at a moment’s notice, obviously with that disability he was right at the bottom of the pecking order.
Suddenly he was out of there like he had all the demons from h-ll after him. At the same time we heard a disturbance behind us and across the other side of the logging track. Jay turned just in time to see a cub race up a tall tree and stop about forty feet off the ground. There was snarling and growling in the bush below it, then silence, “What just happened” I asked Jay “I think momma just sent the cub up the tree “but not sure why” he said. Just then we saw Momma come waddling across the logging track towards the bait barrels, where she started slapping the barrels around. It was one of the funniest sights of my life as she rolled those barrels right across the clearing, trying to get the tastiest morsels out. She really knew her business and the sound of the barrels getting hurled around could have been heard for miles.
Suddenly she gave a growl and tore off across the logging track to where she had come from. A fight was in progress, we couldn’t see what was happening but we saw the cub shoot further up the tree followed by momma, then apart from the occasional growl, peace settled upon us again. While we continued to keep a watch, we couldn’t figure out what had just happened. However the puzzle was soon answered when a huge male came wandering across the logging track and headed for the bait barrel. No wonder momma had sent the cub up the tree before coming across to the bait barrel earlier; she knew the big male was in the area. Then while eating she must have heard a call from the cub when the big boy turned up and she raced across to protect it.
Jay and I took one look at him and instantly knew this was “the one” We estimated that he must have been close to 600lb. I readied myself for a shot and waited, and waited, and waited before he finally presented a shot. Instead of clearing my mind like I have trained myself to do before a shot, I suddenly thought about that first experience with the bear picking up a piece of meat then trotting off with it. I didn’t want that to happen again. I now know I hurried the shot. I released, but the shot went high in the back. Oh no my heart sank, the Bear let out a roar and bolted out of there. Jay quickly replayed the film and confirmed that the shot was quite high. We watched time and again, but no amount of replaying was going to improve that shot. Shortly after we saw momma running across to where he had disappeared, 20 seconds later there was another fearful racket. This told us that he wasn’t dead and there was no way that we were going anywhere near there to find out.
Finally Frank turned up and after a quick explanation; he grabbed his shot gun and we were off. There was blood, and we found where the big male had sent momma up the tree in his injured fury. But that was as far as we went. Frank said sorry boys we are out of here until the morning, something that Jay and I were only too happy to comply with.
Back at camp every one gathered around to watch the film of the monster, and after many replays there were many and varied theories as to whether he was down. A couple like me, thought it was too high, but others thought that with the down angle it may have been a killing shot. Frank had a doubtful look on his face but said “Ray we will be out first thing in the morning to try and find him”. I did not sleep much that night. Next morning to my eternal gratitude nearly the entire camp was ready to go look for my Bear, what a great bunch of guys
We followed a patchy blood trail for approximately 500-600 yards, maybe more, but no Bear. We saw where he had pulled large clumps of moss out of the ground and used it to plug up the hole. We saw where he had laid down several times; we saw where he had laid up for the night. Then nothing! We decided to do a search by following a big loop around his last bed, but nothing. Frank said “Ray we have to get back to camp in order to get the hunters out in time for their afternoon hunt”. When we returned to camp Frank told me that although we had not found him, I had used up my second licence. Fair enough I thought, so I spent the rest of the day in camp. Jay went with Stan that day and filmed, Stan put in a great shot on his second Bear. Although it was slightly smaller than his first, He was a very happy man and Jay as always, shot some great footage.
That evening I had a quiet word with Frank requesting another look for my Bear in the morning. Without hesitation he agreed, even though he was a busy man and it was an hour and a half away, he did not hesitate. What a stand-up guy, but it was to no avail he had vanished. I will never know if he survived or not, but I would like to think so.
Chris put in a great ground stalk on a Bear, placed a good shot on him then had to fish him out of the stream, it’s all on DVD. Although Chris didn’t get “the big one” he was pleased with that performance, I know I admired him for it, he has bigger balls than I have.
Danny was the only one to go home empty handed. It wasn’t that he didn’t see any, he did, but they just weren’t up to the standard that he had set himself. Unfortunately Danny had to go home a day early and Jay run him back to the airport during the night. Before they left Dave had a talk to Frank asking him if he would allow Jay to have a crack at the crippled Bear that he and I had seen earlier. Frank readily agreed (I told you he was a stand-up guy). So when Jay returned from dropping Danny off. He purchased a Bear tag and on our last hunting day I accompanied Jay as the camera man to the same tree stand that we had last seen the cripple.
We had not been there long when out popped the cripple. I grabbed the camera and Jay looked at his bow. I waited, and Jay watched the bear for a while then looked at his bow. I waited…. And….. waited. I had no idea what was going through Jays mind but he sure wasn’t in a hurry. (Maybe learnt off my mistake). I waited….. and…..waited, until finally Jay picked up his bow and placed an arrow on the rest. He set himself up ready to draw the bow, looked at the Bear, still feeding and waited….and …..waited. “SHOOT THE BLOODY THING”, I screamed inside my head. Finally he drew back and put in a spectacular shot, the bear only went 30yards and fell over with hardly a quiver.
I had a great time, the company in camp was great and the hospitality of our hosts was wonderful. Frank and his wife went the extra mile and then some, for us. The food was great; we all had Bear experiences, what more could a hunter from New Zealand want?
One noteworthy happening that I must mention, and that was the midnight archery tournament. Do I hear a collective groan from you guys that participated in it?
On the first day in camp Dave produced a glowing disc approximately the size of a DVD. “Guys we are going to have a midnight competition sometime to see who will be the first to hit it in the dark.” How far should we place it”. “50 yards I said expecting him to say na we will shoot it a lot closer than that. But he readily agreed 50 yards it was to be. Darn I thought I would be lucky to even see it at that distance in the dark, me and my big mouth.
Around midnight on the fourth night, the contest was set up with Danny, Chris, Jay, Dave and I all lined up at the fifty yard mark. Stan had decided not to participate, which was just as well as the way he was hitting his Bears he would probably have cleaned all of us up on the first round. Standing there on the line I could just see a faint soft glow way off in the blackness. First round had us all in the target bale with a couple fairly close. The second round was away with mine only a couple of inches out from the disc everyone was close but a little further out. Right I said to myself I am going to nail it this time, only to let the shot off before I was even ready sh-t I thought, I will be lucky to find that arrow. Fortunately I did find it and still no one had hit the disc, but I noticed that sharp eyed Jay was almost touching it, he is really out to win this I thought. Back to the firing line, we fired again, my shot, was met with total silence as were all the others, except, on Jays shot we heard a faint “tink”. B-gger I thought he has got it. When we walked up to the disc there was an arrow in the outer ring of the disc, it was Jays. But there was another arrow in the hole dead centre of the disc, mine. YeeHaa, this old fart from Kiwi land had beaten the American and Canadian hot shots. Jay not giving up tried to claim that technically he had actually hit the disc, where as I had missed it by hitting the hole in the center. Technically i suppose he was right but I wasn’t going to have a bar of that. What did I win? Nothing, just bragging rights and that’s just what I am doing right now.
It was back to Edmonton where Jay dropped Stan and I off at the hotel then raced off muttering about work he had to catch up on. But Stan and I knew it was his girlfriend not his work he had in mind. Stan and I spent the last day in the huge Edmonton mall where I purchased a replacement camera that I had lost while out looking for my Bear. I enjoyed Stan’s Company immensely and was sorry to see him go.
Two Wee Fellas and their big bears
On the flight back I thought back over the hunt, although I was bitterly disappointed over the loss of my big bear, I had claimed a nice one, plus had a great time. I had met some wonderful people and that’s what life is all about. As I sat there, I started to think about my upcoming hunt for Chital and Rusa deer in Queensland Australia. But, as they say, that’s another story.
This story is dedicated to Jay, camera man extraordinaire, a nicer guy you will not find anywhere. Jay married his sweetheart and last I heard they have had a baby.
Written by Ray Scott (dreamrider)
