2024 Fall Bear - Wrapped it up today

As mentioned in an earlier post on Saturday the 24th of August i set up a shaker barrel bait at the back of a large beaver pond with the following:

220 lbs whole corn
50 lbs black oil sunflower seeds
10 lbs molasses
10 lbs gummy worms
10 lbs party mix


A rotten log was also scented with anise, caramel and vanilla extract as a scent lure. I checked the bait the next morning before heading home and it had already been hit - promising.


View of the beaver pond:


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Bait barrel with beaver pond in the background:


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Had planned to come back on labour day (the 2nd) and hunt all week but work interfered and that compressed to Wednesday to Friday this week. Arrived about noon on Wednesday and checked the bait. The barrel was empty and site was picked clean. The remains of the log with the call extracts:

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I rebaited with half of what i initially put in on the 24th and hoped for the best. Wednesday and Thursday were a bust and Friday morning was pouring rain so went back to bed (tracking, if required, in the rain can be extremely difficult). Checked the bait Friday (today at noon) and it had been hit hard and rain had stopped. First new sign since arriving on Wednesday. Got in the climber at 4 pm today. In the past all my bears except one have been taken with the rifle. Decided to give the Xcalibur a go this year instead. Climber is about 20 feet higher than the barrel (9 feet due to elevation rise and 11 feet up the tree) so the shot angle is pretty steep but due to the setup at this spot the bear often gives a nice exposed broadside shot pretty quickly. View down the shooting lane today from the climber:

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At 5:16 pm today a yearling boar came in. Being as this was my last day available i waited for him to give me a shot and then launched a bolt at 5:22 pm. Shot was 24 yards quartering away slightly with near side front leg extended forward. To compensate for downward angle aim point was slightly higher than middle with exit point projected to be offside low and just in front of arm pit. He jumped when hit ran about 20 yards and went down in sight with the typical death moan. This is 8 yards further than any i have ever shot with the rifle but i was happy with result.

Bolt as found with good blood. Bolt setup is an Excalibur/Easton Proflight tipped with a 125 grain fixed blade Montec G5:

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Bear as found approximately 120 to 130 lbs - was hoping for the big guy but ran out of time:

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Shot ended up catching both lungs and the heart. Heart showing slice across bottom lobe:

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Total recovery time was 2 hours from trigger pull to locate (saw it go down so this was easy), recover, dress and load into truck. Weather was intermittent very light drizzle and 10C.

Great bear, congrats.

Awesome to see your success. Congrats. Time for some bear pepperetttes.

awesome job Species!!!

Good work and congratulations on a successful hunt! It sounds like you put a lot of thought and effort into your hunt. What do you do with the hide?

Congratulations. Great eating bear


I rebated 3 bear stations on Thursday and 2 were hit but had to head home for family reasons.
I was waiting for cooler weather anyway.
Hopefully I can get back up and get the bears coming back in later this month

Congratulations ! Your hard work paid off again. This one looks like it'll make some good eating. Great description & pictures as usual ..

Congrats species, nice eating size bear

Congrats on your harvest Species.

Beautiful healthy good eating bear.

Cheers

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Originally Posted by Sam Menard

Good work and congratulations on a successful hunt! It sounds like you put a lot of thought and effort into your hunt. What do you do with the hide?

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Depends on the size and condition. Sometimes they are patchy and thin fur (maybe like 20% of the time) - these get given to my dogs and they have fun with it for a few days until it is disappeared. If it is bigger and good quality fur i have had 3 rugs made. One in the bedroom, one on the staircase wall and one on the cottage wall. That is my limit for rugs. That being said i occasionally get requests from non-hunter friends that would like a rug made - have gifted 3 or 4 for this purpose. The remainder if suitable quality get donated through a friend of a friend to First Nations to be used by elders that want to train younger members in traditional craft.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FishHog

Congratulations. Great eating bear


I rebated 3 bear stations on Thursday and 2 were hit but had to head home for family reasons.
I was waiting for cooler weather anyway.
Hopefully I can get back up and get the bears coming back in later this month

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Was pretty cool Friday at my place around 10C and today it is 9C going down to 4C overnight. Good temps but the rain has been pretty steady. I got lucky on Friday with a 4 or 5 hour window with only intermittent light drizzle.

Congrats !

Congrats on the great eater

Awesome story, just love reading the way you tell us about the hunt..... Congrats

Thanks for the great replies guys.

@Frank - feel like you haven't posted in awhile - good to hear from you and hope all is well.

@Newbie - Hear you won the lottery and drew a bull tag - good luck to you guys.

Great thought of hides being passed on to Elders. Traditions have to be passed on to remain in sight.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Species8472

Was pretty cool Friday at my place around 10C and today it is 9C going down to 4C overnight. Good temps but the rain has been pretty steady. I got lucky on Friday with a 4 or 5 hour window with only intermittent light drizzle.

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It was the 4 days of rain that chased me back home, despite the cooler temps.
My camp is pretty remote and I do my own butchering. Being solo, I need a cool night and mostly a cool morning at least to get that done. So I wait until I have some cold temps for a few days. It has cost me lots of hunting days, but its either that or pray I can get out to a butcher in time, which I'm not comfortable with.