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utahheadgear
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My 2010 adventure begins with my success in finally drawing a Utah bear permit after eight years of applying. A few years ago I had found a great little canyon full of elk and while archery hunting the canyon for elk had always seen abundant bear sign. I decided to start applying for a bear tag in that unit and now that I had a tag the real work began......
[IMG]http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m45/utahheadgear/a85b699b.jpg
My little girl, always eager to help.
A little practice...at 91 yards....ready to KILL!!
After collecting truckloads of expired hostess twinkies, ding dongs, bread, donuts, stinking rotten carp, and 50 gallons plus of used cooking oil, and after potentially breaking some child labor laws to get all the wrappers off the stuff, I was ready to start baiting.......
Big load of bait packed in solo. Talk about a workout.
I did get some help from the old man and brother.
Loaded for bear!
After developing one heck of a good looking bait site (if I do say so myself) I was optimistic of a good hunt. Only problem I had was that I had to catch a flight to Manitoba for another bear hunt (I know, its rough). I recruited my dad and brother to keep the baits fresh in my absence and I was off to Canada.......
The sign at the front door of the lodge.
On stand ready for action.
Little guy at the bait.
On the way back to the lodge late one night we see the result of a direct hit on a whitetail doe at about 60 mph, or I guess that would be 100 "clicks" in Canada, eh? I won't show you the photo of the deer, but it wasn't pretty.
After five nights on stand and seeing about 15 bears total I hadn't seen the giant bear I was after, so about 30 minutes before dark on the last night I took this nice 200# bear. At 22 yards the Bowtech Destroyer 350 barked and sent my Gold Tip Ultralight Pro 300 tipped with a 75 grain Grim Reaper rocketing through the bear like a hot knife through butter. I watched the bear go down after a short 30 yard dash...Awesome! Just like they write it in the magazines.
When I returned from Canada my brother and dad had good news....Bears on my bait site. Time for round two!!
Does a bear s@#% in the woods....I guess the answer is yes.
On Wednesday May 26th, nine days after the initial bear sighting on my bait station, my brother and I went in to sit the stand for the first time. It was a good night, overcast and cool, but calm. After replenishing the bait and haning a second stand, we climbed up and settled in for a wait. After about three hours on stand light was fading and it was starting to look like we would get skunked, when Taylor spotted him coming down the trail about thirty yards out. He moved like a ghost, very slowly and deliberately. He didn't like his initial approach down the trail because of a snow drift in the way so he turned around and momentarily dissappeared in the timber. He showed up again, to the left, circling carefully behind the bait in the timber at about 40 yards. After cirling the bait for what seemed like forever, as light faded fast, he committed and came down another trial that would lead him into the open at about 15 yards. He stopped again right at the edge of cover, seeming to know that something wasn't quite right, but in the end his stomach got the best of him and out he stepped.
The arrow passed through him so fast that it took two hands to pull it out of the dirt when I retrieived it. Again, as I had seen only five days before, I watched the bear fall after a very short death run.
What a rewarding and fulfilling hunt! To take a bear in Utah after all the applications, collecting of bait, trips to replenish the bait, etc. etc. And I did it all by myself (with some help from good friends and family of course) from start to finish. Suceesss was mine!
He is not the biggest bear in the woods, but he is a nice boar, maybe 240# or so, with a beautiful chocolate hide. I couldn't be happier.
My 2010 adventure begins with my success in finally drawing a Utah bear permit after eight years of applying. A few years ago I had found a great little canyon full of elk and while archery hunting the canyon for elk had always seen abundant bear sign. I decided to start applying for a bear tag in that unit and now that I had a tag the real work began......
[IMG]http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m45/utahheadgear/a85b699b.jpg
My little girl, always eager to help.
A little practice...at 91 yards....ready to KILL!!
After collecting truckloads of expired hostess twinkies, ding dongs, bread, donuts, stinking rotten carp, and 50 gallons plus of used cooking oil, and after potentially breaking some child labor laws to get all the wrappers off the stuff, I was ready to start baiting.......
Big load of bait packed in solo. Talk about a workout.
I did get some help from the old man and brother.
Loaded for bear!
After developing one heck of a good looking bait site (if I do say so myself) I was optimistic of a good hunt. Only problem I had was that I had to catch a flight to Manitoba for another bear hunt (I know, its rough). I recruited my dad and brother to keep the baits fresh in my absence and I was off to Canada.......
The sign at the front door of the lodge.
On stand ready for action.
Little guy at the bait.
On the way back to the lodge late one night we see the result of a direct hit on a whitetail doe at about 60 mph, or I guess that would be 100 "clicks" in Canada, eh? I won't show you the photo of the deer, but it wasn't pretty.
After five nights on stand and seeing about 15 bears total I hadn't seen the giant bear I was after, so about 30 minutes before dark on the last night I took this nice 200# bear. At 22 yards the Bowtech Destroyer 350 barked and sent my Gold Tip Ultralight Pro 300 tipped with a 75 grain Grim Reaper rocketing through the bear like a hot knife through butter. I watched the bear go down after a short 30 yard dash...Awesome! Just like they write it in the magazines.
When I returned from Canada my brother and dad had good news....Bears on my bait site. Time for round two!!
Does a bear s@#% in the woods....I guess the answer is yes.
On Wednesday May 26th, nine days after the initial bear sighting on my bait station, my brother and I went in to sit the stand for the first time. It was a good night, overcast and cool, but calm. After replenishing the bait and haning a second stand, we climbed up and settled in for a wait. After about three hours on stand light was fading and it was starting to look like we would get skunked, when Taylor spotted him coming down the trail about thirty yards out. He moved like a ghost, very slowly and deliberately. He didn't like his initial approach down the trail because of a snow drift in the way so he turned around and momentarily dissappeared in the timber. He showed up again, to the left, circling carefully behind the bait in the timber at about 40 yards. After cirling the bait for what seemed like forever, as light faded fast, he committed and came down another trial that would lead him into the open at about 15 yards. He stopped again right at the edge of cover, seeming to know that something wasn't quite right, but in the end his stomach got the best of him and out he stepped.
The arrow passed through him so fast that it took two hands to pull it out of the dirt when I retrieived it. Again, as I had seen only five days before, I watched the bear fall after a very short death run.
What a rewarding and fulfilling hunt! To take a bear in Utah after all the applications, collecting of bait, trips to replenish the bait, etc. etc. And I did it all by myself (with some help from good friends and family of course) from start to finish. Suceesss was mine!
He is not the biggest bear in the woods, but he is a nice boar, maybe 240# or so, with a beautiful chocolate hide. I couldn't be happier.
