Edition 2 June 2017
North American
Bear Hunter
www.northamericanbearhunter.com
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Editor’s message more behemoth bears are now being caught flat footed in the thick and wild bush.
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Bill Vaznis
he spring bear season is in full swing, and if you have not yet booked a bear hunt you better hurry… this year promises to be one of the best on record. Why? Black bear populations continue to expand across their range, and as a result more and more big-game hunters are looking at a bagging a true trophy bruin… an big old boar that makes one of the bigthree fair chase record books: Pope & Young Records Book, National Muzzleloading Rifle Association’s black powder listing and of course meeting the minimum tally for the Boone & Crockett Club. Indeed, many outfitters tell us their longtime clients will now pass up bears they would have been glad to tag a few seasons ago in favor of waiting for a true monster to pad into view. Reading big-bear sign accurately is paramount and the result is
Black bears are a challenging species to hunt, and the best bear hunters I know think B-E-A-R year round. They develop a positive relationship with a top outfitter and do all they can while in camp to help make their hunt a success. If they hunt without a guide or outfitter good bear hunters scout their home turf every chance they get. Either way, those hunters that are successful season after season are also willing to spend more than a week in bear camp if necessary waiting for a jumbo bruin to saunter in to sight. The best bear hunters I know set aside one rifle or handgun with the right accessories for their style of bear hunting... a proven bear killer. Primitive hunters are not to be outdone. Black powder enthusiasts for example keep a pet rifle tuned in with a custom load and a heavy bullet…one rifle stuffed to the gills just for bear! And compound users often have a separate bow for example fitted with a single sight pin and a large aperture peep sight. No high-poundage power-packages here… #60 is more than enough to drop a hefty blackie with a doublelung shot! Traditional archers also have a favorite self-bow fashioned for just big bear, and they practice with it religiously ‘till they achieve pinpoint
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Editor’s message (cont.) Publisher
Don Kirk Don@Southerntrout.com Co-Publisher Jerry Davis JD@Southerntrout.com Editor Bill Vaznis BVaznis@hotmail.com Managing Editor Leah Kirk Leah@Southerntrout.com Hunting Vehicles Editor William Clunie
COLUMNISTS
Rifles and Handloading – Ed Hall Handguns – Max Prasac Brother of the Bear – Bill Wiesner (Hunting Strategies) Bowhunting Biologist – Wade Nolan Bears in the Kitchen – Glenn and Judy Helgelend Destination Hotspots – Mike Bleech Conservation – Ted Nugent Hunting Vehicles – William Clunie Adventure Hunts – Bob Foulkrod
accuracy at ten yards. Whew! There is one more quality hard core bear hunters share: We are not watching TV Saturday mornings. No…we are hunting bears and there is blood in the back of the pick-up. Good hunting!
CONTRIBUTORS Bernie Barringer Richard P. Smith Bill Weisner Mac Prasac Glen Helgelend Judy Helgelend John Felsher
North American Bear Hunter is a publication of Southern Unlimited, LLC. It is produced in conjunction with Southern Trout Magazine and Southerntrout.com. Copyright 2017 Southern Unlimited, LLC All rights reserved. 4 l June 2017 l NABH l www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com
THIS ISSUE From the Editor
3
Kill Assist Bear Attractant
6
Black Bears Are Cagey Critters
10
Putting the Dogs on the Hogs In the Land of the Bear
26
Under the Snow
46
In Your Face Bear!
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Guns and Optics 66 Selecting and Installing Your Scope Mount So You Want to Shoot a Big Bear
88
The Legend of Three Toes 98 Big Bears Are Never Easy Oregon Country: Apple 104 Orchard Bruin Country Ontario Un-Oh Bear
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KILL ASSIST BEA
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AR ATTRACTANTS S
By Bill Wiesner
uccessful bear hunts start with a good attractant.Why? A bear’s nose is second to none when it comes to detecting scent and will be on alert if a scent does not smell right. Here is an example. A dog can smell 100 times better than we can. A blood hound can smell 300 times better than us and a bear can smell seven times better than a blood hound. With this in mind, I have developed an attractant that has no equal. Our first step is that we use glass bottles instead of plastic. This eliminates the possibility of scent permeation that happens when plastic bottles are used. Before we put the scent into the bottles I sterilize the bottles to kill off all possibilities of bacteria getting into the scent. Our bottles are amber colored to avoid scent break down from sunlight. All KILL ASSIST products are sold directly by us the manufactures. This gives us two advantages, personal contact with our customers and fair pricing. Give our attractants a try and realize you have purchased the finest bear scents available. KILL ASSIST products are available in 8 oz. and 32 oz. spray bottles with a system we call the PRO PAK, truly a system like has never been seen in the bear attractant industry. We have blueberry, jelly donut, anise and bacon burn. Our other PRO PAK package has two secret scents that you hang out with scent tubes that are provided, as you set up for your hunt. It is the total scent attractant package that is sure to give you the bear hunter, that extra advantage. Give me a call or e-mail me and we will get you set up. 920-495-4749
bearcrazybill@yahoo.com
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BLAC BEAR
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CK ARE CAGEY RS CRITTERS PHOTOS AND TEXT BY BILL VAZNIS
America’s Number Two BigGame Animal is Not Dumb!
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lack bears are smart. Very smart actually. Unlike elk, whitetails and other hoofed prey animals that routinely flee from man, a black bear challenges our intrusion into his world using an incredible array of senses. His nose for example is second to none and he can hear your heart beating 50 yards away, I swear. And although he is often criticized for his somewhat poor eyesight, he can spot movement as quickly as any eastern whitetail, and on open western slopes has been known to pick out the human form from over a mile distant. It is his cunning however that garners the most respect from hunters. Jump a racked buck from a preferred bedding area, and you are not likely to see him there again for the rest of the season. Push a black bear off a berry patch however, and he will soon return to eat those berries right from under your nose. And he is not afraid of you either. Hang a bag of camp food stuffs high off the ground and a bear will figure out a way to steal it from you while you are sleeping in your tent a few yards distant that very same night! Over the past 30 years or so I have had hundreds of run-ins with ursus americanus. Some bruins were pushovers and easy to tag while others scared the pudding out of me, but these next six taught me that there are several good reasons why black bears can ride bicycles and chew bubble gum at the same time—and trophy whitetails can’t. www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com l NABH l June 2017 l 11
PAVLOV’S DOG
Remember Ivan Pavlov? He was the Russian physiologist who discovered a phenomenon called the conditioned reflex. Using laboratory dogs, he found that if a stimulus that automatically elicits salvation, such as a meat paste, was repeatedly presented to a dog just as a tone sounded, the tone alone would eventually come to elicit the salvation. Even seeing the person who ordinarily brought the food, or hearing his footsteps, also got the dog to salivate. What does this have to do with bear hunting? Bears can quickly become conditioned to the clamor of hunters running a bait line. They learn to associate fresh food with such sounds as a particular truck’s engine or noises of people approaching the bait site, much like Pavlov’s dogs did to the tone used in the laboratory. One spring we had a bear that become conditioned to humans around the bait site, but in an unusual manner. It was vexing because we did not know when Sneaky Pete was hitting the bait. I would hunt over the bait in the evening and the next afternoon we would discover the bait had been hit. We would replenish the bait that afternoon, return in the evening and have an uneventful hunt, and then find the bait gone the next day. One evening after exiting the stand, I waited a halfhour and then sneaked back to the stand. Sure enough, the bait was already gone. Sneaky Pete was not conditioned to us replenishing the bait site, but to me exiting my stand at dark! So what could we do? The solution for this conundrum was simple. The next afternoon we erected a second stand, and that evening a hunting partner and I climbed into those stands. About a half-hour before the end of shooting light, Charley exited his stand, walked back to the 4x4 and drove away. Before the sound of the 4x4 was out of hearing range, Sneaky Pete waltzed into the bait site like he owned it, offering me an easy 15-yard bow shot. 12 l June 2017 l NABH l www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com
Set up a second stand to double-team a smart bear who has already associated the clatter around the bait barrel with food, like Pavlov’s dog.
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Scoop up some bear poop and dump it on an entrance trail and it will surely enrage the old boar that has staked out your bait site as his own territory
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THROW DOWN THE GAUNTLET
Mature boars like to claim a food source for themselves, warning other bears to stay clear—or else—by strategically depositing piles of dung on entrance and exit trails. You will see this in the spring around a bait site as well as in the fall along the edges of apple orchards and small corn fields. Anytime you find a coil of dung the diameter of a soda can you can bet you have a record-book bruin visiting the area. The problem lies in ambushing the bruin as he may not return for several days, as is so often the case in the spring when mature boars are prowling far and wide in search of estrous females. To get him to come around more often, try challenging his sense of dominance. How? By scooping up some poop from another bear and depositing it judiciously around the food source. In effect you are telling him to get out and stay out if he knows what’s good for him. You may need to give him a few days to find the poop, but once he hits the bait and makes another deposit plan on sitting over the food source every evening until he makes another showing. If he’s big and mean, you won’t have to wait long, as I found out in Newfoundland several seasons back after tricking a big boar with another boar’s droppings. Howler was soon patrolling the edges of the bait site huffing and puffing in an effort to keep this stranger at bay, easily routing a 250-pound male with his 350-pound hulk right in front of my eyes. I should have shot Howler right then and there, but I was hoping for a much heavier bruin and passed. It was a decision I regret to this day.
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IT’S A HOOT! Given the opportunity, black bears will kill whitetail fawns without hesitation, and they have been known to seek out elk, moose and caribou calves. Indeed, the bleat of a young animal looking for its mother is sometimes all it takes to turn a seemingly docile bruin into a blood thirsty killer. Calling works best if you already have the bruin in sight. Sneak in as close as you dare and then start calling, softly at first but then increase the volume until you get a reaction. Even then only about one bruin in ten will respond to your efforts. Over the years I have called in black bears while attempting to call other game animals. And each time I was flabbergasted at how close the bear got before I became aware of his presence. Let me tell you, it is an odd feeling knowing that you are on the menu! One time while using a fawn bleat during deer season I heard a large animal sneaking towards me through the thick stuff. Thinking it was a rutting buck, I nocked an arrow and dropped to one knee. I got the surprise of my life when a mature boar stepped out in front of me onto an old logging road and looked at me with menacing eyes. Another time I inadvertently called in a good bruin that had been feeding in a clear-cut. He came to within ten yards, head down and drooling like he was about to eat at a five-star restaurant. I think Hungry Man was as perplexed as I was when he saw me quivering next to a sawed log. It took him a few long seconds, but once he realized the source of the estrous doe bleats was a human being, he skedaddled back into the bush never to be seen again—much to my great relief. A squealing rabbit predator call will work just fine, but don’t overlook fawn bleats, fawn-in-distress, the squeaks of an elk calf or the moans of a cow moose. They have all lured hungry bruins into easy shooting range at one time or another. Keep in mind that a bruin responding to a predator call is coming in for an easy kill. Call with a partner when possible, and have a gun as a back-up where legal. And never call in grizzly country. 16 l June 2017 l NABH l www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com
The soft mew of a deer, elk or moose calf will often, but not always, get a nearby bear to drool. It would be wise to have a gun-toting partner.
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CAT AND MOUSE
That’s me stillhunting and drawing down on a small bear…I passed him up.
` Black bears often appear to be oblivious to their surroundings, but don’t let that innocent-looking demeanor fool you. One autumn while on a horse back hunt in western Montana my guide spotted a beautiful chocolate and blond bruin feeding on huckleberries a couple hundred yards below us. Blondie seemed like an easy opportunity, so I quickly dismounted and began my stalk using distant landmarks to guide my forward progress. As soon as I descended into the canyon I lost sight of the bear. Blondie however knew exactly where I was each step of the way. When I turned left, he dodged to the right; when I swiveled to the right, he turned around and let me walk within yards right past him. It was a game of cat and mouse that had my guide, who was watching from above through a pair of binoculars, in hysterics. Blondie was obviously not afraid of me, but after a half-hour or so he grew weary of my shenanigans, and slipped quietly back into heavy cover. Spot and stalk is generally thought of as a strategy for western rifleman, but bowhunters can also get in on the act. Bears love to feed in oat and wheat fields where they can be seen from quite a distance due to the contrasting black coat. In the east, bears can also be spotted from a fair distance feeding in apple orchards, beech ridges, stands of cherries and of course corn fields. Getting close enough for a shot however is not as easy as it sounds, especially with archery tackle. One autumn in Alberta I tried to put the sneak on eight or ten different bears while hunting with traditional archery tackle. Even though each bruin was easy to see, each fed with the wind in his favor and escape cover nearby. The dry ground cover also made each stalk all the more difficult. I didn’t go home empty handed however.
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STILL-HUNTING
Most black bears are tagged as targets of opportunity while the hunter is pursuing another species, such as elk, moose or even caribou. In the east, the bulk of the black bear kills occur when a slow-walking deer hunter is suddenly confronted with a bruin. If you are looking for a full bear mount, still-hunting is not a high-percentage strategy. There is an exception to this rule however. In the fall bears often congregate around a food source, such as agricultural fields or ridges laden with mast. While still-hunting through a wood lot surrounded by oat fields one season, I came upon a huge boar I later dubbed the Hip Pocket bear because he almost bit me in the, ah, hip pocket. As soon as I laid eyes on the bruin he started ambling in my direction, but when he saw me he lifted his front paws off the ground—and charged—scaring the pudding out of me. I stood my ground even though I was unable to get a clean shot with my bow. The boar popped his jaws, growled and clicked his teeth in an effort to show me who was boss, convincing me in no uncertain terms. After charging me twice, he turned to exit the scene and it is then I took a shot, skewing the bruin in the liver. He immediately treed, and then tried to get back down to ground zero when for some unknown reason I charged the tree, and shot again driving the bruin to the uppermost branches of the poplar tree. Although mortally wounded, I drove another shaft into his chest toppling the bruin back to the ground where he immediately up righted himself— growled—and charged me again! This time I ran like hell, pulling my last arrow from my quiver. I knew then that the Hip Pocket bear was going to bite me, but my worries were unfounded. I stopped, turned and faced the enraged bear standing only a few short feet away, but he inexplicably turned and waddled some 75 yards away before collapsing.
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A cloud of sweet smoke drifting through bear country is a scent this 450-500 pound P&Y found hard to resist. One shot and he was mine.
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RUNNIN’EM WITH DOGS
One of the old wives tales associated with dogs and bear hunting is that the bear doesn’t stand a chance. The dogs tree the bear and all the hunter has to do is step up to the base of the tree, and shoot. It can happen on occasion if you are hunting small bears, but if you want a gargantuan bruin, then the odds are with the bear all the way. Look at it this way. Most bear hounds weigh well under 100 pounds whereas a good bruin tips the scales from 350 to 450 or more pounds. It stands to reason he can kill a tormenting hound at will, but he more often chooses to simply wear the dogs out by leading them on a merry chase through the thickest and most inhospitable terrain available. One fall we chased a huge boar up and down a river drainage system for the better part of a day, and we never caught a glimpse of the bruin with six-inch plus pads. The locals called this bear Gentle Ben because he never harmed any dog. He just out walked the pack, leaving each dog (and us) plenty pooped out. The only way you are going to get such a bear in your sights is to get ahead of the pack and cut the bear off “at the pass”, not so easy a task in the thick bush and uneven terrain most big bears call home.
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A strike dog riding outside the truck will pick up the scent of any recent bear crossing.
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ACE IN THE HOLE
Overcoming a bear’s sniffer is no easy task. They can smell food a mile or more away and that means they can smell a stinky human at half that distance rather easily. Black bears can be finicky eaters at times. It may take a couple of weeks after emerging from their winter dens for example for a bear to get his digestive tract back in order. A bear will also stop eating a few days before denning in the fall. Extreme weather conditions can be a factor, too, as can hunting pressure. In the autumn bears can appear to be finicky because there is a wide range of foods available, spreading bears far and wide whereas a single food source such as a stand of wild cherries, a corn lot, a blueberry patch, an apple orchard or a beech ridge packed with mast will draw bruins from far and wide, concentrating bear numbers around that food source. Whatever the case, bear hunting can slow to a halt overnight, giving you fits if you know there is an abundance of bruins in the vicinity. Black bears have a sweet tooth for honey, and will throw caution to the wind in order to a belly full of the stuff. A honey burn is a one-man operation and easy to set up. All you need is a pint of pure honey, a pan to boil the honey in and a heat source. A can of Sterno and an empty soup will work in a pinch, but a gas stove and a 2-quart sauce man is more convenient. There are two types of honey burns. A low heat simmers a pint of honey for over an hour, spreading sweet vapors through the bush. This is the way to go if you are hunting out of a tree stand. You don’t want to spook an incoming bruin by crawling down and replenishing the honey supply every twenty minutes or so. And since it burns more slowly it keeps the sweet aroma in the air for a longer period of time, drawing bruins from greater distances. A hot burn quickly brings the honey to an immediate boil causing the sugar to burn rather quickly, sending first white and then black clouds of heavy sweet smoke downwind. I like this type of burn best because you can see the smoke permeate every nook and cranny nearby. If a bear has been regularly hitting a bait site or a berry patch, he is probably camped out nearby. This will get him off his duff and over to investigate pronto. I guarantee it. Indeed, on the evening of desperation, a Honey Bear approached my set-up with intense curiosity, giving me plenty of time to come to full draw and release a deadly shaft. To make that hunt even more memorable, two additional bruins were lured into bow range with the sweet smell of honey that evening, with Sweet Tooth later qualifying for the Pope and Young Club. 24 l June 2017 l NABH l www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com
We skinned the Hip Pocket bear and were surprised to learn he was in excellent physical shape with a perfect set of choppers. He made a nice rug for my den.
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Putting the Dogs on the Hogs Battling ferocious tusked beasts in close combat
written and photographed by John N. Felsher
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ooking like a miniature aircraft carrier riding on massive tires, the swamp buggy crawled along a field edge smashing through brush and high weeds. Instead of jets, this flattop carried a deck festooned with old automobile seats. At the front, one of the dogs riding on the platform began to look anxious. Then, off to the right, we spotted what made the hound so excited. A feral hog, about a 250-pounder, erupted from cover. The massive beast lumbered across the soggy field like the rhinoceros from the movie Hatari! In the movie, John Wayne and his crew captured large African game by speeding across the plains in rugged vehicles while Wayne tried to lasso the animals they hoped to sell to zoos. Like the Duke, we intended to catch this beast running through a south Florida field, but we let the dogs do most of the work. “We ride into the wind with the dogs on the front of the swamp buggy,” explained Mike Tussey, a guide with Osceola Outdoors (239-253-5876, www. osceolaoutdoors.com) in Naples, Fla. “When the dogs catch a hog scent, they get excited. Then, we let the dogs go. The hog breaks and runs. When the hog stops, the dogs bay it. If it’s a smaller hog, we’ll let the curs catch it.”
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After seeing the big porker break cover, our crew released some cur dogs to chase this tusked monster while we poured on the gas in the swamp buggy and took off in hot pursuit. Eventually, the pig turned into a thicket of briars, vines and dense underbrush to hide. It could not hide from these dogs, but it could defend itself. The agitated canines circled the beast barking to call us to the scene. Moments later, the driver parked the swamp buggy as close as possible to the fray. One hunter released a catch dog, a scarred up old pit bull who absolutely hated pigs, and we all took off running after it. The catch dog did its work, clamping its mighty jaws around the porker’s ear to immobilize the enraged beast. With the big boar otherwise preoccupied by dogs yapping at it and a determined pit bull attempting to remove its vital body parts, one hunter tackled the tusker and wrestled it to the ground. More help quickly arrived as several men immobilized the pig by lifting its legs and pinning its head to the ground by kneeling on its neck. Then, the hunters gave my son, Daniel, the honor of dispatching the beast with a knife thrust to its heart. “Even with a catch dog, it’s still pretty dangerous,” Tussey warned. “I haven’t been cut, but I’ve been run over by a hog. I know people who were severely hurt by hogs. One required 180 stitches on his leg. If the person or dog lets go of the hog too soon and it gets up, you’re faced with a 250-pound boar full of teeth that’s extremely mad. It could get ugly.” Many people consider feral hogs among the most dangerous beasts in North America. Bristling with razor sharp tusks up to three inches long, a wild boar can inflict serious injuries when it wants. Leaner and much more muscled than any barnyard pig, a big boar can weigh close to 500 pounds, but typically average between 100 and 300 pounds. A tough coarse hide covering a thick “shield” of hardened scar tissue draped over its head and bony shoulders can even stop or deflect bullets. www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com l NABH l June 2017 l 29
“An adult hog doesn’t have many enemies in the woods,” Tussey said. “Coyotes and bobcats get some piglets, but once it reaches about six months old, not much will tangle with a healthy hog.” With such armor, a bad disposition and few natural enemies, an adult boar fears nothing – except dogs trained to hunt pigs and people running after the dogs. People can use various dog breeds to hunt hogs, but each generally falls into one of two categories – chase or strike dogs and catch dogs. Strike dogs, usually hounds or curs bred specifically for hog hunting, find the animals and chase them. A well-trained strike dog could cost $2,000 to $5,000. “I’ve seen people hunt hogs with all kinds of dogs,” stated Dan Moody with Dan Moody’s Texas Hunting Guide Services (888-561-8031, www.DanMoodyHunting.com) in Pearsall, Texas. “Some people prefer one breed or another. It can be any breed as long as it has that ‘it’ factor in it. Dogs need to be willing to stay with the hog no matter what for hours on end. Many people use plott hounds, which originated in Germany. They also use Catahoula curs, black mouth curs, redbones or walkers.” Hunters normally release one to three strike dogs at a time and may alternate dogs during the course of a day. Strike dogs find the pigs and chase them until the hogs stop to fight. Dogs might try to nip a hog’s tail or back feet to make the pig stop and face the pack. Frequently, a big pig backs into a hole or thicket to protect its hind legs. “A big bayed up hog is organized chaos,” remarked Josh Forbes, a hog hunter from Mobile, Ala. “Some dogs are ‘silent’ dogs and some are ‘open’ dogs. A silent dog, usually a cur, won’t open its mouth until it’s looking at the hog and has it bayed. When a silent dog starts barking, it’s time to start running in that direction. An open dog, usually a hound, is barking at the hog as it’s running after it.” Once the pig stops running, the strike dogs “bay” it, preventing its escape. Sometimes, chase dogs catch or kill small pigs, but usually hunters want to send in the professionals in the form of a catch dog. A catch dog grabs whatever it can on a pig, unusually an ear, snout or other organ, to immobile the angry pig and hold it until the hunters arrive. 30 l June 2017 l NABH l www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com
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“As we close in on the bay, I evaluate the situation,” Moody recommended. “If it looks like the boar will stay and fight, I will normally put two or three strike dogs and one or two catch dogs on the ground. The catch dogs charge the boar grabbing him by the ears or neck and the fight it on. The chase dogs will also join in holding the boar by grabbing anything they can. Once the boar is contained, we move in for the kill.” After an exhilarating chase behind howling hounds and an adrenaline-pumping scene at the bay, one or more hunters typically grabs the pig by its hind legs. This keeps it from moving and angles the porker’s head downward to prevent it from slashing people or dogs with its tusks. With the pig held firmly by people and canines, one hunter can quickly dispatch it with a knife. Some hunters shoot bayed hogs with handguns, rifles or arrows, but most hunters just use knives to avoid injuring any humans or dogs. Most hunters use strong-jawed pit bulls or pit crosses as catch dogs. These powerful animals come prepared for battle. Many hunters make their catch dogs wear spiked collars and Kevlar vests for protection. A good catch dog might cost from $500 to $2,500. “People who hunt with dogs have their favorite breeds,” Moody advised. “I like a black mouth cur for a strike dog, but most of my curs have a smidgen of hound in them. That gives them a little bit better nose and a lot more endurance. For catching hogs, I like a dogo, an Argentinean breed. In Argentina, they hunt the grassy plains by sight. Dogos have a lot of endurance. A pit bull is not built to run long distances. I crossed a pit bull with a dogo. It has the tenacity and grip of a pit with the endurance of a dogo.” Before releasing any dogs, sportsmen must find where pigs live. Hogs thrive in thick forests, swamps, crop fields, prairies and scrub deserts. They particularly love dense river bottomlands, creek drainages and can even live in marshes. Hogs can live just about anywhere that they can find good water, cover and food.
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“Hogs don’t have a home range,” Forbes said. “They go wherever they can find enough food, water and shelter. Sows and piglets wander around looking for food and water. Boars follow the sows. A piece of property might be overrun with hogs one year and not have a hog on it the next year, depending upon the food and water situation.” Pigs devour just about anything they can find or catch. Typically, though, pigs eat grasses, forbs, roots, tubers, fruits, bulbs and mushrooms. They particularly relish acorns and many agricultural crops such as corn, milo, rice, wheat, soybeans, peanuts, potatoes, watermelons and cantaloupe. They also eat small invertebrates or any reptiles, amphibians, mammals and birds they can catch. They even carrion. During times of poor habitat conditions and little food, sows sometimes eat their own young. Hogs leave abundant evidence of their presence. Look for trails from cover to feeding areas and other sign. Hogs often wallow in muck to cool off and protect their skin from bugs or too much sun. Look for wallowings in soft muddy depressions. After leaving the wallows, hogs may rub against trees, posts, telephone or powerline poles and rocks, leaving the bottoms caked in mud. Big boars also scar trees by slashing them to sharpen their tusks. Also, look for places where they rooted up the ground looking for acorns, tubers and other morsels. In dry country, look for pigs around waterholes. Where hunters rode horses after the dogs years ago, sportsmen today mostly follow the sound of the hounds in pickup trucks, swamp buggies and all-terrain vehicles. Electronic tracking devices attached to dog collars help owners locate their animals. When the pack stops, hunters drive their vehicles as close as possible to the commotion and then run to the ruckus. Chasing after hogs provides an excellent opportunity to introduce youngsters to hunting. Children don’t grow bored sitting still and quiet in a tree or a blind waiting for a whitetail or turkey to walk close to them. They can make noise, move around, interact with other hunters and enjoy the thrilling chase on ATVs or swamp buggies. www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com l NABH l June 2017 l 35
“Hunting hogs with dogs is very social and active,” Moody said. “My youngest son killed his first hog when he was four years old. Probably about 30 percent of my clients who want to hunt hogs with dogs hunt as a family. Some people who hunted with me as children 25 years ago are now bringing their children hunting with me. It’s a good time. It’s great fun and camaraderie for families and friends getting together in the outdoors.” Hunters can usually find a good place to let their dogs out just by asking farmers for permission to hunt. Landowners frequently welcome anyone who wants to kill pigs on their properties. Feral hogs cause considerable damage to crops. Pigs can also destroy fences and tear up ground with their tusks. “In Texas, if I catch a hog and don’t kill it, I’ll never be invited back on that property,” quipped Moody. “With hogs multiplying so fast, if I gave someone permission to hunt hogs on my property, I’d want them all dead, especially if I was a farmer.” Left alone, pigs can rapidly overpopulate an area, causing even more damage. A sow can begin breeding when she reaches about six months old. She can give birth to two litters per year, each with four to 12 piglets. By the time she drops her second litter, her first daughters begin giving birth. Even if people kill 70 percent of the pigs in an area, the survivors breed fast enough to replace all those lost in just two and a half years. Hogs multiplied into such a problem that many states now prohibit people from releasing or transporting any live pigs and require sportsmen to immediately kill any pigs they catch in the wild. Most states also allow sportsmen to kill hogs without limit all year long on private lands, sometimes even at night. On public properties, states usually allow hunters to kill pigs as a bonus during seasons open for other game, but check local regulations before hunting. With landowners begging people to kill hogs and states encouraging the harvest, sportsmen should find great opportunities to enjoy family time and bring home the bacon this year. 36 l June 2017 l NABH l www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com
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Where did all these pigs come from?
By John N. Felsher Hogs first came to North America with early European explorers, possibly as early as 1498. Tired of poor rations onboard ship, sailors frequently released hogs on Caribbean islands to provide a steady source of fresh meat. In 1539, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto landed near present-day Tampa, Fla. With him, he brought a large herd of domesticated pigs to feed his troops. As the expedition wandered over the southeastern United States as far as Texas, some hogs escaped into the wilds and multiplied. In the late 19th century, sportsmen began importing pure Eurasian or Russian wild boars from Europe to release onto their hunting lands, giving themselves another big game animal to shoot. Eurasian wild boars look more sloped in appearance with longer legs and snouts than domestic pigs. A hard, bony ridge running down their spines gave them the nickname razorbacks. “Feral hogs and wild European boars are built differently and act differently,” said Josh Forbes, a hog hunter from Mobile, Ala. “A Russian hog will run all day long like a deer. I’ve run them for more than eight hours with dogs. They just won’t stop because they know if they stop, they’ll get caught. A regular feral hog is not built to run all day and will more likely stop and fight.” Released Russian boars hybridized with feral domestic pigs. Both the Eurasian and domestic strains thrived. Now, millions of wild pigs live in at least 45 states and parts of Canada. The highest populations occur in Texas, Florida, Louisiana and California. 38 l June 2017 l NABH l www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com
Is the charque ready to eat yet? By John N. Felsher The word “jerky” comes from the Spanish word “charque,” a corruption of the Native American word “ch’arki,” which means “to burn or dry meat.” About 300 years ago, outlaws, marooned pirates and other people who found themselves living on small Caribbean islands caught feral hogs to eat. They cut the pork into strips and dried the meat on wooden racks called buccans placed over fires. Eventually, people who cooked jerky became known as “buccaneers.” When not chasing hogs or drying meat, many of these jerky makers raided passing ships, giving a new meaning to the word buccaneer.
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IN THE LAND OF THE BEAR
Author: Denny Geurink
Danger and Adventure Hunting Brown Bears in Russia’s Forbidding Siberia IN THE LAND OF THE BEAR is an inside look at the excitement, mystery, danger and adventure of hunting huge, aggressive brown bears and traveling in Russia in the last years of the Twentieth Century and first years of this century, a time of political turmoil when the Soviet Union was evolving into Russia. In addition to hair-raising stories of lethal bear attacks on people and livestock, bears digging up coffins in cemeteries, bears invading camps, and bear hunting in general, the book contains historical perspective of what was happening politically at that time in Russia, detailing how the Siberian people lived, worked, survived ... and how they viewed ordinary Americans. (Favorably.) Denny Geurink, the author, was the first American guide/outfitter to hunt and take clients to the brown bear capital of the world. (Nearly 70 percent of the world’s brown bear population is in Russia.) Russia is a game rich country, because most residents cannot own firearms and thus there is little hunting activity. In the early 1990s, the USSR wanted to boost its tourism industry. Hunters and fishermen usually aren’t at the head of any list of invitees, but in 1991 the Soviet Union, working with a U.S.-based travel agency, looked primarily at the spectacular hunting opportunities in Siberia and invited Geurink, a Michigan-based, well known
outdoor writer, for a moose and brown bear hunt. He had excellent success but, even more, enjoyed learning about and adapting to an unfamiliar culture and existence that, he felt, more-closely resembled the U. S. Wild West 150 to 175 years ago. Geurink liked the total experience so much he became a hunting outfitter for Siberian brown bear (the largest, most aggressive in the world), grizzly bear and moose hunts, plus incidental hunts for bighorn/snow sheep, wild Russian boar (the largest in the world), with now and then a grouse or wolf hunt added. For nearly 25 years Geurink lived adventure with a capital A, enjoying every minute of the hunts, the people, the culture, the political discussions, the travel throughout Russia ... and in the process developing strong attachments to those people and the land, sometimes staying there for 90-day stretches to serve groups of hunting clients. He travelled there more than 50 times and continues to hunt Siberia annually. This book is an expanded and updated re-issue of his first effort, with more brown bear, grizzly bear and moose information and more photos of trophy animals. It is an outdoor adventure book above all, not a how-to hunting book, but many how-to aspects come through in the tales told. For book details and pricing, go to www.targetcommbooks.com.
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DENNIS GEURINK Michigan native Denny Geurink has been a teacher (now retired) and for several years the Midwest Regional Editor of Field & Stream magazine. He wrote a newspaper weekly outdoor column for nearly 40 years. He guided/outfitted in Siberia from 1992 through 2011, when he sold his outfitting business. www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com l NABH l June 2017 l 43
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nother winter storm tracked down from the Great Lakes and dumped yet more snow on the Allegheny Mountains of Western Pennsylvania. Snow or no snow, this day life is beginning under a grey rock ledge buried in the snow pack on Chestnut Ridge. The miracle of wildlife is unfolding on schedule. Two hairless and blind black bear cubs, the size of my telephone handset, took their first breath of frosty air this morning. Black bears are again a common part of the landscape of North America due to the wise management decisions by our bear biologists....and the cubs just keep on coming.
A
Black bears are prospering across America.
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Under the Snow
with Biologist Wade Nolan
The bear research in the US and Canada has uncovered some fascinating truths about these big hairy bruins. I’m impressed by the ongoing project now underway in 4 southern counties of West Virginia. Wildlife biologists have handled 579 adult bears 1,118 times in the study area since 1999. Many of these hands-on opportunities happen in the winter when the bears can be located in their dens. It is with structured projects like this one, with large data bases that we uncover the next level of answers concerning bear habits and behavior. One of the biggest and most interesting areas of bear biology is the cub story.
I find what occurs in that dark desk-size den is most amazing. Black and Brown bears alike along with about 100 other mammals employ a strategy to delay the growth of a fertilized egg for various reasons. Biologists call it embryonic diapause or delayed implantation. There is a host of reasons why bears employ this strategy. Bears hibernate as a survival response to the lack of available food during the winter. At the same time, there is a biological principal that demands that offspring must be born to mammals when the peaking food supply will allow the mother to produce enough milk to sustain her offspring and herself.
The challenge a bear faces is that it is asleep in a den not eating or drinking when much of this nurturing occurs. This is when the female traditionally needs a burst of nutrition to sustain the new offspring. It doesn’t seem possible but here is how they handle it. The gestation period is 215 days for black bears. After mating the fertilized egg matures quickly into what we call a blastocyst, but doesn’t implant in the uterus wall. It stays dormant until late autumn and then implants. By this time, the sow bear is already hibernating. The sow’s unique physiology breaks down protein to make glucose to nourish the growing cubs in her uterus before she gives birth.
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Ten weeks later the tiny cubs are born in a cold dark den and like another delayed implanter, the badger, the eight ounce cubs climb naked and blind up to a teat and attaches. Here cubs drink the richest milk in the terrestrial kingdom of mammals. A sow that won’t have a drink of water for 7 months in some northern dens is supplying that milk. The physiology that allows this to occur is unique and amazing. The large fat reserves that the sow built up in the summer and fall is metabolized into the milk the cubs drink. It’s to the credit of men like biologist Mark Ternent that bear research is held on the cutting edge. This black bear sow will be weighed, tattooed and returned to the den to care for her cubs. At birth, the cubs weigh as much as two sticks of butter but begin to gain weight at an amazing pace. When compared to other mammals they are the smallest young relative to adult size of any mammal. The cubs gain nearly 3-ounces a day. Because 48 l June 2017 l NABH l www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com
the milk is so rich, the cubs don’t need much milk per day. The cubs tank up on this super milk for about three months... and then one day, it’s time to see the world. Out of the den, emerge 2-5 cubs that now weigh 5-10 pounds each. Statistically, the average number of cubs is 2.5. Den time was a piece of cake, now is when the job gets real for the sow. Cubs learn the ropes from mom. She will wean them during late summer of that first year and teach them what to eat, where to sleep and how to avoid predators. The cubs will always be within ear-shot. During this time, cubs are exposed to predation, accidents and disease. She alone has to oversee the well-being of this family for an entire year and then she will again den with her cubs. The following spring or summer, she will intentionally and actively disperse the cubs and be ready to breed again.
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Black bears are North America’s most successful bear. Their amazing physiology allows them to thrive in regions as diverse as the Florida everglades and Alaska’s Brooks Range. The story of hibernation and cub rearing was once an enigma but recent research has filled in some of the blanks. Bear research, like many other fields of knowledge that are being purposely pursued, always give up its secrets slowly. Repetitive studies on bear populations in different regions usually show a trend if the studies have a solid scientific basis. This is the case with a number of studies concerning bear reproduction and bear cub survival. Black bear sows are commonly first bred at 3.5 years of age. This varies if the habitat is prime and food sources are abundant. In some cases 2.5-year-old sows who have recently left their maternal sow are bred and can produce offspring. This occurs in areas where winters are mild and there is a source of carbohydrate and protein rich forage
available in late summer and early fall. This may be an area with abundant agriculture, acorn bearing oaks or a Pacific river drainage with an abundance of salmon. My new home state of Pennsylvania is one such state where twoyear-old sows routinely are bred. Some research has shown that these young sows and even 3.5-yearold sows having their first litter have a poor rate of cub survival. Sows are the teacher and protector of those cubs and in one study 79% of the cubs born to inexperienced first time mothers died within 25 weeks after birth. This compares to only 42% of the cubs dying to experienced sows in the same study. Experience matters and cubs that turn into young mothers make the poorest mothers. In a Pennsylvania study, only 17% of the cubs died within a year when born to experienced older sows and in a Maine study only 6% of the cubs failed to celebrate their first birthday if they were born to an experienced sow.
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The factors’ taking the life of these cubs during the first year was interesting. Adult boars often kill cubs in an act of cannibalism. Of 20 cub deaths, 7 were classified as cannibalized by boars, 4 related to human interactions...mostly car bumpers, 2 to malnutrition, 2 to abandonment and five to unknown causes... most likely accidents or disease. Of the 20 cub deaths at least 11 could be attributed to poor mothering. Under the snow a new batch of black bears is preparing for spring. The reproductive and nurturing behavior of bears is one of the most interesting strategies of survival in the animal kingdom...and it’s happening all around us... right now under the snow.
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ace Bear !!
Fortunately, I had unholstered the .460 as I ran toward the tree.
BY FIREARMS EDITOR ED HALL
“You’re gonna want this one!” Dan said quietly as our approach changed from a quiet sneak to a sprint when we were close enough to see the tree - - and the little bear. Boy, were we surprised! Instead we saw a very, very big bear in the tree. It was only by happenstance that we had decided to run a small bear during the shooting season, but we had had three weekends of not finding a bear to run. We had been checking tracks at strikes and had bypassed a couple of smaller bear. The bear were decidedly in the beechnuts, and when they can fill themselves with one of their favorite foods deep in the woods, they have little urge to make contact with civilization by crossing roads. Berries, cherries and apples are foods often near civilization and roads, but beechnuts are not necessarily so, and the bear seem to favor beech areas which are isolated.
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After three weekends, six days with a pack of dogs bouncing back roads in their boxes and long walks in the woods on leashes, it was time to give them a run. We had heard a few weeks before that a small bear had been seen in a very small orchard just north of Bennington, Vermont. We checked it out one afternoon, and yes there surely were small bear tracks in the orchard. A couple of times while passing the orchard on our way to more distant rigging grounds, we dismissed the strike. But eventually, it was time to give the little guy some exercise. The other reason for avoiding this particular bear is that little bears tend to run all day without tiring, and he was at the edge of a large tract of land with no roads into it, large for Vermont anyway. At daybreak there was the usual strike at the orchard, and the tailgate lowered. A single dog soon had the departing track figured out, and one by one, five other hounds were soon making music up the mountain, as six is as many hounds as we can put on one track. We were soon a bit surprised, though it does happen that small bears will tree quickly, to find our Astros (www. garmin.com) telling us the dogs had stopped, apparently treed about a mile up the mountain. Whatever causes a chased bear to tree, whether it be that he is tired, or just tired of running, he opts to climb and take a rest. If we don’t intervene,
odds are the bear will stay in a tree, and the hounds will stay under the tree. Their barking will most often subside to some degree after an hour or two, and late in the day the dogs tire and wander off. If we show up at the tree, two things can happen. A bear’s natural fear of humans will either keep them in the tree, or the bear will scoot down the tree as soon as he hears or sees people coming. He’ll drop right into a pack of hounds, ignoring them, plowing through them, and racing off at full speed. We often leave our home area, the southwest corner of Vermont, to hunt regions more intertwined with roads than is our home countryside. Our little corner of the state, at least to us anyway, is quite unsettled, having some pretty large tracts of Green Mountain National Forest (www.fs.gov/greenmountain) with little vehicle access off to the east. Just driving an hour and a half north, we can usually get our trucks can get within two miles of any bear. And besides, Dan was always recalling a large bear he ran up there the year before, and wanted another chance at him. We had been running during ‘training season’ which begins June 1, but “bear season” had started the first of September. Now, October, we had passed on a female the first weekend, and had not had a race the following three weekends. We are fussy about shooting, no known females regardless of size, no little guys, and of course, no juveniles.
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Our Astros told us the bear had stopped, and the treeing switches on our telemetry told us the bear was indeed treed. Back to the mapping Astros, we saw that he was on an uphill grade, likely hardwood, almost a mile in and slightly up Glastenbury Mountain. Dan said, as we gathered our gear for the walk, “You had better bring a gun anyway”. I usually have two handguns in the truck, a real thumper, and a ‘just in case’ gun. My ‘thumpers’ include a .460 Smith & Wesson (www.smith-wesson. com) and a Freedom Arms (www. freedomarms.com) .454 Casull. The .460 is in a high ride, Baker style hip holster, filled with 395-grain hard cast bullets from Cast Performance, www. grizzlycartridge.com) stoked with Hodgdon’s (www.hodgdon.com) Little Gun powder. In my pack is a 2 to 7 X Burris (www.burrisoptics.com) pistol scope which can be attached in a few seconds using the levers of the Warne (www.warnescopemounts.com) detachable mount, which is just right for a difficult high-in-the-tree-shot. But I prefer to keep the scope in the pack as these shots usually afford plenty of prep time. I like to have the open sights for close and close-and-quick shots. The .454 wears an Aimpoint (www. aimpoint.com) Open Red Dot sight for precise aiming. One of my “just-in-case” handguns is an S&W 329, Scandium framed .44 Magnum having a 4-inch inch barrel,
and it’s topped with a Burris Open Red Dot sight. I carry it muzzle up in a shoulder holster. It weighs a mere 25 ounces, convenient for carry, but brutal in recoil. The other little gun really is little, a tiny-but-potent S&W Model 60, 3-inch .357, stoked with 205’s, hardcast-athome of linotype. I have no idea why I thought it was time for the .460 to get its walk in the woods, and I don’t know if it made any difference in the end result, but I’m kinda glad I opted for it. “I always do!” I said, as I pondered between the .44 and the .460. Perhaps because it was only a one mile walk, I opted for the .460 since we had no intention of shooting this ‘small’ bear, Dan and I talk often about bear guns, as he had only a .44 Model 629, but seldom takes it into the woods. It is my policy to ALWAYS have something with me capable of taking or finishing a bear. Dan has since bought a shortbarreled .460 and feeds it my .454 hardcast ammo. (.454 potency and the .460’s weight tames the recoil.) My big, heavy, X-Frame Smith & Wesson .460 is my idea of the perfect hunting handgun for all handgun hunters, from novice to expert. It has the weight to absorb the substantial recoil of heavy bullets at full velocity. But even at 69 ounces, a 395-grain hardcast bullet is a real handful. The .460 has yet another side, firing Cor-Bon’s (www.corbon.com) .460 load using a pointed, 200-grain Barnes
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“X” bullet (www.barnesbullets.com). This lightweight bullet rockets out of the .460 with quite pleasant recoil at 2,200 f.p.s. which carries bear-capable punch to as far as you’d care to shoot. I likely wouldn’t shoot a bear that far, but I can put five shots into five inches at 200 yards, using the Burris 2-7X scope and a Harris (www.harrisbipods.com bipod. That rig, and a small sandbag under the grip, is as steady as a rifle. Dan and I started in, with Bill Valois and Jerry Engwer close behind. Dan moves right along in the woods, and despite my bad back, I am not one to lag behind, so we outdistanced the other guys, though Jerry was not far behind. By the time we neared the bear, Bill was well out of sight behind. I had been of a mind to shoot only a pretty decent bear. Jerry wasn’t quite so fussy. A close friend of Bill, he was new to hound hunting, but eager to take a bear. He carried a rifle, I think a 7mm.08. Since I had been with these guys almost every weekend for a few years, I had first refusal on any bear, but have taken a quite a few bears (all but one with handguns), so Jerry stood a very good chance of bagging any respectable bear. Dan was a few steps ahead of me when we, at twenty yards from the tree, began to see the tree through the leafy foliage and undergrowth around us. The bear had climbed a pine, about twenty inches in diameter, but sparsely branched. A couple more steps and we
could easily see the bear about forty feet up, and the bear could see us just as easily. The bear immediately started down the tree. Dan, a step in front of me, ran straight at the tree, waving his arms and yelling. This changed the bear’s mind and he climbed back to his original position, but did not stay there. Dan stopped, a few steps from the tree, still waving and yelling. By then I had run past Dan to get to the other side of the tree to join in keeping the bear up. Unbeknownst to me, the bear would have none of it. As I was going past the left side of the tree, the bear had swung around the right side of the tree, and slid, fire-pole style, down to the ground, landing right in front of me as I was still in motion to get to the back side of the tree. We came just short of a collision. Fortunately, I had unholstered the .460 as I ran toward the tree. He was still upright against the tree with his arms still around the tree when we met. He was turning his head toward me as I was turning my head toward him - - face to face at touching distance. I almost became a statistic! With nothing but pure instinct I pushed the .460 at his face and pulled the trigger, the muzzle about a foot from his nose. He tumbled away. We were on a hillside, and the bear toppled and rolled. About one second later, unsure if I had even hit him, I doubleactioned another shot into his back as he piled. Jerry was just approaching the tree, saw the head rollout into his view and put a ‘just-in-case’ shot into him.
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The standard procedure is for the guys to immediately go right to the base of the tree, as this usually lessens any chance that bears will come out of the tree, and that is where the dogs are. It takes a few minutes to leash every dog (up to six in Vermont) to a nearby tree, then discuss and judge the bear’s fate. Then, usually one of the regulars, (a job most often allocated to me), finds the best location to for the shooter’s perfect head shot, wait for the perfect moment, and I whisper, “Shoot”. Of course, the bears do not always sit perfectly still up there. As we were field dressing the bear, Dan said with some consternation, “Your first shot hit him in the arm”, as there surely was a hole high in the bear’s forearm. But we could also see that the shot continued on and entered the skull squarely, just under his eye, as his head was surely turning my way. Later inspection of the skull at skinning
showed that that same arm-shot continued on through the arm and then through bear’s skull, smashing it severely. I may have hit him in the arm, but only because his arm was swinging by his head, likely cocking back and getting ready to swat me! The bear was estimated at 400, pretty big by Vermont standards. Vermont asks for a tooth for aging and later reported that this bear was ten years old. As is always the case, especially with a bear, the fun was over and the work begun. I shot the bear about eight in the morning, and it was after three in the afternoon when I took pictures at the trucks.
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Guns and Op
Selecting and Installin
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ptics
A rifle could be shipped with a scope detached and Weaver standard mounts will return to zero. This greatly lessens the possibility that a rifle/scope will be knocked off zero while traveling. It is handy to have two scopes sighted-in and ready to go. As pictured, Two Leupold V6, a 1-6 and a 2-12 to select the appropriate scope for the day’s hunt. Should a scope take a bad bump, simply use the other for the rest of the hunt.
ng Your Scope Mount Ed Hall
T
here are many manufacturers and varieties of scope mounts available, and several of them offer very interesting ideas. Typically, selection of your scope mount is given the least consideration in getting a new rifle ready for your next bear hunt. Often, your gunsmith recommends whatever he has on hand, though you may have a preference for steel or alloy. www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com l NABH l June 2017 l 67
The great majority of bear hunters simply want a rugged mount, and we old gun gurus will likely suggest the old-time, all steel, Redfield mount. The Redfield dovetail mount is long gone, but now available from Burris (www.burrisoptics.com), Weaver (www. weaveroptics.com) and Leupold, but without the old Redfield name. (Redfield scopes (www.redfield.com) have been recently reborn by Leupold (www.leupold.com), but I don’t believe the mounts were part of the deal, as Weaver has a cross slot mount bearing the Redfield name.) The immense popularity of aluminum mounts these days pretty well tells the story that one does not need a half pound of steel to secure your scope to your rifle. If weight is not an issue, by all means, choose steel rings and bases. After all, heavy steel mounts help soak up recoil.
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But the trend today is toward lighter rifles in general and it seems a shame to bulk up a 5 1/2 pound Savage rifle with such a heavy mount. And also, the trend these days is to “light-gathering” large objective lens scopes which require very high rings, very heavy if made of steel. One manufacturer’s steel cross-slot high rings and base together weigh eleven ounces, where an alloy mount could weigh but two or three!! Three standard mounting systems have prevailed over the years, the Redfield, the Weaver and the vertical split. The all-steel Redfield style mount uses a turning dovetail holding the front ring, and the back ring is held by two opposing heavy duty screws, or recently a two dovetail mount is available. The Weaver system can be steel, alloy or a combination, and uses two or more cross slots in the base, and the ring clamps to the base with its screw well down into the slot. There are many brand name copies of this system.
My 'blackberry' rifle, a T/C Contender in .45-70 weighs a mere five pounds and the Burris Red Dot is ideal, as my wife and I often pick wild blackberries right around the time bear season opens here in Vermont.
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I have nothing against the vertically split rings. They are inexpensive and hold well if installed properly. I just don’t use them very often. The buzzword in mounts today is “tactical” scope mounts, offering much more rugged rings, odd mounting options, and they are always pricy. I’d likely use them if I had a .338 Lapua or thought I might use an AR as a hammer. Both Leupold and Burris offer selections of steel rings and bases in their standard line and several, mostly alloy mounts in their tactical line. Burris offers a neat PosAlign insert in rings which virtually eliminates scope ring misalignment and offers some mounting latitude. They also offer both Redfield and Weaver style systems, including the Double Dovetail system for added strength. 70 l June 2017 l NABH l www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com
Browning's BLR Takedown is ideal for travel, being packed in a suitcase instead of an extra gun case. The scope, in Weaver mounts, will return to zero within one MOA when re-attached.
Weaver is today’s king of scope mounts, from steel Redfield style to steel cross slot style, to every alloy style scope mount you can think of. Other major systems are available from B-Square (www.b-square.com), Millett (www.milletsights.com), Tally (www.tallyrings.com), Warne (www.warnescopemounts. com), Kwik-Site, and Williams Gunsight (www.williamsgunsight.com), Before deciding on a scope mount, peruse the above, as well as Brownell’s (www. brownells.com) and Midway’s (www.midwayusa.com) online catalogs to see the wide variety of specialized scope mount gear.
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Burris offers a mount to clamp its Open Red Dot sight to a one-inch or 30mm scope tube. I once was concerned about choosing a 3-12X scope but instead chose a 1-5X for its wider field of view. Now I opt for the 3-12 and just lift my head a bit for the Burris Open Red Dot for quick shots. It provides tremendous field of view, looking both through and around the red dot sight.
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My personal recommendation for a lightweight, inexpensive, standard top mount system is Weaver’s alloy Quad Lock, at a retail price of just $14.50 for a pair of rings and $7.50 for bases. Weavers have been my favorite scope mounts for years, and I have a couple dozen of them on various rifles. For years there was only their Detachable Top Mount which uses a steel ringtop having screws only on one side. Nowadays I prefer the Quad lock, as opposing ringtop screws better keep the scope straight when tightening. I have found these Weaver mounts to be removable and repeatable. I once tested this on a quarter MOA benchrest rifle, shooting a dozen shots while removing and reinstalling the scope between shots. By the way, proper torque on the screws which hold the Weaver ring to the base is a hearty twist using a $.25 coin, a quarter. If there’s any play in the slot before tightening, push the scope forward before you tighten, as that is where recoil would tend to move the scope under recoil. It must be that Weaver agrees, because they have steel Lever Lok rings for easy removal even if you don’t have a quarter in your pocket. Weaver also has a Grand Slam series and of cross lock rings and bases made of steel. www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com l NABH l June 2017 l 73
Other scope mounts I’m fond of are Leopold’s all steel, QR and QRW. The QRW’s are similar to Weaver’s Lever Lok. The QR is a post and socket system where a post on the ring drops into a precision hole in the base and turning levers holds them there, promising within 1/2 MOA. As seldom as I travel to hunt with a rifle, I usually carry two scopes for my one rifle, perhaps a 2-8X for hunting the brush and a 4-14 for open country, or in case I damage one. When in transit with the rifle, neither scope is attached to the rifle, and I’ve never had a scope lose its zero in transit. Instead both are wrapped in a couple of pairs of socks lying beside the rifle in the hardcase.
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The Burris Open Red Dot sight is ideal as a compact effective bear hunting sight See-Thru’s mounts are popular for they have an advantage in bad weather when your scope is suddenly an issue. Also, if you feel you have knocked your scope off zero, you can set the rifle in a steady place and ensure that the scope and the irons are pointing to the same spot, as close as your eyes see the irons. Williams (www. williansgunsight.com) makes a streamlined Sight Thru scope mount where the rings mount directly to the rifle, especially nice if your open sights are mounted low. The single fault I find with see-through’s is the requirement to lift your cheek from its normal, instinctively snug position against the stock. www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com l NABH l June 2017 l 75
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Mounting your scope.
The Williams peep sight intended for a shotgun puts the sight back close to the eye as a peep should be in this see-through application.
You will need properly sized screwdrivers, a small one to remove the plug screws protecting the action’s threads. A quality, properly sized screwdriver is essential, unless of course, all screws are Allen or Torx, which I recommend. Proper torque for screws just cannot be taught with words. The steel screws holding the bases to the steel rifle should be quite tight, but similar tightening can destroy a scope, crushing the thin aluminum tube or perhaps just freezing the magnification dial. (A $50 torque wrench from Wheeler at Battenfeld is worth buying. Then you can teach your friends proper torques!) Or find somebody who has a torque wrench and ‘get the feel’ for 15-20 inch pounds for ringtops and 30 for bases. Two minutes of ‘on-the-job training’ can save you from ruining an expensive scope.
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The first requirement in mounting the rifle scope is putting the rifle in a secure position such as a gun vise. A second person holding the rifle is a barely adequate second choice. Remove the filler screws and clean any oil from all the screw threads, both male and female. Don’t just wipe them, use a solvent, (but don’t get any solvent on the stock.) Taking most of the cotton from a Q-Tip is just right for the holes. When installing the bases, note that some are off-center, to allow for installing the rings closer or farther apart. Check for the best options, but farther apart is a stronger mount.
A variety of interesting scope mounts: Leupold's Quick Release mounts are handy. Weaver's Extension Mount is sometimes necessary. One can buy ring and base as a single unit. Burris offers some really rugged ringsets
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I level the rifle with a small level on a flat part of the action or use the bases. I then snug a level padded V-Block out on the barrel to recheck level after the scope is in the way. A heavy rope plumbob hangs at my 100-yard target to align the vertical crosshair while tightening the rings.
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Warne as well as Weaver make quick-release scope mounts using short levers. Carry your handgun with its open sights for quick or close shots, but have the scope handy in your pack should a bear be high in a tree or its head be partially obscured. Attaching the scope, still sighted-in, take only a few seconds. www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com l NABH l June 2017 l 81
Install the ring lower halves, taking away any movement in Weaver slots by pushing the ring forward, as that is the direction recoil will try to move it over time. Lay the scope in the ring lower halves and look for any indication that there is any possible ring misalignment. Some folks, (justifiably) go to lengths to insure a precise alignment. Add the ringtops, apply Loctite and install the ring screws loosely. I’ve preferred to use Loctite 242 (www.loctite.com) on all threads but have switched to Permatex (www.permatex.com) Blue Gel for the convenience of its cream consistency and great dispenser. Like Brylcream, if you remember, “A little dab’ll do ya, no more than just enough to visibly fill the threads.
Check for proper eye relief while wearing the thickness of clothing you will wear when hunting, and remember, too close might bite you at the bench! With the rifle perfectly level, the vertical crosshair aligns with my plumbob and I snug up the ring screws very gradually, checking for equal spacing on each side. The old Weaver rings were a pain, as screws are only on one side and tend to turn the scope as rings are tightened. Weaver’s Quad Lock rings are ideal! If using ‘Redfield’ rings with their two opposing rear screws, you should boresight the rifle and tighten such that the scope stays boresighted near center. You might assume new scopes are at the center of their adjustment range, but used scopes should be run to their extremes and center found.
Boresighting is easy when you can see through the barrel, but levers and autos need a tiny mirror such as a dentist’s mirror or a bore-sighter for this.
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An interesting option, especially for handguns, is to put open sights atop a scope, as in this older T/C Contender in .375 Winchester 'beargun'.
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Caveats While Weaver Quad Lock rings are aluminum, their cross screws which bear against the bases are large bodied square steel, and they mate fully with the notches in the bases. Most, if not all copies of the Weaver ring, and there are many, use a round screw body, and a small one at that, which puts much less bearing surface only against the top of the slot, and that slot can eventually become deformed. Don’t use a ring brand that doesn’t have a big fat square body screw if you have aluminum bases. When buying such other-brand rings, inspect that screw for slot filling size, use steel bases, or better yet, just by Weaver rings, they’re only $15. Many rifles use either one piece or two piece bases. It is often felt that a one piece base is a bit stronger, but with that one-piece base, you can lose considerable accessibility to load and unload a bolt rifle’s magazine. It gets in the way!
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Ring height is important, the lower the better for a natural cheek-to-stock fit. Too high a ring makes you lift your head a bit, which is slower and detracts from instinctive shooting. Big bell scopes also necessitate higher rings, but don’t worsen the problem with higher than necessary rings. Besides, those all-steel high rings are very heavy. You should have just enough clearance at the bell to add scope caps. By the way, older see-through scope caps were often fuzzy, but lately they are very clear. I love them for bad weather. If you are using slotted screws, draw a picture of the slot directions and you can forever easily check that they are still tight. I even notch the edges of Allen and Torx screws with a fine stone.
S&W's behemoth X-Frame revolver in .460 S&W can equal the potency of a .45-70 rifle. Warne's scope mount levers allow for carrying the .460 with open sights, yet a scope can be attached in a few seconds for a difficult shot, keeping its zero.
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et’s face the facts. When it comes to hunting trophy black bears today, there is good news and there is bad news. The good news is that bears are expanding their ranges in many areas, notably in the east while in more remote regions gargantuan bruins still live out their lives without ever getting a snoot full of a stinky human. What’s the bad news? There just is not enough time to hunt all the good spots!
Text and photos by Bill Vaznis
So You Want to S
If you Want to Tag a Then You Have to Look
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Shoot a Big Bear
a Gargantuan Bruin k in the Right Places!
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Indeed, thanks in part to Davy Crockett and Teddy Roosevelt no animal has captured the American psyche more than the black bear. In fact, interest in big black bears has risen to the point today where many knowledgeable hunters now claim that tagging a mature boar is as challenging as tagging a mature whitetail buck—maybe even more so! But where do you start? Although hunting techniques often vary from one state or province to the next, a serious hunter can often get a crack at a good spring or fall bruin with the weapon and method of choice by simply booking a hunt with a reputable
outfitter. This overview should help you zero in on a state or province with better than average bear-hunting opportunities. Please remember that this is just a guide to help get you started. A trophy black bear can come from almost anywhere bears reside, even in areas not noted for monster bruins. And be aware that regulations, even the ones I mention here, can vary from one province to the next. In fact, they can and sometimes do change from one season to the next, so always check with game officials before you step afield.
ALBERTA: Success rates run high here due in part to a well-managed population and an active outfitter’s association. Mature boars generally prefer vast stretches of rugged wilderness or wooded areas adjacent to active agriculture. Three-fourth’s of the province’s estimated 35,000 bruins live in the northern forested half of the province, but don’t overlook the agricultural areas, especially just north of Edmonton, for big bears. Most bears are taken over bait and about 20-percent of those are color-phase. I did take a jumbo farmland bruin still-hunting with archery tackle, but three of my P&Y bruins dropped near bait including a stunning cinnamon boar. For more information: http://www.albertaregulations.ca/huntingregs/licencecosts.html NEW BRUNSWICK: New Brunswick also has the potential to produce trophy bruins, especially in the north-central and southeastern regions. Several outfitters offer baited hunts in the spring, which is also a good time to scout for the upcoming whitetail opener. Although I did not connect this past spring, I did see enough five-inch plus pug marks to bring me back for another go-around. Start your hunt here: http://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/services/services_ renderer.4315.Bear_Hunting_Licence.html
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NOVA SCOTIA: Brown-phase black bears are present, but are considered very, very rare. Hunting pressure is light with about 300 resident and non-resident licenses sold annually. The west side of the province seems to have the biggest bears, but a 300 to 400 pound bruin can come from almost anywhere. There are no plans to open a spring season, and the fall hunt, which by law can take place only over a registered bait site, is usually over with by the time deer season opens. This makes it less likely an old boar will stumble into a deer hunter, and become a target of opportunity. There is no hunting on Sunday. For more information: https://www. novascotia.ca/sns/paal/dnr/paal109.asp QUEBEC: The bulk of Quebec’s 60,000 bears live in the middle of the province and in the western regions along the Ontario border. If you are seeing moose, you are in good bear habitat, too. Almost all hunting is over bait, and booking with a knowledgeable outfitter is one of the keys to success. Don’t shoot the first bear you see however. The biggest bears come to the bait last! Interested? Go to https://www.mffp.gouv.qc.ca/english/ publications/online/wildlife/huntingregulations/index.asp
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ONTARIO: According to the various record books, Ontario gets the nod for sheer numbers of trophy bears due in part to a pool of good outfitters and a bear population of 75,000-100,000 animals. Begin your search in mid province near the Quebec border. Only time will tell what effect the closing of the spring season will have on trophy hunting in Ontario, although I expect the ban to be eventually lifted. Reports of heavyweight bruins taken in the fall are growing in number. UPDATE ON SPRING SEASON: https://www.thestar. com/news/gta/2015/11/03/spring-bear-hunt-to-bereinstated-in-ontario.html And more: https://www.ofah.org/issues/springbearhunt/ Start planning your hunt here: https://www.ontario.ca/ document/ontario-hunting-regulations-summary MANITOBA: If you have your sights set an off-color bruin, think Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta! Indeed, whenever there is an off-color bear around camp, it seems everybody wants a crack at him! Chocolate is probably the most common off-color followed by cinnamon and then blond. Manitoba has both a quota system for non-resident licenses and a one-bear limit to help keep the hunting pressure light. The bulk of the big bruisers can be found in mid province where 300 to 500-pound spring bears can tip the scales close up to 800 pounds come autumn—if you choose to hunt with an experienced outfitter. I hope to be on the Saskatchewan River near Flin Flon next spring. Good information: http://www.gov.mb.ca/sd/wildlife/ hunting/index.html www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com l NABH l June 2017 l 95
SASKATCHEWAN: If you are a bowhunter and hope to put a big bear in the big book, then Saskatchewan should be tops on your list. Indeed, bowhunters have put more Boone & Crockett black bears in the book from here than any other state or province. The province is also noted for its one-bear limit and healthy population of blond-brown trophy-sized bruins. Indeed, one of the best spring bears I ever arrowed was a northern Saskatchewan chocolate boar that measured nearly 80-inches from nose to tail. Good outfitting is one of the keys to success. Look for forested areas that are interfaced with natural and agricultural foods, or wilderness tracts that offer access but have not yet been hunted. BRITISH COLUMBIA has a population estimated to be between 35,000 and 90,000 bruins, and as in much of Canada, this population is under harvested. Bowhunters have tagged over 60 book bears here in recent years, but if you area a muzzleloader buff and also like to put the sneak on free-roaming bruins, then book a hunt on Vancouver Island where your chances for a close encounter with a 300 to 500-pound bruin are actually quite good. Baiting is not allowed. More good stuff: http://www.tourismsaskatchewan.com/things-to-do/hunting/hunting-incanada
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The Legend of T
rophy bruins are cautious by nature. Indeed, the Beaver Dam bait had not been hit for several days in a row, but Jim knew there was a bear somewhere nearby skulking about the bush. A tuft of under fur was found at the base of a towering spruce growing just behind the bait barrel and a partial track was located fifty yards or so away along the edge of an old logging road. Judging by that fractional print alone the bear was a big one, maybe 350 pounds on the pad which ain’t half bad for a spring bruin. Jim hunted over the bait site and on two occasions he thought he heard twigs snap behind the cache of meat scraps, but then all was quiet. He remained on station however for almost the
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f Three Toes
Big Bears Are Never Easy
By Bill Vaznis entire week, knowing full well that eventually the big bruin would show himself. And when he did Jim was confident he would send a razor-tipped arrow through his vitals. On the last day of our trip Jim climbed into his homemade tree stand as usual, careful not to make any clanging noises, and settled in for the evening hunt. Sunset was still several hours away, offering some relief from the humid air and hordes of biting insects that had plagued him all week. Indeed, if it weren’t for the head net and liberal doses of DEET, Jim knew the bugs would have chased him back to camp long ago.
The giant red orb finally dipped behind the tall wall of spruce and fir, sending shafts of eerie light onto the scene, and then all was quiet. Jim’s mind began to wander around a hot shower and a home-cooked meal when suddenly a soft snap behind his tree stand brought him back to reality. Was he hearing things or was that just a squirrel getting ready to retire for the day? Another snap, louder this time and right under his stand told him it was no squirrel, unless of course this particular Ontario tree rat was on steroids. Jim cautiously peered down along the edge of the stand and saw a black bear’s scared head weaving back
and forth like a prize fighter sizing up his opponent. Jim dared not move and in fact had to look away to maintain his composure. It was him, the big boar that had been canvassing the bait site all week long. Jim was about to get a shot at the bear of a lifetime! The boar stood silent for several more minutes before inching his way closer to the bait barrel, his beady eyes riveted to the opening stuffed with dated beef steaks and rib bones. He inexplicably jerked his head up and stepped backwards for a second as if to catch an undetected intruder off guard, but soon calmed and began chowing down on the bait.
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A LEGEND IS BORN It was the moment Jim had been waiting for. He came to full draw when the bruin slid his head back into the bait barrel, picked a spot low and behind the near shoulder and leaned forward to make the shot when without warning the stand gave way. Before Jim knew it the bear was crashing through the underbrush and he was sitting on the ground bewildered but unhurt, his bow some 15 yards distant caught in the branches of a small spruce tree like some sort of odd Christmas ornament. What the hell happened? After picking himself up and examining the stand, he found a support bar apparently caved when Jim shifted his weight to make the shot. To his astonishment however he found his bloodspeckled arrow stuck into the ground next to the barrel. “I found blood along the bear’s exit path for 100 yards or so,” Jim told us back at camp that evening, “and then it just petered out. I suspect from his tracks, the position of the arrow shaft and blood splatters on the ground I hit the bear in the left foot. He is probably none the worse for the encounter, but my fall probably scared the pudding out of him. I doubt he’ll be back.” The next year the five of us hunted the same region. Curiously Jim found the tracks of a three-toed bruin hanging around the same bait site. Could it be the same bear? Armed with a new store-bought tree stand, Jim hunted the Beaver Dam site again all week long, and although Three-Toes was indeed hitting the pile of meat morsels every other evening, he was only doing so after Jim climbed out of the tree and headed back to camp. This was one very smart bruin, adapting quickly to Jim’s presence. 100 l June 2017 l NABH l www.NorthAmericanBearHunter.com
TRICKING THREE-TOES The third year is the charm, or so “they” say, and our third trip into the valley proved to be no exception. Again Jim found the spoor of the three-toed bruin around the Beaver Dam bait site, and again Three-Toes was a no-show during legal shooting hours. This season however we were better prepared to deal with finicky spring bruins and by mid week we had all elected to set out honey burns. Jim positioned his honey burn between the bait barrel and his tree stand, and waited patiently. He didn’t have to wait long. Within 20 minutes a huge bruin with a scared head appeared like a ghost behind the barrel, sniffing the white cloud of sweet smoke like a kid in the proverbial candy store. This time the bear did not hesitate and padded right over to the canister of burning honey, his nose pointed at the boiling brew like a well-trained bird dog on point. Jim wasted no time raising his head net, and after several minutes of watching the bear jockey around the honey burn, released a feathered shaft at the huge boar. The arrow struck with a resounding W-HA-C-K, sending the roaring boar back into the bush like a scalded dog. Then all was quiet.
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BACK AT CAMP
THE BLOOD TRAIL
I was the first bowhunter back in camp that evening and found Jim at the kitchen table, his face and neck covered in blood. “What the hell happened to you?” I asked. “Don’t tell me. You shot a bear!” “Yea, I shot a huge boar that waltzed into the bait site like he owned it. I got a good hit and followed the blood trail to the line of alders that ring the swamp. I could hear the bear coughing in the brush, and decided to wait for some help. Actually, he scared the pudding out of me. He is one big son-of-a-gun, over four hundred pounds I’m sure, and from the scar on his head I think its Three Toes!” “Where did all that blood come from?” I asked. “Damn black flies,” Jim exclaimed. “The nailed me good while I was waiting to take the shot and then as I followed the blood trail. I needed to see clearly what I was doing and dared not put my head net back on. I must have a couple hundred welts already on my head and neck and inside by shirt. If we find that bear it will be all worth it though!”
A couple hours later I circled that alder patch with one of the gas lanterns, and found no exit blood trail. The bear was still inside we figured, a perfect place for a midnight ambush. Without a gun, the five of us nervously followed the blood trail into the alders. What we found scared the hell out of us. We literally stumbled across Jim’s scare-faced bruin laying flat on his belly and facing his back trail, ready to pounce, but stone dead—all 450 pounds of him! It was easy to identify the bear as the bruin Jim shot at two years earlier by the distinctive scares on his face. But the real proof came when we examined the bruin’s front left paw. He was indeed missing two digits! Like I said, big bears are never easy and Three-Toes was no exception!
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S
tanding at the back of the pickup truck, I stroked the heads of the Walker hounds tied to their dog boxes. Smaller than I had expected black bear hunting dogs to be, these long-snouted hounds did not seem large enough to put a really big bruin to flight. Not only that, these were some of the friendliest dogs I had ever encountered. It was tough to imagine them locked in a life-and-death struggle with an animal ten times or more their size. "Are you ready to chase bears?" asked Jeff Hopkins, owner of Cougar Creek Outfitters, one of the northwest's best known bear outfitters. Jeff has been hound hunting black bear, as well as mountain lion and bobcat, for decades. Just as bowhunters are a special breed of hunters, so are houndsmen like Jeff Hopkins. "You get your bow and arrows in the truck and we will hit the woods," continued Jeff, as he loaded thick leather leads and other equipment into his pickup. Looking at my watch I saw it was a good three hours before the sun would even pinken the sky. However, according to Jeff, the wee hours of the morning are the best time for the dogs to strike a race with a crafty, nightfeeding bruin. Although I grew up in the woods of northern Alabama, where most folks think all girls get a cute little coon dog pup as a present on their 16th birthday, until this trip to Oregon, I had never hunted anything with the aid of scent- trailing hounds. Prior to the hunt I had heard a lot about this type of hunting, but to be honest I had little idea what to expect. We were based out of a very western-looking little town of 24 people called Troy, in western Oregon, about 1.5 hours from where I was picked up by Jeff at the airport in Lewistown, Idaho. Troy is located at the base of some of the tallest, most rugged dark-colored mountains I have ever seen. My cottage was located along the edge of a stream. Every evening the townfolk treated us to covereddish dinners, with everything ranging from freshly-caught trout to pies and cakes. Their hospitality was incredible.
Oreg Coun App Brui Loaded up, we headed to the woods. Despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people have moved to Oregon over the last two decades, it is still a remarkably rural, very rusticlooking state. Timbering on national forest and Bureau of Land Management land is big business in this state. The abundance of wide open, heavily timbered land and a state population that is largely centered in Oregon's biggest metropolitan areas, suits the black bear very well.
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gon ntry ple Orchard in Country
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The state has an exceptionally healthy black bear population, according to Ron Anglin, Assistant Staff Biologist for the Oregon Wildlife Division. Estimates on how many bear there are in the state vary from as few as 15,000 to as many 35,000, although 25,000 is the number most often bantered about when discussing black bear numbers in the state. Nearly 2,000 bear were taken by hunters in 1994, with about two-thirds of the total harvested in the spring season, and overall between 65 to 70 percent being taken by hunters using hounds or hunting over bait sites. (Editor's note: these methods are no longer legal as a result of a 1994 statewide referendum vote, although the Spring and Fall seasons remain open. Refer to the Sidebar at the end of this article.) The first hunt as we left town at 2 a.m., headed out in the direction where a large bear had been seen by one of the people in town. Shortly before sunrise the dogs struck a hot trail (a fresh travel trail used by a bear). Standing at the truck,
we traced the race between the pack of hounds and the bear for 45 minutes, until the sounds made by the hounds changed from short baying, to long, drawn-out cries. Hearing this, Jeff announced the hounds had either treed a bear or were in fight. Most black bear run when pursued by dogs. How far they might go is impossible to predict. An old bear that has dealt with hounds in previous hunting seasons will often run in a straight line up to 40 miles. That's the last bear an outfitter hopes to see his dogs encounter. Most of the time, though, a bear will tree within a few miles, especially if it is a fat bear. The exception to this is when it is a big, mean bear. Such animals as these are noted for not having much patience with pesky hounds. Turning to fight is one of their favorite ploys for ridding themselves of barking pursuers. Again, because this type of activity is rarely positive to valuable bear hunting dogs, most outfitters waste little time before intervening in such battles.
Arriving at the base of a large ponderosa pine where the hounds were standing a noisy century, we spotted the bruin about 20 feet up in the tree. It was inky black and weighed around 200 pounds. Jeff asked if I wanted to take the animal, but before I could answer, he said he would really like to see me bag ole "Cruiser Jr.," a large boar of local renown the folks around Troy really wished would cash in his chips at the end of a broadhead. Being curious about Cruiser Jr., I queried Jeff about the black bear with a nickname that sounded like he was a member of the Hell Angels motorcycle gang. "Cruiser Jr. shows up around the ranches and logging camps around Troy on a fairly regular basis, often causing considerable mischief. He's credited with everything from killing calves and sheep, to wrecking summer cabins and ravishing smokehouses," said Jeff while we eyed the bear the dogs continued to hold in the tree. "Big? Why of course he's big. Bigger than a VW Beetle by some accounts,
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and meaner than a busload of hippies who just had their food stamps stolen. In fact, ole Cruiser Jr. might be more bear than a greenhorn like you might want to take on," he said, half looking at me out the corner of his eyes, while trying to give me the impression he was sizing up the bear in the tree.
"Cruiser Jr. it is then," I said, taking the arrow from the rest on my High Country bow. The next three days were hell. Eastern Oregon black bear are hunted in some of the most rugged, unforgiving terrain found anywhere on earth. Nothing is level. You can not travel
more than 100 feet without having to either stop to climb over, and down off, a boulder or ledge. When you do make it to a timbered area, you are slowed down even more, as every ten feet you have to climb over one of the 200 million deadfalls littering the forest floor. During those three
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days we hunted an average of 16 hours a day. The first day we treed the little black-colored bear. The next day the dogs got on a hot trail early again. After a 3 1/2-hour hike over two craggy spur ridges, we arrived where the dogs had treed the animal. Beautifully marked, tawny and almost gold in color, and weighing an estimated 250 pounds,
this bear was pretty, and even quite desirable, but it was not ole Cruiser Jr. So I passed on the animal, and an hour before dark we arrived back in Troy, where literally every resident wanted to know how our hunt had progressed. A lifelong houndsman, Jeff Hopkins not only has one of the best reputations in the bowhunting community
as a super outfitter, but also is a living legend among the people of eastern Oregon and Washington, as well as all of Idaho. Many regard him as the greatest living bear and cat hunter in the region. He hunts these animals in the most rugged terrain of North America ten months a year. During our hunts, this well- conditioned man often scampered up
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ridges or down into canyons just to "take a peek" at what might be there. The third day of the hunt started like the first two; three hours before dawn bumping along rarelytraveled logging roads, with the dogs atop their boxes, noses held high winding the air for fresh sign of their quarry. Jeff's theory is that if a dog can wind where a bear has crossed a road, while the dog is riding along in the back of his pickup, it is a fresh track they have an excellent chance of getting on quickly, and successfully. It didn't take long before the canines in the back indicated we they were ready for business. Releasing the strike dogs first, Jeff watched as the pups disappeared into the pre-dawn darkness. Bear dogs live only to hunt their lifelong enemy. Rarely surviving past their seventh year, these dogs usually die they way they love to live; hunting or fighting bear. An hour later, and five miles away, the dogs treed. However, as was the case the previous two days, it was a nice bear. In fact it was a really nice bear that pushed over 250 pounds,
but it was not Cruiser Jr. Going back to the pickup, crossing ridge, rock, and timber, I knew I was more exhausted than any time in my bowhunting career. At the truck I began inwardly asking myself if I shouldn't have taken that bear. At supper in Troy that evening, an apple farmer came by our table, saying he was almost certain Cruiser Jr. was raiding his orchards on a regular basis. Before leaving he informed us we were more than welcome to trespass on his property. "Are you up to another jaunt up the mountain after ole Cruiser Jr.?" asked Jeff. "I've never been more tired than I am right now, but if ole Cruiser Jr. is stealing apples, we'll give it a try in the morning," I answered. "I'll pick you up at 2 a.m.," concluded Jeff over his second cup of coffee. Two a.m. came earlier than ever and, as always, Jeff was on time. The drive to the valley where the apple farm was located took us in the opposite direction we had traveled the last three mornings. Circling the apple orchards, the hounds indicated a hot trail. Releasing the strike
dogs first, then the rest of the pack of hounds, within minutes the race was underway. However, unlike the hound and bear races of previous mornings, this one did not end quickly with a treed bruin. Instead, the bear appeared to be headed for the Canadian border. As soon as it was light we spotted tracks near where the hounds had picked up the trail. According to Jeff, they were those of Cruiser Jr., who (even though I did not know this at that time) had eluded the efforts of this houndsman ten times over the last five years. Using radio telemetry equipment, Jeff determined Cruiser Jr. was heading north across a patch of land the outfitter did not have permission to hunt, and a tract he said was so rough to travel neither man nor beast would go there. Heading north, we stopped at a ranch house where the owner of the property he referred to lived. Hearing what was going on, the owner and his two sons agreed to let us trespass to kill Cruiser Jr., provided they accompanied us. Over the last few years this nasty bruin had killed many of
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their calves and sheep. Our increased party arrived at the edge of the most dangerous-looking canyon one can ever imagine seeing. Below, the hounds were in full cry, indicating a bear had been treed. Looking at the menacing canyon and knowing how tired I was, I asked if they were certain Cruiser Jr. was there, or was it another, smaller bear. A plan was devised where our party formed a hand signal relay team. Jeff would go to the treed bear, and if it was Cruiser Jr., he would signal the next man up the canyon, and so forth until it reached me. As fate would have it, two hours later I received the signal; it was Cruiser Jr. Getting to where Cruiser Jr. was treed and awaiting me was a torturous three-hour descent along steep cliff walls. Many times gravel that slipped from under my shoes caused pretty impressive landslides. On at least two occasions I thought I would be dashed to my death on the rocks below. However, I finally made it the bottom where Jeff and Cruiser Jr.
awaited me. Twenty yards up the tree was perched the biggest black bear I have ever seen. Its head looked like it was as big as a washtub, and its forepaws were bigger around than me. "The damn ole devil thought he would elude me again by snaking up this narrow canyon," laughed Jeff. "But the joke is on you, big guy," he continued, talking now to the bear. The shot was true. My High Country bow and Muzzy broadheads did an admirable job. Mr. Cruiser Jr. no longer steals apples, kills livestock, or is the subject of conversation at dinner in Troy. His hide is now a 7 1/5-foot rug in my den, and his 20-inch skull sets on a shelf where it is a constant conversation piece. If you would like to talk to Jeff Hopkins about a black bear, cougar, bobcat, elk, or mule deer bowhunting trip, contact him at Cougar Creek Outfitters; P.O. Box 96; Joseph, OR 97846; 503432-4120.
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or me, making a living in the outdoors industry was the culmination of several paths, one of which included running an archery-only bear hunting camp in Ontario. For 13 years I spent late May through early July running Gerri Bear Hunting near North Bay in Algonquin Park. During that time, the hunters who came there took hundreds of bears, including a couple of pretty big bruins. Insofar as bear camps are pretty mundane from the time you get out of bed until the afternoon, when you go hunting, I tried to liven things up, especially at mealtime. I had a routine that started with breakfast the first day, when I asked newly arrived hunters how they like their eggs. If they wanted fried eggs, unknown to them I had a stash of eggs with well-developed embryos. When I sat their plate before them with home fries, bacon, and two eggs sporting chicks in the yolk, the look on their faces was pretty predictable.
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h-Oh Bear I had a couple of other culinary gags I perfected during the course of the years running that bear camp. Another was cleaning out an engine oil can so it could be safely filled with cooking oil. Announcing with irritation that we had run out of cooking oil, I would promptly go to my truck to fetch a can of Quaker State. Someone always bit on that trick. Another was to serve a whole ham at lunch, but not before I had injected it with green food coloring to give it the appearance of being spoiled. It was a lot of fun, and trying to make bear camp a memorable experience for all led to how a bear was dispatched by an axe blow. Part of the headache of running an archery-only spring bear hunting camp is that, throughout the season, a week rarely passes when at least one of your hunters arrows a bear that requires tracking to recover. More
often than not, tracking takes place the morning following the hunt, but it is not uncommon to have to use flashlights to trail a gusher-class blood trail in darkness. Early in my career as a camp operator, I was attempting a nighttime recovery. Armed with a high-beam, handheld light and an “S” swing axe, I would lead the way, followed at a safe distance by the hunter and his pals, who more often than not had dinky, pen-sized flashlights. On this occasion I was about 100 feet in front of my hunters when I stumbled upon the mortally wounded bear. Much to my surprise, the moment I reached the bear, it dropped dead. Clutching the opportunity to clown around a bit, I yelled out an obscenity, then started thrashing the undergrowth while pointing the beam from my bright flashlight at my hunters, who heard this racket, plus
my screams. A minute later I shouted, “It’s okay.” When they were close enough to see me with their flashlights, I was holding up the dead bear by an ear and in my other hand I had my hunting knife. I was covered with blood. To say my hunters were taken aback would be a gross understatement. Thus the tales of Bob going against a bear bare knuckle, or with an axe, began. Shortly thereafter, we were following a blood trail one morning when, in a thicket by the creek, I heard the wounded bear. It sounded “fresh,” a suspicion confirmed a second later when the animal charged at me from some alder saplings. I ran from the bear, even though I knew it was impossible to outrun the anger-charged beast. Desperate, I wheeled around without proper consideration of the idea, and with a single blow
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I sunk the business end of the axe blade through the skull of the animal. Now the legend was growing fast, and I must confess that at the time I really liked riding that fast train. So it went for a number of years. I developed a knack for dispatching wounded bears with a smack to the skull cap using the flat side of an axe head. But as the hunters in my camp began to arrive with ever-smaller broadheads each year, my opportunities to axe poorly arrowed bears substantially increased. Business was good, and I labored under the illusion that I was getting better and better with an axe. That changed in 1995, in what has come to be known as my last day on the job at bear camp. It was the usual scenario. The morning after a bear had been wounded, my friend Paul Chamberlane and I were following its blood trail, which lead to an average size bruin in the brush, sort of sitting on its haunches like it was taking a break. Sizing up the situation in the twinkle of an eye, I moved forward and, in one deft swing, lay down the blunt steel atop
the bear’s skull—I thought. Unfortunately, the bear reacted to the approaching axe by jerking back its head. The only part of the bear hit by the drop of the axe was the animal’s nose. For a pregnant millisecond, I peered into the beady black eyes of the animal as they ignited with rage. The furious bruin sprang at me like it was shot out of a cannon.
Somehow before it hit my chest to take me to the ground, I managed to get my hunting knife from the sheath hanging at my side, while I took two steps back. With the bear atop my chest, I plunged the entire length of my knife into its stomach. Stung by the steel, the bruin rolled onto its side as though it had been vented by a broadhead. It did not stop there, though. For
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what seemed like an hour, the bear and I wrestled— him biting me and me stabbing him. As suddenly as it began, it ended—and not a second too soon for me. The bear and I were bloody messes, but I was alive. The bear bit me 18 times, mostly in my legs, including its final death bite, when its canines penetrated deep enough
to reach into the marrow of my leg bone. After skinning the bear I was told it had 16 stab wounds. I immediately limped to where the animal hung, just so I could stick it with my knife two more times so we would be even. Later that morning I was the hospital in Mattawa, where they cleaned the wounds and I received a lesson in political correctness from a female doctor who informed
me that she did not blame the bear for chewing on me. A day later I was back home at my mountaintop lodge, watching television and eating popcorn. After three days of sitting with my bandaged leg in the air, as I had been told to do by the doctors, I came to the conclusion that all of the channels such as HBO and Showtime had a total of about a dozen movies they swapped back and forth to televise and rerun endlessly. Since I was feeling okay, I went out to unload the trailer I had pulled back from bear camp. As I labored, Shelia came to the door to tell me a hunting buddy, Victor Bezone, was on the phone. Bezone is a worldrenowned medical doctor, and he told me that if I did not keep my leg elevated for at least a week, I might get an infection which might kill me, and would certainly cost me my leg. So, there I was—me and the remote, alone in the den….
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