Vancouver Island Bear


buckee

Recommended Posts

This was one interesting deer hunt and one more great hunting story to pass along.

I started the morning late because I had to drop Diana off at work at 7:00am. I didn't get home, change and get out to Chester's property until around 8:00am.

I did see a nice black-bear on the way into the property, out off the main road on the native land. I hunt just in behind that land. The pictures turned out terrible, because I should have turned off the truck to stop all the vibration...but oh well.

IMG_0002.jpg

I decided to sit in a little dug out spot I made in the ditch along the power-lines first for a few hours, just to see if anything good crosses the field. Well, I sat until 9:30 and saw nothing, so I packed up my chair, dropped it off at the truck and decided to do a still hunt in the woods instead.

Well, the ground was nice and wet and quiet, so it wasn't hard sneaking along slowly, looking for deer parts. (got a very light frost this morning, but that was all gone by now)

So, I'm still hunting along, and I look over into the swamp, and there's this dark thing, that I thought might just be a log, about 25 yrds from me. So I pulled out my deer call, and gave a doe call.

Low and behold, this sleeping bear rolls over to get more comfy...LOL. I couldn't believe it. I just sneaked up on a snoozing bear...LOL.

I pulled out the camera and clicked a few pics with one hand holding the camera, and one holding my bow. They were fuzzy as heck, so I tried a short video clip, which turned out a bit better.

It looked like a pretty fair size, so I thought I'd try to sneak in a bit closer. I moved a couple of steps to my right first to get a tree between us, and started sneaking in of the skid trail I was on. Well, about the 2nd or 3rd step into the ferns, I snapped a twig under foot and froze. Up got the bear, and I could see his one leg and muzzle, looking in my direction. I just froze there and waited.

Low and behold, ..he lays back down again...LOL

I wait a few seconds for him to get comfy again, and take a couple more steps closer ....... Oops ...There goes another twig.

He leaps to his feet and up the nearest tree beside the one he was sleeping under. He stopped about 10 ft. off the ground and looked around, I just froze, because there were way too many branches in my way to get a shot off. After a few seconds of looking, he decides to go higher, so that was my cue to quickly take a few steps to my left for a clear shot.

The shot sounded good, and up the tree he scurried. He went all the way to the top almost and it seemed like he was there a good 10 min. I could see him faltering, and his legs hanging limp every so often, so I knew he was getting weak.

I was trying all this time to get some camera footage of him up the tree, and maybe catch him on tape falling, but instead of falling, he came down a few branches at a time, recovering all the way, and then slid down the tree like a drunkin fireman ..LOL:clown:

In the meantime I had put my bow down to get the footage, and when he started to slide down fast, I threw the camera on the ground and grabbed my bow. I was only 15 yrds from the base of the tree.

He stopped about 5 ft from the ground, and I thought I had a beautiful shot, but saw a piece of bark fly from a sapling that was between us and was pretty sure I heard it hit a tree back in the swamp a bit. I reached for another arrow quickly and pulled on him again. I thought I hit another twig and missed again, but later found out that even though my arrow got deflected a bit, I did stick him.

I only had one arrow left now, and when he hit the ground, he just sat there 15 yrds away, glaring at me. All I could see was head, because the rest of him was behind ferns.

I just drew and held, waiting for my last shot to finish him. He laid down, and started to crawl back toward where he was bedded down, and as he went over a small log, I drilled him.

He took a few tumbles and I could see one of my earlier arrows sticking out (broadhead end) right where it counts, along with the one I just shot down through his shoulder.

As he was stumbling back into the swamp as you can see on the video, I started feeling kind of naked with no arrows left, so I headed out for the truck. As I started to leave, he started bawling so loud, all the dogs started barking in the distance. An eerie sound for sure.

I was shaking from adrenaline, and got out quick...LOL:)

OH, how I wish I had a cameraman for this.

Blackbear recovery video, a couple of hours later..

As it turned out, there was a little ground shrinkage, and I ended up hitting him with 3 arrows, even though 2 out of 4 arrows got deflected by branches. One arrow is still stuck in a tree, and I'll have to remember my pliers next time in there.

It was one fat bear, although only about 4 years old.

I'm pretty sure it went over 200 lbs, because I'm over 200, and it was fatter than me..right Wilf...LOL

I'd like to thank my buddys for coming out to help me. Ken did a good job catching the recovery on the camera, and Wilf and his son-in-law, whom is now named "The Dawg", found all of my arrows, and helped get that bear out of the woods. Thanks guys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is just my luck this season....

I'm not seeing much while hunting and when I'm not I'm on here and cant even download the entire second video before I get the message from Youtube: "The Youtube site is down for maintenance and will be back up shortly"

LOL...Someone send me a horseshoe 'cause it seems mine has rusted away completely:hammer1::clown:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is just my luck this season....

I'm not seeing much while hunting and when I'm not I'm on here and cant even download the entire second video before I get the message from Youtube: "The Youtube site is down for maintenance and will be back up shortly"

LOL...Someone send me a horseshoe 'cause it seems mine has rusted away completely:hammer1::clown:

It's loading for me OK Gary. I tried to email it to you, but it's too big to send. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

who you callin Folk:hammer1::clown:

BTW...I got to see most of the second video...good Dog:clown::clown::clown:

LOL :clown:

Yeah, the dawg found all 4 of my arrows, just like that. I thought I missed the bear twice because of branch deflections, but it turned out I slammed him with 3 arrows out of 4. The 4th is still in the tree as I couldn't dig it out.

I couldn't believe how that bear was all curled up in the fetal position. It looked like he died just sitting there, slumped forward and then fell a bit after rigamortis set in.:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.