Bear Hunting Roller Coaster

[rutnbuck]

Been after a very large bear with the bow since September 13th. It had been very warm for Northern Wisconsin which made it tough not just for the bears but the hunters as well. This large boar was showing up 30min to 90min after dark for quite some time. Would he ever come in during daylight? So I went back home and came back up a week later in fact September 27th was the next evening hunt. I also brought up the mountain bike since maybe he heard the 4 wheeler which I parked 1/2 mile away and walked in. So the bike trek was about 3 miles from the cabin and I still parked about 1/2 mile away and walked the rest in. Got situated about 3:00pm ready for the hunt. I was looking at moon time and the overhead moon was at 6:51pm, was cooler and the wind was perfect. I'm thinking to myself that this has to happen or at least see one since I haven't even seen a bear on stand for the season. This large bear was dominating the bait. I had no competition from other bears so seeing this one was it. At 6:45pm I hear a bear below my stand huffing and puffing (didn't hear him at all till now). I had some caramel and liquid smoke spray bottles that I used to freshen up the bait. I looked down and there he is (this bear is around the 600lb mark). I grab the bow and look down and he is gone, then I see him going up to the bait so I stuck an arrow in him at 20 feet. He gets up and growls and turns to get the arrow out. It didn't pass through. Had about 24 inches of penetration in so he runs off and goes behind the bait and I hear crashing but no death cry. I'm thinking he is dead, shot looked like I would have split the heart in two. No blood which I expected since the arrow was sticking out its back and no exit hole. Waited till next morning for the recovery, saw the last place and where the brush was breaking. Get in there and nothing, started circling around in the swamp and did this for about 4 hours. Went to the river and checked down there but nothing. I had no blood but figured he was dead some where in there. Long story short a BIG BUMMER.




So the next couple of days that bait went dead, pretty much figured that since I tore that place up looking for the bear. I had 2 other baits set up for backup. So I hunted one of them and it was dead also, no pics, no bait chowed nothing. Its now Saturday morning and I went out to bait. noting except one bear on the food plot. So I'm back at the cabin debating to myself the cat and mouse game. Camera on food plot showed a bear at 11:00pm Friday night. This is all I have to go on. The Food plot it is. this time the 300 win mag is with me. With 10 minutes left of light I could hear something walking by the food plot and I'm about 80 yards off that. HERE COMES A BEAR, can't believe it. Looks to be a descent bear and after the whole other monster bear deal the hammer goes back on the TC and drop this bear in it tracks. Game over...unbelievable that the second bear I seen during hunting is down. Not the easiest bear season to say the least but kept on keeping on and eventually payed off with this 270lb Sow. PERSISTENCE

[SRWbowhunter]

Way to stick with it. As you say persistence pays

[dan]

[Edcyclopedia]

Spectacular!

[john1984]

Congrats on a great bear

[Mike Foss]

Awesome story..not about wounding the big boy but how you didn't give up and ended with a beautiful bear

[vtbuck]

Sucks about the first bear but persistence pays off. Way to go! Congrats!

[BassBoysLLP]

congrats!