PART 1 NovaScotia bear hunt After a some long flights, some not even planned and very little sleep I arrived in Halifax Nova Scotia to be picked up by my guide Gordy, for the next two week fall hunt. we arrived in a picture perfect little town of Oxford, some hour & a half from Halifax in time for supper and to meet our hosts, Gerald & June porter. After a surprisingly restless sleep we were up and ready to go pick up our tags for one black bear & one whitetail buck. We also unpacked our gear and checked our equipment. Jarrod was another bow hunter while Matt would be using a rifle, I was quite surprised to find my bow shooting about 6 inches to the left, upon inspection I could not find any fault with my gear so proceeded to re sight it in. Something that didnt give me a lot of confidence. Around two in the afternoon we all headed out to various sights to hunt black bear, Gordy took me in to a baiting site where the bears had been smashing the baits of donuts, chicken fat & molasses, mmmmm yum! I could imagine the bears floating in like in the cartoons just at the smell of it. The weather had been beautiful, it was early September with daily temperatures of around 22degrees Celsius and a low of 12. But Let me tell you, I learned quickly, sitting high in a tree stand, the windchill factor dropped the temp to below zero. I dont Think I saw any bears that afternoon because they could heart my teeth rattling. The squirrels didnt seem to mind though, I think they thought I was a big woodpecker, they busied themselves stealing the donuts out of the barrel then scurrying back up the tree. It was good to sit back in my stand and see all the animals Ive never seen before. Squirrels everywhere, chipmunks, a woodpecker (not me) tapping on a tree behind me. Even saw a dead skunk in the middle of the road on the way in. (Thats got me singing now) One thing that stands out is the lack of bird noise, everything is so still and quiet except for the odd squirrel shrill. The highway is a good 10 km away and you can hear every car & truck. By the time I was picked up after dark I was freezing and looking forward to a hot shower. Next day we were up late. when hunting bears its strictly gentle mans hours, which I quite enjoyed. We headed out to some new baiting sights a little after lunch and back in to tree stands. The wind was quite gusty and mostly over my right shoulder so I wasnt all that confident of a bear coming in. Around an hour before dark though, the wind died off to an eerie silence and about 10minutes later I could hear some soft scratching from behind my stand. Su re enough a big black bear came walking past my stand at about 10m through some pretty thick scrub or woods as they say here. I quietly got my bow down from the hook as he made his way in to the bait. This being my first time seeing a bear, my heart was thumping in my chest and I had to control my breathing if I was to have any chance of a shot. I decided to let the bear get to the barrel to try and get a gauge on his size. Gerald had said anything above the second ring on the barrel was a good size, 250lb or bigger. As the bear got to the barrel I could see he was a few inches above the second ring so decided I should take a shot. But before I could, he took a donut and wandered away and in to the thick woods. It was starting to get a bit dark by this stage so was hoping he would come back pretty quick. It only seemed like a minute or two and he was back to the barrel. I drew my Matthews monster chill and put a bead on him, but because it was so dark and the bear was so black I couldnt define where his shoulder was. You only get one shot on these, and I had come so far to get it, I decided to let down and wait for a better shot, another day. Only minutes later, my guide came in to pick me up which scared him off. Not too far though cause he was snappin at us as we walked away. I dont want your stinking donuts anyway bear!. Back in camp, I relayed my story to my fellow hunters. I was just happy to encounter a bear, these guys hadnt seen one yet. I didnt sleep too well that night as Id wondered if Id blown my chances of filling my bear tag, thoughts of taking the shot earlier, etc. Gentlemans hours again, a bloke could get used to this, out again around lunchtime, I went back to the stand I was at the previous night. I been settled in to my stand for about an hour. I had my ipad in my hand as I was reading a book , when I looked up, a bear was sitting directly behind the barrel at about 45m. As my iPad also turns on my go pro, I turned it on and pressed record. Slipped my iPad in to my pocket and slowly and carefully got my bow down from its hook. The bear was pretty cautious as the wind was a bit swirly. She kept sniffing the air and slowly came in to the barrel. As she came to the barrel I could tell she was a bit smaller, around 220-250lb but I would be happy to have this as a first ever bear trophy. She had a beautiful brown nose and ears as well. My plan was to draw my bow when she put her head in the barrel to get a donut, but there must have been one on the ground as she grabbed one and walked away to eat it. All this time, Im trying to calm my nerves and slow my heart beat. She came back to the barrel and put her head in, so I drew back my bow, but instead of standing there she sat down which reduced the target size of her vitals. I held for what felt like hours hoping she would stand again, she shifted slightly which gave me a reasonable shot Behind the shoulder. My sights seemed very blurry, not sure if it was my heart rate, but I seemed to have 8 sights instead of 4. I put the 30m pin on the spot and released, watching my arrow fly just a little low in the shoulder, she let out a woof and was off. I wasnt completely happy with my shot but I was still confident, I called my guide to come in and proceeded to download the gopro footage to see if I could get a better look at the arrow placement. By the time Gordy had got there, 30 mins later, the footage was downloaded but wasnt clear enough to show the shot. I told Gordy I thought I had gone a little low as we made our way to the barrel. My arrow was only a few meters behind and had some blood on it but not enough to get me excited. The blood trail started sporadically, but by about 30 meters had started to flow and by 50m we were wondering why she hadnt dropped yet. You think shooting a bear for the first time gets the heart racing, you should try blood trailing one. We took it very very slowly, alway keeping an eye to our left and right. The scrub was very thick and she could have been hiding anywhere. After about an hour we had travelled a total of 75 -80m when we found her expired behind a tree. The shot was indeed low and very lucky as it had severed main arteries in her front shoulders and hadnt actually hit any vital organs. I was ecstatic in getting my first bear with a bow. I took that minute to reflect on a good mate of mine Mal Thomas who had a bear hunt on his bucket list but sadly passed away earlier this year before getting a chance to. This ones for you Tommo. Carrying the bear out took another two hours and I was ready for a beer by the time we got in to camp. Actually, more than one. PART 2 - Whitetail deer hunt
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 23:46:43 +0000
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