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Karl Green - 2011
This is the bear I took Saturday night. As you know the hunting was slow as the bears weren't moving during the week due to hurricane Irene. I was rather disappointed as it was the last day of the hunt and I had only seen one cub all week. On the last day Eldon reminded me that "You only need 30 seconds for things to change." At the end of the day the sun was going down and I realized I was disappointed with the hunting (not the "hunt," Eldon always puts on a GREAT hunt) for the week. I reflected on how much I enjoyed the time on vacation with my wife and daughter, all the other hunters, the beautiful woods and Portage, Maine. I was disappointed that I hadn't seen more bears, however. I usually hunt with a longbow so I certainly don't expect to kill an animal on every hunt but I had hunted hard and not much action in the woods. As it was almost dark I thought I would climb down. All the shadows were starting to look like bears. I realized there was a big shadow in the edge of the woods that I had not seen before. As I watched the shadow I thought it moved and sat tight. When it finally started moving towards the barrel it looked like 2 bears coming in. It wasn't until it turned broadside to lick the icing on the barrel (Eldon's special touch) that I realized it was a GOOD bear. I was running out of light so as soon as the bear was distracted I drew and shot. I crown dip my arrows white and fletch white so I can see my arrows in low light. I saw the arrow bury into the bear. I knew it was a good hit, high, but as my stand was high I knew I had the far lung. The bear rattled 3 times about 50-60 yds from the stand. One minute after the shot it was over. |
Thomas Gyger - 2011
Yesterday was an incredibly beautiful day, warm, sunny, almost no wind. It fully compensated my 3.5 hours under the pouring rain on Monday. I went into the stand by 3pm. Towards 6.20pm I started to hear a bear coming in. The place was very open, good light, perfect silence. A beautiful bear (actually a dry sow) came in from the left (about 130-150# live weight), I could see she had a nice hide from a distance. She sniffed around a little bit, then went into the barrel, grabbed a huge piece of donut and backed off. This is when I fired my first arrow and somehow I was too excited to be able to concentrate on spot on this bear. I don't how often I had visualized mentally taking my spot just below the center of the bear, drawing, aiming... But I just saw the bear, totally unable to concentrate and I completely missed my shot. The arrow flew right into the ground beneath the bear. I was angry because I knew I was able to make a perfect shot and missed that completely. When the arrow hit the ground, the bear dropped the donut and ran off. 30 seconds later she was back, grabbed the donut and walked off to eat eat it out of sight. Barely 3 minutes later, here the bear comes back. My arrow was burried into the earth except for the fletching. The bear started to sniff the fletching and I thought, now it's probably over. I was wrong, the bear didn't seem to care and came back into the barrel, picked up another piece of donut, backed out of the barrel and here comes the second arrow. This time I could gather myself and aim precisely. I saw the arrow sticking into the bear's left side almost down to the fletching. It was a nice quartering away shot. Jimmy had positioned the barrel just perfectly. The bear took off immediately; only 20 seconds later I could hear a long, but clear and fading death moan. I was almost 95% sure that everything was ok. After 10 minutes, I packed my stuff, went down to the barrel, grabbed my first arrow and walked out to the road as quietly as possible. 10 minutes later Eldon and Correy (I guy from Texas who shot a bear on tuesday) drove by and we went back to track it. I had good blood but the trail was a bit difficult to follow. I started to get a bit nervous when we found no more blood. But then Eldon turned around and there was my bear. He barely made 30 yards. The arrow was still in the bear sticking out on both sides. Double lung shot, dead center through the heart; a shot which only exists in one's dreams. I took the shot by 6.35pm and this bear didn't live 30 seconds after he was hit. One of the greatest days in my life. |
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