25 yards from bear with no shot tonight

[Standing Bear]

At approximately 14:00 this afternoon, I received a call from a gentleman in town that just started shooting a bow. He asked me if I would help him find a bear since he just bought a tag. My mind started racing trying to locate the numerous low bush cranberry patches that were close by. I told him to get ready as I was going to pick him up in 30 minutes.

As I drove into his driveway, I seen a man, dressed in full camo, bow and arrows in hand and ready to go. That sight brought back memories of my first archery bear hunt. Somehow I knew we were going to see something as the low bush cranberry patches were full this year.

As we turned into the wood lot road, I told him to keep the bow on his lap and his arrows ready because if we saw a bear, we would park into the bush line and start our stalk. Not two minutes, I hear, "bear, bear, right there !!!!!!!!", he was right, we had a nice bear eating cranberries, not 150 yards away. I slowly came to a stop and put the truck in reverse and backed up till we could no longer see the bear. Let me tell you how excited this guy was, bow hanging up everywhere, noise galore and arrows on the ground, slammed the door shut, I told myself, " If that bear is still there, we'll be very lucky". And as we walked in the ditch line, I quickly spotted a black spot, still sitting, laying down, sitting and always eating cranberries, that was a good sign.

So in order to get to him, we needed to cut throught he bush and when we would be approximately aligned with him, cut back towards the cranberry patch. To my surprise, my hunter was really quiet and we got to 25 yards of the bear without being detected. Even if the wind was in our face, our only problem was the bear was facing us. We waited 25 minutes for him to turn broadside and he didn't, he would get up, look around, lay back down, eat a bit, look up, get up and lay back down....this seemed to go on forever when suddenly he got up, looked towards the bush line oppossite of where we were and like a bolt of flash, he ran away and dissapeared in the bush. We never seen him again, I can only assume there must have been another bear around.

Like I told my hunter, that's why bowhunting is so fun, we get to go back in the bush another day

Thought I would share our hunting experience of this date

Daniel

[SwampSnyper]

That got me all excited! I'm ready for deer season.

[cartman308]

Man! That's awesome!! I wish I lived in an area with as much wildlife as yours!

I am seeing a BIG eight every evening on the property behind me! But as my life goes.......... landowner has yet to allow me on it........ At least i can watch him.

[camoprincess]

That is really exciting. I am going out this weekend with the neighbors, they've got pics on the trail cams of bear, elk and moose so I am hoping that maybe we might get to actually see something. But I have to leave my bow home

[yoda4x4]

Daniel,

Great story! It's made even better by the fact that you, an experienced hunter took a few precious minutes out of your day to help a new hunter. The memories and feelings will be long remembered by the hunter and we all know that most words cannot completely tell the story. But like many of you, all I have to do is to think about my first hunts and my successes and it takes me right back to that moment.

David

[05_sprcrw]

I can't believe I missed this the first time around. Sounds like a rush and I am sure I would have done that as well,