I'm not a big story teller but this bear season just has to be told.
I'll start with a real quick back ground of what lead up to this kill.
Loaded up the baits Aug 20. I hunted 4 days over labor day weekend. I shot a big bear with my bow on video. I thought it was a perfect shot but didn't find him. I hunted that Monday night and didn't get home until 4 am on Tuesday, just in time for work. I came back the next weekend and hunted 3 nights and didn't connect. I was content that I didn't get a bear and called it a season. Well as the days went on I couldn't take it anymore, I had to go back up.
So last Sunday, Sept 18 I drove to Northern MN from Bismarck to load up my 3 baits. (15 hour round trip). I hit a deer going 80 mph with my pickup and messed up my bumper. So after all this my plan was to come up and hunt Fri, Sat & Sunday. Well the weather was calling for rain on Sat & Sun so I moved it up a day and decided to hunt Thursday.
Thursday morning I go and check the baits and trail cameras and hang stands with my wife and 3 kids all on the wheeler. (I bet I've hung and taken down a stand over 50 times this fall for bears). All 3 baits were being hit and all 3 had shooter bears. I check the wind and decide I'm going to hunt the cedars. My wife and 3 kids drop me off at the stand at about 3:30. Once I get strapped into my tree I look down and all 4 are giving me a thumbs up and they take off.
After all the crap I've gone through this season I decide I'm going to use my muzzleloader instead of my bow. At about 6:00 I spot my bear. He is just walking through the cedars to my side and not heading for the bait. I lose sight of him and just thought well he's a bear, bear do weird things, he will be in eventually. Well at about 7:00 he shows up out of nowhere right on the bait! I lift up my muzzleloader and squeeze the trigger. I hear a click and a quiet bang. My gun didn't fire! Of course the bear hears this and looks up at me and takes off. At this point I'm convinced the good Lord doesn't want me to shoot a bear this year. But I grab another primer and put a new one in. Its still legal shooting light but basically dark at this point. Then out of nowhere the huge black bear is back on the bait!
As I take aim my phone is ringing over and over again (on vibrate). I obviously ignore it. I squeeze the trigger and there is about a 2 second delay and all of a sudden BANG! I see fire and then just smoke everywhere. I didn't see the bear but heard a lot of crashing and heavy breathing and what I thought was a real quick death moan.
My phone rings again, its my wife. I answer with a whisper, "hello?". I can instantly tell she is crying and in distress. She says she tipped the 4 wheeler over and is pinned underneath! There is a gate we have to go around on an old logging road and I made sure to stress over and over again to unload the kids before she goes around it. Well thank God she did. She is pinned underneath while our 3 kids are crying ten yards away (the oldest kid is 3).
So I tell her I'm gonna call 911 and I'm gonna sprint to you. I call 911 and tell them where we are at which is difficult to explain in the dark in the middle of nowhere in the woods. Finally I tell the dispatcher I have to go start running and hung up on him. I climb out of the stand start sprinting in the dark. I made the 4 mile run in Olympic record time I swear. I get to the gate and the wheeler is on its top in a big ass swamp. No wife or kids which I knew was a good sign. She was able to dig herself out of the mud and got back to the pickup.
I made sure everyone was OK and then went back to the wheeler and was able to tip it back over. So I grabbed a light and a pistol and went to look for the bear which I really had no idea if I hit or not. I get to the bait and there is a puddle of blood instantly but nothing after that. So I wandered around the dark woods for a half hour until I basically stepped on the bear. Dead as a doornail. Perfect shot! I can instantly tell this bear is giant.
I went back to get my 3 year old daughter to come see the bear and grab a knife. I can barely roll the damn thing over. But I did end up getting it gutted out and strung my clothes all over it so the wolves wouldn't eat it. We go back to the pickup and my wife and I decide its already 40 degrees and the other 2 kids (which are sleeping in the pickup at this point) will want to see the bear intact so we decide we will come back in the morning to take pictures and take care of the bear.
The deboning and skinning process is a long story but the short version is my wife and I could barely get the hide and the head loaded onto the 4 wheeler it was so damn heavy. We got back to the pickup at like 1 in the afternoon and brought the bear right to the taxidermist.
This is a hunt I will never forget!
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Here is the whole clan. Not many people can say when they were 7 months old they sat and watched their dad skin a huge black bear in the middle of nowhere.
(I know less than nothing bout bears)
