“Retribution” - A Bear Hunting Story

Charlie Reade

The 2020 hunting season has started like no other that I have ever had. An experience I had last year during my regular spring scouting season for whitetails taught me that I am not doing my part at managing predator numbers on my hunting property. And I know how important that aspect is to quality deer management. After walking into a young black bear feeding on 2 newborn moose calves, I decided that 2020 would mark the start of my Bear hunting career.

During a good part of April, I collected as much intel on bear hunting as I could. What baits were best, how to position a bait for a good shot and other things a novice bear hunter would inquire about. I talked to as many accomplished bear hunters that I could and then I gathered bait and got ready for the upcoming season. The only problem was there was still 3 feet of snow on the ground and a looming Covid-19 lockdown on the horizon. Patiently we all waited for the word that we were clear to hunt from the provincial government after some OHV bans and then set out for what was sure to be a huge learning experience.

Once we were all clear to hunt, I was way too eager to wait for all the snow to melt and decided to settle on a secondary location for my bait since there was way too much snow in the woods at the time to get my quad or bait where I wanted. I wanted to hunt as close as possible to where I intend to hunt deer and moose without invading areas I have set aside as sanctuary areas that I do not enter. My plan was to harvest at least 1 bear myself and 1 bear for a friend from that spot and lower the chances of stumbling upon another bear eating a potential Booner.

I cut deadfall out of quad trails in knee high snow just to get out of the darn house after a month of quarantine. I was just happy to be outside with a purpose again. Since I couldn’t quite get to where I wanted with the quad, I also got a ton of much needed exercise packing bait back and forth to the barrel in the snow. I set up a couple of trail cameras sealed up the lid on the barrel and started the waiting game. Fortunately for me and my lack of patience, I did not have to wait long. A scruffy looking yearling found the bait within the second day! He was not a trophy, but he ate bait like a champion. LESSON 1 – Bears eat a shitload! I was not at all ready to keep an active bait barrel fully stocked all the time for up to 8 bears, I had no idea what that entailed. But I had to quickly learn.

After checking the bait and trail cameras, and experimenting with everything from sardines to maple syrup, I quickly came to find what I figured they liked the most. Stale bread, dog food and used fryer oil. All of which I could get inexpensively from the local grocery store. So now that I had lots of bears coming in, I had to determine which of them was going to be my target!

Once again, I took to my friends list and put out some feelers where I shared a couple trail camera photos of what I considered my biggest bears. Pretty quick consensus from my friends who know bears was that 2 of mine were definitely shooters. One, a really big bodied bear with a beautiful white patch on his chest and a nice head I labelled “The General” and another bear that was unmistakable from the rest both in size and due to the fact that he had a totally black snout where all the other bears had a brown nose. I called him “Blackface”.

This year was going to be my first attempt at harvesting a bear, but I also wanted to try and use my recurve bow for my first kill, and I also wanted to do it all from the ground. Up close and personal.

After I had bears coming regularly, I shifted my focus more on practicing my shooting skills. Admittedly, at best they are beginner. I have only been shooting traditional bow for 2 years and never used it for hunting. I was nervous about using it for hunting for the first time. I practiced every day throughout the day for a good week until I was confident enough to take it into the blind. And even the day I planned my first sit May 6, I practiced all morning as well. I thought I was ready. I had practiced, I had my target and I had bears routinely coming for bait every day.

I called up my buddy Erik who was going to film and run defence shotgun for me, but most importantly he was there for his experience with bears. We met near the staging area and headed out.

The bait was almost empty in less than 24 hours, so we were hopeful for an eventful evening. Erik even spoiled us and brought some nasty smelling beaver to entice every bear in the area. After a short quad ride and a few minutes to fill the bait we were in the blind and the mood had totally changed. We were 22 yards from the barrel, but it felt like we were right on top of it. There was bear sign everywhere and I was starting to feel a little less safe than when I was planning all of this from home. Having second thoughts was an under statement.

Within about 45 minutes, the silence was lifted by the sound of a bear paw breaking the suction from a mud hole behind us. When we turned around in the blind, the first bear of the season was walking right towards us at only 12 yards. We sat anxiously still as he walked by at about 3 yards on his way to the bait. Close enough we could hear him breathing. My blood pressure had probably doubled at this point as that was the closest, I had ever been to a bear and it was only 6pm. After feeding for an hour, he gave way to another bear which gave way to another then another. At one point there were 5 bears in front of us all within 25 yards. But in an instant, that all changed. They all became on edge and distracted from the bait. Looking to our immediate left. Naturally, I looked there also and when I did I saw blackface staring right back at me through thick cover at about 8 yards away eye to eye.

I was experiencing a different kind of adrenaline than I have ever felt at this point. I was trying to ready myself for a shot on a bear while multiple other bears were potentially watching me from an awfully close distance. You don’t get this kind of rush deer hunting, that’s for sure.

Blackface eased his attention from us to a nearby mature sow with her 3 yearling cubs. He quartered towards me through thick cover. Erik got the cameras running and I sat forward and got ready to let one fly. He came out of the bush at 15 yards quartering away perfectly. Everything was like it was written in a script. Erik bleated and tried to stop him just as I was about to release the arrow, and instead of stopping, he spooked, turned quartering away and took the arrow into the rear thigh instead of center mass. A combination of bad luck and a worse shot left me feeling sick to my stomach and not sleeping that night. I wasn’t giving up though. I woke up the next morning and got out my bow and practiced all morning. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my confidence back with my traditional bow and decided that after injuring that bear, he was going to be my only target and the responsible thing to do at this point is take him out ASAP. And this time I would have my Black Mamba, and there was no lack of confidence with it.

The next night my game plan stayed the same, bait around 4-5 and sit until 10pm or until I shot blackface. And that’s when I learned LESSON 2 – Bears are smarter than me! Not only did I sit May 7th but I watched what I think were the same 8-9 bears come into that bait again, feast on my offerings and then disappear into the thick spruce cover. And believe it or not, old Blackface made a visit just over 24 hours later, to the same place he took an arrow the night before! I was shocked, but still did my best to try and get a shot. But a combination of movement in the blind and him knowing something was up didn’t allow him inside of 30 yards for more than a second or two to run off a bear grab a piece of beaver and take off. Another 6 hours of white-knuckle hunting with bears all around was over for the night, I had my shot of adrenaline and I was ready to take a night off.

May 9th, I arrived at the bait and it was gone, which I was told is a big no-no for baiting bears, but I filled the bait and sat at my ground-blind nonetheless. I have to be honest when I tell you I’m a bit scared when I sit by myself at the bait on the ground, but I really wanted to get the total experience this season to see if I would like it. That night in April pretty much ensured I’ll bear hunt as long as I’m able to and their population justifies it. After settling in and watching a few bears come and go. A new sow brought what looked to be 3 yearling cubs to the bait, and one of them was NOT in a good mood. After watching him run any and every bear off the bait that attempted to intrude in an awesome display of speed and power from a small package, he turned his attention on me. I’m still not sure if the wind switched and he got my wind or if he caught me moving, but he wanted to know what I was. Check out this video below to see just how close I got with this guy it was an incredible experience!

https://www.facebook.com/charlie.reade.9/videos/10157537858023871

I tried capturing as much of the encounter as I could but I had to be pretty on the ball and make sure I had a gun pointed at him at all times. I was by myself, and his mother was only 25 yards away and watching it all take place while the other 2 cubs eased closer to me from a different direction. Needless to say I was pretty rattled. But I didn’t leave, I threw a stick like a spear at him, hit him in the face and he took off for the night along with his mother and sisters. And wouldn’t you know it? The next bear in was the big bodied sow and from a safe distance in the spruce Blackface was watching her feed, and just after legal shooting light was past and my video camera was not picking him up well, he laid in the middle of the trail and stared at me until complete darkness. It was a very uneasy walk out of the blind that night! And one that educated Blackface even more about my presence there.

May 10th I thought I had it figured out. If I am just dead still and am ready just before dark, he will not be able to resist some fresh beaver! And like clockwork the sow with 3 cubs, 1 I call “Grumpy” showed up first to feed, then gave way to the lone sow. This time there was no Blackface, I was starting to get frustrated to be honest. How could 4 bears all come out and go straight to a fresh beaver but not the most dominant one? I was convinced he wasn’t far, so I waited until dark again. And within minutes of last legal light he came in like a wrecking ball and snatched ahold of the beaver. And before I could even get ready to shoot, he ripped it clean in half at the head where it was tied and disappeared into the darkness. My frustration was mounting. 25 plus hours of being surrounded by bears was starting to wear on me but I slept that feeling off and went back at it the next day, running out of days to hunt.

The 11th of May was about as frustrating of a sit as you could imagine. Bugs were ridiculous and of course I forgot the refills on my Thermocell. Bears were steady all night from 5pm until 10 and extra curious of the fryer oil that I spilled on my jeans. Which made for another tense and anxious night at the bait. Once again, but this time earlier in the evening Blackface made an appearance. This time it was totally clear to me that he knew I was in that blind. He sat in behind the barrel for about 10 minutes staring at me, only breaking the stare to periodically grab a piece of bait and lay back down behind the barrel. He was driving me nuts, taunting me almost. He was basically saying “thanks for the free beaver, shmuck!” and he knew I couldn’t shoot him in behind the barrel. Another night of that bear outsmarting me had my frustrations at a breaking point.

So as the novice bear hunter I am, I took to my friends list to ask some more experienced fellas. I got a very quick and simple response from Tommy who is also with Non-Typical Nation. He simply suggested stacking logs in behind the bait so he had to come around front. Seems like a no brainer now, but at the time I wasn’t thinking that way. And it really was the piece of the puzzle that I was missing.

That night I set out early enough to gather some deadfall in my quad trailer and bring it into the bait site to make some alterations. I filled the bait again and was sitting right around my regular time. Surely by now the bears were use to my schedule for baiting.

May 12th is a night that I will look back on as a turning point in my hunting career someday. As I watched small bears feed I never imagined that my plan would soon come together. I was onto the bears schedules and had a lot of footage at this point, so my plan was to keep movement for filming to an absolute minimum. My over the shoulder camera was easy to get running and I had enough main camera power to record all night. Once the sow and cubs left I knew that it was close to time. The woods were totally silent until that silence was broken by a tree branch snapping, making the kinda noise that implied something big had made it.

I knew it was him, I just knew it! It was the right time of night and it was coming from where he had been coming from. I watched the video a number of times and what took 2 minutes on video felt like it took 20 minutes. The first thing I saw from a thick spruce stand was his jet black snout. It was him, I had my cameras rolling and I had a widowmaker knocked. It was time for our showdown, and I didn’t intend to make the same mistake twice. He came in at about 12 yards quartering slightly away from me from right to left towards the barrel, this time his guard was down and I could tell. I let him work towards the bait as I didn’t like how much he was quartered or the fact that he was walking. When he got to the bait I knew that put him at 20 yards exactly. I drew my bow and held it for about 15 seconds waiting for my nerves to settle and for his head and front left shoulder to move slightly, giving me a perfect shot. And when I got it I nailed it. I nailed him right in the heart and the APA and Widowmaker combo did it’s job perfectly. He growled and snapped at the arrow as he fled off but it was too late. I could see the perfectly placed arrow as he ran off only making it about 10 paces in behind the bait before he fell down and expired all on camera.

After a half an hour wait I learned LESSON 3 – Big bears are effin heavy!!! I struggled with this thing for a good 20 minutes trying to load it into my trailer before giving up and dragging it straight out with my quad.

I have often heard people say baiting is easy or it isn’t hunting. Now that I have done it myself, I can say that in my opinion the people saying that have never had to run a bear bait. I can assure you all, it’s not easy. And it’s a hunting experience like no other.

I’m extremely happy to have taken this bear. Not only because he is my first bear, or because he is my first ever Pope and Young animal. But because I stuck with it and harvested my target animal, which is a first for me. Even more importantly I learned new skills I can use for the rest of my life. The 2020 season is off to a banner start, I can’t wait to see what else it brings for us at Non-Typical Nation. But for right now, I cannot wait to see what’s on trail camera at my bear bait for the last two weeks of the season.

Thanks for reading,

Charlie