Hunting with Mike

Three years ago on our annual Marquette bear hunt I had a close encounter of the black bear kind! We have a beautiful piece of property that we bear hunt on, but we also hunt state land. Actually we’ve taken more black bear on state land than we have the Baldwin’s camp.

This particular year I had found a really good looking spot on state property, with tons of bear sign. We had been baiting about 10 days before the season opener, and the bait was getting tore up. I put up a stand using the metal tree steps that strap to the tree. The stand was positioned in a stand of hemlocks, with a 15 yard shot to the bait. The first night out I decided to use my muzzle loader, as I had never taken a bear with a smoke-stick. Just before dark I heard a branch break behind me. I didn’t turn around to look, as I didn’t want to give away my position. Next thing I hear is heavy breathing right below my stand. It is so dark, in the stand of hemlocks, I can’t see the bear directly below me. Then I hear bear claws on metal tree steps! This is not good, as I have one shot and I can’t see what I’m shooting at. My tree starts to shake, and I can hear claws scratching bark. I am tempted to turn my flashlight on to see if I’m in any real danger. Then it gets real quiet, and I see movement out in front of me. The nice sized bear circles in front and comes confidently into the bait. I can see the bears outline, but cannot see my cross hairs when I put it on his chest. I won’t take the shot-its just to dark to chance it!

Well, its time for me to go one way, and Mr. bear to go the other. I pull my ram-rod out and bang it on the metal stand. The bear in the bait takes off, but the one below me starts woofing and popping its teeth! I had no idea there were two bear in the picture. I then yell “You better get out of hear bear!” The bear retreats, but he goes right down the marshy path I need to leave on. As he walked away I got a glimpse of his rear end. It looked like a Mack truck! I mean this bear is big, and he seems to have attitude. Where’s my Remington Woodsmaster when I need it? I did what I had to do to let that bear know he was messing with one of the Ansel boys, but I was truly relieved to make it to my truck unscathed.

We let that bait sit one night because of all the commotion, and when we baited it on the third morning it had been hit again. My brother Darryl walked over to my stand, and called me over to look at something. Seems I placed the stand right smack-dab up a “territorial marker tree.” No wonder I had so much activity going on below me! I gave the excuse that it was dark in the Hemlock grove when I put the stand up, and most of the claw marks were on the backside of the tree. No matter’ dumb place to put a stand!

My son-in-law Tony was with us on this hunt, and he had never taken a bear. I decided to let him hunt this active stand with his semi-automatic rifle. Later that evening he dropped a beautiful “blackie” on the spot! Its good to be able to share with friends and family in the adventure of the hunt. Tony was tickled-pink, and had a nice rug made out of his 275 pound bear. Next time I hunt this area I’ll be more careful where I place my stand.

Thats Tony on the right with his favorite father-in-law.

Mike

This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.