Hey Mac, where's the bear???

[Rob LaMoy]

So how did it go? How big? Give us the details. You better have some pics! You still have all your limbs? Underwear in tact?

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Peanut butter and caramel all washed off?



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[Bill McElroy]

Everything's still intact!! Had an AWESOME time!! Had one experience that I'll NEVER forget though,...made the hole trip worthwhile!!....Was sitting in a ground blind on thursday evening,...my ladder stand was set up 4 miles away at another bait that wasn't hit in 4 days,....so i left it alone and sat at a new bait on thursday evening. It had been raining all day and everything was soaking wet,...including me,...soaked to the bone!! My bait was 30yds infront of me and i was sitting in a folding camp style chair,..4ft off the trail i walked in on! (it was an old logging road,...unused in years...still a "trail" but no longer open to ny vehicles). The 4 wheeler was 30yds behind me and the main road where camp was is another 30yds beyond the 4 wheeler. It's about 7;30pm, it's raining even harder now and I'm totally bored and ready to pack it in and go back to camp to dry out and drink beer!! LOL,.....but i decide to stay 1 more hour so i hunkered down for the last few minutes of daylight. Prime time is 7-8;30pm...by 8;45pm it's pitch black!! I'm expecting any Bears to come out of the thickets/swampy quagmire directly infront of the bait pile, which was 30yds or so infront of me,.....i'd have plenty of time to see or hear anything and make a good shot. At 8;15pm,...I hear a tiny twig snap and some leaves rustle immediately behind me to my left. I slooowwllly turn my head,...still sitting in the chair with my rifle across my lap....low and behold if there isn't a 150-200lb bear nibbling on leaves and berries 4ft behind me to my left,....standing in the trail i used to walk in on!!

I thought to myself,.."HOOOOOLLLYY sh!@~$TTT!!!..There's a Bear in my back pocket, and he doesn't even know I'm infront of him!!!"...ahahahhahhah......I never took my eyes off him and I clicked the safety off my trigger,....gun still on my lap....waiting for that bear to take 2 more steps toward the bait pile and i could literally shoot the mofo with the gun still on my lap!!! I didn't even have to raise it up to aim!!!...All of the sudden the Bear stands up on his hind legs and starts sniffing and grunting and he can smell the smokey smell of the chair I'm sitting in!!! It was around the camp fire all week and even i could smell the smoke permeating from from it!! Anyway,...the bear's standing on his hind legs and he's taller than my head as i am still sitting in the chair,...4ft away and almost infront of him!! Frozen like a statue, I'm waiting for the bear to make his next move....it goes back down on all 4's and then turns and bolts back into the thick stuff behind me and to my left! I turn in the chair without getting out of it and raise the rifle up to my eye and I'm waiting for the bear to pop back out of the thicket and back onto the trail!! Sure enough,.....15yds further down the trail, Yogi pops back out and is now heading away from me. I cannot see the crosshairs in my scope,...only a black sillouette of the bear!! I twist around a little farther in my chair, making no noise at all.....i squeeze off a round and all i see is muzzle flash through the scope. The bear let's out a whicked moan and grunt and is thrashing around in the trail and then bolts off into the thicket. I say to myself,.."SWEEEEEEEETT!!!!!...nailed the bigdog!!!"

I wait 5mins and complete silence surrounds me.....nothing but the constant sound of rain pummeling the leaves around me. I rack another shell and with my flashlight in hand, i walk down the trail back towards the 4 wheeler,....not knowing if the bear would be laying in the trail or just off the trail in the briars,..waiting to attack me!! I was on full alert....code red baby,.....def-con 4!!..LOL. I make it to the 4 wheeler,..no bear to be found. Go back to camp and wait for the other 5 guys to get back. We all gather flashlights, pistols and head back to the scene!! Blood is everywhere, but it's raining harder all the time and our time is running out. We found more blood and tissu

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Too bad Mac, I'm sure you would have liked to have the mount. What an experience though!!



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[Rob LaMoy]

Dang! Well you tried. So let me get this right. You went bear hunting on the GROUND? Give your head a shake as Pierre would say! LOL Better luck next time!

 

[Ken Neeley]

Great story...welcome back. Ready for Bow-hunting at Camp Neeley?

 

[Bill McElroy]

kept thinkin' about "Camp Neeley" all the way home!!!...ahahah...i have some revenge to dole out!!..LOL

Rob,....I'm into adrenaline rushes!! Best one I've found yet is a 200lb bear standing 4ft away,...that rocked!! LOL

My ladder stand was 4 miles away, and that bait was a ZERO for 4 nights in a row,......decided to take the "easy way out" one night and sit on the ground...400yds from camp,..and I have that happen!!...now THAT's huntin'!!..LOL

 

[Steven Atwell]

I thought you were going to try bow 1st? Or is that what you did, at the ladder stand? Anyway, I'm glad you had a good time. My bear hunt was a bust, nobody saw bears. The berries have just been growing way too strong this year. They haven't been hitting baits like they should. I'm sorry you couldn't find it.



On a good note, I shot a bobcat with my bow this weekend. Saw a bunch of does, but never took one. I'm looking for a good buck..................sa

 

[Bill McElroy]

I took my bow with me, but never took it out of the case,..my buddies all told me,.."Take your 1st one with a gun,....they can be sneaky SOB's and you want to make your 1st shot count!"..(oh reealllly?!..LOL!!)...I really wanted to score, so i took their advice and just gun hunted all week. 4 of the other guys all bow hunted the 1st 5 days and the last 2 days we ALL took rifles,.....they said, "We're down to the wire now fella's...time to put the sticks away and bring out the artillery for the long shots!"

LOL.......artillery is an understatement......2 of them had Weatherby .300mags with muzzle breaks and bipods!! ahahaha

Your right though Steve,...the berries up there were thick!

our baits didnt get hit much at all the first few days,...there was an awful lot of natural forage around!!

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

With the drought the way it has been here in Virginia, the bears are coming down out of the Blue Ridge Mountains. A lady in my neighborhood took a picture last week of a bear in her yard. I live in what would be considered semi-rural. Never been any bears that far from the mountains in the past. Mac you can come sip a beer eat BBQ and nail a bear from my deck.



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