Skip to main content

The bears are back

I shoveled bait from a 55 gallon drum into five gallon buckets and we loaded up the truck. Eight buckets of assorted types of bait, two buckets of disgusting beaver and some secret ingredients and we were off to check the bait sites for the 2015 bear hunting season!

A truck full of bait ready to go
Steve and Lorri had set up the two bait sites a few days before and we were eager to see if any bears had found the sites.  The monsters from last year were not killed so we knew that there would be some big bears around. We hiked into Site 2 first and carried buckets and tools in.  Steve led the way and we anxiously kept peaking around the corner to see if things has been moved.  They had!! We dropped the supplies and did what almost every hunter does - check the trail cameras!




At least two different bears had come in to check the bait.  The 55 gallon drum that is hung up with cables is about three feet off the ground.  Any bear whose back is at least that tall, is a shootable bear.

We modified the 55 gallon drum so that it was a little more stable, refilled it and refilled the two milk crates that are hanging on either side of the drum.  We put the memory card back into the trail camera and headed to Site 1 to see if we had had any hits there.


The new site 1 is a little further in the woods that it was last year but there were plenty of bear sign around! Including this fresh pile that was filled with apples.  None of the bait from the barrel had been taken but it was clear that there were bears around.

Steve's boot is sized 14
When we looked closer, we could see that one of the milk crates was almost totally empty!  We eagerly looked at the trail camera to see if it was racoons or a bear.  What a surprise! This beautiful bear is standing on it's hind legs and is easily eating out of the crate that is hanging about 6 feet off the ground. Also, it is during daylight which is what every hunter wants to see.  Typically, bears stay nocturnal so when you get photos during the day, that is (hopefully) a good sign.


Two sites and two successful hits from local bears.  We have one week until the season opens and hopefully, there will be a few bears taken this fall!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Healthy Coyote coming through

I still have a few trail cameras out to see what the deer are up to.  I have gotten pictures of the big buck that is around and most recently, I got these pictures.  Normally, I wouldn't be too freaked out but now that we have a dog, it is a little unnerving.  Add that this camera is about 50 feet from our lawn and less than 100 feet from our front door... I hope that this one is just passing through. (Sidenote: I put new batteries in this camera so the date and time are wrong BUT  I walked in front of it so it would take my picture and I could figure out what the actual time and date were: 7am Saturday morning.)

Where are the women?

This week, my interview with Steve at The Maine Outdoorsman went live. Steve said yesterday 200 people hit his site viewing over 500 pages. That is a lot of people reading about little ole me and hunting. Why? When I think of women who are in the general public's eye and hunt, I can think of 2 - Country singer Miranda Lambert and Sarah Palin. Why only two? Why is the female hunter such a fascinating thing? (I should probably note that I do not have cable so any and all female hunters on the hunting stations are lost to me. I'll keep it to the general public because that's what I am familiar with.) People/media were fascinated by the fact that they could get footage of Palin and her gun, shooting (and gutting) animals but I feel like the nostalgia would be lost if they had the same footage of McCain. Lambert and her hubby Blake Shelton tweet photos of their kills, and comment on what/where they are hunting. I only know this because I follow both. That's it....

Do Outdoor Women need to toughen up?

I hope you get shot out in the forest and wolves gnaw on your dying corpse…..WHILE YOU’RE STILL ALIVE I’d like to rip off your f*$%ing head and pour gunpowder down your f*$%ing throat and light it on fire Only c*%t’s shoot animals and take pleasure in it. I hope you die a horrible painful death As I began to look at how female hunters were being bullied, I had to ask myself if it was because we were easy targets as women or if we needed to just toughen up a little. Once I started asking my fellow female hunters about their experiences, the things that they sent to me as examples of what they deal with daily made me sick to my stomach.  I’d like to meet you outside someday with a gun in my hand, I would shoot you several times and laugh over your f*$%ing body as you die like you do to those poor animals that can’t defend themselves.  MURDERER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Generally threats are basic name calling. They include sexist remarks, racist remar...