Right? While I get the blog about my last hunting adventure edited and ready to go, I wanted to share with you some photos from those same sites that show a trap that Steve has put out. According to Maine law, you must check your trap every day and as a result of Steve doing this, we are getting some huge bears coming in. An argument that those who are in favor of banning our effective hunting methods like to make is how easy it is to get a bear. As you have seen, we have a lot of bears coming into the sites. And they are big bears! Bait is helping to bring them in but (spoiler alert) I have not shot a bear. Neither have Steve or Lorri. The bears are there, are coming in almost daily but unless you...
It is pretty cool to be able to see a buck on the trail camera. This guy was caught on the camera on three different dates but almost at the same spot. It gives us a cool chance to see how his antlers are growing this season. This is the first time that we have been able to see the growth, to this extent over a one month period. I love deer season!!!
Last fall, we had somewhere between 7 and 10 bucks of all sizes around the treestands. The biggest bucks we have ever seen showed up a few years ago in mid-August. This year, we had only does on the cameras. Sometimes two, three or four but never any antlers. A few weeks ago, we finally saw some velvet. But this, is more like it! And check out the time of these pictures. I just hope that we start seeing these types of pictures more often now. I dont know if this is the same spike horn as the first picture or...
After we struck out on the first night, we planned to go out again and get us a bear. The photos that were were seeing showed incredible bears coming in all the time. It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. The day before I was going to drive up to meet with Steve and Lorri, I got a text from Steve: "GET MORE BULLETS." We had a behemoth bear coming in on a regular basis and when he compared it to his 420lb bear, he figured it was 500-600lbs. This bear is huge! 500-600lbs probably. Maybe an old Sow by the look of the back stomach area that could be worn out from nursing cubs? Big head, nice barrel like frame. This is an incredible, healthy Maine black bear. I was more comfortable now...
In case you missed it, here is the Podcast from Maine Points with my friend Mike Violette about hunting in Maine! Erin's discussion on hunting in Maine Enjoy and happy hunting! The first time I shot my 30-06 in 2007
I was nervous. Ridiculously so. I was seeing the big bears that we had coming in on the cameras at each site and I knew that I had to make a damn good shot if a bear came in. I has shot three times to get my gun sighted in and knew that it was right where it needed to be - and I was comfortable making those shots. I packed all of my clothes, which were washed in anti-scent detergent and properly washed and stored with anti-scent dryer sheets. I showered with my anti-scent soap and put everything into the car. As I sat in the driver seat of the car going through my mental checklist, I realized that my gun was still inside. A quick run back inside and I was really ready to go this time. At Steve's, I prepped some bait...
Social media has added a new element to the world of hunting. There are great resources for hunting out there but until the boom of social media, they were limited. Now, you can watch live video feed of deer feeders in Iowa to see what is coming in. I have recently found maybe one of my favorite resources for hunting…podcasts! You can listen to hunters talk about African hunting, antler growth and how to cut shooting lanes... the possibilities are really endless. Up until a few months ago, the word ‘podcast’ was something that I assumed as like a radio show but online (and it is). I didn’t go looking for them or know how to get them. And now, as I write this, I can not think of what it was that made me get...
BIG BEAR! No one is scaring him off of that bait That is a normal sized milk crate! 300-400lb bear looking at you! My preferred bear: one that comes out during the daylight My shooter. He came out at 6pm. I would gladly shoot him and be...
Lance and Lorri putting some bait into an empty bucket The good smelling bait... mmm strawberry I was sure that beaver was the grossest smell ever, but I was so wrong. It is easily rotten lobster bodies - the kind that are put into black trash bags and left out in the sun and forgotten about. I dont think any of us didn't gag, hold our breathe or pull our shirts up over our noses in an attempt to stop the smell from penetrating into our nostrils. We added it to one of the beaver carcases and for the first time, I really had to question a black bear's eating preferences. Of course, there is also the 'good' smelling bait that looks like it could be a bunch of $7 granola bars from Whole Foods dumped together and mixed...
