Sunday, July 3, 2011

Bear Hunting Update

To anyone that was curious on how the bear baiting went.....

Last weekend was the last weekend for hunting bears off of baits so off  went the mighty hunters.  Randy had trail cameras at his and James' baits.  According to the pictures, James' had nothing but grizzly bears on his and it's illegal to shoot them off of a bait as well as even in the general area; because it would be hard to prove that it was hunted off the bait when reporting where it was shot.  So James took his tree stand down and put it near Randy's to take videos/pictures of any bears that did "come in".  I have to admit that they are fun to watch.  When I went with Randy two years ago (when I actually shot a bear!) I couldn't decide if it was more enjoyable to watch them or to shoot one; I'm still undecided.  I had thought about going with him this last weekend but since James went I decided not to.  Especially since Randy would take James to his bait then go to his which was 20 miles away.  No, he didn't walk the 20 miles, he drove 20 miles down the road but he did walk James to his bait, to make sure he wouldn't get lost (James kept having a hard time following/finding the trail.  I'm glad I'm not the only one who had trouble).

Randy didn't think he'd get a bear this year because the camera at his bait also had pictures of a grizzly but there were also pictures of other bears on it the previous weekends when he checked it.  Even though they were small there was one that looked like it would be "a good one", he decided that it couldn't hurt to stay and wait.  His patience paid off and he got it!  James got some good videos of the smaller bears but then "the good one" came in; and it was a cinnamon color black bear.  He also had black rings around his eyes--the bear not Randy or James!  It was gorgeous.  The pictures came out dark so if I can edit any, I'll try to post one.