Every late spring/early summer we do a quad run with a few friends. It's always a great day and this year we made a run from my uncles camp all the way to ours. We used google earth ad a bit of in tell from friends to find our way through the hills and successfully make our way from camp to camp without using actual provincial roads. Its always a great get together with friends.
I wont bore you with all the projects we do with the food plot, site preps and camp upgrades and we'll get right to the hunting!
First season for us is the bear season in Sept and my camp partner Tim was the first to put a bear on the ground. He got a nice dry sow that's been around for a couple of years. Perfect double lung hit with his 30-06 and she only went about 15 yards.
Next up was my oldest daughter Hailee. We made a spot that included 2 hag stands so we could hunt together.
Her 2nd night we had a bear appear and present a perfect broadside shot and she made short work of it with a double lung hit with the 30-30 she loves to shoot. It went about 25 yards and piled up. She bagged her 1st ever black bear and we were both thrilled to death with the hunt.
Tim had a moose tag to fill so that was next on the agenda. It was a tough hunt and after 5 days of seeing nothing, he came upon a bull and cow. He put the crosshairs on the bull and dropped it in it's tracks with his 30-06.
Finally the early deer bow season opens and I'm now in the stand doing some hunting for myself. My very first night I had a couple young bucks come into the food plot and I'm not fussy when it comes to bow hunting. If it has antlers and it gives me a shot...an arrow is launched. I took a young 4pt just before dark and for the first time ever, I had a bow kill deer drop right where it stood and no trailing required.
Next up is the youth deer season which opens a week before the general rifle season. Hailee had her first bear, so her first deer was next. We put her in the food plot in the elevated deer blind and I returned to the camp.....which is about 400 yards away. About an hour before dark, I was out in the camp yard puttering and I suddenly hear a "crack" from her 30-30....which was promptly followed by a text from Hailee, "dead". lol She took a spikehorn that entered the plot. I was thrilled and she was still shaking when i arrived to assist with the drag.
I turned my attention to bear hunting. I wanted to wrap up the bear season so we could stop tending the bear sites and just move onto deer hunting. I had been passing on smaller bears and finally had a decent boar come in that I was happy to put a tag on. Another bruin with the 30-30.
Tim and I continued to hunt during the general deer season. We have a "no doe" rule at the camp and despite being able to take them, we pass on them with the intent of them providing future fawns for the area. Tim saw lots of deer, but either passed on them, or the hunt didnt come together for him. I finished the big game season with a decent buck that I took late in the season with my fathers old 303.
With our big game season over, we turned our attention to waterfowl until the trapping season opened and then I switched over to furharvesting. I've had a fantastic season with a great mix of fur. Predator control around the camp is a big part of our deer management plan and we like to remove a good number of coyotes to improve fawn survival in the spring. Our biggest coyote this year was a 54lb male.
We're already hatching new plans for 2015 and cant wait to get things rolling this spring. For now, we'll just enjoy the camp life at the Hell Bear until the snow melts....and we never stop enjoying the meat treats in the freezer from our 2014 season.
Bear makes great burgers as well. I think most folks don't realize how nice bear meat is, mild flavored and sweet. Better when it's younger, like most animals. Years back, I finally talked the receptionist at work into trying some bear burger. She didn't care for game meat, but really enjoyed the bear.
