Bear Season @ the HellBear

[riverdog]

Although I don't hunt...yet love these posts. Whereabouts are you located in NS? Spent sometime in Pictou region this summer & loved it!

[Fishoholic]

Awesome stuff, love the annual HellBear reports. Looks like a little slice of heaven on earth

[banjo]

Fantastic to see the work pay off.
I expect a few 'meal on the plate photos' too.

[Markus]

Although I don't hunt...yet love these posts. Whereabouts are you located in NS? Spent sometime in Pictou region this summer & loved it!

Riverdog, my wife is from pictou county, so i do some hunting in that area with my brother inlaw. Beautiful country. I'm from Hants Co and thats where our hunt camp is as well.

Bear season doesnt close until the first week of Dec, but for us it's quickly coming to an end. My uncle has enjoyed putting his buddy and his youngest son on bears this fall and wednesday night he finally took his turn and punched his tag. He took the shot at 522pm and waited until 545pm to track it. 40 yards in, he heard it get up. So he backed out and waited until dark at 730pm. Went back in and resumed the blood trail and pushed it a second time. At that point, we backed out and decided to come in at first light. The next morning it was raining just a bit and blood trailing had us worried...but it took 2 minutes to find him. Great bear for him to tag out on.



Snare season opens this saturday, so i'll likely put a snare down in an area we havet taken any bears...and that will likely be the end of the season. I'm getting eager to switch gears and get serious about deer hunting...and i still need to get stuff prepped for trapping season.

[smitty55]

Markus I used to enjoy reading the Life at the Hell Bear forum on proboards but I now see that it's no longer there. Did you guys start up anywhere else?

Cheers

[riverdog]

The boys at work that hunt bear are frothing over the size of them.

[Markus]

Markus I used to enjoy reading the Life at the Hell Bear forum on proboards but I now see that it's no longer there. Did you guys start up anywhere else?

Cheers

Smitty, The Bears East forum migrated to FB. Like many websites, it just lost the battle with the FB movement. I currently dont keep an active camp thread on any forums now. I do enjoy sharing a few hunts here on FH though.

[Markus]

I picked up another bear this morning. Bear snaring season opened Oct 1st and i had one remote site that had a dozen or so bears visiting it and none taken from there. There were no cubs either, so I thought it would be a great spot for a snare set up.

Got it all set up on Saturday afternoon. Checked it Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed with all the same results....sprung snare and bait gone. I didnt have a cam there because with no bait, they can get chewie on gear. lol I figured something was spring the snare before he bear got there after dark, so I reset the cubby with fresh bait yesterday afternoon and then climbed into the stand to watch it until dark. Sure enough on 4 occasions, ravens tried to come into the site. I waved them off and left at dark.

Came in this mornin at sunrise, and found a nice sow in the set. I quickly dispatched her and called my uncle to come help with the drag.



That should conclude my 2016 bear season. I still have a couple friends hunting, so i'll be on call for any recoveries they need help with, but our crew is done and i've shut down all the sites. I still have 1 tag left, but i like to save that for any problem bears that may arise this fall.

My 2016 snare bear...big sow.

[smitty55]

Yeaaa, nice big girl there. Bonus dry sow that will be great eating too. What a season for the Hell Bear.

Cheers

[CBB]

Nice bear and do you ever try and run with hounds as it is a blast.

[Out4trout]

Fantastic season for sure. Did the NS drought affect the berry crop? It did here, changing the hunt (for the better)

[Markus]

CBB, the only thing we chase with hounds is bunnies and i havent done that in a long time. I do love watching dogs work upland birds too.

Out4trout, the drought was brutal on the berries and it made for a short season for day activity with bears. They went nocturnal faster then expected this year.

[Markus]

Finished up the 2 skulls from our last 2 bears. They'll be heading to the camp shelves.



We finished drying the first 5 gals as well and have them ready to go to a buyer. The other ones will be done shortly as well and we'll be done with them.



I've closed up all my bear sites and turned my attention to deer, but the last round of cam checks showed nothing but bears all over the camp deer sites. We may have to let things dry up for a bit and hope the bears move on.

[ShawnD]

Beautiful skulls!
Thanks for updating your post Markus.

[Markus]

Thanks ShawnD.

I made a trip into the camp today and the bear skull shelf is officially full now. We'll have to add a second shelf above this one to accommodate the future bears.