Spent the last few days at our place up north with my son deer hunting. Our bear baits have long gone cold but my son still had a tag as he was unable to make it up during our scheduled bear hunt. Anyways we were set up about 1/4 mile apart hunting some corn and oats i had put out last week. I was in my climber very close to the driveway and he was in a blind further back into the bush. Only action we had all week up to today was me getting busted by a small 6 point 2 days ago.

Also as background info party hunting is legal in our parts - i.e as long as you are licensed and within 3 miles of each other and have real time communication anyone in a group can fill anyone's tag.

Forward to yesterday afternoon and at 6 pm ish a bear appears and lays down in the corn and oats and starts eating. I texted my son and asked him if he had filed his bear report. He answered no. Next question was do you have your bear tag with you? He answered yes. Last question - mind if i fill it? His answer - have at it.

The bear was laying down but was perfectly broadside at 20 yards. Drew a mental picture of where the lungs were and let the bolt fly. He jumped and took off running and was out of sight in less than 2 seconds. Less than 10 seconds later i heard the death moan.

As found 30 yards from the corn/oats:



This is the first bear i have ever taken with the crossbow and one of the only ones that was actually bigger than i thought. When i first saw him at the oats/corn i guessed him to be about 150 lbs. Ends up he measured 5' 8" tail to nose and had a chest girth of 43 inches. I took the measurements because i did not have a scale with us this week and there are good tools for estimating weight based on those 2 measurements. Looking at charts after the fact put his weight at approximately 265 lbs.

So today at a friends butcher shop we got the field dressed bear hanging on his scale and it clocked in at 251 lbs dressed. That equates to a live weight of about 295 lbs. So either the charts are conservative or i measured something wrong

Next to the recovery toboggan which is 5 feet long for scale:



Ready for the drag:



Bow and bolt specs:

- Matrix 380 limbs, riser and rail
- Triggertech 2 stage trigger
- Boo String
- Relayer Stock
- Luepold Mark 4 Glass
- 20 inch Zombie Slayers tipped with 125 grain G5s

Very nice and big bear. You have a freezer full of bear meat headed into winter. Like your crossbow, I am needing a new stock for mine and will give them a look. You sir have had a heck of a year so far, good luck on deer hunting.

Fill that freezer up Do you tan all of the hides from the bears if so besides a rug, what else can or do you make out of them?

Very good bear, congrats

Wonder if the charts take into account if a bear is getting ready for the winter nap

Love reading your write ups....thanks for posting and congratulations on your first archery bear...

Some get mounted and 2 so far made into rugs. Wife doesn't want any more mounts or rugs so the 3 from this year will get euro mounts out of the skulls, claws will go to friend who makes jewelry and hides will go to native friends who donate them to tribe elders who than use the hides to teach the younger generation traditional craft.

What is the meat like?

Bear is one of the few things I haven’t eaten

As long as they are not eating garbage or fish it is like really good beef. If on a sketchy diet though it can be pretty skanky.

😎

Wow!!!

Always great stories

This one was as expected

Thanks for posting

Cool story and pictures. Thank you for sharing!

Awesome bear

Cool, and with a crossbow too!

Very nice bear! Great story

Thanks, Great job and nice write up.

Nice bear and very cool to see you at the end of October without a whole bunch of white stuff on the ground.

Congrats!

Congrats!