# Newberry Success



## buck11pt24 (Mar 11, 2007)

2019 our large group of friends and family decided we would apply for 3 tags in 2019 and 4 in 2020 for first season Newberry. 2019 we experimented running baits 3 weekends prior to the opener. We would run about 80 pounds of bait to 6 bait sites. Cameras showed all 6 locations were hit within 3 days of originally baiting and would hold bears for 4 days. My dad and youngest brother both killed bears during that trip while the 3rd hunter saw bears every night but never ended up killing the one he was after. 

Fast forward to 2020 application period. In the drawing was supposed be myself, my brother Brian, a cousin and a good friend that goes on adventures with me every year. Those of you who follow the Saginaw Bay forum will know that my brother passed away April 11th from Covid at 33 years old. I emailed in April the DNR and within a day Lisa Jackson gave me a call regarding my brothers 9 bear points and if we could apply and donate his tag to my daughter. She gave me all of the information and actually said I could apply and donate his tag to anyone his wife choose, even it were another adult. My sister in law said immediately that my daughter was getting the tag. Allison is 15 years old and hunts with me every year a handful of times. She is more of a fair weather hunter and is typically a 1 deer per year and done. She's killed around 6 deer and about a dozen turkeys since she was 8 years old. 

In June we find out we all received our tags and started the tag transfer process. This process took a month or so but Lisa finally emailed me and said it was all set.

July I ran to Standish to buy bait. 1000 pounds of granola, 300 pounds of orange slice candy, and 6 buckets of blueberry/cranberry syrup. Later on in early August I found and was addicted to The Bear Hunting Podcast. If you want to learn how to bear hunt on your own then listen to his podcast and buy DIY Bear Hunting video from The Hunting Beast. After listening to many episodes there was one thing that was consistent on his show. Introduce nuts to your bear bait, especially if your hunting during mid to late September. I found someone who had mixed nuts without chocolate, which is pretty hard to find here in Michigan. Bought another 400 pounds of bait. Bait cost was divided among 4 of us with me paying for my daughter and myself. Ended up costing each of us around $175. 

Our baits consisted of 50 pounds of granola, 2 gallons of candy, 3 gallons of mixed nuts to start. We covered with logs and a gatorade bottle of syrup followed by a bag of powdered sugar. We sprayed the entire area with hickory liquid smoke and a starburst syrup. 

We decided we were going to run 8 baits and start baiting August 23rd. We would then run another bait run August 29th followed up by me arriving at camp on September 4th and baiting with 5 gallons a day from the 5th to the opener. On August 23rd we ran 3 of the 6 baits from the year prior and checked out 4 new spots. Our goal to start 8 baits was quickly turned to 7. Finding new spots is time consuming and we ran out of time in our 4am to 2am 1 day adventure. Baiting on August 29th showed all 7 baits completely cleaned out. Cameras indicated it took 2-3 days for bears to find them. 2 days after finding the baits they would be empty and the bears would show up for 2 additional days before stop coming in. We had a rather large boar living at 1 site. I thought for sure this bear would be the #1 bear. We lost this bear b/c our bait ran out on 9-3 and wasn't freshened back up until the 5th. He never showed again until 9-13.

We had many people in camp. It was decided early on that this would be a family adventure. We had 3 campers all set up. My dad was to sit with my daughter, my buddy was staying in my cousins camper and my camper would be full of my family + my sister in law and 2 nieces. They ended up getting a hotel after a few days b/c of my youngest niece only being 3 years old and was easier for them to put her to bed and be able to sleep in. 

I arrived to camp on Sept 4th at around 9pm. I had 2 helpers with me. My 8 year old boy and my 7 year old niece. They helped me get camp set up. The next day my wife, daughter, sister in law and youngest niece arrived. The 5th was a chore. Running 7 baits by myself. I started early around 7am and was done by noon. All 7 were completely gone. I was baiting with 5 gallons of granola, candy and nuts all mixed together. 5 gallons of bait was gone at every bait site except where that big bear had disappeared from. 

Issue with local guide was on the table for Monday the 7th. As we were running our baits around 8am we noticed a bait truck parked at one of our baits. We were bummed and just passed by and went to bait a different stand first figuring this guy must have had a bait near by. We got a eary feeling when he passed us by a few miles down the road at the other bait. Upon arriving at the bait where he was parked we noticed that all of our ribbons were missing from our bait. It dawned on us that this individual was messing with us. The only ribbon left was the one I hang over the bait to monitor the wind and the camera would have taken his picture if he had taken that one. We made a call to Rap line to file a report. The DNR actually called me back. I've had issues in the past at home on 2 occasions and have never actually gotten a call back before. We gave them the description of the vehicle and he indicated we weren't the only ones having issues. I also let them know where we were staying in case they needed anything.

Sept 9th was opening day. Weather indicated it would be rain all afternoon. We didn't have any morning bears and all activity was 2pm to 8pm. My boy and I settled into a blind that my dad shot a bear from in 2019 around 2pm. I knew there were 7 bears hitting this bait. A sow and 2 cubs were off limits but the rest were all legal. I would be happy with any of them except for this 90 pounder that came in every day. At 2:20, in the pouring rain the little guy showed up. My boy tried hard to get me to take it but we held off. The rest of the night was uneventful and at 8pm that little guy came back again. He stuck around until 8:20 and we were able to sneak out without scaring him off. 

My daughter and buddy didn't see a bear that night while my cousin had the bear he was after come in and sit facing directly towards the stand. B/c of the angle and the down pouring rain he decided to wait for a better shot. The bear, as quickly as he came, turned and walked off and never came back that night. 

Back at camp around 10 pm we crack a beer and start to talk about the night when 2 DNR officers showed up. They talked for a bit then asked if I could go talk about the incident earlier. He asked a lot of questions and I started to feel as if he was accusing me of something. Turns out that the guy who took our ribbons was a guide with the vehicle that we described. He was the one having issues as well. He had a camera stolen and gasoline poured on his bait. Also said he had pictures of the people who did it and assumed it was us. The DNR was just doing his job and was investigating both sides of the story. He refused to ticket the guide saying he would simply use the defense of he was picking up litter and the ticket wouldn't hold up. Honestly I was good with him just leaving us alone. We never had another issue the rest of the trip. I don't know if they ever caught the real offenders or not. 

Day 2 September 10th. Everyone goes to the baits they were at the day before. We arrive at our bait around 1pm. It was a beautiful day. At 3:02 we had a bear show up out of nowhere. I told my boy we were going to shoot this one. I shouldered my late brothers 12 gauge and made a great shot. My boy was so excited that he was jumping all over. He even said he saw right where the bullet hit. I actually did too. Hard to miss a 12 gauge at 14 yards. A short track job later showed the bear wasn't as big as I figured but I was still happy with it. We didn't get any weights on any of the bears so we can all tell our own stories of how big they were. I'll say mine was 160 but it could have been 120. I just know it felt heavier than a deer that we shoot in Shiawassee county. 


We made a phone call to the girls who happened to be at the Oswalds Bear place north of Newberry that we got the first one of the trip. They wanted to go to the spot and help us get it out. After that around 5pm I got the message from my cousin stating he shot the bear from the day before. Plans were made to meet me at camp and drop mine in a deep freezer to cool down. 

Now it's 7pm and I have my boy and 7 year old niece and cousin going to track a good bear. We have no idea on the hit or anything so I get out the old trusty 870 loaded with some slugs for tracking. No blood but I walked about 10 yards in the direction of where it ran and saw it laying there about 40 yards away. The kids were excited. This is also when I get the phone call that my daughter just bolted the boar she was after. We told them to meet us at camp and we would be a few hours until we got there. This drag sucked but was actually nicer than it originally thought it would be. 

Happy trackers 


Around 10pm we get the bear to the truck. My buddy never saw a bear this night....bummer. I for sure thought he was going to be texting at any time that he shot one. It was a bait where bears were not consistent but had many daylight pictures heading into season. 

By 11pm we are on our way to my daughters bait site. It's a 1/2 mile walk to the site. We brought a jet sled and a deer cart with us. At the bait I noticed a red glow in the distance and found the bolt immediately. Also they had the shot on video and looked like a good hit. The blood was awesome and we recovered my brothers, I mean daughters, bear about 100 yards later. It was the one we set her out to kill and had been on the bait nearly every day between 3pm and 8pm since 3 days after we originally started baiting. It was an emotional first few minutes but everyone was so excited. 

The 1/2 mile drag back to the truck wasn't all too bad. Not in any of the pictures are my cousin and buddy who helped tremendously. 

Day 3 we checked our bears in at Newberry. At that location we were #2, 3 and 4 bear registered. While registering #5 showed up and was a hunter we ran into the night before and said they were successful. I was shocked that not more bears had been registered by that time on day 3. I skinned and quartered all of the bears that day. Good thing I brought a deep freezer up and that it was 27 degrees the night before. 

Our buddy could only hunt 2 more nights and after that he had to go home and was not going to be able to make it back up. We switched him up to another bait. He ended up seeing 5 bears that night but no legal bear would commit to the bait. For some reason they would stay back in the bush 40 yards. We moved him the 4th night to a spot where we had daytime bears every day. Mostly all small bears and nothing really to call home about but it was hit last day and he was just hoping to get one. Turns out day 4 was rain from 8am to 9am the next day. Very few of our baits were that day and he didn't get his MI bear. 

All in all I'm very happy with our success.


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## buck11pt24 (Mar 11, 2007)

I'm not used to posting a alot but here are the pictures. They don't necessary go in in any correct order.


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## buck11pt24 (Mar 11, 2007)

My daughters Tracking Crew


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## Luv2hunteup (Mar 22, 2003)

Congrats. Your group did well.


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## 6Speed (Mar 8, 2013)

WOW! Cool!


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## Stubee (May 26, 2010)

Great pics! Congrats.


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## BucksandDucks (May 25, 2010)

Sounds like an awesome family trip. Great job


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## jrv (Nov 11, 2008)

What a great memory, and a great way to honor your brother. God bless him. Congratulations.


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## bluealaskan (Sep 18, 2011)

Congratulations, awesome group hunt. Brian is sure smiling, what a great tribute to him and all of you. Beautiful bears. Thanks for sharing.


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## Trunkslammer (May 22, 2013)

Im impressed that the DNR helped out passing along Brians points. What a great way to celebrate his life. Thats a camp that will go down in all of your history books a one of the best for eternity!


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## chuckinduck (May 28, 2003)

Great write up. So happy for you and all your family during an emotional time I’m sure. Some very good looking bears to boot. Those chest freezers do come in handy with bears. We use them the same way with a thermostat for a keg-orator so they don’t actually freeze. Just becomes a big cooler. 


Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman


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## pike man (Feb 21, 2006)

Congratulations. Great story !


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## MyBritt&Me (Jan 8, 2020)

Wonderful bear hunt story for so many good and captivating reasons. I’m not even a bear hunter, and I was simply expecting to read about another successful Newberry bear hunt story that I have been hearing about for decades. But this story is special. You kept me engrossed in your writing and left me chocked-up after the reading and pictures. God bless you and your impressive family and friends. Job Well Done!


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## Tilden Hunter (Jun 14, 2018)

Great story. I'm glad the DNR was so helpful.


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## deepwoods (Nov 18, 2002)

First I am sorry for your loss. Thank you for taking the time to share that. Incredible! Congrats to all involved.

Sent from my SM-G981V using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


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## Firefighter (Feb 14, 2007)

Congrats and fantastic write up. Thank you for taking us along!


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## sparky18181 (Apr 17, 2012)

A great story and excellent hunt for everyone. Having family involved makes things even better. Congratulations


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## Sprytle (Jan 8, 2005)

Awesome! Congrats to All.


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## TommyV (Jun 20, 2014)

Great story and great way to honor your brother. Nice bears too by the way.


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## Steve (Jan 15, 2000)

buck11pt24 said:


> 2019 our large group of friends and family decided we would apply for 3 tags in 2019 and 4 in 2020 for first season Newberry. 2019 we experimented running baits 3 weekends prior to the opener. We would run about 80 pounds of bait to 6 bait sites. Cameras showed all 6 locations were hit within 3 days of originally baiting and would hold bears for 4 days. My dad and youngest brother both killed bears during that trip while the 3rd hunter saw bears every night but never ended up killing the one he was after.
> 
> Fast forward to 2020 application period. In the drawing was supposed be myself, my brother Brian, a cousin and a good friend that goes on adventures with me every year. Those of you who follow the Saginaw Bay forum will know that my brother passed away April 11th from Covid at 33 years old. I emailed in April the DNR and within a day Lisa Jackson gave me a call regarding my brothers 9 bear points and if we could apply and donate his tag to my daughter. She gave me all of the information and actually said I could apply and donate his tag to anyone his wife choose, even it were another adult. My sister in law said immediately that my daughter was getting the tag. Allison is 15 years old and hunts with me every year a handful of times. She is more of a fair weather hunter and is typically a 1 deer per year and done. She's killed around 6 deer and about a dozen turkeys since she was 8 years old.
> 
> ...


Wow, what a great story. Way to involve the youths.


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## buck snort (Nov 9, 2007)

Great story!!!


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## Uber-Schneider (Apr 5, 2008)

..."50 pounds of granola, 2 gallons of candy, 3 gallons of mixed nuts..."

Funny, that's what I put in my backpack to make it through opening day!


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## old graybeard (Jan 19, 2006)

Congrats on a great hunt


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## buck11pt24 (Mar 11, 2007)

My daughter got her bear back today thanks to Bums Taxidermy in Birch Run. They did a great job. 


Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


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## buck11pt24 (Mar 11, 2007)

Sent from my iPhone using Michigan Sportsman mobile app


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## tacklebox180 (Jun 24, 2020)

Nice!


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