# My Wife's Successful Bear Hunt



## Wild Thing (Mar 19, 2010)

My wife was successful again this year on her U.P. bear hunt. She had applied for preference points only for several years so she had 9 preference points this year and drew the first hunt for the Carney area (Dickinson County). She had other things going and didn't start baiting until August 18th but one of her 3 baits got hit a day or two later. Most action was nocturnal only but did have a few hits in the late afternoon and early morning. 

Just prior to the Sept 10 opener the bait went cold with no hits for 5 or 6 consecutive days. She finally got some night time hits but nothing during shooting hours. She hunted Sunday morning and evening as well as Monday evening after work with no bears being seen. She did not hunt either Tuesday or Wednesday but when we checked the camera cards and saw she had a hit on Wednesday night she decided to hunt after work on Thursday. That was a good decision.

The Bait - Popcorn laced with inexpensive maple syrup, cherry flavored Koolaid and sugar. She also started spreading some peanut butter on the tree and then adding some marshmallows and black "Twizzler" licorice sticks. She also sprayed nearby trees and vegetation with both liquid smoke and anise oil to get the baits started.










She hunted our own private property so we were able to use plastic 5-gallon pails and hang them from trees. A 5-6 foot length of chain and a couple of carabiners works to hang the buckets. I used 1 nail to secure the chain to the trees and a little fencing wire and a second carabiner to secure the bucket and lid to the chain.










A piece of OSB plywood and a couple of screws, along with the pail handle secured the lids enough to keep rain, squirrels and birds out. 










She also applied a generous amount of peanut butter to the trees which I thought was a waste of time....until I saw trail cam photos of a bear licking peanut butter for nearly an hour.










Several small bears were seen at the bait - even during daylight hours. This one enjoyed a leftover blueberry pancake.










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## Wild Thing (Mar 19, 2010)

Here is a bear licking peanut butter on the bait tree:










This is the bear she got when he came in on Wednesday evening at 9:34 PM. He was there until after 11 PM.










Here is her bear coming in at 6:38 PM (Central Time) on Thursday.










She didn't wait for him to stand up and took the first broadside shot she had at him from her blind about 50 yards away. She literally pulverized his heart. He ran about 25 yards and tipped over.










Here he is at the buck pole in the lean-to of the barn.










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## Wild Thing (Mar 19, 2010)

He tipped the scales at 215# - a nice sized male.










Then the work begins. With temps in the 80's this week, hanging him was not an option so we skinned and quartered him and put the meat in the fridge before we went to bed. I skinned him leaving the paws and head for a rug. We will also have a Euro mount of the skull:











If you think these bears aren't getting ready for hibernation, just look at the fat on this thing!










Once again, Elaine did a nice job with the baiting and perseverence of hunting in warm weather to harvest a fine bear. Not the biggest bear in the woods but certainly big enough and well above average. 

She used her Browning A-Bolt, .270 cal with a 130 Grain Deer Season XP bullet to harvest her bear - the same rifle and ammo she used to harvest her two bucks last year. Here is a 1-hole group she shot at 100 yards with the first 3 bullets out of a new box. I can't hand load anything that will shoot better than that.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Very nice!


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## stickbow shooter (Dec 19, 2010)

Congratulations to your wife wildthing.


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## pike man (Feb 21, 2006)

Congratulations to the Mrs !


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## FREEPOP (Apr 11, 2002)




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## IceHog (Nov 23, 2007)

Sweet, congrats to the wife.


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## Firefighter (Feb 14, 2007)

Awesome work!


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## plugger (Aug 8, 2001)

Great bear and great story!


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## dkamphouse (Nov 29, 2016)

Great job!!


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## LabtechLewis (Nov 20, 2008)

That story just kept getting more impressive frame by frame -- ending with the cloverleaf. Wow! Congrats!


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## Luv2hunteup (Mar 22, 2003)

Congrats Elaine. Way to go.


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## Groundsize (Aug 29, 2006)

Awesome job. Nice detail and what an experience. Congratulations to your wife.


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## Musket (May 11, 2009)

Big congrats to your wife.


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## U of M Fan (May 8, 2005)

Congrats to you both!!!!! Your gonna have to add on to that trophy room at the rate she's going!!! Well done.


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## Sprytle (Jan 8, 2005)

Congrats all around!! Great job!!


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## Hoytman5 (Feb 1, 2008)

Great job. Congratulations to Mrs. Wildthing.


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## spikekilla (Jan 6, 2009)

Too cool. Great stuff.


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## Wild Thing (Mar 19, 2010)

Thanks for all of the great comments! Elaine is still grinning from ear to ear and walking on Cloud 9.

As a side note - I pulled the baits and cameras yesterday as we have no other bear tags. We had another bear visit the same bait where Elaine killed her bear about 2 hours after we retrieved it and I had a photo of another (larger) bear on a camera by my corn field. Wish I had drawn a tag this year.

Also, when I happened to go by the gut pile yesterday, I spooked a big Bald Eagle off of it. Looks like others get to share in the bounty as well.


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