By Tuesday Bob had recovered from his viral infection and we were ready to try for the bigger bear. We brought some bait into the stand with us to re-bait. But, as again, there was a bear on the stand waiting for us. We carefully negotiated our way to the stand as the bear reluctantly backed away. The food stayed put about 20 yards from the stand.
Settling into our 2 tree stands we saw the bear out about 60 yards wandering around. He was maybe a five-footer. The bear circled above us for quite some time but would not come in. Suddenly, a twig broke about 60-70 yards behind us. The bear above us went on alert; started sniffing the air and headed up hill. He wanted nothing to do with the other bear that was comming in.
Without hesitation a bigger black just strolled in and stopped about 2 yards from the stand. Bob was nervous and I watched him pull his arrow rest several times. He had bear fever! Finally he was at full draw and loosed an arrow just over the back of the bear. Another arrow was out of the quiver as quickly as possible. The bear was alerted and slowly walking away. Another release and a berry bush got in the way. Even though, the bear was hit.
The whole time the bear was in sight and within 60 yards. He was hurt bad, but not bad enough for our liking. We carefully glassed him to decide what to do. Push him and we might loose him or wait and hope for the best. We knew it was a bad hit so we waited about an hour before getting down. The decision made, I would back Bob up as we sneaked above the bear for a killing shot. The stalk went perfect and another arrow hit the bear dead center making a quick kill. It was a good bear but there was no way to determine how good right there on the rough terrain. A short drag and we had him down hill where he could be processed.
My pack was at the tree stand and the game bags on the beach so we headed out to retieve the necessities. When about 20 yards from the stand I caught movement and with our luck there was another bear at the bait. We threw some sticks and stones driving the bear far enough away so the pack could be retrieved. I then stood guard over the bear, as the best place for him was one that made him happy. Bob retrieved the bags and we retuned to the kill site to start our work.
We are only 35 yards from the stand so I was vigilant as Bob started the work. Somewhere during the job we were concentrating too hard. For some reason I suddenly looked up hill there sat another bear, 17 yards away staring at us. This time some shouts and a 1 3/8 ounce Brenneke slug into the tree next to the bear drove him off. We finished our work and made it back to the boat. We finally arrived back at port at 10:30 P.M..
Bob shot his biggest bear. Squared 72"+ and the skull went 18 7/8. Just 3/8s bigger than mine, almost a twin.
When we cleaned the bear though, there were teeth marks above one leg that were starting to puss a little. Someone had bitten this guy!
Tomorrow we bait up again for a friend.
