Bearpaw Season - Spring 2023

[bearpaw]

Daniel had Lewis and Jeff both from Virginia hunting with him, not to be outdone by Zach they both shot birds on the first day too!

[bearpaw]

In the late afternoon Chess sacked up his 2nd bird , so he was done on the first day.

[Machias]

Nice birds!!

[bearpaw]

Thanks Fred, hope you are getting some action on your baits. We still have only one bear hitting our baits but these warm days should bring more bear out. The guys saw a a different bear the other day laying on top of the snow sunning himself!  About two feet of snow! LOL

[bearpaw]

Peter from Massachusetts killed birds with us last year and returned this year, he put the hammer down at two different locations this morning, he's mounting the bird on the left, congrats Péter!

[Machias]

Thanks Fred, hope you are getting some action on your baits. We still have only one bear hitting our baits but these warm days should bring more bear out. The guys saw a a different bear the other day laying on top of the snow sunning himself!  About two feet of snow! LOL

Getting my second bait out tonight.  Nothing on the first one, but it is in a brand new place on private property.  Not sure how many bears are there, but not many on this property.  May take a while before they find it.  Good luck, can't wait to see some bears being harvested by your hunters!!

[bearpaw]

Thanks Fred, hope you are getting some action on your baits. We still have only one bear hitting our baits but these warm days should bring more bear out. The guys saw a a different bear the other day laying on top of the snow sunning himself!  About two feet of snow! LOL

Getting my second bait out tonight.  Nothing on the first one, but it is in a brand new place on private property.  Not sure how many bears are there, but not many on this property.  May take a while before they find it.  Good luck, can't wait to see some bears being harvested by your hunters!!

Fred, we have bear on several baits now, the warm weather the last few days really got them moving, I bet you get some showing up soon.

[bearpaw]

I’m often asked why I don’t offer hunts in western Washington, the truth is that I have done a few hunts in western Washington in the past, but it was rainy on most of the hunts and I just don’t enjoy hunting in the rain near as much, I like snowy weather but don’t like rain, so I quit offering western Washington hunts more than two decades ago, LOL.

I really enjoy hunting southern Idaho, Utah, and eastern Montana due to the dry climates. I don’t even mind snowmobiling in 20 below temps looking for cat tracks in the winter, but rain, that’s just not attractive! Yeah I know I’m a wet wimp, several friends even make fun of how I dislike rainy weather!

At any rate back to turkey season!

Last night a new group of hunters arrived, a great family, they hunted with us last year, two fathers, a son and daughter that married to bring them all together, and another son and wife with their 6 month baby. This morning five of them were up to go hunting, mom slept in with the baby.

It rained all night and still raining good this morning, but my hunter and I were in place well before turkey wake-up time. After about 30 minutes the birds started waking up, there was a lot of talking on the roost, the hens were getting excited and so was my hunter, nothing like a morning with noisy birds. Finally they came off the roost, I saw several fly down, I could here them working their way closer but there was a little rise so we could see over that rise to see the birds, finally I decided they had to be close enough, I whispered that I was going to half stand to get a peek, sure enough two Tom’s are strutting next to each other about 28 yards away, I told Tristen to slowly half stand and shoot when he had a clear shot, he rose slowly with me rising again right behind him, at first the birds were lined up but then they split a little, I was afraid we would kill one and wound the other, I whispered for him to wait till they split apart further, which they did and he dropped one, the other birds started running away, we couldn’t shoot at the other tom for fear of hitting hens too, then they got out of range. I whispered to slowly sit back down.

The birds had not seen us and pretty soon the other tom started coming back, we waited until he was close enough and I whispered for Tristen to stand again and shoot when he could see the tom, Tristen did it perfectly and the second tom bit the dirt.

We rounded up birds and gear as the rain kicked into over drive, we didn’t get very good photos of dead wet birds, but we sure had a fun hunt! I love it when a plan comes together, Congrats Tristen!

Meanwhile Tristen’s wife Emily got a bird with guide Zach, and one of the other family members missed a bird with guide Daniel and then got another bird with Daniel. So it’s already a four bird day on the first morning!

I told Tristen the only bad thing about being done early is now he has to babysit, I went and got mom, and she’s out hunting now!

Tristen’s birds here:

[Machias]

Nice!!!

[bearpaw]

A photo of all 4 birds taken this morning. It’s been slow hunting so far this afternoon.

[bearpaw]

Ernie from Ohio arrowed this Merriam’s for his one year archery world slam, he flew to Texas the next day and got his Rio which completed his one year archery world slam. 

[bearpaw]

We are finally bear hunting, first hunt, first day, first bear of our spring season, 6’9” big black boar bayed up by the dogs. One very happy hunter from Bozeman, Montana!

“Chewy” the Jack Russell even got in on the action, and one of the young hounds that is just getting started proved himself this morning!

Congrats to Josh for a dandy bear!

[Gringo31]

Love all the smiles!

Congrats on your success this season.

[Machias]

Nice!!  Here come the bears!!!!!

[bearpaw]

Second bear taken was a color phase nailed by Francesco with guide Grant.