Quinault Bear hunt

[videorc]

Bear Hunting Quinault
Hi all thought you might enjoy some good news about Bear hunting with the Quinault tribal guide John “Tater” Bryson of Bear Balls Guide Service.


And there I was hunting Bear over bait on the Quinault Nation Reservation
I arrived at the Rain Forest Resort with my trailer on the Wednesday prior to my scheduled Thursday thru Sunday hunt with John “Tater” Bryson of Bear Balls Guide Service.
I called John and notified him of my arrival and was waiting for instructions on where to meet in the morning, John told me if I was willing to drive to Taholah I would get an extra night in the blind that evening, of course I said yes and was off to Taholah.
 John met me and another hunter named Patrick and we followed him to our first blinds, not any action this night it was raining and dark. We made the drive back to Amanda Park waiting for the next days hunt. The morning hunt found us in new blinds that had some previous action. No rain this time but the Bears still didn’t show for us. One of the other hunters arrowed a bear but he had to track it in the morning.
John & Gina invited us to a relative’s house in Amanda Park for some grub that evening Venison and Steelhead man was it good. In the morning John moved us to a couple of new blinds 2pm until 930pm off and on rain no action. But the good news is the new Thermacell worked great keeping all the Mosquitoes out of the blind.
The next Day we were back in the previous days blind with high hopes for some action but the bears didn’t cooperate again. As usual the birds ate most of the bait. When hunting from a blind is hard to stay focused as your sense of smell, sight and sound is reduced compared to a tree stand. The next morning John asked us to return to Taholah where we hunted the first night as the bears were once again hitting the baits there. This time I only brought a small back pack and one small video camera and was determined to get some better video of the setup of the bait and surroundings. This time we cleared the shooting lane that had grown over in just a couple of day’s time. Before I got set in the blind John put out fresh bait and sprayed some scent around where we had cleared.
After several hours of sitting near the side of the blind my chair kept sinking in the mud and rubbed the blind making noise so, I sat up in the chair to adjust my position and realized it wasn’t the chair making noise as the noise became more of a breathing like sound and quickly became louder and closer. In an instant the noise was right next to me and in through the partially open door zipper opening pops the nose of a bear less than 18” away, I jumped up and spun facing the half open door zipper while drawing my S&W .40 but the bear retreated as fast as I jumped making no sound at all.
Adrenaline pumping I quickly unzipped the blind windows to see his retreat but only saw the brush swaying in the direction he left he didn’t even make a sound leaving. I had not expected this whew! Determined to not get surprised again I zipped down all the remaining windows and put up the screens and moved my chair to the middle of the blind allowing me to shoot in any direction. What I wouldn’t give to have had the cameras rolling when all this excitement occurred. Previously when sitting in the blind I had occasionally started to doze off but there was no chance of that happening now as my mind was clear and extremely alert. I made sure the camera was on and pointed at the bait and stayed focused on all angles out of the blind. Not more than 30 min passed I was scanning the forest from right to left as my eyes came to focus on a Bear sitting next to the barrel I had only a second ago looked at. I switched the camera to record and made sure the bear was in the picture. I knocked a Gold tip to the string of my Bowtech Allegiance and drew as the bear reached in the barrel, but just as quickly he pulled out some bait and walked behind the barrel and laid down so I let down and waited heart pounding soon he came back and was in the barrel again only to back out and lay down beside the barrel giving me no shot again. I was determined to wait until he had his head in the barrel before shooting and it was only moments before I got my chance. Drawing my bow I was amazed at how focused and steady I seemed until I tried to aim at that big black blob of fur 33yds away not realizing how dark your pins are inside a blind the fiber optics don’t gather much light in there. Picking my spot I released the arrow and it passed thru and into the mud as the Bear jumped knocking the barrel over as he spun and retreated down the trail he came in on. Much to my surprise he stopped and returned to the scene, with a slight stagger he backed up from the baited area but I had already knocked another arrow and had decided to try a spine shot which fortunately connected and dropped him on the spot. No tracking in the dark for me.
Sitting in my blind I called my wife to tell her the good news while waiting for Tater to come and pick me up. I have always wanted to get a bear with my bow and was happy that the excitement I thought I would experience was nothing compared to the real thing.
To get part of it on video was great also. When Tater arrived to pick me up I was already at the road with my gear in a pile and huge grin on my face. I thought he was going to fall in the mud laughing when I told him the story, we loaded my gear in his jeep and drove back to my truck and returned to pick up the bear. Tater quickly field dressed my Bear and we took a few pictures in the rain then we followed him to his house where he fed us dinner again. Great meal again and we drove back to Amanda Park for the night. The next morning Tater took us to a new area so I could try and get some more footage and fill my second tag and we setup a new blind to better accommodate my video gear and Archery tackle. This time all I saw was some Stellar Jays and a beautiful Coyote. We followed Tater home and then to the locker where we loaded the bear meat and frozen hide in my coolers in the back of my truck for the ride back home. It was a great hunt where I met and became friends with fellow hunters and Guide.
My wife always accuses me of waiting until the last day of the hunt to get something so I can hunt the whole season but I think its just luck.
I will return to hunt Quinault Bears again soon with Tater and hopefully get some more action on video. The link to the youtube video is below.

[mfswallace]

 

[Coastal_native]

Sounds exciting! glad you had a chance to meet Tater. 

Some of my most memorable hunting experiences have been with him.  If you come back out to hunt with him, ask him about his friend that marks the trail to his elk kill by ripping his underwear apart and using it as flagging. 

The video you put together was great.

[Relish the Journey]

Nice video!

[Dan-o]

Sweeeeeet.

[bigelk1030]

Congrats, Great hunt. I have killed a couple of bears there, it's unbelievable how many bears they have.

[mfswallace]

Jim Burnsworth and Western Extreme are airing a great hunt with the Quinaults.... pretty cool   

 

[videorc]

I will probably go back in Sept or Oct.
When does the Western Extreme episode air?

By the way everyone always told me Bear was not good to eat this one is excellent my wife and boy have been cooking burgers on a regular basis and there great. Served them up at my sons High school grad barbeque. Everyone wanted to try them and they all liked them even those with no previous wild game experience.

B&E Meat and Seafood did a great job processing.
22501 Marine View Dr. S.
Des Moines, WA 98198

[mfswallace]

I'll look but i've seen it twice now....
not sure if it's the quinault episode but they are all great anyway!!!!!!
If you have DVR set them all to record...

Outdoor Channel

Next few episodes are
10:30 am Thursday(tomorrow)
11 pm Friday
4:30 pm Saturday ---- 6/23
6:30 am Monday --- 6/25

[kglacken]

Love hunting those quinalt bears. My first time was in 2008 with Doc and we hunted out of tahola. We killed a 200 pounder and a B &C record bear that weighed over 300# within the first two hours in the same stand. I shot one and we took it out, took pictures and walked back to the tree stand and my uncle shot the next one at dark. We saw a total of 15 different bears and we even had a 15 to 20 pound cub climb into our stand. I could of touched him with my hands.  I have been back there multiple times to film hunts from different angles and get footage for an up and coming video production.  It sure is a blast! Congrats on your hunt! It is addicting!

[RightPlace-RightTime]

Ron, 

Jaso from work here. Nice write up.  Your video rocks.  Nice to see you on the site.

[Ripper]

What a first post! Congrats on your bear.

[Michelle_Nelson]

Nice Looking Bear!

[RoyBoy]

ive only hunted bear a hand full of times but no luck im mostly deer,elk, coyote, and grouse but i would love to go on one of these hunts. could somone fill me in on what the times,prices, ect are id love to do it one day. thanks. 

[JoeE]

Nice bear! I've considered heading over to the Quinalt to hunt bears too.

[lipripper]

Great vid !

[Rickyrebar]

I booked a hunt over there for my youngest daughter (with a different outfitter) last year in Oct. saw nothing. The guide invited us to come back until she filled her tag... several weekends later, 14 days (combined) in a ground blind, the only thing we saw was birds eating out of the barrels... very disappointed.

[Sideswipe]

Videorc: REALLY enjoyed your story.  I have more than once considered the hunts available on the Quinault Res.  Now I'm seeing them on TV!.  The part about the bear almost in your stand....love it!!I look back on the few experiences I have had & it seems that over the years its the crazy ones that seem to stick out in my memories & really add value to an "older" mans life.  Thanks Again (now to go back & see your video!).  If you're ever in Wholesale Sports in Burlington, go to the gun counter & ask for Bruce.  Love to talk to a real bear hunter eh?

[billythekidrock]

I booked a hunt over there for my youngest daughter (with a different outfitter) last year in Oct. saw nothing. The guide invited us to come back until she filled her tag... several weekends later, 14 days (combined) in a ground blind, the only thing we saw was birds eating out of the barrels... very disappointed.

Unfortunately I hear this more than success stories. On a typical hunt that would be par for the course, but there are a ton of bears on the rez and it shouldn not take 14 days to even see a bear.

[Rickyrebar]

I booked a hunt over there for my youngest daughter (with a different outfitter) last year in Oct. saw nothing. The guide invited us to come back until she filled her tag... several weekends later, 14 days (combined) in a ground blind, the only thing we saw was birds eating out of the barrels... very disappointed.

Unfortunately I hear this more than success stories. On a typical hunt that would be par for the course, but there are a ton of bears on the rez and it shouldn not take 14 days to even see a bear.

Exactly, "typically" I am ok with getting skunked, as many days afield as I spend there are obviously going to be more days of seeing nothing, killing nothing than the opposite, this is understood. But as a whole, I was expecting more from a "professional" guided hunt. Thats not to say the experience was not an enjoyable one after all the worst day of hunting beats the best day of work.
I did see the afore mentioned Tater at the sportsman's show this last year, I stood off to the side of his booth and listened to a sales pitch they were giving to another person... then spoke with them describing my experience with one of their competitors. Eyes rolled and knowing glances were shared as they eagerly tossed "my guide" under the bus... then offered me a "deal" if I wanted to come back this year and hunt in their yard.
Its a business to them bottom line, which as a business man myself, I can relate to their opinion towards a competitor, nobody can do it better than you.
My point here is that in the end it is bait sniping, not "hunting" and regardless of the guide your contracted with (some do work harder for the clients success, their job depends on it) if the critters aren't of a mind to eat whilst your sitting in the ground blind waiting for them... it makes for a looong day. There are no guaranties. Even with the dismal outcome from my experience with my daughter last year, I have considered booking a hunt for my young son this year... we'll see.