Actually Moosie it's kind of embarassing, but here goes...As most of you know I recently returned from 3 weeks in extreme northern Saskatchewan. I was there as a guest of Lost River Outfitters. My job was basically to photograph and video tape as much as possible. The idea being that I could put together a nice promotional tape for LRO. Now that I'm back I doubt that is going to be much of a problem as the bears were cooperative (save maybe one) and the fishing was nothing short of unreal. I spent most of my time video taping and only actually hunted 4 days for myself. Here's a brief rundown. I'd been in camp two minutes when they asked if I wanted to go on a bait run. 15 minutes later I was looking at my first bear of the trip a nice looking 250 pound jet black boar. He was actually racing the boat along the river. I was so caught up in his antics I forgot I had a video camera. Five minutes later, upriver we approach a bait sight when suddenly my partner stops and whispers there's a bear. I look up and only a scant 18 yards away is a bear working over a 55 gallon barrel. I can't see his head but it's obvious he's bigger than the barrel and a fairly decent bear. After filming him for a while we decide to let him. I didn't want my month long hunt to end in only 20 minutes. I later lived to regret that decision as a bowhunter killed the bear 2 days later. The bear's skull scored 20 12/16", couldn't weigh him as we didn't have a scale. Anywho, as time passed I saw and passed up many bears. Somewhere during all this a bowhunter video taped a large bear with a unique light spot on his backside about the size of a 50 cent piece. It was a about a foot above his tail and to the left a little bit. We all discussed that if a person saw that mark while hunting that bait sight one should shoot first and ask questions later. The bowhunter went home and I decided to basically marry that site, as I really wanted that bear. Long story short, 4 nights later a bear steps out right at last light. It's broadside for just a second or two, and my initial thought was that it wasn't that big. Then it turns and starts walking directly away. Dang, that looks like a light spot, my eyes and brain tell me. I put up the scope and sure enough there it is bright as a beacon, a foot up from the tail and a little to the left. Hmmmm, must of judged the bear wrong as this must be the big boy. Ka-Pow I drop that sucker with one shot up the old Bingo Hole at around 50 yards. Barnes 180gr X bullets out of a 300 Win Mag have a tendancy to do that sort of thing. As I approach I'm at least 20 feet from the bear and I see it's the wrong bear. Turns out to be a friggen sow, and the light spot is two tiny pine bows caught in her fur. Damn, Damn, and triple DAMN! Her face is badly rubbed and she's about as ugly as bear's come. I returned in the morning to skin my bear out as it was getting dark fast and I had a long lonely boat ride to make in order to back to camp. The next morning I'm about 5 minutes in to skinning my bear when I hear a stick snap. I'm all alone, on a very rocky beach as you can see in the photos. The boat is 50 yards behind me and all I have in my hands is a Gerber folding knife. I look up and there stands a large sow with two small cubs less than 20 yards away. She's about as happy to see me as I am to see her. Ever wish you had a gun, ever wish you could transport yourself somewhere else, ever wish you could fly? I was wishing for all three at once and trying not to lose control of any bodily functions. Finally after a yelling match, I won, and the sow beligerantly stowed off with her cubs in tow. Man, what a rush! I commenced to skinning the bear in world record time. I had the bear hide in the boat and was headed back to camp in less than 40 minutes. I'll have you all know just about anybody can hold out for a big bear, but it takes great skill to pass up over a dozen larger bears in order to kill a rubbed out dink. I'm look at that stats. Out of 20+ hunters I managed to kill one of the smallest. Like I said great skill. Somebody had to get that bear out of the gene pool.
The first Pic is of Mrs. Ugly herself.
Notice the light spot (pine bows) on her back in the photo below.
Here's the bear carcass if you look about two feet above her shoulder (the highest part of the carcass) and maybe a foot to the left there's a white object in the trees. That's actually a bait bag and where the sow with cubs was standing. Pretty darn close to say the least!
