my vixen's first victim of 2009

[icequeen]

You might want to watch the video first cause the story kinda kills the suspense. lol

Had to do some editing for it to fit on photobucket. It's a bit long at just under 5min, which got it down to the size that photobucket would accept. If you don't like hearin the diein part you better not watch it all the way to the end,you can hear it if the volume is up enough.



Our fourth night on the stand and I finally figured out what I was doin wrong, so I fixed it.

We'd been sittin there for bout 1 1/2hrs and I decided it was time to relax for a spell. It was gettin on to about 6:30ish. Put my bow down between my feet, stretched out, had a smoke. Which I hadn't done that early the last three times out. I knew I was doin somethin wrong. lol

Bout ten minutes after I put my smoke out, I see movement to the right of the bait. Just a quick glimpse of black and some moving trees that weren't being moved by the wind. I pointed out the bear to hubby, who's in a tree behind and to my right (he's runnin the camera), and signaled that I thought it was one of the little bears coming to the bait. I didn't worry bout raising my bow cause I wasn't after the little guy, I wanted the guy we'd gotten pics of on the trail cam. It disappeared into the underbrush but I could see his snout moving in a small opening, scenting the wind. When he finally stepped out I thought "Crap!" It's not the little guy and I don't have my bow up.

It came out into the open and sat down for a bit, scenting the wind, a little nervous but not like the night before. It stood again and scented some more, testing the air, standing facing us. It finally turned a bit and put his head down enough for me to get my bow up and I waited for him to move again so I could get it into position. It stepped up to the tidbits on the ground and started havin a snack, moving to each piece as it chewed. It got to the stuff right under the bag and stood broadside slightly angled towards us. Only problem with this perfect broadside shot, was that the near front leg was too far back blocking the vitals. Perfect shot for a rifle but a little iffy for a bow. I could snug my shot up to the back of that leg but if I was off just a hair then I'd hit that front shoulder bone and just piss off the bear, instead of making a good kill shot. I tried willing the bear to move that leg one step forward, but it just didn't cooperate. It just stood there like that, snacking, for ever and ever. Well at least it seemed like it. Course during this time IK is havin a heart attack in his stand cause I'm not taking the shot. He was shakin the stand so much that the camcorder was shaking too. (good thing it's got image stabalizer) lol

Now this bear was in no hurry to move into a shooting position, which of course made hubby shake even more since he's seein this bear at a slightly different angle. Then the tupid thing looked up at the bait and I thought for sure it was going to stand up and reach for the bag, which is no good at all until it drops it's front legs. Worse than the shot it was already giving me. So I waited...and waited...and waited. And hubby was shakin and shakin. I was surprised he didn't jump up and yell "TAKE THE SHOT!" lol

It didn't stand up to take the bag but it sure did take it's sweet ole time deciding to move.

When the bear finally decided to move, a lifetime later, I thought for sure it was on it's way out. NOOOOOO!!!! But it turned completely 180deg. to a perfect broadside shot and it even moved that front leg forward. A wee bit scrunched up but I can handle that. Take a breath, let it out. Let 'er rip!!
I think hubby almost had another heart attack then too cause he'd waited so long he wasn't expecting it.

I thought I'd hit it a little bit low, but still a good shot. The bear went straight behind the bait into the dense trees, made a short loop to the left and we waited. We'd watched the trees move as it went through so we were able to watch it's progress pretty accurately. A few seconds later we heard it's moan and I knew it was down and out. Yes!!!!

20yds from the bait, a few minutes before 7pm and it's out for the count.

Oddly enough hubby also thought I'd hit it a bit low but nope, hit it exactly where I was aiming. A perfect heart/lungs shot. Couldn't ask for better. And after watchin the video we're not sure why we figured it was low cause the video shows otherwise. Guess it was just the shakin part that screwed up our perspective.

She weighed in at 215lbs.



a shot of her from the trail cam a few days before


Where hubby and I took ours was our first year hunting that area (private land) and we'll be back to take more off his land next year.

We brought in four other good sized bear off our baits. Two of our hunters didn't show, and two went home with tag soup, but we all had a blast. Our average went down this year, but considering three of the guys were only here for 2 1/2 days we still did pretty good.

They all woulda take home a good bear if they'd stayed a little longer, we tried to convince them but they used work as an excuse. That's my theory and I'm stickin to it.



ps...I'm trying to convince hubby I need to upgrade to the new Pheonix cause I'm runnin out of non-bloodied bolts for my Vixen.

[wrenchman]

I dont see a white chevron on its chest like a lot of the others but it is way cool
Also i see it is kind of warm do they shut down there when its warm

[icequeen]

They are definitely less active when it's warm during the day, but first thing in the morning (before sunrise) and just before sunset they get very active. They only have a short time to fatten up before the cold hits so they have to consume a lot of food in a short time. That trail cam shot was taken on one of our warmer days, but them temps drop pretty quick here once the sun starts to go down. Course our weather has been screwy that last couple of years, it's not normally that warm during bear season. And, because they shut down the spring hunt we start the fall hunt in August instead of September like it use to be.

She does have a small white chevron, like most up here, but it's just enough to say she has one. We've come across quite a few up here without the chevron though.