Finally... a Big Ontario Bear
by Mike Avery
I love to hunt bears. There’s something about seeing their sleek, jet black coat silently slipping through the northwoods that gets my adrenaline pumping. I’ve hunted bears in Alberta, Manitoba and several places in Ontario, but these days my number one destination is White River, Ontario, with Pete Jones of Superior Bear Outfitters.
I’ve killed several bears while hunting with Pete, including a couple very respectable animals in the 250-pound range, but I really wanted to get a shot at one of the big bears the bush around White River is famous for. A couple of years ago I thought I was going to get that chance. While sitting in a ground blind armed with a Predator recurve bow, a trophy animal I estimated at 400 pounds came into the bait. He stayed there for a full 15 minutes and gave me an opportunity for some great video but never the broadside shot I wanted. As I watched that big bruin walk away, I had even more determination to shoot a trophy bear.
Since that first close encounter with a really big bear I’ve changed my tactics a little. I still hunt from an Ameristep ground blind, but these days I’m armed with a Darton Serpent LTD II crossbow. I’ve found a crossbow allows me more flexibility in videotaping hunts for my Outdoor Magazine TV show.
I knew this year’s hunt would be a challenge. Pete had told me about the abundant berry crop in the White River area. When bears have wild blueberries to eat, they’re less likely to rely on bait. To make matters worse, I was greeted by a full moon. I hate hunting on a full moon.
You can’t kill a bear from a motel room, though, so mid-afternoon on opening day we headed out to the bush. I would be hunting a bait called the “sand pit”. That’s the same area where I’d had that close encounter with the big guy a few years earlier. I’d also killed a nice bear there last year with my Darton.
On the way into the stand I noticed the usual amount of bear tracks in the sand, including some nice ones. What really got my attention, though, was the number of wolf tracks. I knew there were wolves in the area – in fact, I’d killed a big male wolf while hunting just a few miles from there last winter – but the wolves had never affected my bear hunting before.
That first night in the Harvester blind was surprisingly quiet. I didn’t see any bear activity at all, but I did hear a wolf howl about 75 yards off to my right just before dark.
Not ready to give up on the sand pit, I returned the following afternoon. Again, no bear activity, but this time a beautiful black wolf came into the bait. Though I really want to kill a black wolf, the season wasn’t open yet and the young female would have been too small to harvest anyway.
By now it was clear that bait was seeing more wolf activity than bears. Pete said the wolves probably had a moose kill nearby and the bears were feeding on it rather than the bait. We decided to make a move, this time to a site several miles north on a bait that had signs of a really big bear.
There was no ground blind at this bait so we set up an Ameristep Dominator blind and brushed it in to try to hide our presence. Just before dark a big bear came in from the left but he knew something wasn’t right. The bruin circled behind us popping his jaws and breaking brush to let us know he wasn’t happy. I got a quick look at the bear but he never presented a shot and we weren’t able to get him on camera.
The bear had obviously made us so there was no sense in hunting that bait again.
On the fourth night of the hunt we moved yet again, this time to an area even further north where I had never hunted before. Earlier in the week a hunter had seen several bears on that bait, but no big ones. Pete was convinced there was a trophy animal there based on the sign and I agreed to give it a try.
Again there was no ground blind so we brought one along, an Ameristep Dominator. It’s not as tall as the new Harvester but still plenty big enough for a long comfortable sit in the Ontario bush. We also brought along a secret weapon…a beaver carcass. Beaver is like candy to a bear and I was optimistic the smell would be too much for a big bear to resist.
We set the blind up on a rocky hill overlooking the bait. This time I didn’t brush it in because the blind seemed to blend in well with the surroundings. From our vantage point about twenty five yards away we had a good view of the bait and the beaver wired about six feet up in a nearby tree.
All was calm for about three hours. I was engrossed in a movie on my iPod when videographer Jim Gleason whispered, “Bear.” I looked up to see a very nice animal slowly heading into the bait from the left. I knew right away he was a shooter. As Jim rolled the videotape, I picked up the Serpent LTD and laid it across my shooting sticks. The bear went to the base of the tree with the beaver, lifted his big head and smelled the carcass, but he didn’t stand up to take a bite. He then strolled back past the bait and wandered slowly into the bush.
I was disappointed he hadn’t offered a shot, but optimistic he’d come back – the bear wanted a big bite of that juicy beaver.
My hunch proved right and about an hour later he returned. This time the boar went straight to the beaver and stood on his hind legs to get a mouthful. He offered a shot but I didn’t like the angle – not much chance of getting both lungs when a bear is standing up and looking directly at you. After a couple of minutes he dropped back to all fours and headed for the bait. He got directly behind the logs and lifted his front leg to push them way, exposing his vitals. When I saw that opening I squeezed the trigger on the Darton, sending a Carbon Express Maxima Hunter shaft tipped with an F-15 expandable head through his ribcage. The big bear wheeled to the right and disappeared into the cover.
I was confident I had a good shot, and I knew that F-15 would do the job, so I expected to hear the telltale death moan. After several minutes of silence I started to second guess the scenario. Maybe my shot wasn’t so good after all. We replayed the tape and sure enough the arrow was a pass through, right behind the shoulder. If anything it was a couple inches high, but still a killing shot.
We had about an hour of good light and I was anxious to get on the trail. Tracking an animal in the thick Ontario bush after dark is not something I look forward to. We quickly found my arrow – it was covered with deep red blood….a good sign.
It took a while to decipher the bear’s path, but once we got on his trail the blood became obvious and soon I saw a patch of black in the shadows ahead of me.
With every bear I’ve killed in the past there’s been ground shrinkage. It can be very hard to judge the size of bears and they usually look smaller when you walk up on them than they did when you made the shot. Not so on this hunt. This bear was a true trophy.
After heading back into town for reinforcements, we got the big boar out of the bush and on to a scale. He weighed an impressive 334 pounds, my biggest bear so far. I would later learn he was one of five bears taken by Pete’s hunters that season to top the magical 300-pound mark.
The skull green scored 19 15/16…just short of an honorable mention from Boone and Crockett, but plenty big enough to make Pope and Young (if they accepted crossbow kills).
Once again Pete Jones and the folks at Superior Bear Outfitters had come through for me. I’m already planning a trip back to White River next season where I’m convinced an even bigger bear is waiting for me. I’m not sure which crossbow I’ll be using on that hunt, but odds are it will be the latest high tech Darton.
If you’re looking for an inexpensive bear hunting adventure in Ontario, I highly recommend Pete Jones and Superior Bear Outfitters. Pete is a young, energetic guy who works hard for his hunters. You can learn more about Pete’s operation at his website….www.SuperiorBearOutfitters.com.
Maybe I’ll see you up there next August.
Equipment Used :
Crossbow = Darton
Optic = Darton
Broadhead = Carbon Express
Arrow = Carbon
