Barely Bearly - Larry Weishuhn
The road from the far eastern edge of the property had been a bumpy one. It was late and I
then finally I was back in camp. Food and an adult libation was waiting when I arrived. The day
had been a long one!
“This love-hate relationship I have with black bears is at the moment seriously leaning toward
the “hate” side of things. They were coming to bait regularly up until two days before you got
here, every afternoon right after sundown but before dark. One was an extremely heavy bear.
Its belly almost drags the ground. I showed a picture of it to the local bear biologist. He thinks
it could weigh 400-pounds. It’s black as a moonless night.”
“The other one that’s been coming to that particular bait is a big-framed boar. He’s long and
lanky. Pretty sure it’s an older boar that probably weighs somewhere around 325-pounds. He’s
mostly black, has a 6-inch strip of much lighter colored hair that starts right behind his ears and
ends at his tail. He a really pretty bear. Unfortunately, we don’t have good trail pictures of
him.” Said Dusty Vickrey, hunt manager on the Choctaw Hunting Lodge, owned by the Choctaw
Nation.
Dusty shoved his phone my direction to show me a picture of the heavy bear. I looked at it
closely. The bear indeed was heavy and looked somewhat “squatty”. I scrolled to another photo
of the bear where I could see its entire body down to its feet as well as its head. “Dusty, I may
be wrong, but to me this one looks like an ancient sow. Look how narrow the head is compared
to the body. Look at the ankles. Older mature boars usually have ankles that are big and
massive. The ankles on this bear look thin, feminine like.” I hesitated as I looked at another
trail camera photo. “I may be wrong. But it surely looks like an ancient sow that is probably past
her reproductive years and now is simply putting on weight. She indeed does look like she
could weigh 400, maybe even more! Big bear! It also looks like she has a great pelt.” Dusty
nodded. “You know my deal, if I shoot a bear on the Choctaw it’s going to Double Nickle
Taxidermy (www.doublenickletaxidermy.com) for a life-size mount done for the Lodge.” Dusty
smiled.
It had been raining when I arrived at the Choctaw, badly needed rainfall. The entirety of
southeastern Oklahoma was in a severe drought and the rain was more than welcome. After
donning raingear, under the cover of the roof over the skinning area I prepared to shoot my
TenPoint crossbow at 20-yards. Oklahoma’s black bear archery season had opened the day
before, October 1. “I’ve shot your crossbow several times. It should be dead-on at 20-yards. I’d
suggest you shoot at different bullseyes if you shoot more than once because if you shoot at
the same one, you will likely “Robin Hood” the bolts.” I shot at three different spots on the
target. Dusty was right, had I shot at the same bullseye with each of the three bolts, I would
certainly have ruined all three.
That first afternoon’s sit started at 12:30. As soon as I got into the blind, after setting up tripods
for my crossbow and cameras I sprayed down with Wraith (www.wraithhunting.com) to
essentially do away with any “odors” wildlife might consider offensive. Throughout the
afternoon’s sit I often had deer; does and mature bucks directly downwind of me, some less
than 10 feet away. Wraith did away with my human odors and also controlled my thermal
image. Deer, squirrels, Eastern turkeys were at the bear bait and all around me throughout
afternoon until it was so dark I could no longer even see shapes.
I was hunting during the waning moon, and the first three days of the new moon. Once it was
truly dark, Dusty’s guides picked me up for the 8-mile drive back to the lodge for one of Nacolh
Vickrey’s fabulous meals. Just as I sat down to eat, Dusty handed me his phone which was
receiving trail camera photos. The sagging belly bear was on the bait where I had been sitting.
I had learned other hunters in camp had that afternoon taken a couple of really nice free-range
whitetail bucks, scoring in the 160’s! I listened to their stories, masterfully told!
As was always the case, it did not take long to spend a night in this hunting camp. Never does!
Morning after a quick cup of coffee, I was back in my bear stand long before first light. There I
spent the day, a total of 15-hours. I was rewarded by seeing several really nice whitetail bucks,
several does, squirrels, two different flocks of long-bearded gobblers, but no bear.
The following day was a repeat of the previous 15-hour day. I know most places you hunt black
bears only during the afternoon. Mornings are usually spent sleeping or being involved with
some other outdoor endeavors. On the Choctaw, it’s not uncommon for bears to come to bait
all hours of the day…and at night. It’s important, if possible, to hunt all day.
By hunt’s end I had sat in a blind watching a bear bait a total of 67 hours. Three early mornings
I took off from bear hunting a couple of hours to help Dusty procure venison in the property’s
high-fenced Estate Pasture, where “regular” Oklahoma’s game laws do not apply. Each of the
mornings we hunted venison for the Choctaw Nation’s elderly and those families in need of
food until 9 o’clock then I headed back to the bear bait. My final take, during my morning
whitetail hunts included two management bucks and two “fully-grown” does. I shot each with
my .454 Casull Taurus Raging Hunter double-action handgun, topped with a vintage 2.5-7x28
Thompson/Center Arms long-eye-relief scope, shooting Hornady’s Handgun Hunter 200-grain
Monoflex ammo. All four were one-shot kills, shot at ranges from 45 to 80-yards. I could not
have been more pleased with the handgun’s accuracy and the Hornady Monoflex bullet’s
performance.
One of my bucks was a 3x3 without browtines. Like the two does they were broadside shots.
My second buck was taken at 60-yards. Quartering to, I shot him in the onside shoulder. The
bullet penetrated heavy bone, ribs, went through the heart and lungs, then through the liver
ending up just under the skin on the opposite side, where it was all but protruding the skin. I
measured the distance the bullet traveled in the deer’s body…just shy of 18-inches. The 200-
grain Monoflex bullet was perfectly mushroomed. Impressive to say the least. The other three
shot had been fully broadside and my bullet exited the body after doing considerable vital
tissue damage.
Wish I could tell you how at the last moment I was able to take a bear, as I had done three
times hunting Alaskan grizzlies, as well as several black bears. But that was not the case this
time.
Was my bear hunt unsuccessful? No way! I had a great time logging 67-hours in a “bear blind”.
And, I did harvest four whitetails, plus visited with great friends including Mark and Carol Little,
fellow DSC members. Mark and Ms. Carol had bought a Choctaw Hunting Lodge free-range
archery season whitetail hunt donated at a DSC (www.biggame.org) auction. Carol did herself
proud taking a great 10-point. Mark, who had just returned from hunting Africa, found a
whitetail in the Choctaw’s Estate area he really wanted. I got to be there with him when he
squeezed the trigger during mid-day. I filmed his hunt for our “A Sportsman’s Life” show on
Midday? This brings up an interesting topic. Recent research conducted says the moon has no
affect whatsoever on deer movement. But interestingly the deer I watched were indeed
affected by the moon, something I have watched and noticed during my many years of hunting
and spending time in the deer woods, day and night and both as an observant hunter and
professional wildlife biologist. I’ll simply leave the subject with deer where I hunt seem to be
indeed affected by the moon, particularly when they feed and are “on their feet”. This
particularly during the waning days of the new moon and post new moon when deer tended to
be up feeding starting a half hour before moon set and continuing a half hour after moon set.
Now if I could just “figger out” black bears on the Choctaw…
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