Author Topic: First Bucket List hunt-Maine Black Bear  (Read 1798 times)

Offline benny8

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First Bucket List hunt-Maine Black Bear
« on: Sep 20, 2021, 01:17:07 PM »
The wife and I decided a few years back that our Christmas gift to each other would be an out of state hunt each year. 2019 was supposed to be Maine, but the folks purchased a new home and the week I had planned to go to Maine, was spent moving some stuff down to VA. Then we all know the $hit show of 2020. We finally was able to go this year for the first week of the Maine season. We got back a couple week ago from our Bear hunt. I highly recommend, if anyone interested, Shamrock Outfitters in Orient, ME. My wife and I had a great time and made a few lifelong friends with the other hunters. We didn't see anything  the first evening, but three of the other hunters shot bears. An 80 year old hunter shot and thought he missed a large bear. The cameras at the site indicated he had hit it, but made a bad shot. Unfortunately, that bear was not recovered. They have a 17 year old young man that they have been mentoring since he was 12 and he works for them. He is a hard worker. Leaps and bounds ahead of his generation. He saw a bear the first evening as well, but it didn't present an ethical shot. My wife and I shared a blind. We are used to our hub blind, and was expecting one the same size. The one we sat in was an old Dog House blind. Had just enough room for 2 plastic lawn chairs. The first evening sit was pretty cramped and we soon realized we didn't need quite a few things we had brought. The bait barrel was about 25 yards from the blind. They dropped us off at 130pm and legal shooting ended at 744pm. Talk about a long sit. The next evening we got dropped off about 2pm. This sit was more comfortable. I had taken the "time-out" function off the camcorder cuz every time it would auto off, the shutter would make a clicking noise when closed. It would use a lot of battery, but I was ok with it because I had about 5 batteries. About 6pm Sarah says the battery is dead. I tell her there is more in the front pocket of her backpack. She empties all the pockets with no battery to be found. That's when it dawns on me that i forgot to get them out of the other back pack we had downsized. I start pissing and moaning and She tells me it will be fine. If a bear comes in, she will film with my cell phone. After some bellyaching, I notice the orange ribbon above the bait barrel is blowing from left to right. I tell her that I think if a bear comes in, it will come from the right. Sure enough, I look right and see a black blob moving in our direction. She doesn't believe me at first until she see's for herself. My gun is resting on the bipod with the butt pad resting in my elbow. I slowly position the gun against my shoulder and watch the bear make his way to the barrel. I'm whispering to Sarah not to move as the bears head comes out from behind a tree and is next to the barrel. He glances in our direction and then fully emerges to walk broadside in front of the barrel. When his left leg stepped forward to take the next step, my Ruger American Predator .308 sent a 180 grain Core-lokt soft point thru his lungs. Sarah lowered the phone as he ran off towards the right out of my sight due to the blind and trees. She says he's down, and I ask to confirm and she says it again excitedly. We congratulate each other and then call the guides wife to let her know I just shot a bear. She is very happy for us and lets us know that the young man has also killed one. She tells us it will be about 45 minutes before someone picks us up. I ask her if its ok to go and make sure its dead where Sarah thinks it dropped. She tells me yes if I feel confident about doing it. Sarah guides me from the blind to the last place she saw it and thinks its down. Just before getting out of the blind, I see a hole in the barrel from my pass thru and I second guess my shot placement. The hole is above the first band down from the top of the barrel. I'm thinking its too high of a hit. I get over to where Sarah is directing me and the ground indents about 18". I look real quick and don't see a bear and I'm thinking SOB, we are going to have to track this bear into the swamp. Then Sarah says "see that bright green cluster of leaves? That's where he should be." I locate the patch of leavers and sure enough, that's where he lay. I dragged him to the blind and we waited to be picked up. The guide field dressed him and does an autopsy on every bear to use as information. He writes for the Maine Sporting Journal. He said my bullet went thru all three lobes of one lung, took out 2/3 of the aorta and totally destroyed the other lung. Perfect shot on a bear. He weighed 130 lbs and was my first bear. The next day I dropped the hide and head off to the Crown Of Maine Taxidermy to have a rug made for the Shamp. Great time on our first bucket list hunt and had great food and met great people.

Online lv2hunt

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Re: First Bucket List hunt-Maine Black Bear
« Reply #1 on: Sep 20, 2021, 01:25:23 PM »
Nice story Benny making memories congrats that's going to make a nice rug!!

Offline aquaassassin

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Re: First Bucket List hunt-Maine Black Bear
« Reply #2 on: Sep 20, 2021, 02:58:17 PM »
Atta boy Aaron! Good for you!
It's not being cocky if you can back it up!

Offline Huntnfish603

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Re: First Bucket List hunt-Maine Black Bear
« Reply #3 on: Sep 20, 2021, 08:23:53 PM »
Nice job. Sounds like a trip you and the mrs will never forget

Offline benny8

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Re: First Bucket List hunt-Maine Black Bear
« Reply #4 on: Sep 21, 2021, 03:14:43 AM »
Thanks all! It was definitely a trip to remember! Just the beginning of many more.

Offline Raquettedacker

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Re: First Bucket List hunt-Maine Black Bear
« Reply #5 on: Sep 21, 2021, 04:34:51 AM »
Congratulations that’s awesome..👍👍👍👍
"Dying is the easy part. Learning how to live is the hard part..."

Offline Dirt23

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Re: First Bucket List hunt-Maine Black Bear
« Reply #6 on: Sep 21, 2021, 06:10:33 AM »
Nice read congratulations on your bear and cool to share experience like that with the wife

Offline aquaassassin

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Re: First Bucket List hunt-Maine Black Bear
« Reply #7 on: Sep 21, 2021, 03:19:25 PM »
Always a great write up bro!
It's not being cocky if you can back it up!

Offline benny8

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Re: First Bucket List hunt-Maine Black Bear
« Reply #8 on: Sep 22, 2021, 03:32:42 AM »
Thanks everyone

Always a great write up bro!
Thanks Frank! Another chapter for the memoirs!

Offline hesseltine32

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Re: First Bucket List hunt-Maine Black Bear
« Reply #9 on: Sep 27, 2021, 05:25:27 PM »
Congrats on a great looking bear!  Good write up as well

 


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