Bear Hunting Dream Trip: Cariboo Mountains, British Columbia
Spot and Stalk bear hunting in the mountains with a bow and arrow brings some serious challenges, but everything about the hunt was exhilarating. Oh, and I shot the 43rd bear I saw. By Bernie Barringer What makes a dream trip for a die-hard bear hunter? I suppose a dream trip is different things to different people. To you, it might be an exotic hunt in a far off place, or the opportunity to shoot the biggest bear of your life, or maybe the chance to experience new sights, sounds and smells while bear hunting. A dream trip for me may be a combination of several of those things. If a dream trip for you means a rustic lodge in the heart of stunning mountain scenery, seeing multiple bears a day, waking up to loons calling, catching a rainbow trout on literally every cast, and moose steaks on the grill, then read on, because I found your dream trip. My trip to Eureka Peak Lodge in the Cariboo Mountains of British Columbia was first and foremost a bear hunt. I shot the 43rd bear I saw. I’ll relate the events of shooting that bear in a moment, but since this trip was so much more than just a bear hunt, let me tell you the story from the beginning. Just getting to Eureka Peak Lodge is an adventure in itself. I was in four airports during my trip, and the airplane that flew me into Williams Lake, BC was a small one. Let’s just say that every seat is a window seat! From Williams Lake, I was driven nearly three hours back into the mountains, about half of it on winding gravel roads. I was told I would typically see my first bears on the drive to the lodge. I saw three. Like so many of my bear hunts, this one was characterized by rain. It rained six of the seven days of my hunt. The outfitter, Stu Maitland, expressed that we I would see the majority of bears when the sun was out, and that proved to be true. When the sun would peek through the clouds the bears would appear. My first day hunting with my guide Joe Morhart was rainy nearly the entire day. We hunted from breakfast until 5:00 p.m. when we headed in to have supper. Our cook Cherie had seen four bears on her drive down to her house about an hour away. One of them was a cinnamon that she had seen on the entrance to a deactivated logging road just a few miles from the lodge. After a great dinner, we headed back out to hunt for a few hours until dark and our first stop was that logging road. It had been more than an hour since Cherie saw the bear but Joe said the bears don’t move far when they are feeding, so we should go have a look. We walked about 200 yards down the old logging road when we came to a fast-flowing stream. I looked up on the other side and sure enough there was a cinnamon bear. He moved out into the open 60 yards away, and if I was hunting with a rifle instead of a bow, my hunt would have been over right there. But with the stream in between us, we couldn’t get close enough for a shot and my cinnamon moved out of sight. I need to relate how disappointing this was for me. You see I have this silly idea that I want to shoot what I call a “Grand Slam of Color Bears.” My grand slam would be each of the four major color groups: Blonde, chocolate, black and cinnamon. I need the blonde and cinnamon to complete the slam. One of the primary reasons I booked a hunt in this area was because they have a large number of color phase bears in this geographical region. So I was really disappointed to let this cinnamon get away, but it was only the first day. The next few days were spent cruising logging roads, glassing the logging cuts, and walking deactivated logging roads. In the spring, bears love to graze on the lush greens that are found along the roads. The woods are thick with little sunlight getting to the forest floor, so the food is found wherever the sun can get through. That means along roads and in logged off areas referred to as “Cut Blocks.” The best way to encounter a lot of bears is to cover a lot of ground; that means driving a lot of these roads. If you see a bear, you slam on the brakes and plan your stalk. We alternated that strategy with hiking down roads that had been removed from use. These roads grow up into grass, dandelions and clovers, the exact things bears love in the spring. It was a nice combination of exploring these old roads in the pickup, mixed with hiking up the slopes and glassing. It’s quite a fun way to hunt. The bears proved Stu’s theory right. It rained off and on, mostly on, for the next five days, but when the sun would peek out, we would start seeing bears. Some of the bears bolted off into the brush when we saw them, and some were sows with cubs. Some were in position where we could make a stalk but they were smaller specimens and after all I was looking for a cinnamon or a blonde. We attempted a stalk on a handful of big ones as the week wore on and the list of bears I would not shoot began to shrink. Steve, another hunter in camp who was bowhunting Grizzlies with Stu as his guide, came back to camp one evening with photos of both a blonde and a cinnamon and of course they teased me to no end about that. On the fifth evening Joe told me we were going to go
Game Changer: New Scouting Camera Tech
New technology and cost effective cell phone cameras are taking scouting camera strategies to the next level. By Bernie Barringer We have come a long way since the days of rushing to a one-hour photo developer to look at the photos taken by our trail cameras. A long, long ways. Digital cameras completely changed the game camera game; you just plug an SD card into your computer and view. Well the changes and improvements are moving ahead at a breakneck pace. The first scouting cameras that used a cell phone signal to send you a photo were introduced several years ago, but they were so expensive that the cost was prohibitive. Not only was the camera expensive, but each camera had to have an individual phone number, which meant you had to add another line to your monthly bill and each of the photos the camera sent you would eat up your expensive data at an alarming rate. That’s all changed. Several companies, including HCO, Covert and Stealthcam now offer cell phone cameras in which you can buy a monthly data plan so you only pay for the data you use while your camera is in the woods. Covert offers this in both ATT and Verizon editions. Covert now even offers one with a plan for Canada. In the US, plans run as low as $14.99 per month which will allow the camera to email or text up to 1000 photos depending on the camera’s settings. (Higher megapixel photos use up data faster). Covert and others offer cameras with LTE coverage which means more speed and quality to the photos. You can sit in your treestand or your living room and receive texts or emails of photos as they are taken by your camera. Place a camera down the trail from your stand and it will text you a photo when a deer is coming up the trail. Plan where you will hunt by analyzing the photos you received before you even leave home. Of course there are applications for these cameras beyond hunting. There are cases where a landowner was texted a photo of a trespasser, who called law enforcement. The suspects were apprehended before they even got off the property. Someone stealing your camera? You have their photo. To add even more to the cell phone camera revolution, some camera companies now offer an app for your smartphone or tablet that allows you to keep track of the camera’s status. The HCO app allows you to monitor the camera’s status. Haven’t received a pic in a while, with the Covert app, you can ping the camera, tell it to take a photo and check the battery level by viewing the photo. Photo viewers for tablets have been around for a while, but they have improved as well. Now there are several SD card readers that allow you to look at the photos in the field by connecting the SD card from the camera right into your cell phone or tablet. An app for the phone or tablet allows you to view and sort the photos on the go. Grab the SD card from your camera on your way to the stand and then scroll through the photos while you wait for a buck to walk by. Another twist is the WIFI camera by Kodiak. This camera wakes up and starts a WIFI signal when it detects your cell phone from up to 150 feet away. You can then use the WIFI to download all the photos from the camera to your cell phone or tablet, no cell phone or data fees at all. Just as with the cell phone cameras, this is perfect for sensitive areas where you do not want to leave your scent while checking the SD card. In addition to all this mobile technology, cameras are just plain better. The cost of quality sensors and lenses are coming down. In the past, camera manufacturers were adding megapixels to deal with the issue of poor quality photos. The problem with that is this: a 3 MP photo is not going to offer clear resolution, it will always be blurry. But a photo that offers 12 MP with a poor lens and sensor is basically just a blurry picture that’s four times as big. Some companies offer cameras with 1080p HD video which is basically broadcast quality for purposes of Youtube and many hunting videos and TV. Faster trigger speeds are features of the newer cameras. While .4-second triggers used to be considered fast, today they are more common. Black flash cameras were made by simply adding a filter over the infrared LED lights, which significantly reduced their range and the photo quality. Newly introduced cameras are using the black LEDs at an affordable price so the quality of nighttime pictures is much better. Some gimmicky things are sure to find a niche as well. Wildgame innovations offers a camera with six lenses in a circle, which take a 360-degree photo, something that would be interesting to place in the middle of a food plot. Plotwatcher cameras take a photo every five seconds and when you run the photos through the software, they look like near-video as you watch the activity in your food plot ‘round the clock. Even with all these new features, the price of these cameras has not gone up and in some cases is even dropping. Scouting cameras are offering excellent features that make our lives easier and offer scouting advantages. I don’t expect the innovation to end any time soon. It will be interesting to see what they come up with next. Watch this short video about teh Covert Blackhawk Verizon cell phone camera:
Budget Bear Hunts You Can Afford
Think the cost of a fully guided bear hunt is out of reach? There are other options to help you get your bear rug at a fraction of the cost. By Bernie Barringer Growing up in Iowa, I had it pretty good as a bowhunter. I started bowhunting in 1973 at 14 years of age. In my first 25 years of bowhunting deer, I lived through the glory days of bowhunting’s growth. I had learned a lot about whitetails, shot some nice ones and even wrote a book about finding and harvesting whitetails in farmland. But I had always wanted to shoot a bear. I was fascinated by bears from a young age and I knew someday I would go on a bear hunt. In the late 1990’s I booked a bear hunt in northern Minnesota. My plan was to shoot a bear and check that off my list. I would have a bear rug, I would be able to say I shot a bear with a bow and that would be that. It didn’t exactly work out that way. I have now shot 25 bears with a bow and I have helped friends and family shoot at least that many more. I have hunted bears from British Columbia and Idaho to Maine and a whole lot of places in between. I have shot bears on spot & stalk hunts, hound hunts and baited hunts, but I am most enthralled by hunting bears over bait. I am thoroughly addicted. I can’t get enough of the adrenaline charge that comes with having a bear at close range. I have been on quite a few outfitted hunts, but the hunts that give me the most satisfaction are the ones in which I did the work myself. It can take quite a few years to draw a tag in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, so I have learned to branch out. Most Canadian provinces issue the bear tags through the outfitters, but Ontario is the exception. You can buy a tag over the counter and hunt bears on Ontario without an outfitter. I have an outfitter friend who allows me to run baits in his area, I do all my own baiting and hunt his concession in exchange for bringing him bait and customers. I have found that the best hunt for many people is the semi-guided hunt. While fully guided hunts will run from $2,500-$3,500, semi-guided hunts offer several options and price points, mostly between $800 and $1,200. Most commonly they work something like this: The outfitter gets the baits going then turns it over to you. When you arrive, you are responsible for three main things; getting yourself to and from the bait sites, maintaining the baits while you are there, and taking care of your bear once it’s down. This also leaves you with the issue of lodging and food. My favorite hunt, one that I do every year is with Edward Wilson of Havik Lake Camp. Eddy guarantees his hunters two active bait sites for less than $1000. He also has a small rustic campground on Havik Lake. He charges only $15 a night to stay there, but there is no electricity or showers, just outhouses. My group camps there with all our own equipment and we bathe in the lake. The fishing is excellent as well. The advantages to going with a group are many. There always seems to be a couple people eager to help get the bear out of the woods. We pitch in with the chores around camp such as keeping the campfire going, and usually there are at least 2-3 people involved in the skinning and quartering of the bears. Last year there were nine of us and we took home nine bears in four days. Several fishing resorts in Ontario offer these semi-guided hunts and hope to put you in their cabins at a time of the year when the clientele is slower than peak fishing season. Beware of these hunts, and be sure to call references, my experiences has been that some of them do not put the effort needed into baiting consistently before you get there. Make sure you ask the hard questions and if they are evasive about giving you references, stay away. Another option is to use a fishing resort as a base camp and do all your own baiting. This can be inexpensive because you are not paying for the cost of a hunt at all, but it can be very time consuming. It might take the better part of a week to get the baits going good before you feel confident in hunting them. In Minnesota and Wisconsin, there are similar to Eddy Wilson who offer these semi-guided or partially-guided hunts. In Wisconsin, a good example is Art Hyde at Northern Bayfield County Outfitters. For $1200, Art allows you to stay at his camp (which has pit toilets but does have one shower) and he also takes care of the transportation to and from the bait sites. One of his guides will skin and quarter your bear if you like, which means you should add a gratuity to the overall cost. Art normally allows 10-12 hunters and is usually booked up at least a year in advance. NBC’s services are basically identical to Chris Ford’s bear hunts in northern Minnesota. You are provided with a hunt, but you are responsible for your own food and lodging. For $1500, Chris will put you on active bait sites, his success rates are very high and his guides will help get your bear out of the woods and taken care of. Ford offers a package with lodging for $1,950. Both Ford’s Guide Service in Minnesota and NBC Guide Service in Wisconsin will provide the treestands so you can fly to these hunts. There are a few things you should ask when booking a semi-guided hunt: Can you drive close to the bait sites with your pickup/SUV or do you need
5 Top Places to Find Shed Antlers
Just walking around in the woods looking for shed deer antlers is a low-percentage deal. Concentrate your efforts in these 5 areas to up your odds of owning more bone By Bernie Barringer The link between where you are likely to find a buck’s shed antlers and where you are likely to shoot that buck in the fall is way overrated. In the winter when the antlers are dropping, the buck’s life revolves around food and cover. These are the keys to where he spends his time. If you are going to find his sheds, these areas are where you should concentrate your efforts. High-Carb Foods Winter is a rough time for whitetail bucks. They are run down from the rigors of the rut and they need energy to fight off the cold. Foods high in carbohydrates provide quick energy and can easily be stored as fat. The buck’s stomach tells him what he needs to eat and he seeks it out. Corn and soybeans are buck magnets in the winter for this very reason. Find the right foods and you’ll find where the deer are concentrated. Windblown Hilltops When the snow gets deep, food can be hard to find, but the tops of hills provide areas where the snow is blown off and the food is easier to access. This is where the deer will feed. My first set of matching Boone & Crockett sheds were found 200 yards apart; one on top of a windblown hill in soybean stubble and the other in thick cover at the edge of the field. Thermal Bedding Cover I divide the bedding areas into two categories, the first is thermal cover and it’s usually the snarliest, nasty thicket with a quarter mile of the food source. This is where the deer bed when the weather is windy, the snow is blowing or it’s overcast. Thermal bedding cover is often in creek bottoms where the deer can get out of the elements. Solar Bedding Cover Solar Cover is the type of bedding area the deer will use on sunny days. The southern slopes of hills with open canopy of trees provide them with a place they can see in front of them and smell what’s behind them. They will lie in the openings where the sun’s warming rays can hit them. As the sun moves across the sky they will get up and move out of the shade. The more they move, the more they are likely to drop an antler. South slopes experience earlier snowmelt, allowing the shed hunter a chance to go picking when snow is still covering other areas. Trail Troubles The fifth spot seems obvious at first; the deer bed and the deer feed, so look to the trails where these areas connect. But there are high-percentage spots even on the trails. Some of my most consistent shed producers are where the deer leap over a ditch, and where the jump the fences surrounding crop fields. This can be just what it takes to jar a loose antler completely off. Areas with heavy overhanging cover can be hotspots for bone collecting too. Pay attention to where the deer are spending most of their time in the winter, and spend your time looking in these places. You’ll find more antlers per mile by doing so.