2018 Opening Day Success

FMBear

Senior Member
2018 started off right. After putting out my trail cameras in May and pulling them over labor day, I had a good idea of the bears in the area. Acorns were sparse in the areas I frequent. With the excessive heat, I decided I should stay low and spend opening day down in the creek bottoms between bedding and feeding areas.

I was hunting solo this weekend, so I was taking all the time I needed to slowly make it to my area. Walking in, I should have listened to my gut and set up. However, I wanted to check one bear trail opposite of the creek that has a posting pine to see if any fresh sign was left. As I turned around to head to my spot, a bear was already coming up the trail. It quickly bolted, but I didn't hear it go far. I decided to set up after finding the trail it took, setting up about 20 yards off. 5 hours later, the bear came back down the same trail it left out on. I drew as it was behind a tree at 20 yards, and let the arrow fly when it stopped at 15 yards to scent the air as it looked at me standing there. It couldn't have found a thicker blow down to bury it self in as it expired.
3 hours later, I had it caped, deboned, and packed out the one mile hike back to the truck. Killer Kyle gave me the great idea to drag it to a creek to skin it in the water. That was the saving grace in this weekend's heat.

2 days later and I'm still sore as one can be after toting that bear out. Officially tagged at the Gainesville DNR office this morning and is now at the taxidermist!
 

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Buckman18

Senior Member
Awesome job!
 

fullstrut

Senior Member
Congrats. Planning on hunting my Family cabin in CNF outside of Blue Ridge in a few weeks. Hoping for success. Beautiful Bear for sure.
 

CornStalker

Senior Member
Nice work, FM! That's a great looking bear. Looks like a decent hide too.

Was it early morning when you spooked the bear on the trail?
 

FMBear

Senior Member
Nice work, FM! That's a great looking bear. Looks like a decent hide too.

Was it early morning when you spooked the bear on the trail?

Thanks. It was 8:10am when the bear was working up the trail when I spooked it. It was trying to head from the creek bottom back up the hardwood ridge where a few trees were just dropping the few acorns they held.
 

jbogg

Senior Member
Way to get it done on the opener! The heat and humidity in the afternoons are brutal right now. Looking forward to some cooler weather.
 

Rabun

Senior Member
Congratulations on a fine bear! I enjoyed reading how it all went down. What do you estimate it weighed?
 

Christian hughey

Senior Member
Good job, my hunt got postponed another week. Lookin for some good weather this weekend to get it done. I did see a lot of deer on my property.( No shooter YET) but I did kill this darn thing. If you hunt Talbot co. Watch out for these guys. Kill two or more a year around our property and this one a baby compared to most.20180907_200857.jpg
 

Killer Kyle

Senior Member
Attaboy buddy! I knew you were going to knock one down this year! Thats a fine lookimg bear and some good eating! Hard work pays off. Proud of ya man!!!
 
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