HookMeUpII
AH elite
I resigned myself this year to take a black bear in my home state of NJ before they shut it down again. NJ has a relatively storied history of black bear hunting, dating back to the 1970's. It was closed for 33 years, only to reopen in 2003. They then closed it down again periodically from 2003 until 2023 when they had a slew of attacks/incidents. Not surprising at all, really.
I can get into the whole process but it would take volumes to fully express and we can just get to the good parts. What I will say is 1) I took up bowhunting primarily for this, 2) I only picked up a bow exactly 6 months ago and 3) days and many miles have been consumed leading up to this. I underestimated this whole process.
In terms of the land, I was hunting semi-public. My stand is technically on public land, but only really accessible within reasonable means via the land-lease of the club I am a member of.
The hunt opened Monday, October 12th. My plan was two sits, every day of the week, as long as it took while it was open. Morning and afternoon. Monday morning was a bit chilly with wind chills in the 40's. Never the less, I had a small bear I had on cam come in and nose around my site, under my stand. It was very neat, and fulfilling, to see my hard work at least pay off somewhat. I left the stand around 10am, went home, logged on to do some work.
The plan was to return around 2:30pm and be in my stand by 3:00pm. My cousin, Mike, was going to also be hunting his stand a bit closer. He's a veteran hunter and he and my uncle introduced me to hunting.
Most of the good bears I had on cam were coming in around 6:00pm. The afternoon was a complete flip of the morning. Now we were close to 80 degrees and no wind. I climbed into my stand, and began my second sit. It was a bit hot, for sure, and I did not know how it would pan out.
Around 5:30pm I heard a huffing and growling to my left, coming up the trail I approached from. Shortly after, a decent (maybe 200-225 lb) boar comes up. He spins 180 degrees, and looks back down the trail...ears back, posturing low. And I knew what was coming. Up the trail behind him comes a good boar, big thick head, wide set small ears. I had seen both these bears before. In fact, they fought on my camera once or twice. He looked right at me, nose in the air. He disregarded my presence and focused on the smaller boar in my site he was intending to battle. This was going to be my bear.
From that point, I can't remember what my body did, how I did it, or anything else. It just went through the reps. He fully showed himself, giving me a right to left broadside shot at 18-20 yds. I vaguely remember my site picture and putting the 20-pin 5-6" behind the shoulder. I let the arrow fly. The GT Pro Hunter with Grim Reaper Whitetail Special broadhead slammed him hard and I heard the "whack." He spun around growling, and took off. The other smaller boar took off. In my mind, I saw the arrow sticking out of him. I heard him, thunder back the trail. Then he hooked left, ran back up towards my direction. I actually caught a flash of him running back up. Sticks were cracking and smashing, but no death moan. I looked at my watch: 5:39pm.
I immediately assumed a bad shot in the shoulder. Called my cousin. He said lets give him 20 min and then he would come over. Then the mind-games began. "Why did I rush the shot? I had time. Now you wasted an amazing opportunity." etc. My cousin arrived at my site with my arrow in hand, which he found on the trail. It was covered in thick blood all the way to the fletching. We found blood immediately where I shot him, and it never stopped. On hands and knees we crawled into thick briars, virginia creeper vines, into an absolute hell hole. With my head lamp I spotted a lump of black fur nestled in a thick tangle of briars.
My cousin and I shared a handshake and hug. I called my wife, on my knees, briars and vines over my head and said "I got him...." 50-60 yds from where I shot him, he died, next to his den. My bad shot actually was quite good. It took the front of his lungs out and severed the top of the vessels off his heart. No death moan, he just expired.
And as anyone who has DIY hunted any bear goes, the real work starts when you put your hands on black fur. I'll get into that later in another post.
I can get into the whole process but it would take volumes to fully express and we can just get to the good parts. What I will say is 1) I took up bowhunting primarily for this, 2) I only picked up a bow exactly 6 months ago and 3) days and many miles have been consumed leading up to this. I underestimated this whole process.
In terms of the land, I was hunting semi-public. My stand is technically on public land, but only really accessible within reasonable means via the land-lease of the club I am a member of.
The hunt opened Monday, October 12th. My plan was two sits, every day of the week, as long as it took while it was open. Morning and afternoon. Monday morning was a bit chilly with wind chills in the 40's. Never the less, I had a small bear I had on cam come in and nose around my site, under my stand. It was very neat, and fulfilling, to see my hard work at least pay off somewhat. I left the stand around 10am, went home, logged on to do some work.
The plan was to return around 2:30pm and be in my stand by 3:00pm. My cousin, Mike, was going to also be hunting his stand a bit closer. He's a veteran hunter and he and my uncle introduced me to hunting.
Most of the good bears I had on cam were coming in around 6:00pm. The afternoon was a complete flip of the morning. Now we were close to 80 degrees and no wind. I climbed into my stand, and began my second sit. It was a bit hot, for sure, and I did not know how it would pan out.
Around 5:30pm I heard a huffing and growling to my left, coming up the trail I approached from. Shortly after, a decent (maybe 200-225 lb) boar comes up. He spins 180 degrees, and looks back down the trail...ears back, posturing low. And I knew what was coming. Up the trail behind him comes a good boar, big thick head, wide set small ears. I had seen both these bears before. In fact, they fought on my camera once or twice. He looked right at me, nose in the air. He disregarded my presence and focused on the smaller boar in my site he was intending to battle. This was going to be my bear.
From that point, I can't remember what my body did, how I did it, or anything else. It just went through the reps. He fully showed himself, giving me a right to left broadside shot at 18-20 yds. I vaguely remember my site picture and putting the 20-pin 5-6" behind the shoulder. I let the arrow fly. The GT Pro Hunter with Grim Reaper Whitetail Special broadhead slammed him hard and I heard the "whack." He spun around growling, and took off. The other smaller boar took off. In my mind, I saw the arrow sticking out of him. I heard him, thunder back the trail. Then he hooked left, ran back up towards my direction. I actually caught a flash of him running back up. Sticks were cracking and smashing, but no death moan. I looked at my watch: 5:39pm.
I immediately assumed a bad shot in the shoulder. Called my cousin. He said lets give him 20 min and then he would come over. Then the mind-games began. "Why did I rush the shot? I had time. Now you wasted an amazing opportunity." etc. My cousin arrived at my site with my arrow in hand, which he found on the trail. It was covered in thick blood all the way to the fletching. We found blood immediately where I shot him, and it never stopped. On hands and knees we crawled into thick briars, virginia creeper vines, into an absolute hell hole. With my head lamp I spotted a lump of black fur nestled in a thick tangle of briars.
My cousin and I shared a handshake and hug. I called my wife, on my knees, briars and vines over my head and said "I got him...." 50-60 yds from where I shot him, he died, next to his den. My bad shot actually was quite good. It took the front of his lungs out and severed the top of the vessels off his heart. No death moan, he just expired.
And as anyone who has DIY hunted any bear goes, the real work starts when you put your hands on black fur. I'll get into that later in another post.
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congratulations.
