AZLance

My 2012 Archery Bear Hunt Well after several months of scouting and placing trail cameras on every water source I could find, I located a good spot with 9 different bears coming in for water. I had over 30 differnt bears on all my trail cameras this spring. So I sat, and I sat, and I sat some more. I spent a total of 114 hours in the tree stand, and had a few bears come in, but not the right one. Finally on Monday night, just before dusk, I heard a grunt and some heavy breathing off to my right. I turned my head and just caught a nice bear moving thru the brush and the light rain at about 80 yds. The bear was dropping into a small cut that would lead to the spring I was watching. So I took this opportunity to stand up and get my bow ready. And sure enough the bear walked into one of my shooting lanes at 41 yards and stopped to sniff a small pinon tree. I slowly squeezed the release and the arrow flew straight and true, right thru the bear behind the front shoulder. It was a good hit! The bear whirled and took of running up the cut. I gathered my stuff, and my breath, and climbed down out of the stand. It was almost dark, and the rain was coming down at a steady pace. I would normally give the animal 20-30 minutes to make sure it is dead, but I was worried about the darkness and the rain washing away any blood that was left behind. So I began to follow the blood trail, and there was a lot of blood. After a few minutes I had to turn on my flashlight due to the darkness, but the blood was still very visible. I began to drop into a small cut, when I heard some rustling in the brush off to my right. I swung the flashlight, only to see the bear charging straight for me. I raised my bow, and swung it at him while screaming, (like a little girl I’m sure). The bear veered off just 5 feet from me and ran into the brush up the cut. I quickly decided, this was pretty stupid, tracking a wounded bear, in the dark and rain, with no firearm. I was also in an area where there was no cell service for miles, and no one new about the situation I had got myself into. I decided to wait, but I could still hear the bear breathing and squirming around on the ground just up the cut from me. The rain really began to pour, with monsoon lightning crashing down around me. It was time for me to pack it in for the night and come back in the early am. All night I couldn’t stop thinking about my bear, but assured myself that backing out was the right thing to do. Early morning came very quickly, and I found myself back in the area I was the night before. I quickly picked up the blood trail again, and followed it another 35 yards. The blood trail and bear tracks led into a small mine shaft. The mineshaft entrance was partially collapsed and only measured 2’ by 3’. Now I am no miner by any means, and the thought of crawling into the mine shaft after a wounded bear was in no way exciting me. Believe me it took a while for me to talk myself into this. So with a pistol drawn, for self-defense purposes only, I began to crawl into the mineshaft. The floor of the shaft was muddy and smelled like nothing I had ever smelled before. After about 25’ the shaft angled down at a steep slope. I stopped and shone my flashlight into the dark, but could see nothing but dark. The walls seemed to be creeping in, and my breathing began to accelerate. I think a bit of Closter phobia was setting in. I backed out, and sucked in a big breath of fresh air and sunlight. It felt so good to be in the open air and sun, but at the same time, my hopes and dreams of recovering this bear were slipping away. I began to hike all around the immediate area thinking there might be another entrance to this mineshaft, but another entrance was never found. I sat down under a large Pinion tree and my mind began racing in all different directions. Idea after idea popped into my head, on how to get my bear out of this mineshaft. I was assuming that he was dead by now, and laying somewhere back in the dark of that damp mineshaft. I left and headed home to get some rope and better flashlights. I returned later in the day with a bunch of rope, and a more powerful flashlight. This still did not work. After crawling back into the mineshaft, I could not see anything beyond the beam of the flashlight. And the slope of the mineshaft had me worrying if I ascended down into the shaft, would I be able to get back out. So again, I left and headed home, as I was in the middle of Little League All-Star season, and practice was just a couple of hours away. Not wanting to give up, until I was certain, there was no other possible way left, I returned the next morning. As I was walking up towards the mineshaft opening, I heard something crashing thru the brush ahead of me. Thoughts went thru my head, what was that? A deer, my bear, or something else… As I inched up on the opening of the mineshaft, I noticed that the earth and leaves had been disturbed. It looked like something was drug out of the mineshaft. What I thought, is this possible, is my bear still alive, and drug himself out of the cave? I began to follow the drag marks, and began noticing very large round front paw prints along the way. Then it hit me, the stench of a dead animal. I looked ahead and only a few yards ahead of me was my bear. But something was terribly wrong. As I walked closer, I saw something I could have never expected to see. The entire back half of my bear was gone, there was just bones picked clean of meat. From the size of the bear tracks around the carcass, there was a very large meat eater close by. That is probably what was scared off as I walked up that morning. So from what I can figure, a large boar, came walking by and smelled the dead bear in the mineshaft. He decided to drag it out, and have a feast of his lifetime. I was able to use some good photography tricks to get some good pictures, without the carnage of the back half showing. The highs and lows of this hunt were extreme, and will be never forgotten. The bear turned out to be a big sow. I am not sure if that is why the other boar came and ate her groin, stomach, and rear hind quarters, maybe she was in heat? I guess i will be back next year looking for the big boar that ate my bear! Lance

Take a guess, it was discussed on this site a few months ago...

Oh, it was!

There is none, because there is no law against it, but the threats and intimidation are enough to get most to quit...

Also don't forget about Greg Sneddon, without him this bull would have never been found. congratulations Greg!

The unit 33 WM is already threatening hunters with citations for putting salt licks out...

Check out the Reconyx cameras, they take 32GB cards with no problems.

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Shorts, t-shirt, and tennis shoes...

Looks like a few good water tank projects, and a bunch of workshops. All good projects, except $5000.00 for Grey Wolf education??

Ok, hold on, I just got the correct web page sent to me, give me a few to digest...

That web page is interesting... It shows all the money comes from the auction tags, not the license plates. It also says that they spent $80,000 on reintroducing Bighorn Sheep into the Catalina mountains. I'm pretty sure there are still no sheep in the Catalinas...

I honestly have no idea what the money is used for, and am interested in finding out... This may very well be a "good program" as you stated, but does anyone know what and where the money is used for?????

And what and where is the HPC fund used for?

Citizens arrest is only for Felonys, not misdemeanor theft...

Nice shed!

Where and what does the money from the license plates go to?

I just talked to Steve and Mark, and they said they could not verify this big bull as of yet. So then I called Chad and company over at Arizona outfitters, and they said it is a big one... But after talking to to Chad and company, I recieved a email from Justin and Ronnie, and a big congratulations goes out to my uncle who saw this bull just hours before it took it's permanent nap. Pictures will be coming as soon as Ted and Billy finish putting the logos on them. Again, congrats to Tim and Vance for the heads up on this huge bull...

I don't upload all of the photos I select from the thumbnails and "import selected"

Hopefully this year we can see the bull behind all the logos...

Well the preseason Pac 12 football ranking are out, and Arizona, as bad as they are are still picked to finish above the Scumdevils... South 1. USC 2. Utah 3. UCLA 4. Arizona 5. Arizona State 6. Colorado

Look on eBay, I usually pick mine up for $30-40

Sorry bro...

Maybe it's Lark, he has been MIA for some time now...

Just print this picture, and hang it on the water hole...