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2004
Fall Black Bear Bowhunt With Fred Lutger
by Robert Hoague
EQUIPMENT:
Sponsors
of the Bear Hunt |
OUTFITTER:
Fred
Lutger's Wilderness Hunts |
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Our
Mission: A Bear On The Ground
This season Fred Lutger
and I have a quest, both of us want a bear on the ground.
We talked to Double Bull
Archery about this and they sent us a blind to use. Today we set the blind
off of a remote logging road at Spring Bait.
 
Our hunting spot is about
a mile from the road so it's a long walk. The blind slips inside a bag
that has a carrying strap, and it's a lightweight rig, so the distance
was not a problem. Fred set up the blind and the Duck trimmed branches
and other shooting obstacles that could deflect an arrow.
 
If you've never set a Double
Bull blind up you will not believe that it goes up so fast. Only seconds.
Bears have been hitting the bait hard. One of the indicators of how big
a bear is the size of it's scat. We have size XL scat in the area, so this
place has good potential.
 
The next thing we did was
set up an EZ Cam TrailTimer. This camera not only takes pictures it records
up to 500 events with time and date.
 
Truthfully, we don't
know how a bear will react to the blind. Wild Turkeys don't pay any
attention to it. Whitetail deer have to get used to it or it has to be
brushed in. So we put the blind where it is visible, that way we cut to
the chase, no pun intended, and get the reaction of the bears from the
get go. If the blind spooks the bears here we can move to another area
and brush it in. Wish us luck.
Our
Mission: A Bear On The Ground
Figuring Out Where to Hunt
 
Fred & I began our hunts
for bears on the ground by evaluating pictures from the ground blind sites.
Our TrailTimer game cameras help us see where the bears are right now.
Here
are the first pics in.
More Bear Pictures from
the Caution stand
We set a TrailTimer behind
the bait logs so it faces our Double Bull blind 12 yards away. Fred identified
5 different bears from these photos. Two are big bears. To
The Pics
Our Goal: A Bear
On The Ground
Robert Hoague
Will They Notice The Blind? (Test
#1 and the First Bear)
 
On Blueberry Hill, one side
and the top of the Double Bull blind was pushed in. A bear? Or was it from
the rain and wind the night before? I fixed it and Fred refreshed the bait
with hard candy. He stashed the bucket behind the blind. Two hours later
a huge bear was an arm's length away clawing and licking that bucket. To
The Hunt
Fred Lutger - Wheew, is that a bear?
Fred joined me in the Double
Bull blind at the Caution stand. He sat down in his chair and opened his
camera bag. I tapped Fred on the shoulder and pointed. Straight ahead of
us, 10 yards away, already standing by the bait logs, was a black bear.
Fred hadn't been in the blind 90 seconds! To
The Hunt...
Every Picture Tells A Story, Don't It?
 
We analyze the TrailTimer
pics from 3 different bear stand sites - and move off one bait and hang
in on two. Caution
Pics: one glance and you see a couple of sagging pot bellies and
thick necks.
Our Goal: A Bear
On The Ground
Fred Lutger's Hunt - It All Comes Together
 
Fred pointed toward the
nearby ditch and signaled that the bear was coming. I already knew, this
big boy had the inside of my nose dancing again.
Soon we heard soft footsteps
as the bear walked down the ditch a few yards to our left, it sounded like
it was going to walk out 4 yards from us. To
Fred's Hunt & Some Of The Best Hunt Pics We've Ever Had.
Goal
Accomplished!
A on the ground? It's something
that has always bounced around in the back of my brain. Fred did it a few
years ago. He used limbs and branches for the blind and bears were very
curious about it and on one occasion even made a bluff charge at it. So
we wondered how bears would reack to the Double Bull ground blind.
Bears did not pay any attention
to our Double Bull. They looked in our direction a few times and a couple
of times we moved arond on purpose to see what the bear would do. They
didn't care.
If you think about it, the
bear I killed was within arm's reach of the blind, licking and clawing
the candy bait bucket for half an hour. There is no way he could not have
seen the blind, he just did not care.
Two bears on the ground.
I'll tell you something, when my bear was a yard away and Fred's was so
close the smell was almost unbearable.
SPONSORS
OUTFITTER:
 Fred
Lutger, the owner of
Freddie
Bear Sports in Tinley Park, Illinois, is well known and respected in
the archery and bowhunting community. His doors opened 27 years ago and
his love for archery, bowhunting and helping new bowhunters and archery
enthusiasts has made him one of the premier Archery & Bowhunting Pro
Shop owners in the country. For information on our bear hunts visit www.bowhunting.net./fbs/beahunt.htm
or email us at fbs@FreddieBearSports.com.
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