Bear Season 2011 - So Far, So Bad.

Dad and I applied to bear hunt in zone 12 in northwest Minnesota this year, which is where we do most of our deer hunting. This bear season was planned to serve three purposes. 1) To maybe have a chance at a really big bear and get it on video with either a gun or the bow. 2) To view bears simply as predators to whitetail fawns and do some herd management. The running statistic is that bears are cause for almost half of fawn mortality by predator. 3) To be able to spend some quality time with my dad planning and pursuing game in a new area of hunting. So far, only number three has been going well. We started baiting around the 20th of August and still have not had even one bear visit the sites. Sure the food kept disappearing, but it's all been small critters and birds. We set up two bait sites that were really great locations in my mind. They were right on the backside of a ridge with great trees for backcover and nice 30 yard shooting lanes to fairly natural openings. There were already trails made from bears this summer in these locations. The bears just left.

I talked to a few people who have been baiting nearby and they've said similar things - the bears were just hammering their bait sites and all of a sudden, they just disappeared. The logical conclusion is: acorns. Bears will leave everything sweet and fatty for acorns. Bears breed in June and into early July. However, the fertilized egg doesn't implant into the sow's uterine wall until November. Interesting, huh? If a sow doesn't get what she needs by that time, the egg will not implant. So as soon as she knows acorns are dropping, she becomes obsessed and overcome by her biological makeup. Regardless, the bears have nearly left the area.

My only hope at this point is to move bait sites, wait it out and try again, or sit with the rifle over a 300 yard cut strip that I anticipate bears will cross heading to the sunflowers in a couple weeks. I'll keep you posted as to what I will do. I for sure don't want to keep baiting if there are no bears around.

The Dilemma Named "Contender"

What do you do when a stud shows up on camera only to realize that he's a buck you nicknamed Contender a year ago because of all his potential as a two year old ten point? I've told myself to commit to only harvesting bucks if they are 4 1/2 years or older. This is not easy. It's not easy to do anywhere let alone public land. So the first picture I got of Contender was last summer near the same area I'm getting pictures of him now. He came in only one or two times that whole month and then disappeared until November. A neighbor sent me a picture of him in October, so I'm pretty sure I know where he was spending his time between August 28th and November 7th.

Then after the rut, he moved a little ways north, but that was because of a standing bean field. Outside of that relatively small range, he did take two excursions, one on the 15th of November and the second in early December northeast into the swamp up by the bus.

Otherwise, his range was fairly small.

Looking at his pictures and the formation of his rack, it looked like he left plenty of room between his G4 and the tip of his main beam. I told dad that I thought he could be a 12 next year. Well, he almost did. He's now a great looking 11 with a small sticker on his right G2.

The dilemma comes in with him only being 3 1/2 years old. He'll gross in the 140s. The problem is that anybody else who sees him during rifle season won't think twice about shooting him. This is the type of deer that could easily be in the 160s as a 4 year old and net Boone by the time he's 5. This is a breeder buck. Shooting him this year not only shortchanges his individual potential, but it takes him out of the gene pool. We don't want that. But as I look at pictures of him I'm forced to ask myself, "Could you really let him walk?" I know that I have to. I can't be the reason he can't breed.
Other than that, pictures haven't really been that great. There is another stud of a young deer that I just knew would be an up-and-comer. Not sure if I'm going to call him Black Nose or what because he's got a dark muzzle and he was very distinguishable as a yearling and now he's a nice 110" 8 as a 2 year old.

I keep hoping for something big, but it's just not happening. Scabby 10 has turned into Scabby 9 and has been a regular in the Tweeten woods.

The thing that blows my mind was that last year I got pictures of 8 different bucks 3 or older in that woods: Splitbrow, Pencil, Chippy, Mr. 140 (one pic), Scabby 10, Mom's buck, Wide Heavy 8, and even Benji's buck. This year has been way different. I've only gotten two different bucks that are 3 or older: Scabby 9 and the Wide Heavy 8 (which could easily be a 9 or 10). There is so much food, the deer don't have to move very far to get what they need. The only scarce thing right now is water. I need to get a camera back on the creek somewhere.
I moved my camera from Nordvall's back to my permanent stand. Out of literally thousands of pictures at Nordvall's I got only one buck and he was a yearling. Pitiful. So since it's been up in the spruce, I've got two different two year olds that have been coming in fairly regular. One is another great up-and-comer for The Hill. He's a ten with good potential. He looks to be a descendant of Splitbrow or even Mr. 140.

Getting Warmer

Although my hopes were as high as the sky for this next round of checking trail cameras, the results were somewhat disappointing. I got some decent bucks, but I guess I thought I'd get the same bucks from the year before in the same areas, which did not happen. Not only that, but as I feared, the growth on these bucks has been behind and they have appeared to only put on more mass. I'd say a 5-10% increase this summer versus last years 15-25%. I can live with that. The most difficult so far is that I have no pictures of a lot of the bucks that I thought I might see: Mr. 140, Splitbrow, Chippy, Curly, Skyscraper, Bullwinkle, etc. I know there is a good two and a half weeks of time to get pictures before the beans die out and they shed velvet, but it's just surprising that none of these have shown their faces. Well, I take that back. One chose to only show his face after a bear took a swat at my camera:

The strategy has been good, I'm getting pictures of bucks. Here's Scabby 10:

And the Wide Heavy 8:

I finally got pictures of Pencil:

I also have pictures of Whitey, who is 4 this year, and it looks like he doesn't want to share:

And a few nice three year olds. Contender blew into a giant 6x5:

PegLeg:

Junky Brewster:

So as you can see, I've got plenty of pictures, just not of the bucks I'm really excited to see. You never know, Curly didn't show up until the end of August last year. And I only got one series of pictures of Skyscraper too. It could still happen. Just have to keep batteries fresh. The soybeans got crotch-high, which was way higher than I thought they would. We had a good growing season after June got over with. The camera I've had by the top of the hill has not produced squat. Nearly 1000 pictures and I only got 1 buck - a yearling fork. What is that all about? I think I'll move it back to my permanent stand.