A Bear Hunt To Remember

Robert WellerBucks n Bears, Friends of ELO

I will miss the call of the Raven and the sound its wings made as it took flight. I will miss the hoot of the owl, and the feeling that I felt as I wondered what might be lurking in the woods around me as I waited patiently for a Michigan Black bear to appear. 

My friend Andy drew a first-hunt bear tag for Michigan’s Red Oak unit in 2023, and he harvested a bear the last night of his hunt with Gary Morgan and Wild Game Dynasty that year. As for me, well I played camera man that season and watched his hunt through the viewfinder of a camcorder. This year was my turn to sit behind the rifle and man was I ever ready and excited to have my chance at harvesting a Michigan Black Bear. I’ve dreamed of hunting in Michigan’s upper peninsula for many years. In fact, I have often told my wife that we should consider a camping trip in October some year just so I could do a little archery deer hunting while in the U.P. I’ve never expected that I would harvest a deer as there are so many more deer downstate compared to the U.P. but, I just had this itch I wanted to scratch, a deep desire to spend time hunting in the woods north of the Mighty Mac. Well, I wasn’t deer hunting, and I wasn’t carrying my bow, but folks did I ever enjoy the heck out of my week in the U.P. chasing Michigan Black Bears! 

I left my home near Lansing Michigan around 6:30 a.m. on Monday morning September 15th and arrived at the Wild Game Dynasty Beer Camp just before 11 a.m. As I walked in, I was greeted by John the “camp cook”. He told me I would be bunking upstairs and directed me to claim my spot for the week. It wasn’t long after my arrival that Gary Morgan returned to camp after his morning run freshening up bear baits. I was excited to hear about the bears that had been hitting the bait as Gary informed me that my spot had a sow and two cubs visiting it regularly and that every few days a nice boar had also been making an appearance. The only problem was the bears had been completely nocturnal. That’s right, no daytime activity at all. But we all know that can change in an instance so, I stayed positive and hoped that at least once during the week to come, I would get my chance. In the next hour or so, the other hunters all showed up and we had a meeting with Gary to discuss how the week would look, what camp rules were and few other general informative topics. Gary finished up and before we knew it, he told us to get ready to go to the woods. I won’t lie, I was a little nervous and suddenly felt very unprepared. This was it, it was time to get ready to hunt a bear. I quickly got my gear ready and awaited further instructions. It wasn’t long before we were all following our guides out to our assigned bait locations. The first night, they walked us each to our setup and made sure we were all set.

Gary was my guide and once he had got me to my location, he freshened up my bait which had been hit the night before. When he finished, Gary gave me a thumbs up and then vanished from my sight as I finished settling into the blind. I had chosen to hunt with my Thompson Center Encore with its custom-made barrel from Match Grade Machine chambered in 450 Bushmaster. With my 450 nestled into a pair of shooting sticks and my iPhone on a tripod to my left, I sat back and began waiting for a Michigan Black Bear to come and visit me. The following hours and days were filled with the sounds of Ravens wings swooshing in the air, the barking of grey and black squirrels and of course the chatter of the ever-famous red squirrel. I also routinely hear wood Pileated Woodpeckers and as the sun began to set each evening, the call of an owl in the distance would often echo through the woods. Monday and Tuesday came and went with no bear sightings from any of the hunters including me. On Wednesday I saw the weather report was calling for 80 degrees and I must admit, I began to question if I should even bother going to the woods and sitting in my blind. Gary seemed confident and reminded me that I was there to hunt a bear that could show at any time and that I would never see it from the cabin. I headed out to the blind as usual, and wouldn’t you know ol’ Gary was right. To my surprise on the warmest evening of the week, a bear showed up on my bait just after 6:30 that evening. At first glance, I couldn’t believe my eyes as I quickly started recording video on my iPhone. For the next several minutes I watched as the bear maneuvered back and forth and around the bait before it finally laid down. The entire time I watched that bear, one question kept ringing through my head. “Should I shoot or not?”. There was a fair amount of plant life along the forest floor between my blind and the bait pile making it difficult to see the entire bear. Getting a good look at it and trying to judge whether it was a big enough bear to shoot or not was not an easy task and I was getting a little frustrated because it kept moving in and out of my view as if it knew I was there. Yet, somehow, I found peace in just watching it move around the bait pile. There is a feeling that comes over you as a hunter when you are in that position when you could take the life of your prey and you don’t. It’s almost as rewarding as the harvest itself. I felt a combination of excitement, nervousness and quite honestly, fear. The fear of making a bad decision or a bad shot, the fear the bear might run off before a shot was possible or before I could even decide to shoot or not. I texted Gary and asked if by chance the cell camera watching my bait pile was sending him any photos in hopes he might possibly be able to help me judge the bear’s size. As luck would have it, no photos of the bear had been sent so, I sent a still shot of the video I had on my phone, and the collective opinion was to wait. I was relieved to hear that I had not hesitated in vain. The bear eventually took off running away from the bait about 25 minutes after it arrived and I thought maybe the big one was coming and I would have my chance. I was on edge for the next hour, watching, listening and hoping, but another bear never showed up that night, not even after dark. As I returned to camp, I noticed taillights of another truck up ahead. The truck had turned off the road leading to the cabin. I began to wonder if one of the others had been successful. Sure enough, when I walked in the cabin, I was greeted by some of the others and they informed me that Greg, one of the other hunters, had gotten a bear right at the last shred of light. While we eagerly awaited his arrival, I loaded the video I had taken on my laptop so John and the others could see what I had seen that evening. I was again relieved to hear everyone in agreement that I did the right thing by passing on it. We were very happy to celebrate his success with him when Greg finally returned to camp with a nice boar estimated to be around 250 pounds. It was certainly a nice-looking bear and Greg seemed very pleased with it. He and I were the only two that evening to have even seen a bear. Thursday the temperature was a little cooler, and I no longer needed to wear shorts to the woods. We all had high hopes that the cooler weather would get the bears on their feet, but once again, no bears were taken or seen on anyone’s bait during the daylight hours. Bear activity on the bait I was hunting had come to a halt. My bait had not been knocked apart since Tuesday night, which was also the last time the camera had sent any photos of bears on the bait after dark. It appeared as if the bears that had been hanging around my area had moved to another bait about a mile away. Friday evening, a few of the others were moved to different baits but I stuck it out one more night hoping something would return. As darkness fell on the woods Friday night, I packed up and walked out as I had done all week. Even though I was convinced I had made the right choice, I couldn’t help but have some feelings of doubt as I began to ask myself if the bear on my bait Wednesday was big enough or not. Saturday morning Greg, along with his dad and brother, headed for home. The three of us remaining were engaged in talks with the guides about moving to different spots to hunt on our last evening sit. I and one of the other hunters rotated out to different spots. The site I was offered had been hunted only once, on Friday evening by Jeff (Greg’s brother), but it had good bear activity on the camera just as my original spot had when I arrived at camp. In fact, the bears that were on the camera appeared as if they might be the ones that had previously been hitting the bait I had hunted all week. Saturday afternoon, I followed Gary’s brother Bob to the new location and made my way to the blind for my last sit. Bob showed up about thirty minutes later and freshened up my bait and while I settled in for what I hoped would be my night to harvest a bear. I was again visited by a resident Raven whose flight path soared right over the blind as it came and went from the bait several times that evening. I could almost feel the air pushed down from its powerful wings as it swooshed over me. As darkness began to set in, I settled behind the scope of my rifle and squinted one eye trying to see right down to the very last shred of daylight. My 2025 bear hunt ended without a harvest that evening and as I walked through the darkness back to my truck, I couldn’t help but think back over the events of my week in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Wednesday night I had seen the bear on my bait and Greg was fortunate enough to harvest a nice boar. I was at least able to celebrate his success along with the others at camp. The meals and fellowship at camp were amazing and I can truly say that I did not leave disappointed. You would think I would be, after saving bear points for several years and coming home empty handed. I really didn’t feel that way though. I met some new people and taken part in a time-honored tradition that I had never experienced before. I also learned a few things and will be more prepared when I return in a few years for a third season hunt and give it another try. Until then, I will cherish the memories that I made with new friends and look forward to getting another chance at a Michigan Black Bear in a few years. For now, it’s on to deer season. 

May your hunts be safe, fulfilling and memorable. 

God Bless

Robert Weller
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