first week of june when they're in breeding mode anything can happen
and you can get a real chance at a giant bear even with the bow and arrow rigs
there he is it's a real adrenaline rush at 20 yards with a breeding sow going crazy
on this week's episode of eastman's hunting tv the crew is taking in the scenery
as they travel through the heart of the canadian rockies on their way to northern british columbia
the destination crystal lake resort the home of some of
the best springtime spot and stalk black bear hunting in north america
stay tuned for some exciting action as we try to sneak within bow range of a trophy class boar
go check the damage the last thing we'd want to happen is to miss or worse injure
a trophy bear because you didn't check your gear especially after over 30 hours of driving north
if our first trip to crystal lake in the spring of 2010 was any indication
we should expect to see lots of bears and have a realistic shot at killing a true trophy
after several close calls i was finally able to get within range of this bore we
spotted cruising through a clear-cut and one well-placed arrow put him down quickly
although the trip was a success i left with the image of some truly giant bears we had
encountered along the way burned into my memory so after a few minor adjustments we
sent a few more arrows downrange then wasted no time heading out to hunt for that evening
that's definitely the sow they usually have really really long fur it's one of the nice features
about a sow is that the fur is incredibly long way longer in the forest yet for whatever reason
you'll get longer hair off a sow but you won't get as big of a bigger bear well we're
just not after sows right this is definitely a sow you can tell just by the the small chest
the big back end the round face real soft features big ears it's a it's a mature sow
but she's not real big definitely not a boar the boars have big front ends
leave her here for bait if her boyfriend will come around
that's exactly right you give him two more days boyfriend will be here
i know the big boars i've seen it's like their arms are out like this oh yeah
and they they walk pigeon toed right yeah like this the boars have well it's like
most species they have narrower hips eh they don't have that big back end like
that their chests and their necks grow right into their chest like they have no neck at all
unfortunately this sow was the only bear we encountered the first evening of the hunt but
we've got plenty of time and a seemingly endless amount of territory to cover in the coming days
the second day of our spring bear hunt in northern british columbia
and our good friend dan brooks is getting plenty of practice with his chainsaw clearing the roads
of blow downs as we make our way to a high vantage point to glass over the clear cut below
most of the time these bears when they're in the rut they're kind of cruising these logging roads
because this time of year that green grass and dandelions and clovers just coming up and so the
bear'll kind of gravitate to the logging roads and cruise those to kind of find each other
for the rut but also to feed but once in a while you'll catch them up in these these clear cuts
like this because as soon as they come off the green stuff in their diet they'll start moving
out here and tearing up these logs and stumps to eat the bugs ants and grubs and whatnot so you
want to make sure you look over these clear cuts real good but it doesn't take very long because
a bear a big old black bear on one of these clear cuts stands out like a sore thumb so
if you see a big black mass see if it moves because bears never stay in one spot very
long so a lot of stumps may look like a bear but if you just watch it for a few seconds and
it doesn't move it's probably not a bear because they never hardly ever stay in one spot for more
than about five seconds so uh this one looks clean we're gonna move on and check another one
as we continued on our hearts nearly skipped a beat when we saw brown fur moving through the
brush below us however upon closer inspection this wasn't the huge color phase we were hoping for
but rather a really nice sow grizzly not very afraid solid yeah it looks like it to me
not sure what size of bear he is so we're going to get a little closer look
just through the trees the on other side
it's the it's the bear with the white chest we've seen him before that's an amazing bear
isn't it pretty but too small to shoot it's whole neck's white boy that's a pretty chest
but that's not a shooter bear
over the course of the next few days we encountered several bears
but luck just never seemed to be on our side
he's right there he's right there we spotted this fat boar feeding along a logging road but like
several of the other bears before he disappeared into the brush before we could close the distance
we need some luck another big boar give us a slip every single time they just won't come back out
that's a good bear no matter how long you've been hunting it seems there's always something
you learn here's something new that we learned to look for on this trip you know one thing we're
looking for when we hunt bears is sign and uh to most people this would just look like a broken
branch but it's actually bear sign right here basically what the boar does is he goes along here
and he'll have these all along this road where he grabs these alders and breaks them off
and uh he busts him off and rubs his face right here on the on the brake and puts his scent there
basically what that is is just a a calling card to a sow that uh that there's a boar in this area
here i am you know meet me back here if you're in the neighborhood stop on by and say hello
and we'll have have some uh some fun together or whatever so next time you're cruising along
in june and you're walking up a logging road or a trail or something and you see a lot of
bear scat but also you see these these broken branches like this you know that there's a boar
working this area and he's looking for sows let's go see if we can find the guy that did this
luck hasn't been on our side here in british columbia over the last few days
but we're hoping that things are about to change
nearing the end of a very slow day we've ran
head first into what appears to be a breeding pair and they're headed our way
after taking a few moments to look these bears
over we determined that the color phase was the sow and the larger black bear
that followed was the boar it appeared they would continue working their way up the logging road
so we decided to tuck into the brush set up and wait for them to walk past
a few minutes passed and we began to worry that they had left the road
so we carefully stood up to check and just as we had feared they were nowhere to be seen
just i started to move try getting angle he moved through here
i used my my 30 yard pin just a little low i think he was only about 24 yards put it right
behind his shoulder and snapped it bang that was a close shot but hopefully we got this
one i think he's in trouble so let's go get the guys and see uh wait it out and see what happens
23 yards they moved off they moved off the road and they were she was destroying
eating grubs i think destroying a stump he was just standing there watching her watching her
i go to move to get an angle on him and then here he comes across the thing oh crap i pulled back
i didn't even range to have time to range him i'm like well she's 27 he's come a lot closer boom
and went whack and when it hit him when it hit him he made the ho! like i think like hit his lungs
yeah exhale big and he didn't want to leave and then he went up in the
trees and we heard him crashing i think i'm hoping he's dead
arrow has a white fletching
oh yeah it's a good bear dude it's a good bear dude look at that look at the
head on that oh dude that is a great bear he's just got a little white diamond little chevron
that is a great bear thanks buddy thanks for giving it up my friend a little scar on his nose in
his prime in he yo absolutely it's a prime prime bear look at the distance i mean look
at you can put a whole hand between his ears see that that's a great bear man and to do it with a
bow even better look at the size of the pads you bet that's a big bear congratulations you
just killed yourself a great bear well here's the bc giant this bear is everything i hoped he was
and more he is a big bear he's gonna probably hopefully be 19 inches plus on the skull and
about 250 to 300 pound bear just a big old bear his height is absolutely perfect it couldn't work
out any better i mean she was there ripping up a stump and he was just watching her and he was
in breeding mode that's why we hunt here in the first week of june when they're in breeding mode
anything can happen you find a big that's when the big guys like this come out of the woods out
of the woodwork and you get a real chance at a giant bear even with the bow and arrow rigs