AUTHOR’S PHOTOW
HEN I FIRST got into
bowhunting, bears were
considered predators or
varmints, and few hunt-
ers took them seriously.
Ten, in the 1970s, most states classifed
black bears as game animals, and sud-
denly interest in bear hunting exploded.
Today that interest continues to grow,
and for good reason — the black bear
makes a great bowhunting trophy. What
an animal!
In my early days of bowhunting, I
lived from fall to fall, anticipating deer
and elk seasons. Spring was just a bridge
between fall bow seasons. But now,
when May rolls around, I think “bears,”
and I anticipate the spring bear hunt as
much as any fall big game seasons. Here
are some of the reasons.
While many of us are thrilled to shoot
average animals, I think we all droolover the prospect of taking a giant tro-
phy that makes us respond, “Man, that
thing is huge. What an animal!” While
that response generally relates to antlers
or horns, it can relate to body size, too,
and some of the most awesome animals
I’ve ever seen have been black bears.
In the early 1990s, I hunted with out-
ftter Mike Ukrainetz in Alberta, when
one of Mike’s clients shot a boar that lef
me speechless. With a hide that squared
well over seven feet, the bear weighed
nearly 500 pounds. His face and ears
were shredded with dozens of fght scars,
and his feet looked like turkey platters.
What an animal!
Te sight of that bear set me on a quest:
I had to kill a bear like that! It became an
obsession with me, and for the next two
decades I hunted religiously every spring
in my home state of Idaho and across Can-
ada and Alaska in search of such a bear.During that time I killed some im-
pressive bears, but never the monster
that lef me in awe. Ten, in spring 2005,
I hunted with outftter Tim Doud’s Bliss
Creek Outftters (www.blisscreekoutft-
ters.com) in Wyoming’s Bighorn Moun-
tains. Tim mule-packs bait to isolated,
rugged country. Late one evening, a
black mass appeared in the dusky woods
that lef no doubt — this was the one I’d
sought all those years, and I did not hesi-
tate to take the 15-yard shot.
As we approached the fallen giant,
I could only whisper, “Wow, what an
animal!” He measured 7', 4" from nose to
tail, and his skull measured greater than
20 inches. In the backcountry, we had no
way to weigh the bear, but I would guess
400 pounds. My quest seemed complete.
But it was not. In 2010, afer a hiatus
of nearly 20 years, I returned to Alberta
to hunt once again with Mike Ukrainetz
(www.mikesoutfitting.com). Over the
years, Mike had refned and expanded
his bear hunts, and his hunters were tak-
ing big bears every year. Could he match
that monster that had spawned my quest
two decades before?
On the third evening, I saw an aver-
age bear approaching and thought, Here
comes another little one. Ten a second
came into view behind the frst, and he
looked like an 18-wheeler tailgating a VW
Bug. What a bear! Afer romping around
with the smaller bear, obviously a sow in
heat, the boar came to the bait, and I made
a good shot. Measuring 7', 5" from nose to
tail, he pulled Mike’s scale to 385 pounds.
His skull measured well over 20 inches.
Again, I was not disappointed. He, too,
fulflled my quest. What an animal!
Color phases add to the fascination of
bear hunting. While my main quest has
been big boars, along the way I have tak-
en several color phases to fulfll my own
personal little bear slam. In my office
hang black, brown, cinnamon, and yel-
low hides, which I wrote about in “Te
Bear Wall” (Pure Bowhunting, May/JunePure Bowhunting
What An Animal!
Hunting EditorWhen spring rolls around, my heart turns toward black bears.
DWIGHT SCHUH
12 >BOWHUNTER APRIL/MAY 2015I fulflled my long
quest to take a
monster bear in
2005 while hunting
with Tim Doud in
Wyoming’s Bighorn
Mountains.