AUTHOR’S PHOTOS2014). Taken collectively, this wall com-
prises one of my favorite trophies.
To make a good trophy, a hide must be
fawless. In spring, many bears, especially
young ones, have rubbed hides, and a
rubbed hide makes a lousy display. Some
years ago, on Prince of Wales Island, Alas-
ka, my friend Larry Human and I put a
bait in a grove of giant spruce trees. Sneak-
ing in to check the bait a couple of days
later, I saw a bear sound asleep near the
bait and crept to within 15 yards. He was
by far the biggest black bear I had ever seen
— still have ever seen. What an animal!
He also was very ugly. His face, legs,
and much of his body were rubbed to
the point that this “black ” bear appeared
mostly brown. Despite his size, I could not
shoot him. So I slipped away to get Larry.
“Do you want a monster bear?” I asked.
“Sure,” Larry replied. “Let’s go.” We
stalked back within 15 yards, where Lar-
ry stared at the bear and fnally he shook
his head. “No. He’s too ugly,” Larry said.
In short, hide quality is part of trophy
quality. For this reason, even on stand, I al-
ways keep binoculars at hand. In the shad-
owy forest depths just before dark, it’s hard
to see imperfections in a bear’s hide. Low-
power (6X-7X) binoculars that gather a lot
of light help eliminate the “oops” factor.
Opponents of bear baiting decry
the practice, because they say hunters
kill young bears and females with cubs.
Huh? If that’s truly their concern, they
should be lobbying FOR baiting. It’s the
most selective way to hunt bears, as you
have virtually unlimited time to exam-ine every bear that comes in. If you’re
patient, the chance of shooting a female
with cubs is virtually zero.
You also can hunt selectively for boars.
As is commonly written, boars have big-
ger, blockier heads and squarer noses;
broad, massive feet; and heavier front
shoulders and proportionately smaller
rumps than females. Tey’re generally
bigger, too. Bears with hides that square
six feet or over are most likely boars.As every article ever written about
bear hunting points out, if the back of
a bear on all fours reaches the top of a
50-gallon bait barrel, the bear is a good-
sized boar. Mike Ukrainetz places a
fve-foot log on the ground. A bear on
all fours as long as the log will square at
least six feet or larger.
Hunting over bait also gives you plen-
ty of time to wait for the ideal shot angle
and to aim carefully and execute a per-
fect shot. Who can argue against close,
easy shots and clean kills? Seems to me
like that’s the objective in bowhunting.
While waiting for the right bear to
come along, spring bear hunting is just
plain fun. A couple of years ago, I took
my son-in-law John Berriochoa on his
frst-ever bear hunt. At one point, seven
bears surrounded our stand. Some were
fighting, a couple chased through the
brush, and one tried to climb into our
stand. Needless to say, John’s frst experi-
ence with bears lef a lasting impression.
All of these qualities make spring bear
hunting the perfect venue for beginning
or inexperienced bowhunters. Tey get to
enjoy nature in action, they learn to judge
size and quality of animals, and they have
every opportunity to make clean, quick
kill shots. For beginners — and all bow-
hunters — the black bear has a lot to ofer.
What an animal! ❮❮❮Pure Bowhunting
EAT THE MEAT!
In my opinion, bear meat is hard to beat on the table. Some people would disagree,
but I suspect many of them have never eaten bear meat; they just know they don’t like
it. Granted, table quality can vary because bears’ diets vary greatly. A bear that has been
eating carrion or fsh probably won’t taste real great.
But that’s not the case with most bears. I have eaten spring bears from several states
and provinces where they were feeding on vegetation, and I’ve never had a bad one.
One caution: Cook bear meat thoroughly to ensure against trichinosis. Otherwise,
cook the meat like any other game. Here are some of my favorite recipes:
Remove the hams whole, bone-in. If these are really big, cut them into two or three
smaller roasts. Roast them in a charcoal BBQ
for fve to six hours. The outside will get charred
black, but the inside will be moist and succulent.
Cook hindquarter roasts or whole backstraps
in the oven with vegetables as you would any
other pot roast.
Cut smaller chunks of meat into cubes,
slow-cook in a crockpot in a Teriyaki sauce, and
eat over rice. Or just make a good old stew with
cubed bear meat. Cooked these ways, bear meat
ranks at the top of the list for delicious
wild game. What an animal!14 >BOWHUNTER APRIL/MAY 2015
Mike Ukrainetz places a fve-foot log at
his bait sites as a gauge of bear size. Any
bear on all fours that is longer than this
log probably squares at least six feet —
and is a shooter. The barrel behind Mike
also helps in gauging size of bears. If a
bear’s back is higher than the barrel, he
is a shooter.Color phases
add an appealing
trophy dimen-
sion to black
bear hunting. I
took this bear
while hunting in
Saskatchewan
with outftter
Rob Nye.After a hiatus of nearly two
decades, I returned to hunt
with Mike Ukrainetz and
fulflled my quest by taking
this 385-pound boar.I like to cut
off the entire
hams, bone-
in, and roast
them whole.
Good eating!