Well it is May 21st of 2004 and I leave the next day for what I have been planning for over a year, a Saskatchewan Bear Hunt with a Bow. Just the thought of going after a BEAR with a bow gives some the chills! Some say you’re crazy; black bears climb trees, run short distances faster than a horse, can crush bones with the force of their jaws like pop corn. No matter; you’re a bow hunter and with that come some amount of risk, even death! Bow hunters have the opportunity to see animals in the wild like no other, study nature and the animal’s habits undisturbed. It’s the thrill, the excitement, not to mention the chance to take a real trophy and you did it with a bow!! For those of us who bow hunt that excitement is second to none and we would not give it up for anyone.
We left at 6am the morning of the 22nd of May 2004, drove to Bismark, South Dakota and spent what was left of Saturday night there. By 7 am we were on the road again to Preeceville, SK Canada. We met up with our guide, applied for our license and headed up to camp some 40 miles away. Since you cannot hunt on Sunday in Canada we just spent the rest of the afternoon lying around and getting our gear ready for the next day’s hunt.
For the most part you only hunt bears in the evening; now that’s not to say you can’t hunt in the morning because you can.  But most of the guides believe the bear are a lot more active in the evening and elect to only hunt then so as not to spread our scent around the hunting stands.
You hunt baited stands some 30 yards away. Some think because you are hunting over bait it is not a fair sport; well think again. Just because there is bait there doesn’t mean bears will just come in, it doesn’t happen that way. They are very careful creatures and while they may not be able to see very well believe me their nose and ears make up for any deficiency of their eyes. You make any movement or sound in the stand you can forget about seeing any bears, as they will not come in. And if you’re like me sitting or standing in a stand for over 6 to 8 hours it is almost impossible not to move a little or make some sounds.
Well it is Monday evening the 24th of May and right after lunch we head for the tree stands. It is almost three hours and I get a glimpse of my first bear of the season. It’s a little one and I am not interested. However I get to watch him feed, play. You get to see what alerts him by watching his ears and body movements. Hey there is another bear coming in, and the one at the stand is nervous and takes off running. He appears to be about the same size as the one I have been watching for over an hour but must be the boss. I watch him for a while, maybe fifteen minutes, and he takes off. I thought maybe there was a really big one coming in but it is another small one.
I saw four bears the first evening and none I was interested in. The next evening I am in my stand at 3 pm and by 7 pm I had seen another 3 bears. Then out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of a really nice bear. I knew he was out there as the other bears were really nervous and finally took off at a run. Bigger bears sometimes eat smaller bears so these guys were not taking any chances. The bear coming in was somewhere around 300 pounds and I was excited and nervous! I was standing and watching him circle the area and using his nose like it had radar, back and forth, back and forth, he would sniff the area, his ears were pointed in my direction and I had the feeling he knew I was there. He came within 40 yards and since I never really had a clean shot I declined to take the shot. Unless I can make a clean shot it’s not worth wounding the bear. You don’t want to walk out of the woods with a wounded bear and sometimes you may have to walk a mile or so out of the brush. It gets dark there about 10:45 pm and you stay past dark with high hopes of seeing a trophy.
On Wednesday I see nothing but a friend of mine, J D McKee, gets a 300-pound black with a rifle, good job! On Thursday it was so windy that you couldn’t’ hear anything and I really think the bears just laid down till after dark. A friend of mine was hunting with a gun in a valley some 5 miles away and the wind did not affect him like it did me as he was in a ground blind. And boy did it make a difference!
Marty shoots a 575lb black bear about 80 yards away across a lake. Now my sprits are renewed I can’t wait to get back to my stand. Friday comes and with it comes rain. I stand in the rain for seven hours and come up blank. When I get back to the cabin my other friends have the same luck. Saturday is the last day we can hunt and off we go. It is windy, a lot cooler, (60 degrees) and we are forced to dress a little warmer. I arrive in my stand about 2:30 pm and no sooner had I set down I saw movement in the brush. It looks like a wolf! Wow, what a sight, a real live wolf in the wild. I knew there were others because wolfs generally don’t travel alone. However they stayed about 60 yards out and I could never see them. But I got to see a wolf, Wow what a feeling. It’s approaching 9:30 pm and I am now getting excited as this is the best time of the evening for seeing your expected trophy. I am hearing sounds and one may be coming in, however it is beginning to get dark and I don’t have much light left. At 10:30 pm I am climbing out of my stand. Having realized I have had a great hunt I have no objections. They call it hunting not harvesting and for most of us bow hunters you do a whole lot more hunting than we do harvesting.
I would have like to end this story with a 500lb bear but it was not to be. However I have enjoyed the out of doors, seen bears, wolfs and all sorts of other wild life. And as most bow hunters I have come away with a little more hunting savvy because of my experiences.
I traveled with 4 other fellows, J D McKee of Pottersville Mo., (JD harvested a 300 pound bear) Ron Huber of Mountain Home Arkansas, (Ron was the other bow hunter) Jerald Farris of Clark Ridge Arkansas and last but not least the guy who killed the monster, a 575lb black a real beauty, Marty Morrison of Gainesville Mo.
Hunting is more than just hunting; I gained a few more friends and had to put up with JD once more. Ha, Ha!

Well it is May 21st of 2004 and I leave the next day for what I have been planning for over a year, a Saskatchewan Bear Hunt with a Bow. Just the thought of going after a BEAR with a bow gives some the chills! Some say you’re crazy; black bears climb trees, run short distances faster than a horse, can crush bones with the force of their jaws like pop corn. No matter; you’re a bow hunter and with that come some amount of risk, even death! Bow hunters have the opportunity to see animals in the wild like no other, study nature and the animal’s habits undisturbed. It’s the thrill, the excitement, not to mention the chance to take a real trophy and you did it with a bow!! For those of us who bow hunt that excitement is second to none and we would not give it up for anyone.
We left at 6am the morning of the 22nd of May 2004, drove to Bismark, South Dakota and spent what was left of Saturday night there. By 7 am we were on the road again to Preeceville, SK Canada. We met up with our guide, applied for our license and headed up to camp some 40 miles away. Since you cannot hunt on Sunday in Canada we just spent the rest of the afternoon lying around and getting our gear ready for the next day’s hunt.
For the most part you only hunt bears in the evening; now that’s not to say you can’t hunt in the morning because you can.  But most of the guides believe the bear are a lot more active in the evening and elect to only hunt then so as not to spread our scent around the hunting stands.
You hunt baited stands some 30 yards away. Some think because you are hunting over bait it is not a fair sport; well think again. Just because there is bait there doesn’t mean bears will just come in, it doesn’t happen that way. They are very careful creatures and while they may not be able to see very well believe me their nose and ears make up for any deficiency of their eyes. You make any movement or sound in the stand you can forget about seeing any bears, as they will not come in. And if you’re like me sitting or standing in a stand for over 6 to 8 hours it is almost impossible not to move a little or make some sounds.
Well it is Monday evening the 24th of May and right after lunch we head for the tree stands. It is almost three hours and I get a glimpse of my first bear of the season. It’s a little one and I am not interested. However I get to watch him feed, play. You get to see what alerts him by watching his ears and body movements. Hey there is another bear coming in, and the one at the stand is nervous and takes off running. He appears to be about the same size as the one I have been watching for over an hour but must be the boss. I watch him for a while, maybe fifteen minutes, and he takes off. I thought maybe there was a really big one coming in but it is another small one.
I saw four bears the first evening and none I was interested in. The next evening I am in my stand at 3 pm and by 7 pm I had seen another 3 bears. Then out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of a really nice bear. I knew he was out there as the other bears were really nervous and finally took off at a run. Bigger bears sometimes eat smaller bears so these guys were not taking any chances. The bear coming in was somewhere around 300 pounds and I was excited and nervous! I was standing and watching him circle the area and using his nose like it had radar, back and forth, back and forth, he would sniff the area, his ears were pointed in my direction and I had the feeling he knew I was there. He came within 40 yards and since I never really had a clean shot I declined to take the shot. Unless I can make a clean shot it’s not worth wounding the bear. You don’t want to walk out of the woods with a wounded bear and sometimes you may have to walk a mile or so out of the brush. It gets dark there about 10:45 pm and you stay past dark with high hopes of seeing a trophy.
On Wednesday I see nothing but a friend of mine, J D McKee, gets a 300-pound black with a rifle, good job! On Thursday it was so windy that you couldn’t’ hear anything and I really think the bears just laid down till after dark. A friend of mine was hunting with a gun in a valley some 5 miles away and the wind did not affect him like it did me as he was in a ground blind. And boy did it make a difference!
Marty shoots a 575lb black bear about 80 yards away across a lake. Now my sprits are renewed I can’t wait to get back to my stand. Friday comes and with it comes rain. I stand in the rain for seven hours and come up blank. When I get back to the cabin my other friends have the same luck. Saturday is the last day we can hunt and off we go. It is windy, a lot cooler, (60 degrees) and we are forced to dress a little warmer. I arrive in my stand about 2:30 pm and no sooner had I set down I saw movement in the brush. It looks like a wolf! Wow, what a sight, a real live wolf in the wild. I knew there were others because wolfs generally don’t travel alone. However they stayed about 60 yards out and I could never see them. But I got to see a wolf, Wow what a feeling. It’s approaching 9:30 pm and I am now getting excited as this is the best time of the evening for seeing your expected trophy. I am hearing sounds and one may be coming in, however it is beginning to get dark and I don’t have much light left. At 10:30 pm I am climbing out of my stand. Having realized I have had a great hunt I have no objections. They call it hunting not harvesting and for most of us bow hunters you do a whole lot more hunting than we do harvesting.
I would have like to end this story with a 500lb bear but it was not to be. However I have enjoyed the out of doors, seen bears, wolfs and all sorts of other wild life. And as most bow hunters I have come away with a little more hunting savvy because of my experiences.
I traveled with 4 other fellows, J D McKee of Pottersville Mo., (JD harvested a 300 pound bear) Ron Huber of Mountain Home Arkansas, (Ron was the other bow hunter) Jerald Farris of Clark Ridge Arkansas and last but not least the guy who killed the monster, a 575lb black a real beauty, Marty Morrison of Gainesville Mo.
Hunting is more than just hunting; I gained a few more friends and had to put up with JD once more. Ha, Ha!