Jacob Chapman
WKR
Back from Manitoba, I hunted the second week @ Stickflingers. Plan was to bring my recurve & get my first animal with the stickbow, but unfortunately I pinched a nerve in my neck the day before I was scheduled to drive up there so I went with my compound.
Roughly 16 hour drive including stops, pulled into the hotel in the next closest town around 9:30 pm, thoroughly worn out from the drive. Thankfully the Dr. got me some steroids to take so that I'd be able to function on the drive up there.
Day one we show up after noon, get settled into our sleeping quarters, enjoy a fantastic meal after getting our tags & run down of who our guide will be, then 2:30 the truck is off to take us to our stands.
First night is pretty cold for this time of year, awfully glad I brought my sitka fanatic stuff to sit in otherwise I would've been freezing! It was a very late spring this year in Manitoba, making for a bit of a challenging bear hunt (took a while to get baits in).
I'll copy the notes I had saved on my phone:
STICKFLINGERS ‘26 NIGHT ONE-situated at 4:56 (cheap bow hangers suck!) sitting “Baden bait”. Black bear with honey muzzle, real nice looking boar I'd love to see him during legal shooting light. Came in at 10:08, one bear total
NIGHT TWO-10:09 end of shooting light, “Dropoff bait”. Situated @ 4:52 (THESE POS BOW HANGERS I BROUGHT ??) 1st sow 5:12 sat like a kid @ dinner table ??. No cubs @ first-no cubs left @ 5:51… 2 more sows @ 6, one came in one left. Both came from East where first one left towards. No cubs.
Another sow joined, 3 @ bait now. Smallest is VERY noisy & ran off the biggest sow @ 6:27
Another pretty good size sow-no cubs with any of them??? She’s much bigger
Biggest one yet, full of burrs, came from East but stayed 50 yards out for some reason. 2 of the 3 @ the bait went & followed @ 6:45.
Young boar possibly? Not very tall
Another bear came from behind me & circled, wouldn’t come in- eventually came closer but REALLY didn’t like that I was in the tree.
2 more, the scared sow & another smaller sow
Boar @ 9, just not quite big enough
2 more with real aggressive young sow
Small one. 15 bear total
NIGHT THREE: Sitting Razorback, shooting 10:13. Sat @ 5:27 Earl met us @ the drop off, Parker nearly fed him by hand ?? momma & 2 young cubs crossed road before I got picked up.
BIG momma sow w/1 cub 5:39
Real nice boar came in 6:30- hesitated-he came back & I shot @ 6:34 looked GREAT maybe just a smidge low. Ran over the snow up the hill to the NE, made some grunts no death moan. I’m sure he’s down but can’t see-I do see blood up the hill looked like he was struggling.
Sow came from SE 6:48 walked right under me
Another nice sow came in 7:27
5 total & DEAD BEAR!!!!
6'10" claw to claw & 5'10" nose to tail- squared 6'4". Waiting on the tanner to release the skull & I'll figure out how to measure that. Good representative of a black bear for my first, can't wait to get up & hunt bears again!!!
Roughly 16 hour drive including stops, pulled into the hotel in the next closest town around 9:30 pm, thoroughly worn out from the drive. Thankfully the Dr. got me some steroids to take so that I'd be able to function on the drive up there.
Day one we show up after noon, get settled into our sleeping quarters, enjoy a fantastic meal after getting our tags & run down of who our guide will be, then 2:30 the truck is off to take us to our stands.
First night is pretty cold for this time of year, awfully glad I brought my sitka fanatic stuff to sit in otherwise I would've been freezing! It was a very late spring this year in Manitoba, making for a bit of a challenging bear hunt (took a while to get baits in).
I'll copy the notes I had saved on my phone:
STICKFLINGERS ‘26 NIGHT ONE-situated at 4:56 (cheap bow hangers suck!) sitting “Baden bait”. Black bear with honey muzzle, real nice looking boar I'd love to see him during legal shooting light. Came in at 10:08, one bear total
NIGHT TWO-10:09 end of shooting light, “Dropoff bait”. Situated @ 4:52 (THESE POS BOW HANGERS I BROUGHT ??) 1st sow 5:12 sat like a kid @ dinner table ??. No cubs @ first-no cubs left @ 5:51… 2 more sows @ 6, one came in one left. Both came from East where first one left towards. No cubs.
Another sow joined, 3 @ bait now. Smallest is VERY noisy & ran off the biggest sow @ 6:27
Another pretty good size sow-no cubs with any of them??? She’s much bigger
Biggest one yet, full of burrs, came from East but stayed 50 yards out for some reason. 2 of the 3 @ the bait went & followed @ 6:45.
Young boar possibly? Not very tall
Another bear came from behind me & circled, wouldn’t come in- eventually came closer but REALLY didn’t like that I was in the tree.
2 more, the scared sow & another smaller sow
Boar @ 9, just not quite big enough
2 more with real aggressive young sow
Small one. 15 bear total
NIGHT THREE: Sitting Razorback, shooting 10:13. Sat @ 5:27 Earl met us @ the drop off, Parker nearly fed him by hand ?? momma & 2 young cubs crossed road before I got picked up.
BIG momma sow w/1 cub 5:39
Real nice boar came in 6:30- hesitated-he came back & I shot @ 6:34 looked GREAT maybe just a smidge low. Ran over the snow up the hill to the NE, made some grunts no death moan. I’m sure he’s down but can’t see-I do see blood up the hill looked like he was struggling.
Sow came from SE 6:48 walked right under me
Another nice sow came in 7:27
5 total & DEAD BEAR!!!!
6'10" claw to claw & 5'10" nose to tail- squared 6'4". Waiting on the tanner to release the skull & I'll figure out how to measure that. Good representative of a black bear for my first, can't wait to get up & hunt bears again!!!
