PACEY BROTHER 2014 BEAR HUNT
By Jason Pacey
After 8 years of putting in for preference points, my bear hunt started March 23, 2014, after receiving my notification from Wisconsin DNR that I received a 2014 Bear Harvest Tag. Preplanning was started. Steve Ellis volunteered a place to have as a base camp in Mercer.
My brother, Eric Pacey and I saw Bob’s Bear Baits out of Appleton had posting for bear bait in On Wisconsin Outdoors. In July, bear bait was purchased and it was found that Bob’s Bear Bait was easy to deal with and had a large variety of baits and scents.
The first week of August we began baiting two separate areas. We selected a past known “hot spot” which previously produced a bear in 2012. Baiting was done originally weekly between the drive from Sheboygan or Wausau and then every 3 to 4 days about a week before the season started. Due to distance, my brother Eric and Steve Ellis helped baiting during the more frequent times. Two days before the season we started baiting the bears daily.
During the bear baiting period we started noticing several nice bears on a regular basis only on one of the stands.
The Hunt started off on Wednesday at about noon. My brother was sitting adjacent to me video- taping my entire hunt. Most of afternoon we had rain and a good breeze. At about 5:30PM, the rain stopped and wind stopped blowing. I looked over my shoulder and saw a nice bear working his way around to down-wind of the bait. Eventually after what seemed to be a hour, the bear made his way to the bait. The bear worked his way around back side of bait, took down the bait station and lay down behind the bait not providing a clear shot. Eventually after what seemed to be forever the bear began walking out giving me a quartering away shot, and after the smoke of the muzzleloader cleared, no bear!
Walking directly to the area of the shot, I was expecting to see a bear laying there and found nothing. A lengthy search was done and not a drop of blood or bear was found. During this time, it began to rain and the wind again picked up. It was later found by watching the video of the shot on a TV, it was believed that the shot was a clear miss. Disappointment was high and no sleep was obtained that night.
The following morning confirmation of the miss and additional search was done. I found that several different bears came in later in the evening and cleaned out the bait. Hopes were up that I didn’t completely screw up the stand. Off to the range! Immediately was found that the muzzleloader was approximately 8 inches off.
Day two in the stand was eventful. Two small bears came in approximately one hour apart. Both bears were small and not what I was looking for after waiting for a tag! At about 7:20pm, a nice bear came into view and wasted no time. I took aim with the CVA Optima muzzle loader and had a complete misfire. Looked like fireworks coming out of the barrel as it appeared one of the powders didn’t ignite and several choice language could be heard for miles. A long ride back to the cabin and don’t remember anything but absolute disappointment. Seemed that if anything could have gone wrong did.
Day three. My birthday! Muzzle loader issues were set aside. Steve Ellis who was northbound, agreed to meet up with me and bring my brothers 300 Win Short Mag. After seeing two shooter bears the prior days, my hopes of seeing another bear were bleak when we arrived at the stand. The bait station was the same it was as it was when I left the day prior. Either way I was going to spend every minute I could in the stand.
At approximately 5:00pm, my disappointment changed! A bear was seen coming in from the north. Immediately observing the bear, I knew the bear was a shooter. Again the bear worked in down-wind, positioning itself to hit the bait. This time the bear gave me a clear broad-side shot and immediately took the shot. At the pull of the trigger, I knew I stuck it right where I was aiming. The bear dropped to the ground, got up and ran about 15 yards and laydown. The death moan was heard and could see the bear take its last breath. Couldn’t imagine a better shot placement. The bear was later weighed at 250lbs.
An awesome hunt was complete, on my birthday, and was able to share with my brother!