Wausau Bear Hunter Scores in Iron County
Eric Pacey of Wausau, who shared with OWO last week some of the photos captured on trail camera as he baited Iron County in preparation of the bear hunt with his brother, Jason, shares with us now the results of that labor.
The Pacey brothers arrived at the family cabin neat Mercer last Sunday night and fished on Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday, they tended the baits, hung a stand for Jason in the same tree and set up his video camera arm.
“All that was left was the waiting for the opener on Wednesday,” Eric said. “We hit the stand at 2:00 pm until closing time with no action. Thursday was much of the same except we carried in more bait, rebuilt the bait and good that we did. It was all gone, but still no bear.”
On Friday the hunters arrived on stand at 2:00 pm once again and sat patiently waiting for “him” to show.
“At 6:50, we joked that he was running late,” Pacey said. Ten minutes later we saw him, both of us at the same time. My brother said ‘here he comes’ and all I said was ‘I got him’. Jason had the camera rolling and I tried to calm myself down, got the cross hairs on him and waited for a good shot. He came around the bait and stopped broadside. I squeezed the trigger. He did 2 spins and dropped 10 feet away.”
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| “Eric Pacey of Wausau shows the result of baiting Iron County diligently prior to the bear season. This 200 pound boar with uniquely marked chest, came in Friday night near closing after two days of no action. The bear virtually dropped on the bait.” | |
The bear was indeed down and out. With some daylight left the Pacey brothers tagged the bear and tried to take as many pictures as possible. It took one hour to drag the boar just 150 yards to the 4- wheeler.
“I didn’t have a scale but I did weigh him part by part on the digital scale at home and came up with 199.2 pounds,” Eric Pacey said. And yes it was a boar, and he does have those two cool stripes on his chest. I plan on doing a half mount on him. It was a totally amazing experience and quality time spent with my brother.”