Opening Day In Oklahoma

American wilderness and bear. We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation. Will also bring you into some of the wildest country on the planet. Chasing bar. Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast. It's October the first, and if you hear the hum of a Silverado Motors Altra entires, it's because I'm recording this podcast alone in my truck. I'm headed to Southeast Oklahoma today. Is uh Is it almost a

sacred day for me? October one has been the Oklahoma opener for several years now, and I look forward to it as much as any date on the calendar. I truly do so. I'm I'm heading to the red Neck Blind. Some of you may have been watching the watching the Bare Hunting Magazine YouTube channel and seeing our vlogs. But back in August, we put up a red neck blind in southeast Oklahoma on private land. We can bait bears on private land and in Oklahoma in four different counties.

And I put up this red neck blind on a any on a proven property. And now it wasn't new actual bait side. I'd never baited in that particular spot, but I had baited bears within let's say five yards of there, so it was close enough that we knew that it would be inconsequential in terms of drawing in bears. But it was a new bait site. Put up a redneckline because because there this site had this place had proven to hold big bears year in and year out.

There were usually some really big, over mature mail bears that would be that would be utilizing the bait. But they're always super hard to kill. And usually what happens is if they are coming in in the daytime when the season rolls around, they just know the system and they know to scent check these baits and and and basically they'll get down on wind of debait. They'll smell a human in there and they won't come in and

you won't kill them. There's you know, as a white tail hunter, sometimes you think, well, why don't you just get the wind right? Well, this really is a unique situation and you're and you're dealing with an animal that I don't want to say the reason more than a white tail deer because I don't know that an animal really reasons. But you're not dealing with a white tail deer. You're dealing with an animal that's coming to a specific spot.

You're dealing with an animal that knows there's a human involved. Like when we come in and bait, we're not trying to hide our human presence on this particular bait. We drive right up to the bait, we get out, we're sweating, we're handling the food that we're feeding these bears. So these bears know that there's a human involved. They know it, and so the trick is is too on the day you hunt, convince them that there is no human there.

And from a tree stand, that's pretty hard because these big bears, they know the city, them their scent, checking these baits, and in the mountains of southeast Oklahoma and the mountains of Arkansas. I have yet to hunt a mountain area where the winds weren't variable. I mean, if the wind is predominantly out of the southwest and you've got your stand set up accordingly to blow your scent away from the bait, well that's just the direction the

bears come from. They they really play the wind. Well, so this red Neck blind, it's a big one. It's the Buck Palace. It's been up for two months. The bears don't mind it. The bears have not torn it up. The bears have climbed up the ladder and they've messed with it, but they have not hurt the blind in any way, which was a big question going into this this hunt, because what the bears just shredded. Bears are notorious for shredding anything that is a patrolling based product,

like a blind that has a rubber on it. If you if you left a uh four wheeler set out at that bait site, even though they know it's not food, there's no calip caloric value inside that seat, they would just shred it. And we were uncertain of how they would respond to it. But they have not bothered it in the least. Now, granted we have not used the blind. There's there's no human sent in there, there's no food sent in there, there's nothing. We've just been in there

a very little time. So today I will be entering the Redneck blind, and like the ARC, I'm gonna shut the door and the hunt will be on. But the reason for the Redneck is for scent containment. The Redneck is not one hundred percent sent free because it it's not an airtight box. I mean, you've got to breathe inside of there. But I do believe that it reduces your scent dramatically, dramatically. All the windows on that blind

are sealed with rubber gaskets. There is one small air filter hole in the blind that's designed let it air in and out. Uh. But I don't I don't think it's gonna be enough two to alarm the bears. And you remember this bait site already. These bears, no, I mean, these big old mature males. I mean they know the system, they know those are human involved. They just want to come in there when that human scent is dissipated enough that they think that we're nowhere to be found. So

it I'm running a little bit late. It's currently about noon. These bears are typically not coming in until the last hour of daylight. And we're on a once in a decade pattern right out with these bears in Oklahoma. We've been hunting this property since so let's see, we hunted it fifteen sixteen, seventeen eighteen, so this is the fourth year that we've hunted it and the first year that we hunted it. These two bears that are coming in right now were there. We call them yellow Tag and Batman.

Yellow Tag was a big, big bear with two yellow air tags. And the other bear his ears curled out in a unique way and he looked like Batman. To meat called him Batman. Both these bears big males. I'm not gonna tell you what I think they weigh and felt just a little bit later, But that first year we baited it was almost like the honeymoon phase of this property. And the bears didn't They just kind of felt like they found a bird nest on the ground when they found our bait, and they treated it very,

very haphazardly. And any way, I actually let a friend hunted that year and he he he wounded the Batman bear to what I believe was batman bear shot him lowing the brisket. The animal did not die, it was

just a flesh wound and he missed. Yellow Tag. Yep, veteran bow hunter guy, have a ton of respect for had never hunted bears, and both of these bears came in the first day we ever hunted the property, and at the time they were probably three fifty two four hundred and over a little over four hundred, you know,

both these bears. Well, these bears have become like characters at this bait side, and that's the cool thing about hunting, these hunting bears over bait cameras out and bears are quite distinguishable by many many things, coloration, muzzle color, body shape, um, white patches on their chests, just their different features, just like humans, they just all are a little bit different. And so these bears have become mainstays at the spait.

But since that time, these bears have been unkillable, absolutely unkillable. Nothing we've done has allowed us to to slip their radar. Last year, my good buddy James Lawrence, I did not hunt Oblama last year. Last year James hunted it and he had Yellow Tag come in on the first day that he hunted and the yellow tag smelled him and left. So these bears are smart. But it is today's October one, and as of yesterday, these bears were still pounding this bait.

These bears ate roughly three pounds of bread in the last two days. They've eaten a tremendous amount of food. So they're really they're really doing what you want them to do, which usually right now they're starting to fade off the baits when we start bating in early September, these baits are these bears are coming out of a stress period, which is the late summer when it's hot. Bearris are dried up. It's a it's actually a stress period, just like for white tails, and these bears will almost

need anything. A bear will be coming to bay. He'll be there during the daytime. He'll be sleeping in front of your barrel. And all these guys are sending me pictures saying, man, I got a huge bear, What tax german should I use? You know? And I I myself have fallen for that trap before, is that man? Just because you've got that bear coming in like crazy, even

in mid September, it doesn't mean a thing. I'll tell you, the only thing that counts in baiting bears in Arkansas and Oklahoma is when you've got a bear in front of you the day season opens. Because in twenty twenty, well you know what we bought that we've we've been uh, we've been bathing that property since fourteen because in Batman and Yellow Tag we're coming in and two days before

season they left famished, never to be seen again. At that bait, I ended up taking a lesser bear that was I believe a hundred pounds lighter than Yellow Tag or Batman. So I actually harvested the bear that was the lesser of those two. He weighed three d sixty pounds and had a skull score of twenty and eight sixteenths, which made him qualify for the Boone and crock At All Time awards. I mean a Boone and crock At bear. So my biggest bear today has come from southeast Oklahoma

right here. And the bear, the biggest bear I've ever killed, skull size is smaller than these two bears that I'm on today. I want to back up, though, because I got my dates wrong. My buddy at wounded Batman and missed Yellow Tag that would have been. So we've now been hunting the space for five years. So these two bears are still here. And bears have a much longer lifespan than a white tail. These bears can live twenty

five years. They really can't, and I don't I don't know how old these bears are, but there, they're mature animals. They've been around because they were big and mature five years ago. So this is a tremendous I mean, my my emotions almost don't really even know how to respond to a day like today. Um, it's it's so exciting to me. But at the same time, I don't want to get my hopes up too much because these bears have given us a slip so many times. But today

is a great day. And man, I'm just grateful, absolutely grateful that we can hunt bears in Oklahoma, that we've got bears over there, and that I get to hunt them as nonresident So for that I am. I am truly grateful. So yesterday I was personally not able to go over and bait. I wanted to go over there and bait and check the cameras and really know exactly what was going on. I wasn't able to do that because I'll tell you why. Because we were tracking a bear in Arkansas, and I want to tell you a

heartbreaking story and I just hit the high points. But in Arkansas, we gained access to a landlocked piece of property that have basically has no roads to it. The property has an old trail to it, but there's no way to drive a four wheeler. There's no way to drive a car now, so there's no roast of this property. And it's surrounded by national forests, so you can't drive a four wheeler to it. And we have been using

our rules to pack in bait, gained access. It's about an our mule ride, our walk back in to this area, and for whatever reason, I just had in my mind that that's where I wanted to take my fifteen year old daughter River this year. River is River kills a bear. Two years ago Rivers killed the buck with her boat. The river is really an outdoors won't she truly is? She really loves hunting. She gets it. She's tough, there

is and I mean this, she is tough. There's if I were going on like a you know, a five mile backpack trip to do something like really hard, I can't think of anybody else I'd rather take with me, just in terms of bringing someone that wouldn't complain, that wouldn't want to go home, that wouldn't get bored. I mean, like she's she's a real deal and she loves bear hunting. Anyway, about ten days before seasons when we gained access to this property, which was pretty late, and we started baiting

the property. We took two mules in there, and we've never been up to the property before. It's been a long time since we've been there. I had I was there once when I was younger. We get to the property, we bade bears to put up our camera. The way down, I've got two mules. We've got one riding saddle on Izzie, my easie mule, and the river was pretty tired, and and I said, hey, you want to ride the mule down and I'll lead the other one. Because the other one had a had a soft buck on it just

like pack saddle couldn't ride it. So I said, would you like to ride Izzie down the mountain so you don't have to walk? And she said yeah, And so rivers a river is a pretty good rider. So river gets on Izzie, but the River is not used to. Is he is he as young? Is he's three years old? And is he is now pretty fresh because she's had this she's had all this weight on her back all day and all of a sudden it's off of her

and then now rivers on her back. And I felt like she was kind of spunky, almost like just fresh out of the trailer, and she was acting a little spunky, not bad, just spunky. And I was given I was instructing River about what she should do. You know, hey, don't let her push you around a lot of times.

For those of you who have not written equine animals much, I mean a really just dead broke, old horse or old mule might not act like this, but a young one, you get on one fresh, they're they're kind of gonna want to do what they want to do. They're not necessarily gonna want to buck you off. That's not what happened at all, but just just wanting to try, wanting to go faster, wanting to go their way, and they need an experience rider to just tell them and show

him whose boss. And so River was trying to do that. We get a little ways down the trail and the trail is brushed in, there's limbs, and so limbs are whacking river and and there. That's really not a problem. But there was a limb about as big as your wrist that was hanging out that was gonna hit her about in the chest when the mule was going under it.

And so when she saw it coming, she ducked off to the side, grabbed the saddle horn with her hands, dropped the reins and was just gonna go under the limb and then pop back up and grab the reins. Well. When she went unto the limb, I believe what happened is she squeezed her legs to stay on the animal. When she squeezed her legs, that's the cue that I've taught Izzie to to go faster. So as soon as she kind of leans off the mule going to this limb, the mule starts to trot well, River starts to lose

her balance. River squeezes her legs even harder. The mule starts to lope. They're going downhill in the woods. River no longer has the reins in her hand, and she is She never really regained her balance from stepping under the limb and so I see all this happening, and basically Ellie is running loping down a pretty steep incline with the river just barely hanging on, and they basically run out of sight, and I'm hollering and I run after river. And as a as a father, this is

as it was happening. I knew this was the moment that I thought would someday happen, but I prayed that when it did, that God would be merciful to us. And it was happening right before my eyes, almost as slow motion. I mean, the river was totally out of control, the mule was out of control, and this mountain is littered in boulders, steep, rugged, rough, and it was, it was, it was frightening. I run down the mountain and and the last I had seen Izzy was kind of dropping

over the horizon at the slope of this mountain. You could probably see fifty yards before the mountain just kind of crested down, and I see the mule running, and I see river coming off the side. I mean, I see her just start to fall off the animal, remember at like a full almost at a full gallop, I I don't know, And I crest over the hill, and I see the mule turned back towards me, looking up towards me, where their ears perked up, and no river.

And then I run a little bit further and I see Rivers sprawled out in the woods on her back, with her feet up the mountain, her head down the mountain, and man, it scared me. She was obviously crying. I run up to her. I tell her not to move. I touch her neck, I touched her shoulders, I touch all around on her legs. I knew that if I if I touched something that was broken, that she would be really that should be really sensitive to it. I could not find anything that I believed was broken on her.

The only thing is when I ran my head my hand on the top of her head. My my hand was covered in blood. So I just raised her head ever so slightly, and she had just smashed her head into a rock man. We who we sat there on the ground. I got that, I got the mules tied up and caught, and I just told her to lay there. And we she laid there for probably solid ten, maybe fifteen minutes. I'll tell you exactly what we did. We prayed.

I just asked God to help her. I thank God that she was alive, and uh, and I just kind of lamented the decision that I had made as a father to let her ride down that mountain. And anyway off the mountain we came. We still had another hour to the truck. River said, was you know, she was bleeding all down her head and all down her neck.

So we go to the emergency room and the little rural town we were near and spend a ton of time at the e are a ridiculous amount of time actually, and uh, she had eight staples in her head and for not to be too gruesome, but the cut was about two inches long on the back of her head that you could actually see her skull. So River had a pretty major crash. They did a CT scan on her and there was no there was no cracking the skull,

there was no damage done to the actual brain. So River River really took it, took it in the face on that one. So that was day one of our bear baiting on the mountain. We'll call it the pack End Bait. So that was day one of our bear baiting at the pack End Bait. Well season against to roll around. I make it one other time up to the mountain debait by myself. We had several bears coming in there and opening day comes, which opening day in

Arkansas was September. We had ter ricial rains come through on September twenty one and two. To get to the place where we had to across the river to hunt, or to get to where we needed to park to hunt, we had to cross a a stream. Well, the water had risen so much that we could not cross the stream. So on day one we couldn't even hunt our bait, and so the river and I said, you know, on the first day when she banked up her head, we

said the mountain one Newcomb's ze Road. On day on the first day of the Arkansas season, when we were unable to even get to the bait, we said mountain to Newcomb's z Ro. On the on the second day of the season where we were able to cross the creek and go hunt on the mountain, and we went

up there check the camera. There was a big bear that had been coming in at night at a time or two late in the evening, and it was a big bear, I mean like a four hundred four fifty maybe even bigger type four and river decided that she wanted to wait for that bear, and so she did, and she passed seven bears on opening day at that bait site, and not a single one of those bears

was over about a hundred and eighty pounds. So she passed all those bears, and it was an amazing day in the stand when there was hardly a ten minutes section where we weren't watching bears. You'll, you'll, you'll have hunts like that in Canada. You rarely have hunts like that down here. Most of are hunting over bait. Here in Arkansas is you're seeing one or two bears, and you're usually seeing them at last life. You usually don't just get the viewing opportunity like you would and Canada.

I mean, you go to Canada on a really good high, you're gonna see a lot of bears. You gonna watch a lot of bears. But not so here. I mean, we're we are usually by open day, we are usually hunting the juvenile stragglers because our season dates are set up such that older mature mails are typically gone from the bates or they're nocturnal by the time season opens. And it's what it's done in Arkansas has it's it's created a culture where a guys shoot the first bearer

that they see. I really wish the game departments would move our seasons back to where they originally were. Originally they opened on September for many many years, and it really doesn't make sense. The numbers don't add up. I think it's an issue of convenience, but we need to get that earlier opener in order to harvest older, mature mails because we're building the hanging culture where we're just

killing juveniles. And uh, I mean I haven't seen the staff in a few years, but most of the bears killed in Arkansas are two and three year old bears. I would like to see us manage for I mean, there's no wildlife that you really want to manage in that way, But for some reason, that's the way we're managing our bearers here in Arkansas. And there's more to it. It's complex, but there's not much more to it. And uh,

I would like to see that change in Arkansas. That would that would help us, and it would also help it would also help if we had an earlier season date to begin to educate the public about how did not shoot the first animal that comes to the barrel. Don't shoot juveniles. Don't shoot juvenile females. Don't if you know it's a sou do your best and not shoot that. Soal now, right now, guys to shoot the first animal

to the barrel. And there's kind of a there's kind of a a group of guys in the state that are really targeting these older mature males, and we're frustrated as we can be, but there's no shortage of them, but they're very, very difficult to kill. So day one and the packing bait comes and goes, and the river didn't fire an era. We had to go to school the whole week. But on Saturday, the next Saturday, which I believe would have been September, we went back to

the packing bait. I had been able to go in there one other time in bait, and when I did, the bears have been pound on the bait. So i'd September twenty seven. River Izzy and I go to the top of the mountain and we get there and we checked the card and what happened is one of the most exciting things that can happen in hunting. It truly is I mean, this is why I hunt part of it aside from wildlife related commodities that we that we

get that we used throughout the year. But we checked the camera and there had been a whopper bear in there that day, that morning, and it had found the bait that morning, and it was a four plus pound mail bear, and the evening before a second four pound plus color phase bear, and this bear maybe four fifty

had been in there in the daylight. So basically what I'm saying is there were two four pound plus males, different bears that had been to that bait in the daylight in the last twenty four hours that the first bear at the bear we'll call him number one, We'll call him Hippo bear. He had a big, old, saggy belly and sway back. He had been in there through night. At at like almost ten o'clock that morning, he was

still feeding at the bait. We get there at one o'clock, so I mean just three hours before he had been there. We knew he was close, We knew that he had found the bay and he liked it. He hadn't been spooked off by anything, and this was his first time to the bait. Was that morning when you roll into a situation like that. That is a very favorable situation for that bear to return that evening. I mean, we

just knew it was gonna happen. Climb up in the tree, was running an osonics, two of us in the tree. Not much we can do for scent control, and that particular situation, the winds were light, invariable, winds would go on from many different directions. We had also hiked an hour in eighty degree temperatures, so we were sweating. And long story short, the hippo bear comes in at four o'clock. Broad daylight comes in at four o'clock, comes down window us.

Those onyx was blowing perfectly. It was a light light probably three to four mile per hour wind coming out of the west. Ozis was set up perfectly, and the bear smelled us. And I is in the knock on osonics. I've still got in my bag right now. But I mean, if it, if it reduced our scent, which I'm sure that it did, it did not reduce enough for that bear to smell us. And it was truly the perfect

situation for it to really work. And the bear was intolerant of us, and the hippo bear through his nose in the air and probably thirty five before the yards turned his nose up and left and we never saw him again the rest of the evening. So we're sitting here and we actually see a sow with this year's cubs come into the bait and watch these little bears. Is the first time I believe I've been on a in in that close proximity to a soal with little cubs.

Super fun to watch. She was not aggressive towards us at all. Every bear that came into that bait knew exactly where we were, and they make made eye contact with us. They knew were there, but they really didn't seem to care. So the sal comes in. There's another smaller bear that came in, you know, probably a hundred and thirty pounds four that came in. It was eating quite a bit, and so we got there. We mayna start hunting to two o'clock. At four o'clock, pipple bear

came in. It's dark about seven fifteen ish, and we knew that this uh, big color face bear had been in there the day before, and I'll be done if that bear didn't show up. At about six thirty. The bear we see him come within you know, forty yards, we see him out there, we immediately recognize him as the big color face from the camera. I mean it says sometimes it's man, it's it's tough. You see, uh,

you know, four in a fifty pound bear. And and you'll probably see this footage at some point through bear horizon of the vog you see this big bear and you're like, yeah, these guys see big bears all the time. I want to put that into perspective. I have not seen a four d plound four hunder pound plus bear from the tree stand while hunting over bait in Arkansas. Let me think about this before I said it's true. Ever,

I'm gonna say that. Ever, I have killed a five hunder pound bear in Arkansas, but I killed in the National Forest without bait. Um. I have put people on big bears. There was about a four year period there when I was basically auctioning off my best stand for the Arkansas Black Bear Association, and we put some people on some good bears. But killing a big bear over bait is no joke. It is no joke at all.

And so here comes this bear and so, I mean one of the biggest the biggest bear I've ever seen in my life over bait in Arkansas that was killable. Was coming in shooting light and rivers shoes, forty three pound bow. She had a hundred and fifty grain iron wheel broad head. It was a light set up. But river killed the bear two years ago about a tune or twenty five pound mail passed all the way through the bear. I mean the the forty at that time it was. It was a forty pound boat. Forty pound

boat shot an arrow through the bear. I mean the arrow is laying on the ground under the side of the bear. So I know this is a totally different animal animal that's twice as big. But still I felt like the arrow, the bow had the energy. We had a cut on impact broadhead, we had some weight on the arrow. It felt like everything was right. I truly was not worried about the river not being able to or not. I wouldn't worry about the boat. Well, the

bear smells us. It was really interesting. The bear smelled us. I mean, he he was out there, ozonics was blowing just right, and man, that bear has his nose in the air and he pinned us. But this bear had been using the bait for the last week to ten days. This bear had actually come in twenty minutes after we left on the second day, well, the first day that we hunted, the second day of the season. This bear had been standing where we were standing twenty minutes after

we were there. So this bear in inevitably knew there were humans involved. He had smelled us before, and when he smelled us this time, it didn't bother him that much because despite his nose telling him that we were there, he walked right in, actually looking at us. This particular area, we weren't able to get very high in the trees.

There weren't very many big trees, so we were only about my thirteen probably thirteen feet high, and basically this big four was just on foreigner plus found bear colored face, kind of a chocolate he tinge comes walking in, just making eye contact with us, looking as looking at us up in the stand the river standing up. She's got her bow in hand, and the bear comes into like eight yards, turns broadside, river, draws her bow, river shoots,

and she hit the bear slightly high. We think maybe it caught the back tip of the scapula, which is his shoulder blade, and the Arab penetrated about five inches. The bear ran off. The next day, we trailed up for over a half a mile off of blood that was being basically rubbed off high on bushes, and we never recovered the bear, never recovered the bear. I felt terrible. I truly felt terrible the shot. The shot was just inches away from right where you wanted to be, and

it was it was a tough one. It's a tough one for River, she worked so hard, so resilient, and it was tough one for me. I mean, I hated to to see that bear get away from us. But you know, we tracked that bear on our hands and knees through Paul Paul Thicket all morning yesterday. And I really just had this sense that part of the human experience is dealing with disappointment, and a lot of who we are as men and how we respond to life it has to do with how we deal with disappointment.

And I truely I was more disappointed than that than probably any animal that I personally have ever not recovered, you know, And it was partially maybe it was a selfish thing, you know, like my daughter taking a spare on film. You know, it would have been good for me. I don't know. I just wanted her to I just

wanted her to get it. She worked so hard she passed nine bears, and I'll tell you the bear hunting culture in Arkansas, there's not many grown men that would have passed these nine bears that she did waiting for the big one. And the big one shows she does everything right, just a little bit high and and we don't recover the bears. So man, the pain and the agony, the choys, in the agony of hunting, it's really what makes it what. It is, really a complex, complex deal

because it's a high stakes game. If you win, the rewards are high, found in the commodities given to us by God from wildlife, meat, hide, fanging for but the consequences are significant when we do not capitalize on an opportunity. And this is two days after and I'm really still not really over it, And to be honest with you, I'm I'm headed to Oklahoma to potentially one of the best hunts I've ever been on in terms of just

gathering the data going into the hunt. The conditions are favorable, got to giant bears on bait, and uh, man, I'm I'm almost not even excited to be honest with him. So, hey, we're thirty eight minutes in this podcast, and this is what I want to do. I'm gonna kind of take his step by step through my afternoon. I'm gonna bring the gonna bring. I'm gonna bring you into the blind with me and give you some commentary as we as

as this hunting fold. So I'm about an hour out from getting out of the truck walking to the stand. It's twelve forty one on October one. Got my non resident Oklahoma bear tag in my pocket, and man, what great day to be a bear hunter. I just got to the property here or baiting bears. I'm parking, probably close to half a mile from where I'm hunting. I don't trust these big old bears one lick and I don't want to get close to him. I want them to think there's nobody in the country. I just did

my I'm kind of doing my pre hunt ritual. I just took a bath in the creek, getting all my stuff together. If I do not kill a bear this evening, my plan is to spend the night in Redneck blind. So I've got food, I've got equipment to stay the night. Um, I'm just making my final preparations here. I hadn't told anybody this um there, hadn't made a big deal about it. But I was gonna shoot the traditional bow on this hunt. And uh, I couldn't shoot the tread bow out of

the Redneck blind. It's a pretty big well, it's a big blind, and I probably could have done it, but did not want the weapon to be the limiting factor. I actually borrowed a bow, Halen thirty two from my good buddy Aaron Wiss down Outdoor America in Springdale, Arkansas. He set this bow up for me like two days ago. I'm shooting great with it, shooting some two d and fifty grain iron Well broadheads, and uh, you know, kind of I'm kind of geared up for like a big

game hunt. You know that these are big critters. So I'm about to walk up the hill to the stand. I'm gonna try to give you a play by play when I'm in the blind. I feel like I'm gonna be able to talk some because those blinds are pretty sound proof. But uh, all right, it's four three pm. I've been in blind an hour and a half, just kind of getting everything situated. This is my first time in the blind with the compound boo, with the cameras, so I'm trying to figure out exactly how I'm gonna

do this. I think I've got a system that works. I'm planning to shoot out of one of these long corner windows made for bowl hunting, so I'll be shooting down. I've got a camera filming out of the long or the standard shooting window to my left. I have a camera to my back, and I've got to go prow out in front of me. My buddy, James Lawrence, came in here yesterday and baited several with several hundred pounds

of bait. They have eaten almost all of it. They're not a lot of bears on this bait, but the two giant bears that are on here are eating a ton. I mean literally they ate. I don't know the weight of bait he put out yesterday, but I would venture to say easily two hundred pounds of bait and it's five gone. That's exactly what you want to see as a bear hunter when you come into the bait, he said,

just be demolished. So again we put up this redneck blind for the sole purpose of scent control, which if it doesn't backfire on us, is going to be ingenious. But the negative side of it is I am roasting in this blind right now, got all the windows shut, and it's eighty six degrees outside. Let me let me put it to you this way. When I opened the windows, which I have opened wine just to look outside, it feels like it's thirty degrees outside as the cold air

rushes in. I don't know how hot it is in here, but it's hot. But it's a small price to pay for almost scent control. When hunting trophy black bear over bait. Like I said earlier, I've been hunting these bears, these particular bears for five years. I have never been able to catch up with him. And this part of what I part of to me, what makes a successful hunter successful is he's able to identify the limiting factors of his hunting and improve those things. So here's an example.

I shoot my Matthews Halant two right now. I can shoot it so well that it is not the limiting factor of my hunting. If I have ten kills and those kills are successful ten PC or failures, it's never gonna be because I can't hit a dot at yards. And now it might be panic in the field, it might be making a bad decision in the field for shot,

the shot placement or whatever. But my point is is you got to focus on what is the thing that's keeping you from being unsuccessful, And for me in this situation, it was scent. I do not believe in any other type of scent control. I just I had bear smell me um running some all kinds of products. I don't want to name any names, but I just there's nothing that you could do in an open tree stand to fully contain your scent against the bear. So this red

nick blind is the best solution that I've got. However, I am cooking in here, so I mean literally, my clothes are almost soaked, so I do smell worse than normal. So for some reason the scent is leaking. It's gonna leak, It's gonna leak good, but I don't think it will. I'm able to whisper in the splind because these red neck blinds are insulated. They've got foam insulation all around them. I have no doubt that then the ways I'm making right now is not um I'm gonna impact these bears.

There was a bear here when I arrived. It was a younger bear there, just a smaller bear of sow. I kind of snuck up on it, and I thought, well, I could wait until the bear leaves and not disturb it. But the wind was kind of swirling, and I thought, I'm out here in the open. I know these big bears are close. They really are. I mean I I have a good feeling they aren't beded more than a

hundred and fifty yards from the space. And so the longer time I spent out of the blind, there was a better chance that the big bears were gonna smell me. So what I did is I chunked rock kind of on the back side of this bear down the woods and spooked it off, and I climbed up in the pop blind and went and checked my cap or grabbed the card out of the camera quickly came back, and I've been unable to read the card because of a I just bought a brand new little SD card reader

that plugs into your phone, and it it godidly. It's ridiculous. You got a download a app and do all kind of stuff, and I still cannot get it to read pictures. I am highly frustrated with that. But I am in the blind looking too. Let's see. In the north, I'm looking back at about a quarter acre of food plot. To my south, i'm looking at about a twenty acre I'm excuse me, twenty year old replanted pine what used

to be just like a clear cut. This property was cut about fifteen twenty years ago, and so I'm looking at a big stand at pine timber. We came in here and hung this red neck blind back in August, and UH cut some shooting lanes, and these bears don't want to be out in the open. They don't want to be in a food plot. They want to be in the shade. Their black animal they're designed to live in the shadows, and so they want to be in the timber. That's where they feel comfortable. So my bait

is off in the woods. I placed the bait close to the stand in case I was shooting a traditional bow of s blind. So the barrels are no more than probably eight yards for me, which is close. I have to watch myself on shot angle. But here I am just waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. It's four fifty two and I've seen my first bear from the red nick blind. I've got a bear out here at about forty five yards that's lounging on the west side of the food blood.

It appears to be a smoiler bear. It's just only because of the food plot I man am I able to see it because there's not a thick vegetation around. But it kind of confirms what you feel like these bears are doing. You feel like they're they're eating and then they're just going out sight and laying down where they can smell and listen to the bait side. And this bear, I see it bobbing its head up and down, kind of smelling. It's panting, and uh so that's the

first bear. I figure it's waiting for to hear the barrels clank, or to smell another bear, or to smell a human coming in here. So first bear of the evening four two p m. One. I just had to year old cubs, a year and a half old cubs show up to just get black little guys came in. I was watching this other bear that was bitted down the food plot, and it jumped up and ran off, and then minutes later here came these uh, two little cubs.

They probably weigh sixties seventy pounds apiece. I do not see their mama because I was unable to read the card. I don't recall seeing cubs on the card on Thursday, So perhaps a sound two cubs have showed up? Were they? Indeed have? They keep looking back behind. I figured their mama's not far. One thing that's interesting about a hunted bear population is that it actually grows faster than an

unhunted population. So there the bears in this part of the world, Arkansas, Oklahoma are fairly rapidly increasing their range because the hub of the bear population in Arkansas, Oklahoma is in the Ozark and Washingtaw Mountains. These rugged mountains between a thousand and three thousand feet okanackree Forest climax, and this this was historic range of the bear, lots of national forests, lots of big open country, lots of

perfect bear habitat. Well, what's happening is the bears have saturated that habitat and now they're beginning to bleed out in every direction on the Ozark and Washtall mountains down into areas that typically wouldn't be great bear habitat like the pine plantations of southern Arkansas, pine swamp plantation, uh, you know, like just timberland. They're starting to get a lot of bears, the timberland and deeper southeast Oklahoma is

starting to get a lot of bears. Bears are moving north into the northern Ozarks of Missouri, which that's a good bear country. Bears are moving into northern Louisiana, they're moving into western Mississippi, and it's because we're hunting them. We're hunting this population of bears, which this hub is in Arkansas, and these bears are expanding. So there's tons of cubs. We saw cubs two days ago in Arkansas

on Rivers hunt. So really great to see a thriving barren population because that's what we want as hunters and conservationists. We don't want to kill them all. We want to keep all of them, and we're gonna cherry pick some off the top, cherry picked the surplus. We're the good guys. It's five one and that the South finally came in. She let these cubs feed at this bait for Paul twenty minutes. Without her, she isn't untagged, good sized south, probably over two hundred pounds. We see a lot of

tagged bears in this part of Oklahoma. They estimate the bear population here to be about two thousand bears, and they have captured and tagged or collared roughly two hundred, so ken percent of the bears they believe that are in Oklahoma have actually laid their hands on, and that they ire tagged the bears and mark them just so they can say, you know, we we caught this bear here and he was harvested over here, he was hit by a car here, or we never heard from again.

But they also have some number of sows, probably fifteen to twenty sous collar that they go in and do den studies on. So any bear that's caught is tagged. This bear has not been caught, so this is one of the of the free bears. One of the big bears that I'm after tonight, that I believe is probably close to six hundred pounds, is a tag bear. He had two yellow ear tags back in so he's been tagged for a long time. He does not have a collar, but he's a whopper. You know. I meant to say

earlier that the two bears that I'm hunting. One of them I believe is five fifty to six hundred plus and we call yellow tags. He's got two yellow tags. The other one is probably four fifty to five, and I call him Batman. I will shoot either bear that shows up tonight and be as happy as I could be. I figured both of them are potentially putting crooked animals.

It is nearing six o'clock, the magic hour for bears, and I'm staring out the window this red neck blind, a big sound two cubs at about eight yards six, and the sound cubs just threw up their head and ran off, huffing. For sure, there's another bear coming in. I haven't seen it yet, which gives me even more reason to believe it may be the big one. A big one has come in, and it's just kind of skirtain out there. It's Batman. H oh Man, just shot Batman.

Just shot Batman. Holy cow, just shot Batman. I just shot Batman. I can't believe it. It It was about six fifteen, full daylight, just great, great light. He came in. He towered, towered above the barrel, a bear whose shoulders are over thirty six inches. It's a that's a big bear, big bear, and this bear towered over the barrel, filled out, big legs, huge head, big old curled ears, looks like Batman. That's why we call him Batman. This bear is uh oh

my gosh, I can't I can't believe that. I'm almost speechless. There's so much work that goes into this hunt. I mean, we for months have been working on this redneck blind We've we've had this access to this property for for five years. We had this bear on the camera five years ago and he was big then we've got The crazy part is that he's not even the big bear. This is a lesser of two bears. There's another bear in here that's got two yellow tags that I believe

is pounds bigger than Batman. And just off the cuff. I'm gonna step out on a limb, and if I'm wrong, I'm gonna be happy that i'm wrong. If I'm right, I'm gonna be happy that I'm right. Um, I don't care. I think the bears is five pounds now, he could be fifty pounds on either side of that. But folks, he is the lesser of two bears on the spate, and I want to talk about the implication of that.

So we've got these big bears on bait that we're hunting, well, the implication is that or what you can imply from this is that bears are thriving in this part of the country. This is a testament to wildlife conservation. It's a testament to the reintroduction of black bears in the nineteen fifties and sixties back into Arkansas and their movement into south st Oklahoma where their native range was at one time. Where you've got older mature males, it indicates

that the population is stable. It indicates that the population is well balanced. It indicates a healthy population. And older mature male is an indicator animal. You know, in a deer herd, we have no mature bucks. You know that something's out of whack. Uh, either the hunting culture, you know, the management, or the habitat or um or or for some reason, those older males aren't making it to maturity. Where older males make it to maturity, everything beneath them

is in perfect order. And so, man, this is a testament to conservations, a testament to hunting. And man, I'm thrilled. Man if I never kill a bear. The rest of my life. I'm I will feel like I have experienced the the top of the mountain of bear hunting, that I conic animal of North American wilderness right here within driving distance in my house. What an amazing place that we live in, What an amazing country that we live in. God, long live the Hunter's, Long live the beast. Oh man,

My dad is on his way with a tractor. James Lawrence is on his way. Ryan flint faced Grab is on his way. Ryan Grab is the master big bear hunter of Arkansas. No doubt he's coming. And uh, we've got a long night of work in front of us. But hey, man, that's what we that's what we that's what we do it for. I'm drenched in sweat. This red nick blind with the window shut is hot. But man, I tell you, I attribute this kill to that, to this, to this blind. He couldn't smell me. He had no

idea that I was here. If I had been in a tree stand, the winds are swirling, the thermals are changing. He came from downhill. I mean, if I would have killed the bear in an open tree stamp, it would have been just happenstance. I mean, probably of the time I would have killed it, sixty percent of the time the bear would have smelled me and not come in. So this, this blind scent is limiting factor. This blind has remedied that scent factor the limiting factor, and it

worked just like we thought it would. James Lawrence has an Oklahoma bear tag and man James has done nothing but helped me and be a great friend for a long time. And he will be hunting the yellow tag bear and we'll see what Batman weighs. But I believe that yellow tag is uh dred pounds bigger than this bear that I just took. So the troops are on their way. They're all about an hour hour and a half away, so I may get down and go track this bear. Um if he's dead. Oh, I just found

the bear. He ran about fifty yards from where I shot him, and he is a giant. I do not know what he weighs, but we are going to find out. And he's beautiful. All four canines are wore down. He's tall, he's long, he's fat. I could barely get him turned over. Holy cow, this is probably the biggest bear I've ever killed. The scales will tell we've got an eight hundred pounds scale by Dad. I can hear my dad coming up the mountain with the tractor he was on on hall.

James Lawrence is on his way. Ryan Grabs on his way. We are gonna know the way to this bear. But I am I don't care what he ways. I'm just grateful to partake in such a sacred event as to harvest a big, old, giant Oklahoma black bear like this. What a testament to conservation, What a testament to hunters that we've got bears like this here? Man, you the joy but also the agony of hunting. Two days ago, I was in just the agony as we lost Rivers bear.

I FaceTime River a minute ago, and she is ecstatic, truly is. She wanted to play by play, she wanted me to FaceTime or when I got the bear. I wish so bad she could be here. But this is what makes it all worth it. And uh and to share it with Dad's as in the creek, to share it with special people, my dad, James Lawrence, my buddy Ryan Grab. It's a phenomenal, phenomenal day. I hit this bear just right in the boiler room. I don't think

I got an exit wound. I could have swore that I got a total passed through, but I don't think that I did. I hit him about probably four inches behind the shoulder mid body, I mean, you know, midway from the top to the bottom. Um it just I mean the bear ran fifty yards. He was done before before he left, and I knew that he would be. I didn't even trail blood. I just walked back here and saw him piled up, and it took me about

twenty minutes to get him rolled over. I didn't even blood trail him, Dad, I just walked back here and found him. Hey, so the arrow disappear into the bear, Okay, just gone? I think complete passed through. Let it never passed through the bear? I think, well, surely not. But I think the entire arrow is inside and or it broke off. But look at this sucker. Look at those ears. Man, hear him fall? No, I just heard him bust off through the brush, and I mean just plowing over trees.

He kind of growled when I shot. BA didn't death moan of all the bears I've killed about the death Moon. Everybody's like, man, you gotta hear the death Moon. One man, I don't. I just don't hear it that often. Now was he? Uh? Was that era going in towards his other should little back? Yeah, it was just like this, so you got both longs just what you did. Yeah, it was just a tin ring double lung. But look look at that angle right there, hand right on his neck.

I mean he's wide. You know, his head might be small, it's not small, I guarantee. I bet my truck it's over twenty. I mean, I'm serious, I bet my truck. And now I might eat my words, but I'm gonna be well. The only reason I say that his neck is so stinking big. But man, that's a long ways from ear to ear. I mean it's a long ways across there. Yeah, I don't know what. But hey, the way this is how you know that he's gonna be big is look at those teeth. Those He does not

have a single canine. He needed to be killed, didn't he. He'd already contributed to the gene pool. I mean, we had this bear on camera, and I am not sure that this is not the bear that are good buddy shot. And we've never found the bear we tracked. Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure that this is not him. Yeah, well I'm gonna look for a scar down low on his brisket. But you know, and the thing is is that this as far as body size, is the lesser of those

two bears. But now they've worked there three big bears. Well there there is another board that's in the three hundred pound range, which he's this is the second largest bear. Yeah, there is a bear that is bigger body size than this one. I mean it, it's just unbelievable. But I mean, you know, when this animal walks up, you can't pass it easily. It'd be crazy. I thought about it. You know. Well, I mean that other bear at waigs this thing out bed maybe so. And see, that's what's gonna be so

cool to find out what the spare ways. I mean, if it weighs foreign pounds, then we go, oh that's a five that's a other one's five hundred. But if this one weighs five hundred, then we know we've got a six pound bear, you know. So that's what's gonna be interesting. Hey. You the other thing I learned about this bait side is I could hear you driving up the road before you got to the creek. I heard your truck a long time, and then I heard you

across the creek. So that tells me, Oh yeah, yeah, I figured you could well at least when I crossed the creek. We'll see when I could you hear all the banging manute drug worseness ever drug? Yeah, yeah, we'll see. When I'm coming in here to hunt, I'm thinking about, what are these bears here? And and they're here, and it's a long ways away, so it's good that I parked on the other side of the creek. Is extremely loud now that I've taken it. Oh, looks like the

boys are here. Yeah, he's just right down there. That's angle. Hey there, David, all right, right, man, that's a big step. Yeah. Hey, look at these teeth. Yep, it's not gonna be wrong. We need five, tracker, let me give five four pready seven holy smokes, Hey wait, go play. We were gonna put you up for adoption. What is ridiculous is that when he walked up and I didn't see those double yell air tags, I thought, man, oh just wait, just

wait and see. I had a good bear. Remember, Nickel would have passed the spar up five forty nine point four five is not exactly man and the money and you know that they say those skills are are accurate. That's what the even get a picture? I won't read it alright, what's he looks like? He's scot Man. That is awesome. Congratulations, Thank you very dad, Thanks for all your help. Man. Yeah, hey, it's a lot bigger than this bear. Look at the hit of that sucker. Hey,

thanks for listening to the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. Hey, while I'm standing over this bear, I want to ask you to subscribe to our magazine. When you subscribe to our magazine, you're supporting our cause you're supporting our brand, and you get an awesome magazine six times a year. I also want to ask you check out our YouTube channel. You'll be able to see this hunt on our YouTube

channel at some point really soon. And more than anything, let's keep the wild places wild because that's where the bears live.