My 2021 MN bear hunt

BuckSutherland

5 year old buck +
No sense keeping everyone in suspense since I'm posting in successful hunts forum.... I will have several post to follow over the next few days. Had an AWESOME experience for one memorable self guided hunt. I harvested this dry old sow. Her teeth were really ground down. Not much left of them.


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Congrats to you!!
 
Nice bear - she has a big old gut on her. What did she weigh?
 
Nice bear - she has a big old gut on her. What did she weigh?


I will get there at the end of the story...


I was offered a place to about 1.5 miles from my land next to 600 acres of field corn. My plan was to hunt this as a backup area. I declined the corn and headed about 3 miles SE and went into the forest near a stand of mature red oaks. I wanted to do this hunt completely on my own and do it in a big woods setting.

Those corn fields were getting piss pounded, especially where water was nearby. We are in extreme drought in that area. I nearly hit a bear up there with my truck getting water, A cub got within 25 feet of me at the well where I get water, and I watched a goodyear blimp stroll out of the corn down the logging road next to the corn. He was enormous.

Anywhere with water was key. I knew I had to get close to water in the spot I would pick.


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I decided to hunt a stand of oaks I was a little familiar with. I went about 100 yards off the main trail through the woods, and left myself about 80 yards to the swamp that was north of me. The terrain dropped down about 50 feet from my setup to the swamp in 80 yards. I set up on the east side of a red oak ridge that ran north and south. The finger I was sitting on was the beginning of a pretty good sized stand of red oaks. I knew there would be bears back there cause of the swamps and the oaks. It was pretty thick to the north, east, and west of me. It opened up into the oaks going south, and I tucked right in along a pretty thick edge where I thought they might like to travel. There was a lot of bear sign back in the area last year for the third weekend of deer hunting. I had high hopes, and it didnt look like many people were in the area.

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