I have been pretty busy lately because I got married last Saturday, but I did have a chance to get out to hunt a few times during bow season. The first Wednesday morning I was sitting in a stand and I decided to carry my wife's (fiancé at the time) crossbow. I had never hunted with a crossbow but took it with me just to try it out. I was in a permanent stand that has always been a good spot on the side of a steep ridge between fields and a cedar thicket. Soon after daylight the turkeys began sounding off on the next ridge over. About a half hour later 2 jakes soared across the hollow and landed about 10 yards from my stand. I watched them scratch around for a while before making their way out of sight. Things were pretty slow after that until 7:45 I noticed something black coming across the ridge about 50 yards above me. It was a bear! I grabbed my crossbow and could tell he was bigger than the one I killed 2 years ago that ended up weighing 140. He made his way into a clearing about 30 yards away and I put the scope on him and squeezed the trigger. He ran off and I thought I heard him crash over in the hollow. I gave it about 15 minutes and climbed down and walked over to where he had been standing. I couldn't find any blood or hair. Another 10 minutes of searching and I found the bolt. It was covered it blood and hair. I looked for another 5 minutes or so and couldn't find any blood on the ground, so I decided to just walk over in the direction he ran and see if I could find him since I thought I heard him crash. About 75 yards later I found him piled up under some brush. As I walked up he was a lot bigger than I thought when I had shot. It actually made me pretty nervous going up to him. I called my dad and brother to come help. The 3 of us could only move him a few inches at a time so I called my uncle to bring a 4 wheeler. It was nearly impossible getting a 4 wheeler up the side of this thick steep ridge, but after about an hour and a half we got it to him. It took about another 2 hours to get him back to the truck from there.
He ended up weighing 404 pounds on the scales at the check station.
Here's a pic my uncle took and printed for me. Not the best quality since it's a picture of a picture, but shows the bear's size better.
That is a heck of a bear.
