Shortly after I retired in 2019 I booked a black bear hunt with Otter Creek Outfitters in Saskatchewan. They are located about 3 hours North of Saskatoon.
Due to Covid the CN/USA border closed and the hunt was cancelled in 2020 and 2021. The hunt was also cancelled in 2022 as the result of a late Spring.
This year it finally happened. It is a 20 hour drive each way for me to the outfitter’s location. I was looking forward to the drive across North Dakota and my first trip to Saskatchewan. Both were very enjoyable.
I can not say enough good things about the outfitter, great communication, great food, clean and modern accommodations and outstanding guides. I don’t know that I will ever go on another hunt like this again, but if I did I would not hesitate to use this outfitter again. They also do a whitetail deer hunt in the fall.
Out of the 10 guys in camp I was the only one using a ML. I was using a percussion .73 cal. original English Sporting rifle that is not marked with the maker’s name. The outfitter told me that I was the first in his camp to use an original ML and he has not yet had anyone use a flintlock. A lot of these guys use compound bows.
After 3 days of hunting, I wanted to dump my load and make sure that I had a fresh load in the rifle. I felt very comfortable that the rifle’s load would go off without an issue, but I wanted to make sure.
One of the guys in camp was from GA and he was excited to see me shoot my rifle. So, I told him he was going to shoot it, not me.
There was a target board setup about 85 yards away. He leaned against a tree and touched it off. As we started down range to check his target you could see the hole that the 580 grain round ball made, and it was just one inch above dead center. The shooter was ecstatic.
I reloaded the dirty rifle and prepared to go hunting that afternoon.
Every afternoon I saw bears. The first night I had 3 bears come in and one of them was larger then the other two. He was tempting, but I really did not want to shoot a small bear. Bears are very hard to determine size if you are not careful so I let them pass.
The next 2 nights I had only sows with yearlings so there were no temptation to shoot anything.
The fourth night I was in a new stand and had a sow with two yearling cubs come in right away. The cubs were not very playful like the ones from the prior two nights. If you have never hunted in the Spring over bait the yearlings are still with their mothers pre rut and are scared of everything and are also very curious and playful. The slightest hint of danger finds them climbing the nearest tree at a speed that is unbelievable.
I had cubs climb up my tree several times out of fear and curiosity. At first it is a little concerning. When the sow starts climbing your tree that causes a little more apprehension.
On the fourth night around 6:30 pm the sow and cubs went on alert. The cubs quickly climbed up tree right in front of me and the sow took off like a furry freight train. I saw two different bears in the bush take off running. The sow disappeared out of sight for a few minutes and then what I was sure was a boar came in. The cubs while still in their tree and were clearly agitated at the new bear.
I was trying to judge the size of the new bear but he was not cooperating. The sow soon returned and he did not seem to really care. She attacked the boar and they fought for a little bit, with the sow retreating back to the base of the tree with her cubs perched even higher up.
The boar came to the left of my stand and was at a fairly steep quartering way angle. He stopped for a split second and I shot him. He clearly was hit and staggered for 10 yards and fell over dead behind some bushes. I reloaded as I always do, just in case.
I had to scare the sow and cubs away so that I could get down and make sure the boar was not suffering and access the situation.
The rifle delivered the round ball true to its sights and passed through the boar exiting his front chest. I was very thankful for a good, quick and clean kill.
This was my third black bear hunt and first confirmed kill. My first hunt only lasted one afternoon and I did not see any bears. Second hunt I shot a bear with a .54 ML and never found the animal, and that was the only bear I saw on that trip.
I was surprised at how small the bear actually was. He is certainly not a huge or even a large bear. I was trying to make sure I did not shoot a small bear and had been studying pictures of bears of various ages. The way he was fighting the sow and not backing down had me convinced that he was a mature dominate boar.
I wanted to try the meat even though a lot of people say that Spring bear meat is not any good. My bear did not stink like the other bears killed this week so I brought home a few pounds of the meat.
After breakfast till 2 pm was free time so I went fishing each day. There was a lake near by with a boat on it that had a good population of small northerns. We ended up taking the boys from the South fishing for northerns for their first time and they really enjoyed it.
Fleener
