I will be taking both Rifle and Crossbow on my Maine bear hunt.
I believe bears that have been hunted over bait before are more wary than say a bear that has never been baited ever. Experts agree. Sure, I’d like to harvest a big bear with my crossbow but maybe a bigger bear with my favorite rifle. In years gone by I hunted with recurve bow, without success.
I will take both rifle and crossbow on the hunt this September.
Accordingly, these baited bears are smart. They come into view at your bait site in the last hour of light or in the dark.
Larger bears, like trophy whitetails, did not get large by being stupid. Outsmarting big bruins to get them to show themselves in daylight is the name of the game. No human smells near bait, no strange noises are the name of the game.
In some cases, just clicking the safety off can make previously hunted bears jump or drawing your arrow as it slides rearward will make them jump. Having a stand near a gurgling brook provides cover sounds for a bowhunter at say 15 or 20 yards from bait.
I believe rifle hunters often have an edge where stands are 50 to 75 yards from bait.
That said, wary big bears may show in daylight with the hunter at 75 yards because the bear did its homework just out of sight of the bait listening and smelling and circling.
The angle of the bear is not quite as critical with rifle as it is with bow, thus more shot opportunities are favored with a rifle such as my Browning Speed 7mm Remington Magnum.
Add up the 1,2, 3 above and I lean toward a rifle setup. We shall see as setups are revealed in September.
An Adventure filled Solo Maine Black Bear hunt is in my plans for September 2024. Come on along as I film some video clips too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear
I have not hunted black bear for quite some time, but it can be very exciting with a good outfitter and remote land access. I estimate the weight of this bear in the above image near 400 pounds.
What is even better is that very often you will see more than one bear or two or more on a 6 day hunt.
Most hunting is done in afternoon and evening on ground blinds or tree stands over bait.
Baiting is a great way to hunt bear, in particular, because you can be selective; e.g., to pass or shoot a smaller or larger adult bear.
The tough part is to gage the size of a bear coming to bait. Often, bears, particularly big ones, come to bait just minutes before dark, making judging size, and fur color even harder.
I am very pleased with my 10 Point Turbo Crossbow (390 – 400 fps) and my NAP Killzone Cut-on-Contact 100 grain mechanical broadheads. Bears often hit with a razor sharp broadhead in the heart/lung area, will run flat out for 10 seconds and then collapse deader-than-a-door-nail… never knowing what bit them. Too far forward may result in the arrow hitting the scapula bone and tough tracking so the shot must be true.
My Equipment, a 10 Point 400 fps Turbo S1 Crossbow Arrow Flight with Killzone Broadhead or my Browning 7mm Rem Mag.
Killzone provides a practice blade. It isn’t easy to assemble the practice blade but once done, it works. Note; that the there is a pencil point type head that you can get as well for this broadhead but i prefer a cut-on- contact point.
Haven’t killed a bear with the Killzone head yet, but we shall see. Many experts suggest fixed blade broadheads on bear. I have some to experiment with as well.
I will have my backup Kimber 45 ACP and my Browning Speed 7mm Rem Mag Rifle along with me as well.
I called to further discuss rifle at 75 yards vs bow at 20 yds and will decide when I get there. Rifle setups are further away from bait thus allowing less human odor at dusk near bait. Big bruins didn’t get big by being stupid. They use their nose and minor noise to determine when it is safe to approach bait, often after dark. Take away noise and smells at the bait site and maybe enough to to make a show.
What will I do with the hide, skull and meat? If the bear is large, I will make a rug and have the skull cleaned. I am a meat-eater and home-made butcher and self- trained chef. Bear fat can be rendered for lubricating/rust protection and also the lard makes a great ingredient for pie crust. Bear meat and fat was a real commodity in early America for its versatility in cooking/frying and for both lubrication and rust prevention and even lamp oil.
My Outfitter “Foggy Mountain Guide Service” hunts deep in the wild woods of Maine. Driving from southern New Hampshire to my Maine hunt location will take me about 5 hours, where I’ll spend up to six days hunting.
Many years ago, before I hunted moose, I was bird hunting with my youngest son Jason,not far from Lake Francis in Pittsburg, New Hampshire. It was early October. We entered the woods off a dirt road. Jason carried a 22 rifle and I had a pump shotgun with birdshot. The sun was shining and the north wood smells of fir trees and falling colored leaves gave us a great feeling to be alive and hunting in the Northwoods.
Ahead of us, we saw some movement, a cow moose and calf appear. “How cool”, I whispered to Jason, who was 11 years old at the time.
I had learned some moose calls with my mouth by pinching my nose, a cupping my hands around my mouth. So, I thought perhaps the cow would hang around.
I pinched my nose and let out an “arr” sound. The cow and calf didn’t like my sounds and melted into the trees ahead.
Suddenly, the boggy ground underneath us began to shake. “Did you feel that? I asked Jason. “Ya dad, what is happening.”
In the next moment, we heard tree limbs breaking from where the cow and calf came from.
A very large bull moose appeared. He was headed straight for us with his head tipping side to side displaying his a huge palmated antlers as he continued his approach. I pulled Jason to a dense group of large fir trees and stood very still. The bull had not spotted us yet but still approaching. I kept large trees in front of us as a barrier.
I realized that we were in trouble.
I chose to move closer to the large group of trees as the bull was advancing.
He spotted us!
Head tipping, he began to step around the trees to get to us.
Jason, tugged on my jacket whispering. “I want to go to the truck now, Dad!” “Shhh, I said as we began to move around the large group of trees as the bull circled. The guns we had with us would be useless, I thought in case of a charge.
Keeping those larger trees in front of us and between the bull was our best defense.
Undaunted, the bull changed direction and circled in the opposite direction to get at us. Jason whispered, “I can see the white of his eyes.”
The bull widened his distance and circled ever widening till he decided to turn and walk away. Whew!
The bull crossed the dirt road, near my truck, when two fishermen campers near the lake appeared with camera in hand.
They followed the bull.
I shouted, “be careful, he is dangerous.” They snapped a photo of the bull and came over to us where we shared our encounter. I asked if they would be so kind to send us a copy of the photo. Here is the bull below.
Safe in our truck, it was clear, after some thought, that my moose call drew in the bull. He thought I was competition for mating the cow.
The lesson here is calling in moose can be dangerous unless you are hunting them, and even then, they are still dangerous.
My BOG Tripod below worked great. My fleece head pullover kept me warm for hours on stand. In the picture below we were standing in water. You must be prepared.
Hunting in bogs of Newfoundland I found water everywhere, even in the grass and tundra in the bog below. Even trees and leaves were soaked with water.
If it looks like a field, the field had 6 inches of water on average. Slogging in an inferior boot will cut your hunt short. And not wearing your waterproof bib rain suit will soak you to the bone. I made some poor decisions too. I did not wear my rain bib and jacket on one morning and got soaked by water soaked bushes. My gloves were not waterproof and riding on the back of an ATV my gloves absorbed 1/2 cup water in each glove on a morning hunt. Get water proof gloves! My back pack was too heavy. With a guide, I did not need a large or heavy backpack. A walking stick gave me balance.
Below my most prized must-have accessories:
BOOTS – Buy best high calf waterproof boots with good tread
RAIN GEAR – Heavy duty green waterproof rain bib like Helly-Hansen and water-proof jacket too.
I killed my 800 lb cow moose with a new Browning X-Bolt in .270 Winchester with 150 grain Winchester Power Point bullets.
Ed’s Moose taken Sept. 19, 2023
The rifle was zeroed at 100 yards. The .270 is great on deer, good on elk and can easily kill moose broadside but has some distance and energy limitations. On the flip-side, the advantage of the .270 is lighter recoil and improved accuracy.
Distances are somewhat restrictive. Muzzle velocity form this bullet is 2850 fps, thus I calculated drop and energy on-line with JBM Ballistic Trajectory for this bullet before the hunt to determine my limits.
The JBM Ballistic calculation below provides data for the hunter to use in determining max range, energy and bullet drop.
Accordingly, I followed my own rules for energy.limits. I would not pull the trigger when terminal energy is under 1500 ft-lbs. In my case, under 1500 ft-lbs is at 300 yards. Luck would be in my favor with my guides laser distance at 240 yards. Energy was over 1600 ft-lbs and a broadside shot. I held 6 to 8 high from my BOG tripod rest and fired from a sitting position. A second later you could hear the bullet hit with a hollow drum-like thunk.
The moose never moved but you could see she was hit.
My guide says, “fire another shot.” I aimed a bit higher near the spine and fired. She fell like she was pole axed.
Examination of the wound sites showed 2 hits, one high and one low on the chest. The high hit was a few inches below the spine, my second shot. My first shot hit low in the chest. The lungs were a wreck, blood had filled the chest cavity. My guide Matt pulled heart and lungs from the chest along with the lower gut. I wanted to examine the heart. As you can see below the first bullet gashed the gallon-sized heart. This was not luck, it was understanding bullet drop and a good tripod rest. Well, maybe a little luck! We did not see any exit wounds but did not look for the bullets as we had work to do.
For those readers interested in the Ballistics data below is the JBM Data for Drop and Energy. You can see velocity at 250 yards is 2196 thus the bullet will mushroom. Drop is 8 inches and delivered energy is 1606 ft-lbs and did great damage without an exit wound.
It all happened so fast…Was it a bull? Nope! But she was broadside. My guide lasered her distance at only 240 yards and really Big! But I had a new Browning X-Bolt in .270 Winchester with a Leupold Scope.
Ed’s Moose taken 5pm Sept. 19, 2023
I was hunting with Newfoundland’s Gander River Outfitters.
I contacted the Gander River Owner/Outfitter, and my soon-to-be guide, Matt Romkey. We arranged a hunt date, September 17, 2023 to begin a 6 day Moose hunt with a tag for a bull or cow moose. Their website is https://ganderriver.com/
I was vacationing and cod fishing in Newfoundland, Canada for such a long a time frame, (a month and a half) in a different location, Jamestown, NL on Bonavista Bay, that Canadian Customs would not allow me to take my rifle across the border.
“Gotta go directly to the hunt”, said Canadian Customs. That was very disappointing…to say the least.
As luck would have it, in Calais, Maine there was a sporting store/hardware store (Johnsons) that allowed my to store my own Browning rifle for a fee and pick-it-up on the return home to New Hampshire.
My Outfitter Matt allowed me to use his rifle, a brand new Browning X-Bolt, like mine, but in .270 Winchester with a Leupold “Freedom” scope for the hunt and Winchester 150 grain Powerpoint bullets.
To get to the hunting/fishing lodge along the Gander River we boarded the Outfitter’s famed Gander River Boats; a 21 ft canoe with 15 hp motor.
We met other hunters and received room assignments and shot rifles to ensure they were on target.
We met a father/son team Chase Anthony and his father Dan who came to hunt thanks to a Pennsylvania non-profit organization called Saving Dreams Outdoors. See the facebook link below.
Chase, a handsome lad, is a cancer survivor who was given the hunt. Dan came for support!
Chase was successful thanks to the skill of his guide Sheldon and the support of everyone at the lodge.
Travel to our hunting bog areas is done by ATV’s, mine was a King Quad 500 Ati operated by Matt, a real expert, as all the guides were.
Sunday Day – First Night, I sat high in the back with raised seating, metal stirrups and hand grips while Matt and guides took us on “wild” ATV rides to the famed moose hunting BOG’s of Newfoundland in terrain so remote and hidden. In some cases we made our way through what seemed like miles of old trails overgrown with Alder bush. Bushwhacking really! Can you just imagine!
Our first jaunt was in the aftermath of Hurricane Lee where the clouds hunt low and delivered 30 plus mph winds and sheets of rain.
The black spruce in the BOG bent too-and-fro in the wind as rain fell sideways from branches. I looked forward to a warm meal.
Meals at camp, we hunters were up at 4am, had breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast/pancakes, coffee and juice; back for noon lunch of soup and sandwich. and dinner prepared expertly prepared by the camp cook “Gary”. And served to us by none other than Owner Matt Romkey. Such service, I was overwhelmed with hospitality! And then dessert too!
Our sleep quarters were separate from the main lodge and each bedroom had a private bath and shower. Nice!
Back to the hunt. Luckily the wind subsided during the week but rain was on and off. Temps were in the 50F range.
I learned the hard way by not wearing my waterproof bib and jacket on an outing and got soaked in the process. See the leaves on the Quad…
I was much better prepared on the afternoon hunt via ATV. About 5pm we began walking on a high crest looking down into the bog I named “The Big Valley”.
I was awestruck with this scenic valley/bog as we were high up looking down at the immense beauty.
Suddenly, I gazed over Matt’s shoulder as he looked for a place to set up. I whispered to Matt and pointed…”moose, I said!” He ducked low and excitedly whispered “Set up your tripod and rifle…hurry.”
I was equally excitedly and set up my tripod Called “Death Grip” by BOG. It’s like a bench rest in the field!
It was a huge lone cow standing broadside. Matt laser ranged her at 240 yards. I could not ask for a better setup, be it cow or bull. I made the decision right then to take her.
The rifle was zeroed at 100 yards thus I estimated the drop and held around 6 inches higher above the heart lung area… and squeezed the shot off. Thwack! we heard the bullet hit.
At the shot she stood frozen, as if transfixed and motionless.
Matt said “Shoot again.” And I did. She dropped like hit by Thor’s hammer.
OMG… Matt and I high fived each other again and again. It was picture and tag time, then gut and half the moose.
I noticed the entry bullet holes as I held the chest cavity open to remove blood filled heart and lungs. One hole was low in the chest, my first shot, and one high. Investigating, I said “Hey Matt, pull that heart so I can see it. As he did, Matt replied with a grin, “She never knew what hit her, eh Ed!”
The first bullet struck the heart! See video below! The second shocked the spine.
That night at dinner I had the cook saute some heart slices in butter, salt and pepper for hunters to taste. All said very tender and delish!
Sadly, I ended the hunt on the very next day. The moose went to the local game butcher, de-boned and frozen for our drive back to New Hampshire.
The first 2 weeks at Gander for hunters showed 100% success. All the guides are friendly and eager to find you a moose!
It was a pleasure hunting with Matt Romkey and the Gander River Guides.
First and foremost, like deer hunting, the wind can bust your efforts. I carry a wind powder in a small squeeze bottle and will check the wind at each of my moose bog setups and discuss strategy with my guides. I use some Dead Down Wind powder.
And I have 4 bottles of synthetic moose/cow-in-estrous urine and will use it as a cover scent and attractant. Reviews say the scent works and I will test it too.
I would have liked some bull moose urine too but could not locate any. If when hunting, I find a moose wallow, I will put some wallow urine on a rag and carry it for cover scent. Moose will not fully come-in if they suspect any human smells thus the scented rag trick can work with either estrous or bull scent.
If all is right, I think calling by mouth is a good initial strategy for me and listen for a bull to respond. I am pretty good at calling with my hands or a funnel type caller. Being able to make a long vibrato call for a cow mimic or a staccato-like grunt for a bull..
I just learned that moose talk, between moose is usually a “rrruh” sound that says “I am a moose”. Good to use if you are making noise getting to your stand to cover your mistakes
I like to mock-stage-a-fight, raking trees and making a racket with a moose scapula. It’s great fun too. I killed a New Hampshire bull with that tactic.
I sometimes use the tending grunt if a bull is located, where you grunt by pinching your nostrils and cone your hands and “softly” say mwahh and mwahh as if saying, me want, and the “t” is silent. This tending grunt indicates a bull is tending a nearby cow-in-heat. If the listening bull is in rut, he will likely challenge the tending bull and show himself.
Below is a great video on moose vocalizations and raking antlers and how moose talk to each other. A must see… But the video did not talk about moose wallows, where male urinate and roll in it like a cologne for the ladies.
If at a distance we will use a power electronic caller. If he is close we can try to mimic a bull and thrash and rake trees with my moose scapula. If all goes well this September we will have a 1000 lb moose to quarter and haul out. Once boned we will have roughly 300 pounds of delicious meat to freeze and eat. And maybe a large rack of antlers.
Below is my small racked bull taken in 2018. It does not look big in the photo but was 300 pounds of meat to take home.
As my readers know, Soon, I will be moose hunting in Newfoundland in September. You might be interested in my hunt gear below.
My new Allen Hunting Duffle. It is huge and rugged, and holds most all my gear, including tripods for its $40 cost.
I had to purchase a larger daypack. It is amazingly well made. Waterproof Camo Hunting Pack with Rain Cover, Durable Large Capacity Hunting Day Pack for Rifle Bow Gun. Cost $59. It is disappointing that its made in China but I bit the bullet.
It can strap on a rifle in the back of the pack and has a rifle butt sleeve for support and can carry a hydration system if you have one. Pockets on left and right of pack can store vacuum sealed water bottles like these below.
I used camo tape to cover the bottles. These bottles can hold liquid hot for 12 hours and cold for 24 hrs.
Frog Togg Hip Waders Cost $55
Synthetic Moose Estrus
My USA made Night Head Lighting
My scent eliminator below.
Below is My TriPod, Death Grip which is like a standing field bench rest. I love it for long range shots and grips your rifle.
My self-built 440C stainless knife and custom sheath. I purchased the blade and built the handle and had an eagle feather custom sheath created for it. Stunning!
And of course my Browning X-Bolt Speed in 7mm Rem, Mag. with Leupold VX-6 Scope and hand-loaded Nosler 175g AccuBond Long Range bullets.
As my readers know, Soon, I will be moose hunting in Newfoundland in September. You might be interested in my hunt gear below. 
