Spring bear giants! Steffen gets the left overs!

After Skyler had killed such a great bear my oldest son Steffen look at me and said "I see how this is going to go, "Skyler kills a big bear and now there are hunters here and I'm just getting the left overs".  He was correct in that statement he was going to get the left overs since there were going to be numerous hunters in camp for the next little while, but I informed him that there were plenty of big bears and when they were done we would start hunting again.  After we had killed with numerous hunters it was Steffen's turn again.  At this time it was just us and another client.  There were 6 baits going at the time and since the other hunter was a paying client they would sit there bait of choice and we would take what was left.  Did we ever run into a streak of bad luck, we would look at the cards from the trail camera and pick a bait that looked pretty active and then we would head in that direction to sit all night and see maybe a little bear or two and many nights nothing at all.  It was that time of year when the big boars are searching for the hot sow, so you never knew what might walk in or not.  Killing a good bear would of been pretty easy but killing a giant was testing our patience.  We would sit one bait and the next day when the bait were re-baited and the cards were checked it would show we should of been at a different bait.  There was one bear in general we were trying to kill and we thought we finally had him figured out. The last time he hit the bait was just after dark so we were hoping that the cards showed us he was still there and that he had got just a little earlier so he would be there in the daylight.  Here is a pic of him.  Can you say giant!!

Well as our luck would have it he was gone again.  This is common for this bear we would show up on two different bait approx 5 miles apart and then he would be gone for a couple days.  So yes he is still alive and will only be bigger next year for a lucky client. 
Our luck finally changed when one of the huge bears we had had on camera showed back up again.  Coming to the end of the hunt and with no more clients to go we moved an extra bait barrel to this site to hopefully keep him there until we could get a chance to harvest him if he ever hit in the daylight hours.  After sitting the two man stand with three people of course, because Skyler was not missing out on big brothers kill if we could make it happen, good thing he is skinny.  Two nights of nothing was starting to take affect on Steffen and he was getting a little down.  That night when we got to the truck he looked at me and said "there is nothing we can do, we cant walk father, glass more, we are at the mercy of the bear.  I don't like this, I like being able to control the situation not them".  I could not not agree more. 
  So we decided to take a couple days off and let as much pressure as possible off the bait in hopes this big bear would make that one mistake we needed.  So we baited it real heavy that night so no one would have to come back for at least one day to re-bait.  The next couple days were real nice we actually got to eat a real dinner and got in a round of golf with the whole family. 
  Then it finally all came together.  After re-baiting real early one morning and looking at the cards we possibly had the break we needed.  The giant black bear had hit the bait numerous times and every time he was with a brown sow.  All we could hope for was he would stay long enough for us to get that one opportunity we needed and the sow would pull him to the bait in the daylight hours.
Here is one of the pictures that got the excitement level back to 1000%

That afternoon the decision was made to go with the ground blind and the sent sticks and the awesome Ozonics.  This would be something new at this bait since every hunter prior had sat in the stand.  We were trying everything to get that one chance on this huge bear.  After sitting for over two hours and not seeing a bear it was like our luck had not changed. All night we kept saying please show us the brown sow, show us the brown sow.  We knew if she would come in it would force him to follow since they were always together the last couple days.  Then it finally happened with only minutes of light left she finally appeared about 45 yards from the bait and made her way in.  Loosing light fast we were all staring in the direction she came from in hopes of big black.  He finally appeared and almost ran into the bait chasing her off and growling.  There was our chance and Steffen made it count.  He never moved and just fell at the barrel.  You would of though we just won the Super Bowl with all the excitement in that blind.  I looked at Steffen and said "left overs are not bad are they".

If you have an interest in hunting these awesome animals shoot me an email -kouryguideservice@gmail.com and I can get you hooked up with the right guy and maybe it will be you in the picture next year with a bear of this quality.