Patience
Larry Weishuhn
Many years ago while working as wildlife disease specialist based out if Texas A&M University Department of Veterinary Pathology on the wall of our “little-house-on-the prairie office and laboratory” we had a poster depicting two buzzards sitting on a limb watching a nearby road anticipating a road kill which was not happening. One of the buzzards was turned toward the other stating, “Patience my tail feathers! I’m going to go kill something!” Sitting in an enclosed blind watching a bear bait, the vision of that poster came back many times and haunted me!
I dearly love hunting black bear, be it spring or fall. In this instance, it was the first days of October, Oklahoma’s Archery Bear Season to be exact. It had opened October 1, same day as my wife’s birthday. I had promised I would be home for her special day and I was. We had a great evening with family.
Birthday party behind me, I left home at 2am the morning of the 2nd of October anticipating after a near eight-hour drive I would be at the Choctaw Hunting Lodge no later than 10:00 am in time for brunch and make certain my Tenpoint Crossbow was hitting the target where I wanted it to. Dusty Vickrey, the Choctaw’s Hunt and Ranch Manager, had earlier graciously agreed to sight it in for me knowing my commitments before the hunt.
I arrived at 10:15, visited briefly with Dusty and Nacolh, who run and oversee all things Choctaw Hunting Lodge, then shot my crossbows before heading to my blind. As I prepared to shoot Dusty suggested, “Shoot three bolts, but do not shoot at the same small target. If you do, you’re going to ruin all three bolts because you’ll “Robin Hood” all three.” He continued, “The bait you’re going to is 20-yards from the blind. That’s the distance to the target.” I followed his advice and shot at three locations on the block target. Doing so, I realized Dusty was right. Had I shot all three at the same spot, I would have ruined all three bolts. Dusty had done me proud with his sight-in.
Terry Stewart, a primary guide, and longtime friend, for the Choctaw dropped me off at my blind at 12:30 saying he would pick me up after dark. Before leaving he reminded me the bear I was hunting usually came to bait right after sundown, but he had also been on bait mid-afternoon, and once at 1:15.
Shortly after Terry left, whitetails starting appearing including one really nice basic ten-point with three “kickers” on his back tines. Had I been hunting whitetails I would have been sorely tempted. He appeared to be at least five-years old, had good antler mass with about a 24-inches outside spread. Impressive!
A short time later eight long-bearded Eastern turkey gobblers visited the bait site. A couple of the gobblers nearly stepped on their beards as the walked upright.
I noticed neither the deer, bucks, does and fawns, or for that matter the otherwise attentive turkey gobblers paid any attention to my presence. All were directly downwind of me for about an hour or so feeding on tidbits of bear bait. Prior to leaving the lodge I had sprayed my clothing, shoes, hat, gloves, crossbow, camera and crossbow tripod, as well as the backpack I carried with Wraith (www.wraithhunting.com). I also sprayed my beard and face, as well as the inside of my blind with Wraith. Past experience with this product told me that having “sprayed down”, critters would not smell me, nor could they apparently see a thermal image of me. The animals I saw never knew I present, even though they were directly downwind of me off and on all afternoon long.
There was something else I noticed, both the deer and turkeys were most active that day between 3:30 and 4:15. I checked to see what time the moon went down. Moon set was at 3:59 pm. Interesting! Over next seven hunting days I paid particular attention to peak deer and turkey movement, and squirrels as well. Peak activity among the local deer, turkey and squirrels coincided each day with moonset, a half hour before through a half hour after.
The first afternoon I sat over seven hours watching the bear bait, not counting waiting after dark to be picked up.
Next morning, I had Terry take me to my bear blind so I would be there well before the slightest hint of first light. Hunting fall bear most other places, I would have only hunted in the afternoon, but on the Choctaw bears come to bait at first light, mid-morning, or mid-day, or mid-afternoon, or just at dark, and unfortunately also after dark.
During early baiting, a big bear started coming the bait I was hunting. That bear based on trail camera photos would weigh upwards of 500 pounds, possibly more. I have hunted black bear a lot in the past and have taken one bear that weighed over 500-pounds, a couple over 400-pounds and several in the 225 to 350-pound range. Those larger bears squared in excess of 7-feet approaching 8-feet without any stretch.
Having in the past taken a goodly number of black bears, after Dusty told me about that one particular bear, I knew he was the one I wanted to hunt to the exclusion of others. I did see one trail camera photo of the bear Dusty described. Taken, he would be mighty close to 500-pounds and likely exceed that weight. He was a tall, lanky bear that would certainly square very well over 7-feet, a truly monstrous black bear.
Prior to my hunt I had mentioned that particular bear to a friend. He questioned whether bears truly got that big in Oklahoma. I assured him they did. The largest taken on the Choctaw land to date, on the portion leased to hunting groups, weighed in excess of 600-pounds. That’s larger than most grizzlies.
One of the reasons for big, heavy bears in Oklahoma is they do not hibernate and for the most part feed year-round. If temperatures get unseasonably cold and food is hard to find, they may lay down and sleep for a few days. But as soon as it warms, they are active once again looking for food. The primary reason bears hibernate is because of the lack of food during the winter months! Southeastern Oklahoma seldom has long cold spells where there is not some sort of bear food available.
My second day of hunting I sat on a bear bait for 14-hours. During my vigil I saw numerous whitetails, long-bearded gobblers, lots of squirrels and songbirds, but no bear.
My third days was a repeat of the second day in terms of hours spent in my bear blind and in what I saw. I found it interesting peak movement of both deer and turkeys occurred starting 30-minutes prior to and 30-minutes after the local official moonset.
That night after a most delicious dinner prepared by Nacolh, I described to Dusty the poster we, years ago had on our Wildlife Disease Lab wall. Dusty’s eyes lit up, “Got a plan! Tomorrow morning you and I are going deer hunting. There several management bucks and does I want to remove from within our high fence. And…I know you don’t go anywhere without at least one of your Taurus Raging Hunter handguns. Let’s you and me go deer hunting in the morning.”
I certainly liked how my dear friend was thinking. I had my .454 Casull Taurus Raging Hunter and a couple of boxes of Hornady Handgun Hunter, 200-grain Monoflex shells in my room’s closet.
Sleep came quickly that night after a couple wee dram of “safewater” actually some of the very best and finest “Old Fashions” I had ever tasted, followed by a most delicious Nacolh prepared meal, finished with homemade ice cream and banana pudding for dessert.
“Did you get enough to eat?” asked Nacolh as I was leaving the dinner table.
“No! Once again I not only got enough, I ate too much! Please quit preparing such delicious meals! Every time I come to the Choctaw and eat your fabulous cooking I gain at least one pound per day!” I replied.
Next morning well before first light Dusty and I were watching for whitetails. We were not disappointed. I soon had my crosshairs on a 3 x 3 buck without browtines. A squeeze of the trigger put him down. A few minutes later I did the same on a doe with my Taurus Raging Hunter/Hornady combination.
We were back at camp well before 9 am. We quickly gutted and hung both deer in the cooler. I grabbed a couple of sandwiches Nacolh had prepared for me, exchanged my handgun for crossbow and headed to my bear bait. By a little after ten o’clock I was watching for bear. Lots of deer, long-bearded turkeys, squirrels and songbirds showed that day, but no bear. However, late that afternoon I spotted a black form moving amongst the trees. My heart skipped numerous beats in anticipation of seeing a bear. But alas, that “black blog” morphed into a monstrous black wild boar hog.
Next morning Dusty and I were again hunting whitetails. This time I shot an 8-point with my Taurus Raging Hunter .454 Casull/Hornady combo and a few minutes later another doe. We were back in camp by 8:15 pm. I was back on my bear stand before 10:00.
Again, a very long sit that day without seeing a bear. I knew it could happen when hunting one particular bear. Some of the other baits were being hit by bears, but not the monster I was after. Two of the daytime bears appeared to be between 250 and 300-pounds range, nice bears!
While I had been bear hunting that afternoon, Mark and Carol Little arrived in camp as had Luke Clayton. Mark and Carol had bought a Choctaw Hunting Lodge donation at a DSC Banquet so Carol could hunt a whitetail with her crossbow on the Lodge’s 20,000+ acres of open range. Luke was there to shoot a couple of high-fenced does.
Soon as I got to camp that evening I learned Carol had taken a gorgeous 150 B&C class 10-point with her crossbow. Luke, that afternoon had stayed in camp to interview Nacolh for his weekly radio show which is turned into a weekly podcast, “Catfish Radio with Luke Clayton and Friends”. It’s been my honor and pleasure to have done his weekly radio show with Luke now every week for over twenty years.
We had been back at camp about an hour when Dusty pulled me aside to show me a photo of a huge bear on bait. You guessed right, it was the monstrous bear I was hunting. He was on the bait where I had been. At least now we knew he was still in the area.
Next morning Luke shot two whitetail does, which I was able to film. Rather than go to my bear blind I opted to film him for our weekly “A Sportsman’s Life” television show on CarbonTV.com. Once we got Luke’s does taken care, he headed home. That’s when Mark, Carol, Dusty and I went hunting in the Choctaw Estate pasture for a whitetail buck for Mark.
Mark’s deer did not come easy. Several stalks, more walking! We finally found a buck, one with double drops, one on either main beam near the end of the beam. The one he was hoping to find. Mark did himself proud with an excellent shot. Thankfully I was able to film his hunt for “A Sportsman’s Life” and you’ll be able to see it as well on either CarbonTV.com or our Youtube channel of the same name in the very near future.
Just before 2:00 pm I was back in my bear stand watching deer and long-bearded Eastern gobblers. Late that evening with precious light remaining I spotted a bear walking through the woods quartering toward the bait. It stopped sixty-yards distant, quartering toward me. I recalled there had initially been trail photos of two black bears at this particular bait. The monstrous boar I was hunting, but also what appeared to be huge, ancient sow. Her belly nearly dragged the ground. I watched the bear through my scope. It had a rather narrow head and was very heavy, likely upwards of 400-pounds. I strongly suspected this bear was the big sow. At that point, I had many some patient and some not so patient hours invested into this bear hunt. I questioned my resolve regarding shooting either a monstrous bear, or, if this one presented a shot, shooting it.
The bear made the decision for me. It turned, walked to my right and stepped where I did not have a clear shot at her vitals. It was then I could see the bear’s belly nearly dragged the ground and its head looked more feminine than masculine.
Just that quickly she had appeared she was gone.
I spent the next two days hunting bear, not seeing anything colored black, save crows that frequented the bear bait numerous times daily. All too soon my bear hunt came to and end. Had I not previous commitments I would have begged Dusty and Nacolh to allow me to stay a couple more days. Unfortunately, I had to get back to Texas for other commitments. But I left the Choctaw with great resolve to return to hunt the Choctaw monster bear in fall of 2027.
I titled this piece “Patience” for a reason. By the time I left the Choctaw I had invested 67-hours sitting, watching a bear bait without seeing the bear I was after. I could have moved and likely gotten a shot at one of the bears that were on other baits on the far western side of the spacious 23,000-acres property.
But…I was hunting a particular bear, not just hunting bear. It was what I wanted to do; home in on one big bear and either take him or go home without a bear hide, meat and fat to render. Had the belly-dragging bear given me a reasonable shot, would I have loosed a bolt. Possibly!
If the good Lord and the Choctaw Hunting Lodge allow I’ll be back hunting that same bear the bigger, come the 2027 Oklahoma black bear archery season. Mind you, there is a really good black bear population on the Choctaw Hunting Lodge’s expansive property. Before heading home to Texas I made arrangements for a black bear and fallow deer stag combination hunt donated to DSC (www.biggame.org) to take place the first week of October, 2027. The highest bidder will hunt black bear in the afternoon of the six-day hunt with a bow or crossbow, and rutting fallow stags with a firearm of his or her choice each morning. Watch for details about bidding on this hunt on DSC websites to be sold at our January 2027, Atlanta DSC Convention.
While some would consider my bear hunt unsuccessful, I will strongly disagree! It was indeed a huge success, one that I will relive many times in my memories and stories told around the campfire!