Moose Droppings

This past week I was in Maine Bear hunting this is part two in what I think will be a 4 part series on the hunt. If you missed part one you may want to read that first.

The weather for bear hunting was not great; windy, warm, and threatening to rain. I packed my rain gear in my pack, sprayed down with Primos Silver XP,

load the gun and head for the blind. It is around 2 pm on Monday the hike in is not far but staying on the trail is important while maneuvering through the swampy terrain. I pour the bait I carried in with me into the bucket tied onto the tree and then I retreat back to my blind, which is only about 11 yards away. The blind is made out of burlap and is attached to three trees forming an L shape. Additional brush has been placed in front of the camo burlap to further break it up.

Once in my blind probably the best piece of hunting equipment that I brought with me is pulled out of my pack. The Thermecell is a portable mosquito repellent machine that works phenomenally well.

Within mere minutes of starting this up the pesky mosquitoes are gone. The Thermecell operates virtually silently and odorless off a butane canister that is inside the Thermecell and an external pad of repellent that is released when it is heated.

With the skeeters dealt with I go about making sure there is nothing to close that I can brush up against to make noise and that the chair is positioned the right way. Within a few minutes of getting settled down the woods return to normal as the Chickadees’ find the food in the bait bucket which sets off non stop flights to and from the bucket that would rival O Hare during the Thanksgiving rush.

Observing the wildlife is great fun and besides the birds the squirrels are now feeding out of the bait bucket as well. A couple of brief rain showers rolled through but I stayed pretty dry with the tree canopy overhead. The wind kept up though and none of the big critters seemed to be moving. Around 6pm I caught a flash in the woods but I wasn’t to sure what it was. I knew it was to small for a bear but it wasn’t a squirrel either. A few minutes latter a red fox exploded out of the weeds near the bait site catching an inattentive squirrel as it descended the tree the bait bucket was hanging from. With dinner in his mouth the fox trotted down the trail that past a few feet off to the left of my blind. A couple minutes latter he returned down the same trail and caught another squirrel near the bait bucket.

While theses events were very entertaining it was also very reassuring that the Primos Silver XP was working. This fox had walked by me only 3 or 4 feet away and never reacted to me being there. He did this not once but three times so I knew my scent control was good.
The first day’s hunt ended without me even seeing a bear but that’s fine because on Tuesday all that will change when I have a foot race with a bear. Tuesday’s exciting hunt will be in part three of this story.

Related Articles:

• part 4 of My Maine Bear Hunt
• NC Bear Hunter Rescued Off a Ledge
• VP Selection Increases Interest In Moose
• “Foot Race With A Bear” Part 3 Of Maine Bear Hunt
• Maine Bear Hunt 2008 Part One
• Success
• Bear Hunt Update
• Dog Days of Summer
• Maximus Bite
• No Permit This Year For Me How’d You Do?