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Perhaps you are considering a crossbow hunt and need to fly to your destination like me.  I have booked a 2025 trophy spring black bear rifle/crossbow hunt in Alberta, Canada.  I will bring my 10 Point Turbo S1 Crossbow along. Hunters in Alberta are allowed two bears.

I went online to look for a hard crossbow case.  This case below is said to fit all 10 Point Crossbows since 2019. The cost was $250, a bit high. However, the case was designed for specific 10 Point crossbows. The internal dimensions allow similar crossbows with varying fit quality like mine. 

 Ten Point says the case is hard enough for air travel, as a checked bag, but must have TSA airline approved locks. The case does come with some protective foam. I have added more. The case also has some exterior connection points for strapping to an ATV. 

Some air-traveling  crossbow hunters suggest to keep arrows and broadheads separate in other checked luggage. We shall see. I purchased a broadhead case from Muzzy below for $10.50. Keep those blades razor sharp. 

Fly Safe.

Well, I found a few deer tracks but not rubs or scrapes in a new area. On the way back to my truck, I found a few new birch polypores, a mushroom like fungus growing on dead birch trees.  As a kid, I called them steak mushrooms. They are easy to identify correctly as they have no look alikes.

As it turns out humans have been using birch polypores across Europe and North America as medicine for centuries. Most famously, Otzi the Iceman of 3300 BC used polypores for whipworms he had in his gut and carried pieces of the polypore on his necklace. One species for medicine and the other for firemaking called a tinder fungus.

They look like a radial fan growing on dead birch trees. A tawny brown color, like deer fur color on top and white on the bottom.

The birch polypore is a wonder of nature. It is anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory etc.. And when fresh and sliced thin can be a bandaid applied to a cut or scrape it can aid in healing minor wounds. As a tea it has several medicinal qualities.

https://www.mushroom-appreciation.com/birch-polypore.html

Check it Out!

Purchase Premium Prepped brass in increments of 25, 50, and 100.

Nosler.com

Just a quick note to hunters and hikers, I have not seen many ticks this fall.   A good thing!

BUT

Don’t be fooled, be prepared. 

Stay vigilant an spray clothing, boots, backpacks,tents etc with Permethrin to avoid deer ticks. 

My favorite spray is made by Sawyer.

Nosler.com 

 I rendered bear fat from the bear I harvested last week and made special bear fat candles in honor of my early New England heritage.

Below is my very first bear wax bayberry candle. Bayberry is one of my favorite candle smells.

My first lighting of my bear fat candle Nice!

There are recipes on line to create your own for you to check out. Food grade Stearic Acid, wicks, bees wax, and  I purchased on Amazon. I had jelly jars to make the candles.

My Bear Oil/ Beeswax Candle Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups rendered bear fat

1/2 cup food grade stearic acid beads

4 Tbsp bees wax

Premade wax wicks

Bayberry Oil 30 to 60 drops. Use a dropper. 

In a few small pots, heat water to make a bath to melt the beeswax, stearic acid beads and heat the rendered bear fat.

You can use canning jars to melt your ingredients while in the water bath show above.

Add the hot bear fat and hot stearic acid to a bowl and stir.  Now add melted beeswax to the bowl and stir.

Finally, add drops of your essential oil like my bayberry oil.

Stir and pour your mixture into candle jars with standing wicks shown below.

I used cooled moldable wax buttons to hold wicks in place to the bottom of jars.

 The Bayberry smell is reminiscent of Williamsburg, Virginia in the 1700’s. Enjoy!

Good Hunting!

I had lots of slow-stewed (6 hours) shredded bear meat on hand as part of processing my bear leg bones.

Accordingly, I made black bear tacos with the shredded meat and it was spectacular. Enough meat for 4 later meals. 

My favorite Taco seasoning mix is Ortega brand powder mix. I added two tsp of the mix to 1/4 lb of meat with a splash of water to the shredded meat in a frying pan and mixed/sautéed till warm. 

Place on a soft fajita. I flip my soft fajita over my gas stove flame to toast it a bit. This gives a fresh cooked flavor to the fajita.

Add meat, salsa and veggies, sour cream and shredded cheese. Wow! My wife gave it a big thumbs up too!!

Enjoy!

It was September 8th 2024, the day before my hunt on opening day of black bear hunting season with Foggy Mountain Guide Service.

Just a few days from my birthday. I think I turn 39 again.

I live in southern NH and drove my Tacoma 4×4 truck 5 hours north above Moosehead Lake Maine. The drive was long but scenic.

On arrival, I met Brandon Bishop, owner of Foggy Mountain Guide Service and my veteran guide Ken. Ken has guided and recovered over 100 bears. I was listening when Ken spoke.

Brandon is a registered Master Maine Guide with hands-on skill. He will skin and quarter your bear should you be successful. 

My Leupold VX-6 scoped Browning X-Bolt 7mm Rem Mag rifle with Nosler Partition bullets was nestled in a hard case for the trip, but shot it before the hunt. It was dead on! Shot distances would be around to 20 to 30 yards.

I wanted to hunt from a tree stand with active baits. Ken set me up in a ladder stand. Nice! 

No trail cameras to capture bait pictures but Ken says this one is hit every day.

Breakfast on hunt morning was scrambled eggs, sausage/bacon home fries, toast, coffee and juice. Brandon had 26 hunters in camp to feed and get them ready. All had shower access to eliminate scent. 

Hunters are shown bait stands so they could drive their own vehicle for the hunt. My ladder tree stand was older but solid as a rock. My bait barrel was the old style steel 50 gal drum. Great for judging bear size. 

Surprisingly, we had a young 11 year old girl hunter named Angela Longenette and her attending father from Ohio on the hunt as well.

She had a rifle chambered in 350 Legend. I heard she could shoot it well too. 

It was 1 to 2 PM when we all headed to our stands.

Everyone of us hopeful for seeing bears and perhaps killing one. Most were rifle hunters but a few hunted with bow or crossbow. 

My treestand was 10 miles from camp, while other stands were up to 40 miles away.

All settled in, it was 3PM when a red squirrel began to chatter off to my right.  It was windy at that time and had a crosswind blowing toward me and to my right. Hmmm, I thought, “maybe a bear sneaking in?” Fifteen minutes later a small ghost-like bear suddenly appeared from the right at the bait barrel. The bear stepped toward my stand and looked up at me. Accordingly, he slowly reversed direction, swung its head to smell the goodies in the barrel and continued to walk slowly away along a well used bear trail.

At 4PM the wind abruptly stopped… as if someone turned off a switch.

Silence, “you could hear a pin drop.”  I could hear my breathing.

I realized that every minute toward darkness that passed brings me closer to likely seeing another bear. Hopefully much bigger!

At 5:30PM you could see that darkness began its slow process to push out the light. A croaker began to chirp behind me.

Suddenly, a bear appeared on that trail the smaller bear left on. He was a much bigger bear. As he walked toward me and the barrel, I had no shot, when, abruptly, the bear stopped at 35 yards, smelled the ground, briefly turning broadside.

My rifle was on him.

 A few seconds later my crosshairs settled on his shoulder and my rifle barked it’s 3000fps 160 grain Partition. The bear ran to the left, off the trail into thicker woods. I sat in silence, listening for the bear and its portening death moan. Nope, nothing but silence. 

I played the shot sequence in my mind and was very confident in the shot and its placement. I could hardly feel the recoil.  The report of my rifle was amazingly muffled as the thick woods eagerly gobbled up the sound.

I climbed down without checking for blood, and decided to drive to rendezvous with Ken, my guide. There, I met four other Foggy Mtn hunters.

Each had shot a bear too. Wow!

Ken arrived with Brandon with the five hunters in waiting…and decided to go the closest stand. Mine! Only the guides had guns (big bore pistols) when following a wounded bear. I trailed behind with my flashlight.

Blood was seen immediately. “Blood here! More here too, they whispered.”  They stopped just ahead of me just 25 yards from where I shot. “You find him?” I shouted. “Yup!!” They eagerly replied.

My bear was very dead with a bullet hole in the shoulder and an exit wound out of the rib cage on the opposite side. We took pictures right there too! Nice bear! Hand shakes ensued! 

Now back at camp, we hung my bear and waited for other bears to arrive at the game pole. 

Young Angela and Dad were smiling. She shot one too!! 

Her bear turned its head , just as she shot. The bullet hit the bears head and the bear dropped dead right there. No trailing needed!

The bear is bigger than she is!

Angela with her Dad

Congratulations Angela!!

Eight bears were taken by Foggy Mountain hunters on day one. Day two produced one bear, a really nice big bear. Brandon skinned and quartered all the bears with his little Havalon knife. “It cuts like a scalpel.”

Bear meat, fat and hides were placed in a freezer. On the morning of day 3 I left for home with meat quartered, hide for a half bear wall mount and lots of fat to render. 

So, how’d I rate this hunt, food, and service overall? I give it an A Plus. Brandon runs a tight ship.

Thank You Brandon!!

See https://www.foggymountain.com/