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!

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/