This was my third year hunting bear in northeastern Minnesota. The first two years were uneventful because the bear were hitting our bait stations at night. We had six bait stations and of those six two of them were getting hit hard. Luckily they were only a mile and a half apart. These were the ones we are going to hunt on the opener.

The opening day was uneventful for bear. Bill ended up seeing a couple of deer and three wolves, but they were all collared. The next day I had to laugh: a pine martin came in and tried to take the scent bag that was hanging up in the tree. For a while he was swinging pretty good. All of a sudden he disappeared.  Was this my chance? Was there a bear coming in? My heart started to beat faster. There it was, a black bear, but the only problem was he was behind me and yes, he found out I was there and took off. Rats! I didn’t even have a chance. Just as I was going to leave my stand I heard a shot form Bill's direction. It ending up Bill scored one about 200 lbs.

Well, I had to wait till the next weekend to try my luck again. Boy was I antsy all week! Saturday morning we arrived at the bait station and it was hit hard. Not a crumb was left. That was good. Then we noticed a different bear was coming in, the droppings were a lot firmer than the other bear. We also changed the stand a little so I could shoot behind me if I had to.

I got to the stand about 4, the skies were overcast and the temp was about 65. I prayed that the rain would stay away till after dark. It was about 4:30 when two ravens and a turkey buzzard came into the bait station. The buzzard had a tough time coming into the bait station cause of his wing span. The trees were too close together. I never realized that they make a hissing noise. It kind of sounded funny.

It was 7:30; I glanced up the slope to the side of me. I saw something blonde. First thought was an albino bear which is protected in Minnesota. It took a step, a brown leg, here it comes, a brown bear with a blonde stripe down its back. But before I could get the gun up, it went behind the tree. So I brought the gun up on the other side of the tree. I aimed and fired the Savage 300wsm, but it was a fast aim, so I actually hit it high on the back. The bear dropped where I shot it but it was still alive, so I shot it again to finish it off.

Boy, I never realized how excited I was, yippee!!!!! My first bear!! A beautiful bear. It was a medium brown color with a blond stripe from the top of its head to its tail. Even on the tips of the ears they had a little blond stripe on them. He also had a light color "V" on his chest. The estimate weight was about 245 lbs. Now here comes the work; I never gutted a bear before, but I thought it should be almost like a deer. After a little while I had him gutted and tagged.

Well now I had to wait for Bill, so I walked out to the forest road and I timed it right; here he was coming at the same time. That’s when I tried to act like something had gone wrong. I shuffled my feet around and was looking at the ground. As he drove up on the ATV he asked what happened, did you miss? That was when I put my blood stained hand out to shake his hand and said it’s like your first bear but not as big (Bills bear was about 450 lbs). I don’t know who more excited Bill or me. Yes, it was a trophy.