In the late summer of 2003, my son Aaron and I had the pleasure of guiding three generations of the Cornelius family, Bob, Alan and Trevor, on a Maine Black Bear Hunt in the Lincoln, Maine area. The Cornelius family had driven 2,500 miles from Colorado to hunt Black Bear with us. They even arrived two days early. Little did any of us know what a quick, memorable and record setting Bear hunt this would turn out to be. It was certainly one none of us would ever forget. We had all discussed what a special hunt it would be if all three could be successful. Bob was 82 years old, and I had set up several ground blinds with fairly easy access for him to hunt from. Bob hunted hard for four days and only saw sows with cubs. It was a pleasure to have Bob hunt with us. He is an avid hunter and has shot many game animals, including some from Africa. He really wanted a Maine Black Bear to add to his collection. His son Alan and grandson Trevor had a successful Maine Black Bear hunt and placed two Bear in the in the Maine record books. Here are their stories.
ALAN'S STORY.......In May, I was looking for a place to hunt Black Bear and decided a Maine hunt would be my best choice. I knew my father could not do a spot and stalk hunt wo we had to go somewhere that allowed baiting and blinds. Our hunt was for three generations of the Cornelius family. My father is 82, I am 46 and my son is 20. My father is a very experienced hunter, I have hunted big game once and this would be my sons first hunt.
My next step was to select a guide service, so I got on the internet to do my research. I talked to several guides and after contacting a number of references, I made my decision. I booked our Maine Black Bear Hunt for that August, the first week of the season, with Gary's Guide Service in Lincoln, Maine owned by Gary Tourtillotte, because of his impressive knowledge and high success rate. We decidded the best way to travel was by driving because of the problem of taking guns through an airport. My father's job was to selelct a route to travel. He printed up about 45 maps and found out the trip would be about 2,500 miles each way. After we sighted in our guns it seemed that August would never come. Finally, after a long wait we were ready to to embark on our adventure. The trip took us four days. Since we arrived two days early we spent two nights in a motel and looked around the area. We also found a Taxidermist and decided he would mount our Black Bears if we were successful. Finally, Sunday came and we could move into the cabin on the banks of the Penobscot River. The first day we went fishing on the river and had good luck. Being very competitive, my son and I had bets going most of the time while we were fishing. He won some, and I won some, and we did catch a lot of Smallmouth Bass. That evening Gary had a class for all of the hunters and he taught us a lot about the habits and tendencies of the Maine Black Bear. He even had silhouettes of different size bear so we could get an idea what we would be looking at in the field. We were also told to look at the cutouts with our scopes from the same distance that our stands would be to get familiar with the correct size bear to shoot. Gary also has cameras on his bait sites so we could see the pictures off the Black Bears that were visiting our sites. I saw the pictures of a very big bear, named Sam, that had been visiting my site for the last couple of years. It had always been nocturnal and no one had gotten a shot at him. Gary moved the site about 50 yards this year and place it nearer his staging area hoping I could get a look at him. I hoped his internal clock was off just enough for me to get a shot.
The first day of the season had finally arrived. We went fishing in the morning, ate lunch and prepared for our Bear hunt by taking our showers and completely descenting ourselves. We even put our camo clothes on outside lines to keep from getting any scent from the cabin on them. We then got into the pickup for the ride to our treestands. I was the first to be dropped off and Gary sprayed me down completely with scent neutralizer. My site was about 75 yards off the road near a big swamp. Gary took me in and told me the tendencies of the big black bear at that hung out here. He told me the bear would probably come in from the swamp side and if it were not killed with the first shot would most likely return to the swamp area. There were heavily worn trails to the bait bunkers with foot print depressions clearly visible.
I got into my 14 foot ladder stand, Gary baited the site, wished me good luck as he left and the wait began. I had no idea how hard it was to stay still for 6 hours with the bugs biting and the squirrels cussing me. I had thought of silencing the squirrels but I knew that would any bear away and probably make Gary a little irritated. After about an hour I heard something splashing around in the swamp. It was shaking the water off and I figured it was a Black Bear because of the volume of water it was shaking off. I stayed absolutely still for about an hour and an half and then I started to fidget around a bit because my back was starting to hurt. I decided that I would take the first bear that came in because I knew my back could not take the sitting still for six days. After what seemed to be many hours I figured I had been moving way to much and had scared away any bears that were in the area when I heard s shot from Tim Stumps direction, about a mile away. With the adrenalin flowing, I got a new resolve to stay still. I thought I saw something moving to my left, so I kept my eyes on the trail coming in from the swamp. A short while later I heard some noise and looked to my right and there was a Black Bear coming in on the path that Gary and I came in on. He walked into my site and approached the logs covering the bait and started pulling them lengthwise towards himself. From that position I could not see the bear broadside. This is why Gary puts the logs parallel to the line of fire so the bear will have to move to a 90 degree position to roll the logs. After having some difficulty moving the logs the bear did exactly that. I could now see that this was a big bear, so when it started making some noise getting into the bunker, I took the safety off on my shotgun and raised it into a ready shooting position. I aimed at the area behind the shoulder for a double lung shot and fired. After I shot, I pulled my gun around to the opening toward the swamp for a possible follow up shot, but to my surprise the bear headed back towards the approach trail. As the bear got back to the trail it whirled and started towards my tree stand. About five feet from the treestand ladder he rose up onto his hind legs, and I shot him again. He then quickly began to climb my ladder stand and as he came up I quickly shot him two more times. He finally fell off the ladder and landed on his rear and wedged himself between two trees at the bottom of my tree stand ladder. I was sitting in my stand shaking badly when I heard the most ominous sound of my life. The death moan of my bear from just below my stand. I called Gary on my cell phone and told him I had shot my bear and that he had climbed my ladder to attack me. I think he probably thought I was exaggerating, but when he got there he could see the proof in the scratches in the ladder and the bear lying below me. After calling Gary I finally got the courage to climb down the ladder. I had my gun ready with my finger on the safety just in case the bear moved. When I got down I realized how lucky I had been to still be safe and have had such a successful Maine Black Bear hunt by taking this enormous Black Bear. Gary and crew were not far away and heard my shots so they were there in less than 10 minutes. Aaron, Gary's son, was the first one down the path and he hollered, "We finally got that old boy". Congratulations Alan! He then told me that Trevor had called and he had a bear down as well. Aaron then ran to the truck to tell Gary what had transpired and get some recovery gear. Gary and Aaron had just finished putting Tim Stumps nice bear in the truck and it took six men to get mine in beside Tim's. This is where the guides earn their money for sure. Then we headed for Trevor's site. You will read more about Trevor's bear in a moment.
When we got back to camp we hung all three Black Bear and iced them down for the night. The next morning we all posed for pictures before heading to the taxidermist. My Maine Bear weighed in at 425 lbs. dressed weight and had a 19 11/16 inch skull and rankin #5 in Maine in 2003. I decided to have a full standing mount done because I will probably never have a chance to have an animal like this mounted again. After arriving back to camp Aaron began our class on how to butcher the bear. We spent the rest of the day taking care of the meat.
Later that day Trevor, Aaron and I went out to the bait sites to bait them again and I took pictures of my tree stand, saw the scratches on the ladder and realized lucky I was. There were scratches on the rung right below my feet. Because we had taken our bear on the first day of he season Trevor and I spent the rest of the week fishing, golfing and exploring the rest of the area around Lincoln, Maine. My father was not a lucky as we were. All he saw were sows and cubs at three different bait sites. The females always were attracted to him.
The trip home was uneventful and it gave me plenty of time to think about one of the greatest experiences of my life, as well as sharing the experience with my Dad and my Son.
TREVOR'S STORY......On August 25th I was a 20 year old college student with no real hunting experience. I don't think prairie dogs really count. All this was going to change because my Dad my Grandfather and I were going on our first Maine Black Bear hunting trip at Gary's Guide Service. The first morning Gary invited Tim Stump and myself to go on an early morning bait run with him. We got to see our sites and learn a little about how the sites were set up and how the baiting was done.
After lunch we made all of our pre hunt preparations and headed out to our sites. My site was called Midway and Gary told me there was a nice Black bear visiting there and showed me the path he thought he might enter from. The next few hours were torture because the bugs were buzzing around my head net and about driving me nuts. About 5PM I heard some noise to my left and the squirrels quickly disappeared. I waited for probably another 5 minutes or so and then I saw it. It was a beautiful Maine Black Bear with a shiny coat and a white blaze on its chest but was rather small. I decided to let it go hoping that I would not be sorry. It also helped me to settle down and feel what it would be like when a shooter came in. About 45 minutes after this bear had his snack and moved away, a second bear came in. He never did come in close enough for a shot so I only got a quick glimpse of him and then he left. Around 7PM the squirrels quieted down again and I could see movement on the path that Gary had indicated to me as an approach trail. He walked in and completely ignored the bait bunker and continued walking towards my location. I very slowly pulled my gun to my shoulder and took the safety off and picked my spot. I never got nervous, I just kept telling myuself to take a deep breath, relax and squeeze the trigger softly. Then I took my shot. The 220 grain reloads, compliments of my grandfather, left my .300 Magnum and found the bears front shoulder. He ran about 20 yards and expired quickly. I heard the death moan which assured me my bear was down for good, I do not care what anyone says, that moan will make all of your hair stand straight on end. I then called Gary and told him that I had downed a Black Bear and then I called my Mom. I was practically screaming in her ear as my adrenalin started to build up. I started shaking so badly from the excitement that i go down form the tree stand so I would not fall off. I did not look for the bear because it was starting to get dark, the woods were really thick and I did not need to get lost, so I waited for help to arrive.
Aaron and the rest of the crew finally showed up to help me find my Black Bear. I soon learned that they had already been to get Tim's bear as well as my Dad's giant bear. The second truck arrived with Gary, Tim and my Dad. We went in an found my bear and I was in complete shock when I saw how huge this beautiful Maine Black Bear was compared to the mental picture I had of him. No ground shrinkage here. Aaron agreed it was one of the biggest he had seen taken in recent years. Gary and Aaron field dressed the bear right where we found him and we cut some trees and brush so we could get him to the truck. Together we were able to remove him from the woods and load him onto the truck. We arrived back at camp with an impressive truck load of Maine Black Bear. A thousand pounds worth. We quicky got some pictures, hung and cleaned the bear and cooled him for the night, My boar dressed out at 325 lbs. After the drying period the skull scored 18 3/16, Number 25 in Maine for 2003.
The net morning we took our Black Bear to Proudlove's Taxidermy in Enfield, Maine. I had a beautiful half mount done as well as a bleached skull. The rest of our week consisted of some great fishing and listening to other hunters stories as they came in. My first Maine Black Bear hunt had been a great success. Recently my Grandfather gave me the .300 Magnum that I shot the Bear with. I plan on using it in the near future on an Elk or may be a Moose. Prairie dogs are fun but big game is where it's at.
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