Hey guys,

Well, tonight my best friend and I decided to do a little spotting. There was a front moving in which was bringing severe thunderstorms, which late tonight will turn into snow storms, and we are getting HEAVY winds. We knew that the deer would be out, so, we decided to go see what we could catch on my camcorder.

Well, on the way to my best friends uncles farm, we spotted a little field below " the round top" which is a HUGE hill where we turkey hunted this spring. Well, we stop and shine the light and there is a big buck and a doe. I pulled up my bino' s while my best friend filmed with my camcorder. There was a BIG 8 point, probablly 19" wide, good tine length, great mass *until the tips of his antlers" , and he was perfectly symetrical. He was about 45 yards away from the road so we got some decent footage of him. He was with a small doe and she was bedded down in the field bleating. It is awsome, you can hear her bleats on the video as we had the cd player off in the Explorer.

Well, we get out to my best friends uncles farm and start spotting. Right above there barn there was a deer bedded down in a grown up clover field. The clover isn' t very high, but we never got a look at the deer. When the light hit the deer, it ducked it head. This is the second deer that we have seen that has laid its head right on to the ground when spotted with a light.

Well, we head across the bottom field and notice 4 deer in front of us. I pulled up my bino' s and confirmed that they were all doe, with one nice big fat one leading the group.

Well, we headed to " the top" which is the highest part of the property. There was a cornfield planted on " the top" but, it was just cut a few days ago. We had great anticipation on seeing deer up there as it has always been a hot-spot. Well, we crest up over the top and I start spotting the field........ NOTHING!!!!!! That amazed me, this little field normally holds 10-15 deer in it when we go spotting. Well, all of a sudden I look at the edge of the woodline about 65 yards in front of me and to my left and there is a black bear. My friend pulls up the camcorder and starts filming, but, he couldn' t get focus' d on the bear as the distance was pretty far so it wasn' t picking up great light (even with a 2 million candle power spotlight). Well, we decide to keep creeping towards the bear as he is just slowly walking away from us. We kept getting closer and closer, but, finally he got sick of us and ducked into the woods. Well, we crept up to where he ducked in the woods and I was spotting through the brush. All of a sudden, he is standing 6 yards from the Explorer just starring at me, talk about freaky. My friend started filming him as he was walking parralel with the edge of the woods. We just kept driving with him at the same pace. We got some good footage of him. There is some brush in the footage that the camera was focusing on, but, we got some film where the bear was in little clearings and the camera was focusing on him. Talk about AWSOME!!!!!!!! Well, we filmed him until he went behind a large tree. There were small patchs of green briar on each side of the base of the tree. Well, he went behind the tree, and we waited for him to pop out on the other side but he never did.

Well, right then, the bear was in " the triangle" . You guys may have heard me talking about this piece of woods before. It is a small piece of thick woods, shaped like a triangle, which is in the middle of a bunch of corn and alfalfa fields. Well, there is dirt road in the middle of the triangle, so, we decided to go around the edge of the woods, get on that road and creep through the center of the triangle to see if we could get better footage. Well, when you are on the road, the woods are split about 25 yards wide at the top and 30 yards at the bottom. Like I said, this is a small patch of woods, right around 60 yards wide. Well, we went through the center slowly, spotting both sides to see if we could see the bear. We didn' t see him so we turned around and came back through again. Yet again, we didn' t see him. Well, we were puzzled. He didn' t seemed spooked at all, the triangle is surrounded by nothing but big cut fields, and the bear wasn' t in the triangle anywhere to be seen. Well, we circled the triangle looking through all the fields and still didn' t see him, but, there were 8 doe bedded on the opposite side of the triangle from where the bear was. Well, we left there and came back to near my house to spot but, the rain started.

This weather is NUTS!!!!! I won' t be getting up to hunt in the morning, it is either going to be raining or just starting to turn into snow, plus, the whole 30mph sustained winds with guys reaching 40-45mph sucks.

I am still puzzled as to where that dang bear went. There are no dens in the triangle, and we would have seen him if he crossed the fields!!!!!!!

Well, that is long enough Just wanted to let you guys know about this awsome evening of spotting. Tommorow, I might try to capture a short clip of the bear and post it, that is if I can figure out exactly how to do that

did you check in the tree' s.....bears can climb you know.

hey man, thats great! im in lancaster, pa. im kinda wondering if i should go out tomorrow with the wind and all. but then again, its the rut! what is your advice based oin your experiance and should i go out all day?

p.s. i hope you nail one of the guys. if you do. lemme know, ill come over and help you drink beer and eat em'

HighCountry,

Yep, we checked the trees and didn' t see him. The only thing that I can think of is if he crawled in a tree that fell down last year. It isn' t much cover, but, if he got in between where the tree split and ducked down, we could have missed him.

It was just amazing to me that a 200 pound black blob could disappear so quickly

a.k.a.

I honestly don' t know what to do about hunting in the wind. Sure, the rut is in, but that is some SERIOUSLY strong winds out there. I think mother nature may just prevail over the rut this time If you do go out, I would say that you should try to stick in a bottom that is fairly open. Deer can' t stand woods that are noisy when the wind is blowing. The wind should be less powerfull in a bottom which means that the deer will feel more secure considering that they will have better hearing and a better sense of smell there. Either that or set-up on the edge of a field, maybe on a cut powerline also. One of my favorite spots on windy days is my " pond stand" . It is a tree that is located in a field, right on the edge of the woods. The field is just grown up golden rods with green briar patches scattered throughout it. The deer don' t have to worry about tree limbs making so much noise that it blocks their hearing and they have the extra security of the golden rods instead of being in a open cut field.

As far as the beer goes, I ain' t old enough to drink yet, but hey, you never know, I might be one of those guys that would shoot you over a game of pocker hahaha

I must concur about the awesome spotting the last week or so. It has been fun watching the bucks dogging does, pretty much oblivious to the spotlight.

I woke up early this morning to head to the woods for a couple hours before going to work. The wind is REALLY howling. I decided to go to work early instead. Maybe this afternoon things will settle down and I can catch an evening hunt. If you go today...Be careful man. The treestand is a dangerous place today. Jim

Great story Jason. I have not made my annual black bear siting yet this year but I am due. You definitely were lucky in getting that bugger on tape. They are some of the most elusive creatures.

Thanks guys,

The bear was an awsome sight. What amazes me the most is how little he cared about us spotting him. I don' t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. With a 2million candle power spotlight beaming on him at 6 yards, I figured that he would have bolted out of there, but, he just walked, he acted like we weren' t even there.

I didn' t go hunting this morning, I would like to keep my body functioning for atleat a few more years I' ll tell you what though, it is HARD to stay out of the woods. Right now it is snowing pretty good, the ground is covered, but man, I don' t think that I want to fight 35 mph winds!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Frank,

My best friend and I will probablly be making another trip up to Cabelas this spring sometime. Whenever we do, I will let you know!! I will bring my camcorder and the tapes of the deer we have seen around here!!!

I wouldn' t be out there today hunting. Way too windy. With winds this strong, there are probably lots of limbs coming to the ground and you dont want one of those whacking you in the noggin.

good point