What's Happening!
Well here it is! November 22nd 2004, the end of whitetail
season and I’m writing this short story at my
computer desk. The end of the season marks the end
of the guiding for us at Pinecone Outfitters. First
of all, we want to thank all the hunters who came up
to hunt with us this fall for bears, waterfowl and
whitetail. We also want to send a big thank you to
all our staff for the hard work they put in this season.
This
fall’s bear season proved to be a difficult
one. The weather was very un-cooperative and we had to
work extra hard for our bears. The fishing started off
slowly but picked up after a while. The first week saw
a lot of rain but produced some nice bears. Tuesday night,
Tom Hughes shot a nice bear to kick off the week and Wednesday
Justin Lee shot a dandy boar. Both bears were in the 250
lbs range. After one evening of hunting, David Lee came
back to camp with a story that a bear climbed up his tree
and swatted at his pack! Thursday was Kelly Williams’ day.
He dropped his first Manitoba black bear.
After passing up bears earlier in the wek, Monty Bradford
shot an awesome black timber wolf. Friday night was also
the lucky for Jim Field who dropped a monster bear weighing
in at over 400 lbs! The monster bears didn’t stop
there! On their way into the stand, Monty and Steve had
a huge bear at the barrel. Steve told Monty to shoot and
Monty plugged with one shot. The biggest bear of the week
fell on the last day. It weighed 425 lbs and scored 19
6/16 B+C.
The
next week showed the same kind of results. Doc Geiger,
the host of Doc Geiger’s Outdoor Adventure TV show,
shot his bear on the first day.We managed to get the hunt
on video for the upcoming tv show. The bear was a great
size and had an excellent hide. Brent Parent passed up
a bear on the first day and after looking at the video,
he regretted doing so. It was a definite shooter. Then
it was Tracey Radford’s turn. He and his son Brandon,
sat together and videotaped a bear. A huge bear came into
the bait, but no shot was made available. The same night,
a smaller bear (still quite big) did present a shot but
he proved to be tougher then bullets. It was determined
that the shot was high and after two days of tracking,
the bear was not recovered. We saved the best for last.
Jim Hamblin passed up to 4 bears on one bait, waiting for
the big one. He came out and told me I should put Mike
Jones into that bait since Jonesy hadn’t seen a bear
yet. On the last day, Mike sat waiting for the monster.
He saw him alright but he dropped his arrow and after the
bear devoured the beaver carcass, he took off! Jonesy eyes
were bugged right out, but time had run out on his hunt.
After everyone had gone home, Steve tried for that bruiser.
2 ½ hours later the monster was down. He weighed
in at 550 lbs, 6 foot nose to tail and measured 21 4/16
B+C points! All in all, an awesome season considering it
snowed during the middle of the second week.
Next
up was archery whitetail season. Two hunters came up
from Illinois to take advantage of our whitetail/waterfowl
combo. Paul and Jim were both avid bow and duck hunters.
The duck hunting was better than excellent, producing limits
everytime out. The bow hunting was also good, with lots
of deer to be seen. They both had several opportunities
at nice bucks all week. They were wanting a buck in the
130-140’s, but couldn’t get within bow range.
Jim had one in the 130’s come into bow range and
bedded down 35 yards away behind a willow bush-and stayed
for 2 ½ hours but no shot! That’s bow hunting…
Now
for goose season. It’s October 11th and 75 %
of the crops are still standing due to the wet and cold
summer! The birds are here by the thousands and piling
into the fields that are combined. Out of all the days
of hunting birds, only one morning ended without a limit
of birds. With groups of 4-6 hunters at 5 birds per day,
it was awesome! We limited every time out! We were also
lucky to realise we had shot 3 banded birds in the process!
What a season!
Rifle
whitetail is next on the list. With a couple of last
minute cancellations, we are down to only 4 hunters.
Well, we like to stress quality not quantity. 3 hunters
from Michigan came for the first week. Jack Wallen rattled
in a nice 4 pointer to 15 feet and shot him where he stood.
Jack said he’d never even called a buck in like that
before. Dave Vallier took a rip at a big 4 pointer on Tuesday
but missed clean. Wednesday at 10 :15 he shot a massive
4 pointer that scored into the upper 140’s. The buck
weighed approximately 260 pounds. By Friday night, Mike
Lawie had passed up 6 bucks and in hindsight, maybe should
have shot at one of them. Can’t shoot big bucks if
you kill small ones! Lee Baker from Pittsburg hunted the
second week. He shot at a massive 5 by 5 buck that would
score into the 160’s. Unfortunately it was also a
clean miss. Hunting the same stand, he connected with a
beautiful 4 pointer on Wednesday at 7 :45 am. I also guided
for a buddy in the same area and he got a buck on Friday
night as well. It was a heavy massed buck that scored in
the mid 130’s. 80% success rate and 100% opportunity.
Not too bad considering the weather was up into the mid
50’s all season! Guess nature was trying to make
up for the cold summer.
Well,
that’s it. Our season is done and we are very
happy with the outcome. We would like to thank everybody
again for coming up with us and we look forward to seeing
you all at the shows in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Madison, Wisconsin
this spring. I hope your seasons were as good as ours.
Happy Hunting, Marc and Lise Lepine
Call us at 204-878-4868 or use our online contact form
for more info or pictures of what we have to offer. We look
forward to talking with you....
