Glenn
Dunning is a member of New England Outdoor Writers Association
(NEOWA) and contributes monthly to Outdoors Magazine
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Outdoor Magazine, August '05 issue, Traveling Outdoorsman column Submitted by: Glenn Dunning |
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Shoot Straight or Pay The Price For Wounding Game |
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| It was hot in the blind, temperatures had been in the 90's all week and the constant drone of the black flies and mosquitoes around our head nets challenged our concentration. Roberval Trophy Bear located on the shores of Lake Saint Jean in central Quebec can confidently boast of one of the highest success records of any outfit in the region. In the seven years leading up to the 2005 season every single client except one had killed a mature bear. A big part of that success has to do with the wooden shooting huts where three of us now sat. The outfit maintains nearly 40 of these enclosures each strategically placed 25 yards from a bait set-up. From inside both movement and scent are effectively masked and the small bear we currently watched seemed quite oblivious to the presence of the structure. Every hunter is accompanied in the blind by a guide whose specific responsibility it is to identify whether a bear is a shooter or not. At Roberval a bear must be a minimum of 2 years old to harvest and the value of this management tactic has paid off with nearly half of the bear killed each season weighing over 300 pounds. I wanted a big bear and was excited about the prospect of my son, who sat beside me, capturing the hunt sequence on video. It was 6:30 on June first. The young bear had wandered off an hour ago and as the hot afternoon gave way to evening the temperature was slowly becoming more tolerable. Travis slowly panned the camera to the right as our guide gestured the approach of another animal. This was a much bigger bear, its shoulder a good 18" above the 5 gallon bait bucket. Its ears appeared small in relationship to the big blocky head. I studied the animal for several minutes wanting to be sure of my decision should I choose to shoot. Upon a prearranged signal, the guide slowly opened the window. I eased the barrel through the opening and steadied the forearm against the jam. As my cheek pressed into the stock of my Winchester model 70 the bear's big head filled my scope. It was sitting behind the bait bucket facing me. I waited for a clear shot at the neck but did not have to wait long as the bruin turned his head slightly and my cross hairs fell on its Adam's apple. The rifle spoke with authority, the 180 grain Remington Core-lokt bullet finding its mark and instantly dropping the animal. Unfortunately not every hunt ends with a perfect kill shot. All hunters have the capacity to miss and if you can miss you can wound. A wounded and unrecovered animal represents a financial loss to an outfitter and increasingly clients are being charged penalties to continue their hunt after blowing an initial shot. At Roberval where shot opportunities carry a money-back guarantee the cost to continue your hunt after wounding is $800. Their brochure states, "We guarantee the bear, you guarantee the bullet." Wound policies are not however, solely specific to bear hunts. Trophy whitetail hunts, particularly archery hunts often have pretty hefty fines for either wounding a big buck or shooting an animal that does not meet pre-established minimum antler scores. Are these policies fair? Certainly some hunters have a hard time with them but from the outfitters viewpoint, compensation for lost animals seems economically justified. Because of the difficulty and danger in tracking a wounded bear few are recovered and regardless they definitely aren't going near that bait again. The outfitter has essentially lost this animal from his inventory. In the case of whitetails and other antlered game it takes years to mature to trophy quality and in any given territory there is a finite number of animals in this age class. Tuckamore Lodge, one of Newfoundland's best known moose outfits, has one of the business's toughest policies. Customers who shoot and wound are done with their hunt. According to owner Barb Genge, "One thing that this rule does is it gets our customers to wait and take better shots." Although a tough pill to swallow, an outfitter can not take responsibility for a client's skill and proficiency and ultimately it is the hunter who decides whether or not to pull the trigger. Of course, the best way to insure that you won't have to deal with these issues is to practice and be as comfortable with your chosen weapon as you can be. Finally just because you paid for the hunt does not mean you should take anything less than a good shot. Doug from Indiana became only the second hunter to not kill a bear at Roberval. In the excitement of the moment he pulled his shot and wounded a very big bear the first night of his hunt. While all his hunting buddies were filling their tags, he spent the rest of the week wishing he could have his shot back. |
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