MIKE’S OUTFITTING 2023 Alberta Bear Hunt
Bears
Hey Bowsiters, it’s that wonderful time of the year again, Spring Bear Hunting in Alberta!
And Sam Willet from Texas kicked it into high gear on the first day of our hunts with this melon headed beast! More to come…
Great looking day and bear
Starting things off right! Looking forward to following along!
Repeat hunter Sam, killed the beauty bear above on May 1, it weighed 295 lbs and had a 6 ft 10 in square hide and like he said, a 20 0/16 skull! A fantastic bear!!
It was a bit light in body weight compared to it’s skull size but the bait site, Picnic, has been dominated by a big, old giant bear that we hadn’t been able to kill for the last 5-10 years. Sam’s bear took over the bait this spring so the big boy must have died. Sam’s bear may have come from the nearby big woods area, away from the prime crop farmland so he wasn’t getting great feed, didn’t pack on the pounds like our farm bears. Normally our 20 inch bears weigh well over 300 lbs.
Great bear, a great start to the season
Our daughter Brooke and I
Our daughter Brooke and I
I got a special start to the Spring Bear season this year getting to work alongside my 16 yr old daughter Brooke! I choose to help the guides get all 30 of our bait sites set up properly for the season and I asked Brooke if she wanted to skip some school and do 12 hours a day of manual labor for 8 days straight for $120 a day to join the team. She couldn’t believe I would pay that much money and she wouldn’t have to go school! She was all over it and she did the work, even in the cold rain. I was bursting with pride every day!
Oh boy....here we go! Best of luck this season, Mike. Looking forward to following along!
Way to go Mike’s outfitting, great bear! I have been looking forward to this thread all year. I will be there end of May, can’t wait.
The bait setting up team! Jackson Surbey, Cody Reid, Brooke and Tyson Benoit
The bait setting up team! Jackson Surbey, Cody Reid, Brooke and Tyson Benoit
Brooke popping popcorn, we will pop about 5000 lbs of popcorn seed
Brooke popping popcorn, we will pop about 5000 lbs of popcorn seed
Bear proof box blind, full stealth mode.
Bear proof box blind, full stealth mode.
Clearing trails can be a huge pain in the butt, especially if it was a really windy winter. It can take hours, and hours and tanks of chain saw fuel to get in to some baits.
Clearing trails can be a huge pain in the butt, especially if it was a really windy winter. It can take hours, and hours and tanks of chain saw fuel to get in to some baits.
Building our broadside positioning crib causes some of the most work. The bears love to play on top of it and destroy it, especially if it’s not built correctly the first time. It’s essential to setting up the bears for a great shot! But, clearing the trails, putting the box blind together, moving barrels into better positions and everything else is a ton of work too.
That’s terrific Mike. Maybe she’ll do enough great work to “earn another bear” to shoot. Good luck to all. C
Thanks everyone for the comments! Charlie I think it will be Tyler’s turn this year for a nice bear, Brooke will be guiding her boyfriend to his first bear kill too. (Boyfriend?! How the heck did that happen?! She was my little girl just the other day it seems like.)
Awesome stuff Mike. Will be following along!
Congrats nice work, Mike how much kernel can you put on the kettle at time, propane or electric?
She'll never forget that week! Great to see her love for what dad does! Good luck this spring.
Thanks again guys! Skull, it’s a propane popper from kettlecornmachines.com we put in about 5 cups of seed at a time with some used cooking grease. Pops it in about 3 minutes, you could fill a 50 gallon barrel in 10 minutes I think. Way, way faster than an electric movie style one. (I gave one I had away.) They have a $6000 USD unit that can do I believe a 10 cup batch of seed in under a minute! Time is money, might have to get it.
Great bear! Well done all around!
Honey Pot action
Honey Pot action
Here’s a big bear on our Honey Pot that we use to help sex the bears. It’s a one quart steel pot filled with dark honey. The pot has a little slit in the top that only allows the bear to get his tongue inside it, so it can take him a long while to empty it while you look to see if he is male or female. We put the pot at about 5 feet so only a big boar can stand up and lick it without having to climb the tree and hang on.
Fortunately bears don’t get to choose their own gender so you get to make that judgement for them.
Hunter, AJ took the photo on Tuesday evening, he knew it was a big boar but the bear never quit moving around for the perfect bow shot. Looks to be a solid 350 pounder? Hopefully we get to find out soon? Bear sightings have been slow with the heat wave we’ve been experiencing, highs of 80 F, never seen it this warm in the first week…
One of the best threads of the season for sure! Thanks for posting Mike! Great news about Brooke, but kind of sad that PicNic’s giant( that I was lucky enough to hunt) is likely no longer with us. Keep up the great work!
Love it Mike! I love a Father's pride :) Added bonus is you prob got a few extra HP out of the young fellas with Brooke hanging around!
Sam’s bear on trail camera
Sam’s bear on trail camera
Here’s a trail camera picture of Sam’s bear to help hunters judge what a 300 lb, almost 7 foot square hide bear looks like. The white topped post, with the Raven sitting on it, is 36” tall and you want to hold out for a bear where his shoulder, not his butt, will be as tall as that post. No sow will ever be that tall to the shoulders, they will be no more than 32” tall. A immature, 3 or 4 yr old boar will usually be 34-35” tall, a 5+ yr old boar will be 36 or more. Some old short legged boars top out at 36 and then their weight won’t usually get over 360 lbs, you need longer legs for a 400+ pound spring weight bear, then they will be 37-38” tall on the shoulders.
For the spot and stalk spring bear hunter with no barrels or posts I say to look for a rectangular shape body on a mature boar, light bulb shape on a big sow. Long and tall versus short and fat. (I did lots of spot and stalk in my pre-baiting years back in the 80’s)
Here is the same bear behind a barrel and he is clearly several inches over the top. At this point I stop sizing and pick up my bow.
Cool pic Sam! What was your arrow set up and did you make a good shot?
Dino, 476 G. Black Eagle X-impact with 125G Iron Will wide double bevel broadhead.
Shot was a touch higher than I wanted, recovered the next morning, probably didn’t go 100 yards.
John and AJ from Texas
John and AJ from Texas
Longtime repeat hunter John Hubbard and his buddy AJ downs killed two big bears Thursday evening, May 4. John’s beautiful colored bear went 380 lbs, 7 ft, 2 inch hide and a 19 14/16 skull, dang it, almost 20!
AJ’s beast did break 20 inches at 20 1/16, and weighed 385 lbs and the hide was 6 ft 11 inches. Both bears went less than 100 yds after perfect shots.
AJ Downs
AJ Downs
385 lbs
385 lbs
John Hubbard, 7 ft 2 1/2 inch hide
John Hubbard, 7 ft 2 1/2 inch hide
380 lbs
380 lbs
John hunted with us in 2018 going after a colored giant called the Church bear. He burned his whole hunt on that bear, all 6 days with no kill. Now he spent another 4 days going after this beautiful bear but he got this one! So 10 days and 2 hunts to get his dream colored bear!
Congrats to all on the great bears. Looking forward to pics from the rest of the season!
Couple of tanks to start off the season! Looking forward to following along, Mike!
Mike: Please review again how you “square” the bear?
Great question Charlie! Should be a simple and standard answer, it isn’t.
The term gets used all the time, 7 ft black bear, 10 or even a 11 foot brown bear etc, and most hunters don’t even know what it means or how it is measured?! And hunting industry “professionals” will argue exactly how it should be done, me included. I only learned it from other guides and did what seems to make sense to me and is fair for comparing bear size.
So to me in simple terms, it is the average measurement of the greatest width and length of a skinned out bear hide. The hide gets stretched out flat on the ground and NOT touched/pulled while doing the measurements.
So we measure the length from the tip of the nose to the tip of most of the tail hairs, not to the last longest one, and the width from the tip of the claws to the tip of the claws, then average out those two measurements. A typical 7 footer would be 6 ft 8 in long and 7 ft 4 in wide, 7 ft average. We have the head out, paws in, if we took the paws out we could gain another inch.
If you left the head in and the paws in and only measured to the base of the tail it would shrink the “square of the hide” measurement by about 6 inches. Clay Newcombe from Bear Hunting Magazine says that’s how it should be done so he has never seen a 7 foot black bear. We would still get a couple of 7 footers each year, the ones that we measure at 7 ft 6 in or better.
I agree completely Mike, well written. I'm shocked that he hasn't seen a 7' squared, even with the head in.
Yeah, he's not saying 7 footers don't exist in Canada, just that he has never seen one after many, many Canadian hunts. Brian Call from Gritty agreed with Randy on a recent podcast that he had never seen one too.
But hunters tell me also about the 6 inch wide front pad on a black bear, and I've never seen one even close to that, 5 1/2 inches is the biggest one I've ever measured. I've also never even seen a picture of a 6 inch pad or a track in the mud though?
5 1/4 inch front pad on a 7 ft 2 in bear
5 1/4 inch front pad on a 7 ft 2 in bear
This is the front pad from John Hubbard’s bear, 5 1/4 inches which is huge for a spring 380 lb weight bear.
I do wonder if some of those gigantic, 700-800 lb PA bears have a 6 inch pad in the fall? Would all that weight that make a difference? I’ve never seen a bear bigger than 515 lbs so I don’t know…
How bad are the wildfires affecting your areas Mike? Hopefully everybody in your family and crew is safe and sound.
Curious how that crazy hot weather is affecting bear movement? Can’t see that those bears like 90F
I leave next Saturday. I’m in the same area general of Alberta I believe. Fires have caused major issues with road closures getting in and out of camp. My camp opens Sunday so no bear reports yet
Greg Ballard from Louisiana
Greg Ballard from Louisiana
Greg killed this big cinnamon bear this past week along with an even bigger black one, pics coming soon!
I’ve been MIA on bowsite because of the fires, but still operating basically as usual. It’s been causing us some logistical problems so I’m helping my guides anyway I can, which means no time to post on bowsite. Hot temps have slowed bear activity too but still killed 6 bears for 6 hunters this past week. I’ll get caught up posting soon.
Glad to hear Mike. Stay safe up there
Best wishes up there Mike! Love seeing these posts each year. Pretty wild spring in a lot of Alberta so far!! Hope you guys make out ok.
Greg with bear #2
Greg with bear #2
I’m still busy as heck! Dang fires…
This bear was 320 lbs, 19 4/16 skull and 6 ft 10 inch square hide, exactly the size of bear we want all of our hunters to hold out for, a mature, probable 5 1/2 yr old male bear.
Troy Anderson from Louisiana.
Troy Anderson from Louisiana.
Greg’s buddy Troy shot exactly the age and size of bear that we DON’T want hunters to shoot, and we specifically tell them not to shoot, even if they are cinnamon. They know this before they ever book the hunt. The bear is a young, 3 1/2 yr old boar, 230 lbs, 17 15/16 skull. You can’t kill big colored bears if you shoot them when they are small.
I don’t normally ever call a hunter out on stuff like this, especially if it’s an honest mistake but this was no mistake, he had no care about our mature bear management program. He wanted it, so he shot it.
And then to top it off, a few days after the cinammon kill, Troy said he missed a big black bear, at 16 yds with a crossbow. We didn’t believe him and we went back the next day to check it out and found a broken, bloody bolt laying 20 yds from the bait, it looked to have about 3-4 inches of penetration. We couldn’t find the bear. He was along on the tracking job and made no apologies, he had nothing to say about either bear. Greg had nothing to say about it all too. AND then Troy bitched to the other hunters in camp that it wasn’t fair that he had to pay the 2nd bear kill/wound fee. He didn’t even go look for the bear after shooting it, or he would have found the broken arrow!
That’s too bad the hunter was that way. We deal with it in Mexico with mule deer hunters. I made a hunter pass 2 different 4 year old 180”ish bucks last season, and he was not happy about it at all. I ended up guiding both those same bucks this season and they both went over 200”.
I would’ve thought those giant bears were a lot older than that. My Montana bears have ranged from 5’ 6”-6’7” and have all been 7-15 year old boars based off of cementum aging.
Brutal! No fun with attitudes like that.
Nice to see some big bears hitting the dirt. Good luck with the fires.
Mike, should of fined him.
Outstanding pics Mike. Keep em coming.
On a positive note, I would bet that group falls to the bottom of the list and an opening for the next in line in future years with Mike!
Haha, welka, yeah hopefully we get an opening come up for next year for you! I got your email. Thanks.
Beautiful bears Mike! John's cinnamon bear above is gorgeous! What a dream bear that would be!
Louis and Blaise Spillman from Louisiana
Louis and Blaise Spillman from Louisiana
Louis hunted with us last year and killed two good bears and he decided to come back again this spring and bring along his son Blaise. With all the disruption from the fires we were having trouble getting them on big bears and so Louis and Blaise decided to kill a couple of big, fat sows the last day of their hunt. Blaise got a bonus sow when his crossbow bolt went through the big, black sow he was shooting at and hit another colored sow, 15 yards beyond the bait site! It hit the cinammon sow head on, right in the chest and killed it about as fast as the black one he was aiming at. The guide came in and inspected the whole crime scene. That’s a new one for me! Thank goodness for Alberta’s two bear limit.
Almost got it!
Almost got it!
Here’s one of our bait sites that almost got burned out, Beaver Dam bait, so lucky on this one! Not so lucky on a few others. We’ve had heavy rain now for the last 24 hrs and it’s extinguishing the fires so we can now get around and asses the damage. 10 out of 30 of our bait sites were really affected where we couldn’t get into them, not sure which ones are gone? Our whole operation was impacted by the very limited ATV use that was imposed on us too.
We have a lot of money into each bait site, especially with the wooden box blinds and an expensive trail camera, not to mention the hours of labor put into them too. Like we needed more losses after all the Covid lockdowns! Living the Dream
Oh, man, that sucks! Happy to hear about the rain.
We’ve still done pretty well for big bear kills. In the first 3 weeks, 17 hunters have killed 16 bears, 11 of them over 18” skulls, 7 of those over 19” and 3 of them over 20. Biggest one being 20 10/16.
Sounds like you’ve had a great spring, even with all the fires! Glad to hear you guys are getting some relief from the fires. Hopefully you’ll be able to salvage some of those sites that were in the fires.
The rains have now pretty much put out all the fires. There are still little hotspots that the fire crews are searching for so they don’t crop back up later when it warms up and the wind blows.
There is lots of proof that many, dozens of the fires were intentionally set in remote areas, near oil and gas facilities. You can speculate as to why, climate activists, a provincial election with a governing Conservative Party? The mainstream news is not covering the arson at all, surprise, surprise.
On one of the windiest nights, my neighbor came across this vehicle on the side of the road engulfed in flames with fireworks shooting out the windows! No one was around.
On one of the windiest nights, my neighbor came across this vehicle on the side of the road engulfed in flames with fireworks shooting out the windows! No one was around.
This truck was purposely lit on fire in the middle of the night just 5 miles upwind of my lodge and right beside an oil facility. Fortunately the guys who came across it were driving a water truck, they quickly put it out. Crazy times…
Insane mike…glad you guys made out ok so far!
The last pic for this bait!
The last pic for this bait!
It’s unbelievable what extent these environmentalist terrorist will go! They should all be prosecuted and jailed in my opinion.
Mandatory life in prison for endangering others lives in a willful act. All the while proclaiming it’s climate change.
Wow Mike, Dirty, rotten, jack buggers, for setting the fires - bad enough for the financial loss, but could easily cost someone (or multiple people) their lives.
No wonder everyone on Bowsite talks so highly of you --- amidst all the devastation and financial loss, you still have a great attitude -- kudos to you.
Thanks for the kind comments guys! I would like to keep the thread all about happy bear hunting but sometimes a guy has to say something about bad things that happen.
I do have lots of bear pics to catch up on, I’ve got my extended family up here, some young hunters, working on taking a few sows out to reduce the bear population so the lodge is a busy place right now!
100% acceptable comments mike! I bet you we’d all come up if we could to help ya lock those ass hats up if we could…. Keep pressing on! I think bear in Alberta is on my future wish list after some of these photos!
Glad to hear most of the fires are out, keep up the good work MIKE! Looking forward to our hunt next week
Which bear has the bigger skull? Bow or rifle kill?
Which bear has the bigger skull? Bow or rifle kill?
Hey guys, we are still killing bears, can’t seem to get caught up to update things on bowsite! Got out of the habit with the fires overwhelming us, I’ll do it soon. Meanwhile here’s two big ones we killed yesterday. Mike’s Outfitting Team work!
To me I believe the bear on the left will score more…seems to have what should be close width but longer snout…
I don't really try and guess the skull size anymore. I've seen way too many meat heads and then heads that look like they shouldn't score anything at all.
Bear on RIGHT will score higher (the bow kill)
Im with RJ on this one. But for the sake of playing, i will say the bear on the left was a bowkill and has the bigger skull.
Bear on the right will score higher (I think).
Both are excellent bears! No way to know on the skull size until you skin 'em out in my experience!
Dang Mike. You guys can’t catch a break. Glad you’re getting some rain and thanks for keeping us posted. Great bears!
Both HUGE, they look same width but left beats it by 1/16th” ish… looks like slightly longer snout. 20 plus …I could also be off by 2” LOL.
Bear on the right I’m guessing
20 10/16 skull for the win!
20 10/16 skull for the win!
The winner shall remain nameless, witness protection program participant. But he sure got a big bear, 380 lbs and a 7 ft square hide, 20 10/16 skull. This was after mistakenly shooting a sow a couple evenings earlier.
The sow.
The sow.
It was a big sow though, 205 lbs, 6ft 3in hide, 17 7/16 skull, and a beautiful coat! We need more sows shot so we were happy that he got it.
Marco Garza from Texas
Marco Garza from Texas
Marco’s bow kill went 19 5/16, 6 ft 10 in hide, 360 lbs. An awesome 2nd bear. His first one was even bigger.
Marco’s first bear, a 400 pounder!
Marco’s first bear, a 400 pounder!
Tale of the Scale, 400 lbs! It barely beat Jerry Westfall’s 395 lb bear from May 19. I’ll post his giant soon here too…
Tale of the Scale, 400 lbs! It barely beat Jerry Westfall’s 395 lb bear from May 19. I’ll post his giant soon here too…
A “Gorilla Bear” as rattling junkie likes to say. Short and stocky!
A “Gorilla Bear” as rattling junkie likes to say. Short and stocky!
Marco killed this bear on the first day of the hunt with his bow at Gravel Pit bait. 20 6/16, 7 ft 2 in hide. One perfect arrow took the beast down within 60 yds.
His 2nd bear went 500-600 yds because of a quartering towards hit. The bear shifted his body around while Marco was at full draw and he didn’t realize he moved into a quartering towards him position when he released. He got the shot on video so we left the bear till morning and some diligent tracking and guesswork by my bloodhound guides found the bear. Thank goodness!
Awesome bears despite the fires, great job Mike
Richard Clapp from North Carolina
Richard Clapp from North Carolina
Richard took his boar from an open topped, tripod stand on our new Swamp bait on May 12 on the 5th day of his hunt. (I’m playing catch up on kills now.) We always like to give a bait 2-3 years before we establish it as a permanent box blind site, with a broadside positioning crib for bowhunters. Richard had a rifle so he could pick off any reluctant bears to the new site.
From trail camera pics we thought this boar was big enough at 300+ lbs and we gave him the go ahead to take it. We were wrong with the bear weighing in at 280, 18 1/16 skull, 6 ft 6 in hide. But Richard was very happy with it being his largest bear to date. The coat was a beautiful, long haired bear so that’s our excuse for the misjudgment. Congrats Richard!
FOR ANYONE WHO HAS A GROUP OF 6 HUNTERS AND WOULD LIKE TO BOOK FOR 2025 AND HAVE THE WHOLE LODGE TO JUST YOUR GROUP, WE HAVE OUR FIRST TWO WEEKS OF THE SEASON OPEN, MAY 4 TO 11 AND MAY 11 TO 18 or the last week, JUNE 1 TO 8. ($5500 USD for one bear, $2500 for a 2nd. Plus 5% GSTax and a $330 license.)
2024 is full. THANKS!
Howard Carter from Virginia
Howard Carter from Virginia
Back to posting bear pics! This was Howard’s first hunt with us and he got his bear within the first hour on the first evening’s hunt May 15. Then he enjoyed himself just hanging out in camp, relaxing for the rest of the week. 280 lb bear, 18 13/16 skull, 6 ft 6 in hide.
Dang! That bear looks a lot bigger than the measurements you just posted! Nice work once again, Mike!
Jerry Westfall from Illinois
Jerry Westfall from Illinois
This was Jerry’s 5th bear hunt with us and he finally killed a couple of whoppers! 19 14/16 skull on this one, 300 lbs. May 17
Thanks Dino!
Jerry Westfall
Jerry Westfall
Jerry’s beast at 395 lbs!
Jerry’s beast at 395 lbs!
And then Jerry’s 2nd bear at 20 10/16 skull and 395 lbs, 7 ft 2 in hide! May 19
Congratulations on two great bears Jerry!
Some great bears Mike! Love to see your success photos. Unbelievable how many big ones you take each season!
Thanks Kurt! We feed 400-500 bears for two months on 30 bait sites and kill about 30 of the biggest ones each year. It’s fully sustainable year after year…
Crazy you feed that many bears Mike! That’s nuts! Definitely on my bucket list to get up there!
Blake Patton from Texas
Blake Patton from Texas
300 pound, big framed boar!
300 pound, big framed boar!
Blake came for another bear hunt with us and killed this big headed, 19 12/16 skull bear. The bear was deceiving to judge in that he only weighed 300 lbs but he had the big head and a 7 ft hide! Blake and some of his buddies rebooked for 2024 and 2025 for a two week hunt to pursue a giant! It’s a good thing he’s a good guy to have in camp! Haha
Way to go I was rooting for Jerry!
Shane Campbell from Oregon
Shane Campbell from Oregon
Repeat hunter Shane was the next lucky hunter on May 19th with this 265 lb, 18 9/16 boar, 6 ft 7 inches.
