Casual Encounteurs

 

Loop Lake Road - Algoma National Forest

Between 2010 and 2019, and prior to its untimely demise due to Covid and related issues, I went bear hunting at Halfway Haven five times and learned to admire, enjoy and love the dark and almost impenetrable pine forests, placid lakes, logging roads in a constant state of disrepair, and the abundant wildlife and fisheries.

I caught walleye and pike, shot ruffled and spruce grouse for the camp pot, and had my fair share of success with black bears, not only for the trophies but also for their fantastic meat. But some of the most cherished memories come from casual encounters.

In 2019 I took some friends from Brazil hunting and they wanted to go after both the ever present black bears as well as timber wolves that moved in the area following the mighty moose and seriously impacting bear hunting, but that is a different story.

Since my friends refused to drive for fear of getting lost (in the single road that was led to camp) I had to drop them at their assigned baits and pick them up at night. I also had to babysit them to make sure that they had their gear going in and coming out.

A certain night when I came to pick up Alceu, who was sitting for wolf, I noticed that he had left his electronic game call behind. As I had no idea of the plans for the following day I just told him to load up his gear and wait for me in the truck and took the narrow trail to retried the equipment. It was pitch black dark, except for the bright northern stars, and I relied only on my headlight. The moment I touched the call that was hanging from a tree three wolves started howling around me. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I was uncertain how a can of bear spray would perform against the apex predators of the north woods. That is one of the most primeval feelings I ever felt.

Not wanting to find out how many other puppies were around I made a tactical retreat to the safe and comfort of my truck!

In the previous year, I spent two weeks, instead of the normal seven days, at camp. More time to do what I like best: not much at all! Since I am constantly reminded that God doesn’t count days spent hunting, fishing or exploring wild places against our allotment, I guess that I don’t do much at all. Anyhow…

On the day before we were supposed to drive home, and having fished and hunted to my heart’s content, I took an afternoon to visit Steve and Gale at their beautiful trapper’s cabin out of Much Lake Road. Jeff, our guide turned friend, asked me to stop at a couple baits on the way back in order to get his game cameras, saving him time the following day.

Towards late afternoon I bid goodbye to the nice couple and went on my mission. At the first stop I had a long walk on a soft sandy road, crisscrossed by wolf tracks, and carried a 257 Weatherby just in case. Except for ravens and crows, and maybe a bald eagle I saw nothing.

At the second stop, my walk would be much shorter but almost entirely in the timber. Being a bit tired and wanting to make a fast retrieval I took nothing. As I made the last bend of the trail before the bait barrel I came face to face to a beautiful black bear, that probably was just as surprised as I was.

We both froze and the story takes two paths! The boring one is that I started backing up until we couldn’t see each other, went back to the truck, got a gun and came back to find nothing and picked up the camera and went back to the lodge. The other path is to give a bit more detail to our casual encounter!

When the bear and I came face to face we carefully examined each other. Could we have met before? And then we apparently came to the same conclusion! Both of us being proper gentlemen, and not having being properly introduced, we decided not to engage in any conversation. Such is the burden of civilization.

My Unmatched Pair & Etcetera Guns

Browning BSS's in 20 & 12 Gauges

A matched pair of "Best Guns" is only really a necessity at formal "Driven "Shoots" (and that could be red grouse in Scotland, pheasant in England or Central Europe or partridges in Spain) and both, Best Guns and Driven Shoots are luxuries that few people can afford (including me, unhappily). However, it is unlikely that a single gun will meet all your shooting (translation from UK English: hunting) needs, and that is where an unmatched pair will shine.

In our rather stupid time, the majority of the hunters prefer the over-under or auto-loading shotguns, while a dwindling number stick to the "All-American" pump-action, but I am part of a certain minority that are passionate about side-by-side shotguns.

Clearly there is an elitist cult around the "Gentlemen's Gun", and many side-by-side shotguns sell not only for thousands of dollars, but for tens of thousands of dollars, but so do many over-under shotguns, and even a few auto-loaders and pumps (Winchester Model 12 Skeet 28 gauge anyone?)

On the other hand, there are very affordable side-by-side guns that are completely functional, even if less than refined, and perform very well afield (although they probably would scourge the elitist or purist side-by-side aficionado). Several times while hunting perdiz (Nothura maculosa) in Uruguay I had great shooting days using nothing more than a Stoeger Uplander, both in 20 and 28 gauges. This gun is made in Brazil by E.R. Amantino (a.k.a. Boito) as the model A-680 and retails in the US for no more than four hundred dollars.

But let's get back to the unmatched pair. Bird hunting or shooting is as diverse as the species we pursue and although we could use your waterfowl gun for upland birds or vice-versa, the result may not be the best. Luiz Alves Flores in his short-stories "Caçadas" (http://www.estacaocapixaba.com.br/temas/memoria/cacadas/) tells of a gentleman that ordered two Sauer shotguns from Germany, a 20 gauge for upland (or forest) birds and a 12 gauge for waterfowl.

And this is the approach that I took. My first unmatched pair was a set of Spanish made Laurona box lock shotguns. I bought both used at On Target in Kalamazoo and initially they had Prince of Wales grips and cheeckpiece combs. Eventually my friend Bill Berghuis transformed the stocks into nice straight grip or English hand and removed the cheeckpiece that virtually eliminated any cast-off.

But several years ago I acquired a Browning BSS 20 gauge on a trade with another friend, Mitch Garvey, and since then I've had a fixed idea of having another unmatched pair. The BSS may not be the quintessential "game gun" as they have pistol grips, single non-selective triggers, beavertail foreends and are somewhat heavy, but they are among the most robust and durable side-by-side shotguns ever built; maybe a poor man Model 21.

Well, earlier this year during an unplanned and not to be discussed visit to Cabela's Gun Library in Dundee, Michigan, I completed my second unmatched pair, when I acquired a Browning BSS 12 gauge. While I've used the BSS 20 extensively on clay pigeons, perdiz and doves in Uruguay and woodcock and grouse in Michigan and Ontario, so far I shot the BSS 12 very little, a couple rounds on Five-Stand and not many more on Skeet. The one problem I faced was often trying to find a second trigger for the left barrel, especially while shooting Skeet, and I have not faced the same issue with the BSS 20. I definitively have issues on how my brain is wired.

The BSS 12 would make a great watefowl gun, if I ever find time to hunt waterfowl, or for late season pheasants in the Dakotas, and for sure a great target gun for side-by-side shoots. In order to get optimum performance I may have to ask my friend Del Whitman to open up the current chokes (Modified and Full) to something more forgiving like Skeet and Improved Cylinder.

And with the help of the "inserts" shown in the photo above, either gun could also become a nice small game collector and survival piece. On the center is a 22 LR "insert" that can be used in 12, 16 or 20 gauge shotguns (I will talk about it in detail in the future) and just under the decoy is a 12/410 insert.

Well, I need to go now as I am getting ready to travel to South Africa this coming Friday for a week of bow hunting for plains game (what a misnomer) and bird shooting, and provided communications are available I will provide daily updates about this adventure in the Dark Continent.

Algoma 2013 - Day 6: More Action

Beaver dam overtaking road

Yesterday both Bob and Wayne, Bruce's son, had the the opportunity to take a shot at black bears, but they passed either because the bear was not big enough or because it did not present a good broadside shot.

Wayne and Bruce left this morning and Randy and his wife Sally arrived around lunch time. Randy was here in the beginning of the season but could not get a bear at the time, so he is back for a second try.

After lunch Bob went back to his bait site at the Shanty Creek Road, Randy went with Jeff out to "Bait 5" at the Loop Lake Road, Joseph went rock hunting and I stayed at the lodge nursing my knee. By mid afternoon both Jeff and Joseph were back and dragged me to go fishing.

When we arrived at the boat lunch we saw the camp of Canadian native hunters after moose, and because of the intermittent rain we took a small pontoon boat with a top instead of Jeff's jet boat. Soon the three of us were fishing on the tea-like waters of the Montreal River. I caught a small pike on a spinner and after trying different lures and baits we all set on jigs with night-crawlers and eventually caught a nice string of walleyes.

At around 6:30 PM we heard a shot coming from the direction of "Bait 5", so we raised anchor and got back to the boat lunch where we met Randy by the time we had put our fishing gear back in Jeff's truck. Randy had shot a bear, and like me yesterday was coming to get help to track and retrieve it.

By the time we got back to Halfway lodge it was dinner time, and we decided to eat the great bear stew that Steve prepared with one of my bear's loins and decided to wait for Bob to get back so he could take part on the night adventure.

Eventually we left on party of six people, Randy and Sally, Jeff, Joseph, Bob and I, to track a wounded and potentially dangerous animal at night only armed with bear spray, a Canadian law prohibits the use of firearms after sunset, even when trailing wounded bears.

The four ATV convoy took some time to negotiate the bad logging roads and trails to get to "Bait 5" and once we were there we soon found a good blood trail and we found the dead bear with a beautiful white chevron in its chest within fifty yards of the bait barrel.

Bob and I will go home in the morning, but we are already talking about coming back.

Algoma 2013 - Day 5: BEAR!

Two predators forever connected

Yesterday everyone hunted bear for a very long time and today because we were all tired  decided to change tactics and only start bear hunting later in the afternoon, and this gave me time to go grousing. Joseph and I took my truck and went looking for logging roads that hosted suitable grouse cover. I was very distressed that my trusted pointer Bob refused to come along and decided to go baiting with Jeff instead.

We stopped at multiple logging roads and walked along looking for coverts and birds, but did not have success until we came to the "ZERO" Bait. We stopped the truck and started along the two-track. When we arrived at the bait and tree stand we found the partial skeletons of two moose. I imagine its a cow and its yearling due to the difference in size.

We continued to move along until the end of the two-track where I heard grouse calling. I entered the bushed and initially I thought that I had been fooled by a raven, but soon after I found myself in the middle of a small flock of spruce grouse. I made sure that I would locate and retrieve each bird I shot before pursuing another so I would not risk losing a bird, and after some intense minutes I had three more grouse.

When we came back to the lodge Jeff told us that three of the four baits we were hunting had been hit, and after a brief conference I decided to continue to hunt the same site (Bait 17.5) as I did the previous days, and I am on my way shortly after lunch.

The temperature is around 68F and it is very humid which makes for rather warm and uncomfortable hunting weather and I feel overdressed in my flannel shirt and wool sweeter (the same Woolrich sweeter I bought at Orvis in Traverse City in January 2003). With the warm weather come the the mosquitoes and I believed killed more than a limited those pesky flying insects.

The temperature does not seem to affect the red squirrel's energy and they chase each other around, chirp and climb the bait barrel to lick the molasses that has been poured on top of it to help attract bruins. A couple of red headed woodpecker come visiting and I think that if no bear come at least I can tell that I met Woody Woodpecker.

I kill a couple more mosquitoes and then absolutely noiseless a black bear comes up the hill and turns the trail at the tree that holds a well aged piece of beaver and looks straight into my eyes. At fourteen paces it looks like an enormous monster bear to me, and immediately after spotting me it turns into its tracks to escape back into the almost impenetrable jungle he just emerged from, but at the same time I raise my 375 Holland & Holland and shoot the bear like I shoot grouse, relying on reflexes a lot more than precise aiming to hit a fast fleeing target.

The first thought that comes to my mind is that I missed the bear, but when I come out of my improvised ground blind I soon find blood and bone fragments and I knew that The bear was seriously wounded.

I am not a good enough tracker to pursue an wounded bear alone in the thick northern woods and even if I found it, it was more than likely that I would be unable to retrieve it by myself, so I went back to my truck and drove back to the lodge where I found Jeff as he was about to go fishing with Joseph and Bruce.

When we got back I gave my bottle of bear spray to Joseph and loaded my 20 gauge Browning side-by-side with slugs. I hopped for my shot to have been fatal, but if we had a wounded bear in the woods I can shoot a light shotgun a lot faster than I can shoot a heavy bolt-action rifle, and slugs at point blank are as effective as any rifle load.

Jeff, Joseph and I started tracking and Bruce stayed at the bait to give us directions. We found a lot of blood and more bone fragments, and inside the Northern jungle the temperature rose from warm to really hot, maybe because of the claustrophobic environment and all the excitement and adrenalin rush of tracking a potentially dangerous animal under such challenging conditions.

Although the cover was very challenging we had no problem with the blood trail, and we found the very dead male bear under a tree 82 yards from the bait as the crow flies. We also found that the 300 grain bullet completely destroyed the bear's left shoulder exploding like a grenade.  The bullet behavior is clearly not what is expected from a dangerous game bullet, but the injury it inflicted killed the bear, even if no vitals were hit.

Steve now joined us and brought a sled to help us retrieve the bear, and that is when the bear revenge started. It took us over an hour to bring the 180 pounds bear out of tangled woods, and back to the truck. The last challenge was the crossing of a beaver dam. While we walked the top of the dam, we floated the bear in the sled.

After some more of the usual work that comes after shooting a big game animal we had a "wild game dinner" of grouse, walleye and northern pike, and fried bear liver with onions. The excellent dinner was washed down by a bottle Rodney Strong Pinot Noir and  another of Jacob's Creek Barossa Valley Shiraz. A fitting tribute to he bear.

Algoma 2013 - Day 4: Close Encounters of the Moose Kind

Photo by Robin Ireton

Just for a change today (I really mean yesterday, since I was too tired to write last night) we did not go grousing. Instead Bob, my new trusted "pointer", left earlier for his bait stand on his ATV and shortly afterwards Jeff and I followed to bait all four sites. Our plan was to make the run and bait mine last and I would stay to see if the bears would come earlier, like happened the previous day.

We started by Bait 16, the "Pit", and Bob's trail camera revealed that two different bears had visited it sometime after dark, a large one and the other quite small. That is the site I took the decision not to hunt. That was also the only hit bait of the four we visited. Cè la vie!

Jeff stopped to bait Bob's site at Shanty Road and Bob asked me to tell me he had seen  five grouse. Maybe he will become a bird hunter one day! When we came to the last and furthest away bait at the other pit, also on Shanty Road, I went ahead to check the bait and three grouse flushed not ten feet from me, but the 375 Holland & Holland is rather inadequate for shooting grouse on the wing!

We came back to my bait (we now call it 17.5) at around 12:30 and it had not been hit, so I decided to take my place while Jeff refreshed the bait with a large nice piece of beaver.

And I sat, and I sat, and I sat...

In order to avoid falling sleep and possibly finding a bear licking my face like my lab Tupã likes to do I got my i-Phone (No! There is no cell phone or Internet coverage here, thank you) and finished reading Aldo Leopold's Round River, a less famous work than Sandy Country Almanac, but not less important in my view, as it show a bit more about Leopold the hunter. After that I also ready some of the hilarious Galen Winter's stories on The Journals of Major Peabody.

By 8:00 PM it was getting too dark to shoot and started raining again, so I left my very comfortable chair and walked back to my truck a half mile away.

Shortly after getting the main road while i was coming around a bend in the road my headlights showed a very large dark body supported by four very long legs. It took me a few seconds to remember that they don't have horses around here and that the animal was a cow moose. I continued driving slowly as the she-moose trotted in front, but before I could snatch a picture she left the road on a pond or beaver dam and within seconds had crossed it and entered the north woods.

This may not have been such a close and personal encounter as Bob had, but it surges make you want to drive carefully. I need to drive my truck home and not leave a reck here in Ontario.

We had T-bone steaks for dinner washed down by a bottle of good French red, Chateau Haute-Tulieres. After dinner a hot sauna helped us couple with the long day and prepare us for a good night of sleep. Bing quite tired I had to write about today, tomorrow!    

Algoma 2013 - Day 3: All the grouse, but still no bear

Jeff and I at the Halfway pump

After breakfast Bob and I went after grouse following a road close to the lodge. Less than a mile away we came across a flock and I was able to shoot two ruffed grouse, including a beautiful left to right crosser.

Shortly afterwards we went out with Jeff baiting, and all but one of the sites (the one I hunted yesterday) were hit. On the way to the Shanty Creek baits we located another flock of spruce grouse and I completed a limit in no time, including a beautiful couple and a juvenile bird.

I forgot to mention yesterday that while waiting for bear I heard at least two different grouse drumming, and the sound they make reminds me of the suffering starting up of an old one cylinder diesel motor that powered the electrical generator before we had grid power in our farm Buriti do Retiro, in southern Goiás state, Brazil.

We came back to the lodge around 2:30 PM, had lunch and Bob fixed his ATV.

I got to my bait at 3:30 and the bait barrel was nocked down, but the lid as still in place and the bait had not been touched. I may have moved that bear as I came to the bait.

I was a lot more comfortable today. The temperature did not drop as much as yesterday and I dressed a lot warmer.

Towards sunset I started to hear moose calling deep in the swamps.

Shortly after I returned to the lodge, Wayne, a hunter from Grand Rapids, arrived and said that he missed a bear as soon as he came to his bait in mid-afternoon. Bob did not see anything, except for a couple grouse. Maybe he should become a bird hunter!

Algoma 2013 - Day 2: More than Grouse

A moose visiting a bear bait

Today we had a lazy start following a very nice breakfast. Bob and I went checking some bate sites, but none had been hit.

On the way to "Bait 17" Bob saw a grouse and I almost had to kick it before I could shoot it in a more or less sportive way. I was a cock spruce grouse and I think it will it very well along its also deceased relative from yesterday.

We came back and had lunch and went separate ways for our respective baits. It was almost warm when we left, but by mid afternoon the temperature started to drop and by the time I got back to the truck around 8:00 PM it was down to not so warm 36F.

There is a full moon and not a cloud in the sky, so we should have another frost tomorrow morning, and definitively I will wear my under armor.

When Bob got back about 20 minutes after I arrived he was excited for having had a very close encounter with a bull moose while riding his ATV. We all gave him a hard time for not taking a picture while both, the moose and him, sped along a narrow logging road.

I reminded Jeff that when I was here for the first time three years ago I shot my bear the first afternoon after less than two hours hunting. Considering I hunted for about six hours, I already should have shot three bears.

Let's see what tomorrow brings...

Algoma 2013 - Day 1: GROUSE!

Spruce Grouse and BSS

Following some planning and a lot of expectation my friend Bob Scott and I are again hunting bear with Jeff Helms of Agawa Canyon Outfitters (www.trophybears.com). We left my home in Traverse City at 5:30 this morning after attending the Ruffed Grouse Society banquet yesterday, and after crossing the Mackinaw and Sault Saint Marie bridges and driving the eastern coast of Lake Superior until Wawa from where we headed to Halfway Heaven in the Algoma sustainable management forest, where we arrived by mid afternoon and we immediately met Jeff, and the Halfway owners Gail and Steve, and soon after we met Joseph who came for a week of fishing and kayaking.

As both Bob and I where tired due to the short night and long drive we decided not to hunt today and went out with Jeff and Joseph scouting and baiting five or six different sites from where we will hunt during the week.

We found evidence of bear activity in all but one of the sites, and a trail camera confirmed the presence of a very large bear in one of the bait sites, and although we were not hunting bear I took my 20 gauge Browning side-by-side shotgun (BSS) just in case we would need better protection that the bear spray that both Bob and Jeff were carrying or in the case that we would come across some grouse, as I had never had the opportunity to hunt these awesome birds before.

After going all the baits Jeff drove us to a covert just by the roadside and after struggling around the dense forest for a while Bob, who earlier had volunteered to play pointer, flushed two birds. I hit one with the second barrel as it was about to reach the top of a tree. After I retrieved it Joseph spotted the second bird not ten fit above the ground on a pine. I saw the bird and could have easily killed it, but instead I flushed it, not without some effort and missed as it flew away and put not one tree, but half of a forest between us.

We tried to locate more birds but did not succeed, and as dinner time was already past we drove back the Halfway where Steve positively identified the bird as a female Spruce Grouse, the first bird of this species that I ever shot.

We enjoyed a bottle of Veo Grande, a good Chilean Cabernet and continued to talk hunting, fishing and related lies.