Boone & Crockett ARCHERY Bear BEAR BENDER FILM EP 2

I laid eyes on him. I about fell out of the tree. I've never, ever seen a bear that big in real life. Welcome to Bear Bender episode two. We are in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I've never been to Saskatchewan. And I'm excited. We're going to hunt with Bill Vanderheyden from Iron Will Outfitters and our YouTube giveaway winner, Cody. Leaving Colorado, heading to Saskatchewan. 15 hours to go. So, hoping for some good weather. Looks like it's going to be good when we get up there. Good to meet you, buddy. Yeah, this is Riley. Hey, Riley. Good to meet you, sir. Nice to meet you. Good to see you. Okay, yeah, take care. We're good. Good. Marla, how are you? How are you doing? Good to see you. Yeah, Marty. Good to see you. Meet my nephew, Riley. What's up, Riley? Marty. Nice to meet you. Congrats on the bear. Oh, thank you. Yeah, you guys are able all. Did you both got two? I got one. Okay. Yeah, we got picky. Give me an hour, Tom. How you doing? How was the drive? Long. How many hours? It was about 30. So, our shot is where the Outfitter likes people to shoot, which is basically middle of middle. Here we are at bear camp. This is Cody. He won the bear hunt this year. So, we're getting him set up. Got him some arrows. Got him some bear engraved heads. Yeah, I just want to shoot anything small. Yeah. You know, and you got the, it should look, it should look really stocky. It should look like a big meat head. They're like tree trunks, you know. Yeah. If they narrow and they're small ankles, it's probably not a big bore. Guys, welcome to bear camp. This is our winner, Cody. You already met Bill. Yes. You met Marty. Yes. Cool. You've never bear hunted? No, not directly. You know, I carry a tag when I go hunting. That's good. Elk hunting in Colorado, but. Never killed a bear. I've never killed a bear. We're close to Manitoba. We're in Saskatchewan and we're gonna go shoot some arrows and then we're gonna meet up with Marla and go over where to shoot. So, the Iron Will Victory Archery looks like it's a, almost like a TKO. It basically, yeah, basically it's a ripped TKO. V1, so very straight. And then in addition to that, I built out some with 150. So, with a 50 grain hit, 10 collar and a 150, just to, as you always say, be tinkering. Yeah. And right now, last second at the range, this may be the one that goes through my bear. Well, let's go shoot real quick. That's funny as I'm running the same boots as Cody. You can say I'm copying him. So, Sheep Feet, they go everywhere we go. Code Elk Shape will save you 10%. I think it's a non-nagosh. It's a stiffness rating of two. It's not a super stiff boot. The Easton 5.0s. And I'm gonna run the Iron Will Wide 150. It does open them up pretty good. And obviously, penetration isn't a huge issue with bears. You really want to open them up big. We'll be hunting bears tonight. The goal is to not shoot a bear, to shoot the right bear. Hey, Cody. Cody, pleased to meet you. Nice to meet you. So, first time? Yes. Yes. Okay. Your sows and your boars. Okay. So, you got, the barrels are all 45 gallon. Okay. Okay. So, we're safe to say that if a bear is the height of the barrel, that you're looking at around 300 pounds. Okay. So, the biggest thing you could do for us as outfitters is actually you take that shot. And you think that you've done a good shot, right? Give it about 20 minutes, then get down. If you want, you can go and you can find the first blood. You know, see if you can find it. But don't start crawling into the bush. Because what happens is there's some sites, you know, there's rivers or there's swamps. And if you just start pushing that bear and he's not down yet, then that could make a tougher cross. Cody, what are we up to today? We're going to shoot a big bear. Good evening, Saskatchewan. I swear I'm in farm country, but I'm hunting black bears. So, we're all dividing and conquering tonight. Rich is going to walk me in and we'll go from there. We're going to sneak down, see if we can find it. I know, I think I saw my arrow. Did not hear a death mow. That's the biggest freaking bear my adrenaline is. I can't believe my adrenaline. The big dog shows up with her. They're a breeding pair. And the sow was big. So, I knew that boar was huge. Like huge. He came right to that furthest bait at 21 yards. I drew back right away. Just drew back. And then he just took away his broadside shot and sat down. And he ate for 10, 15 minutes. And then he came and left the food to come flirt with the sow. And I know I had to sit down twice just because I was shaking so much. So, I'd have to sit down. I'm like, you're shaking too much. And then he came over to the sow out of frame. And I had a giant lens, too big of a lens, but I knew he was probably still in frame. And he was like just dead listening. I wish I, it's not on camera, but I, he is just like, he heard me stand up. And so, he was just like, and I knew he was going to probably leave. The sow started to walk away. I pulled back. And then when he turned, I just pulled really hard, really fast and took a, like a basically a quartering away shot. The sow went with him and then she came running that way and he didn't run with her. And I never heard anymore. I heard crashing and then nothing. So, I'm pretty sure he's dead. Looks good. Looks good, right? Friends, we found him. He went 50 yards. He's a mega giant bear. Scary big. Marla is going to try to bushwhack him here with the sled, which we are going to need. So, so we're supposed to haul him out of here, huh? Yeah, I'll get the quad. Don't worry. Oh, you can get a quad in here? I got it and I'll show you exactly what we do. I don't got that. But look at this, it fills the sled and his head and neck are one solid unit. Oh my God. Yep. He got the monster. Look at this thing, dude. Look at this freaking head. What happened, Dan? Uh, look at this exit out the front of the chest. It's your guess. What do you think? I want to say over five. I just, I don't know. Like, I think it's bigger than Bill's. Yeah. Like I, yeah, it's got, if it's got to be very close, like 495, 490, it might be in that, but I'm, I'm thinking it might actually break the five. What's your guess on that bear? Uh, I think we're, I think we're going to break 500. 78. 58, 53 on the chest. 61 on the belly. What did I say the chest was? 53. So 78, 53 and 61. Guys. Well, we are here. Eastern sky. This is a fun hunt for me because I'm sharing camp with iron will bill and my boy Marty, who we shot tack together a couple of years ago. Um, and I'm having another man skin my bear. I don't know how I feel about that, but while you're busy, uh, rich. Yes, sir. How many years have you personally bear hunted personally? Probably 25 years. Okay. And then you, you bought this outfit in 2017. Yes. Okay. How many bears do you think you've been a part of recovery and skinned and butchered? Probably I'd say with, with our own bears and clients, bears were probably North of a hundred bears. Yeah. I figured you'd be a triple digit. What is the gospel when it comes to identifying a bore versus a South? I would say, uh, just the mass in general is, is, uh, is a dead giveaway, you know, from a, when they're a younger bore, it's a tougher, it's a tougher call when you get into, um, more of a mature bore, you know, your head size, your shoulders, feet, those are all your, your dead giveaways. Yeah. Wrists, ankle. Yeah. Longer arms. Yeah. No neck kind of neck. Just walk in like a wrestler, you know, just stocky. I'd say that a lot of your clients that end up shooting a sow by accident, probably did it by talking themselves into it. Like I'd say with a bear walks in and you're not sure within the first 10 seconds, it's probably not a shooter is what I've experienced. That's cool. What do, what do your bears here in Saskatchewan primarily eat throughout the year? Well, oats fields, um, depending on the time of the year, like in the spring, dandelions, green grass, um, as you get into the year and into fall, then they move into, you know, your berries, choke cherries, cranberries, um, oats fields, stuff like that. That's the primary food source at that time. These bears come out of hibernation actually with some fat on them still, then they start feeding on grass and dandelions. They get about a month under their belt and now they're rutting, chasing sows, depleting their stores, fighting and breeding by end of June or middle of June. Is that probably their lightest they'll weigh all year? Yeah, pretty much because they've, they've run down, um, you know, and as, as they, they really don't start putting on the pack and the pounds on until later in the fall. You know, even fall bears, you know, we're not seeing near the fat like there is in the spring, like when we're shooting them now. Really? Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. So once, you know, in, um, we'll do that fall hunt in first week in, or last week in August and they'll, they'll have pretty good fat, but not, not like this, you know. That's incredible. So they, they wear it down, um, but, um, once you get into October, you know, and, and they're starting to adapt for hibernation, you know, that's when they're going to start really laying it on. As far as boars and sows and breeding, I don't think a lot of people realize this, but like if a sow has twins, which they usually do, they can have triplets, quadruplets. Let's say a sow has triplets, a father, she could have three different fathers. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. What are some of the main indications that the rut has arrived? Two-year-old cubs kicked out, things like that. Yeah. Once you start seeing, um, once you start seeing them sows chase some cubs, like they'll start getting real miserable to them. Okay. You know, they'll put the run on them, uh, and that's a, you know, that's a pretty good sign. Um, you're going to start seeing boars, checking baits, in and out, in and out. Um. Just cruising. Yeah. They're looking for that first sow in heat. Let's just talk about shooting bears at a bait site. It sounds like a slam dunk. I promise you it's not. I even told, um, Cody, our guest winner, I said, hey, I sent Riley with him. I said, just listen to Riley. He'll tell you if it's a shooter or not, because he's never bear hunted. But I said, he was pretty stressed out about not shooting the right bear. And I told him you guys had lots of right bears, but it's still, that's not the thing to stress out about. It's when to shoot the bear when they come into the bait. Because a lot of times they move from barrel to barrel, they'll go run off another bear, or they'll decide to sit down on the job and eat. And shooting a bear that's laying down is probably not best. So what do you have to say about shot selection and shot placement on baited bears? Well, I guess the biggest thing is just to, um, not to rush the shot, you know, because they're milling around. They're in and out and back and forth. And on some of them big ones, the worst thing you want to do is rush it and not get a good shot and not find them. Okay. You know, um, you know, if you can kind of time it when they're turning, you know, or, or get a good broadside shot or a quartering, that's about the best, best option you can do. I mean. And you're telling your clients middle of the middle. Yeah. I heard you guys say that. Yeah. A lot of hunters aren't going to have a hard time with hearing that. They're just, it's not in there the way they've been trained. I know. I had a guy in your truck driving up in the back seat who said, I don't know if I'm going to shoot my bear in the middle of the middle. And I said, well, you really ought to. Yeah. And, um, he was, he wasn't so convinced. Um, is that normal for some of your hunters to be? It is. And I mean, even, um, even right at the heat of the moment, I mean, guys are so, so used to pulling tight to that shoulder, you know, they, they can, you can talk to them about it and it's just natural instinct and they'll, they'll do it the other way anyway. But it is, um, if you're a little bit further back, it's okay. Yeah. You know, this is just an unbelievable bear. Probably once in my lifetime. Dad, Dan used the iron wheel wide, a single bevel on this and a quartering away entered here. You can see the hole through the hide there. Pretty good hole. Um, you know, that, that cuts and rotates. So it's, it's always kind of an oblong or almost kind of square shape to it. You can see the bleeders cutting it a little bit, but it cuts and rotates together. It opens up a pretty good, pretty good hole there. And, uh, yeah, it went in here, came out, believe it came out right through the front shoulder, right through the, between the front shoulder brisket. We'll see it when we get down a little further. But yeah, I mean, that's one, I think that's why iron will shines when you got something like all this mass, you're trying to get through and get that exit hole. It's going to get you further through, you know? Yeah. My arrow was in the dirt and kicked out. I mean, it, it had so much energy. Yeah. And that's a lot of, a lot of muscle to go through there coming out through that shoulder and fat. I don't think a No, I think most broadheads are going to hang up in there somewhere, which, which is probably still going to kill it on that shot. Sure. But, um, it's nice to get that exit hole, get the blood on the ground. Yeah. So, you know, here's your guts. Okay. So if you draw a line down this middle of this bear, that's about halfway point and you just go over you're hitting lungs and all the good stuff. But if you hug tight to this shoulder and here, this is kind of almost an empty void in here. So the bears, the bears lungs are further back and you can see how much food is in his guts and they're going to sit down on the bottom. And so they're almost going to push those lungs up a little higher, like abated bears lungs will even be a little higher. So you do not want to aim low on bears. You want to go middle of the middle and you can air an inch or two towards the shoulder and you can air a little higher. He's got tape measure. Yeah. I was going to say, this would be the back, the back of the shoulder or the crease or something there. The front of the leg would be like here. So 24, so like 12 middle of middle, it seems like that'd be right as the back edge of the lungs. Yep. Right. So anywhere from there forward, you don't have to aim at the crease, but I like kind of like to aim middle of middle and then a bit forward towards the shoulder. It seems like that would be the cleanest margin. Yeah. You'd have the biggest area, but you know, we're eight inches back from that shoulder right here and you're kind of center of the lungs it looks like. Also they can have long hair. So yeah, you can think you're aiming through the heart and you might be aiming below the bear. Do not heart shot bears here. You could not, you could be fooled for sure. This is heart right here. We got to make this black and white on YouTube. So you, it doesn't get flagged, but that is the heart. Okay. Get that tape measure out. Yeah. So what some people can do if they aim for a whitetail heart, they can actually shoot in front of the heart and miss it. Yep. That heart is back way further than you'd think on a bear. It is. It is. Yeah. All right. So our entrance hole was here. Exit was in front of the shoulder. We got one lung and right through the heart. You see that hole right there and then it's corkscrewing. It's corkscrewing and spinning the whole way through. 25. Yeah. We're just shy of 13 and three quarters. Okay. You hold them on top again and I'm just going to re-come back in force. 21.375. That's three eighths. 21 and three eighths. This is coming from the guy that's going to figure out. So Iron Will Bill, I don't want to spoil his hunt. He had a good hunt. He was there. I don't think he found what he was looking for. He's a very patient and I think he's also trying to top 480. So there's only a few bears there that could do that. So I think he, he might be coming back next year, but um, Cody had never killed a bear in his life. He's killed an elk with a bow. Um, he's killed, he's an avid deer hunter, elk hunter from North Carolina. Good dude, fit dude, positive dude. Just honestly, we've just been so fortunate to hang out with our community. Like I would say Cody's just top shelf dude. We're here in a new spot. We're going to switch it up tonight Cody. Um, this is a little bit more forest land. We've seen the last couple of days, a lot more bears coming to the stand, a little bit more action. Um, so we'll give it a go tonight and see what happens here. All right, I'm excited. I'm excited to uh, get an opportunity at a big boar tonight and I think things are going down. So big bear down tonight. Oh, he's calling a shot. He's calling a shot. Let's go. What do we see? We've seen a pretty good size bear. Evening at the barrel. Kind of spooked as we walked in. Couldn't tell if it was a sour boar. Um, I think she'll be back though. Pulling the sled in. Just shot my bear. We're gonna drag him back to the truck. We'll be back to the camp. Last day he got it done and it's a nice bear. He, I'm so pumped for him and he made a great shot. He used an iron will, wide, solid 150. Um, he said the bear shot it, went up a tree, fell to dead before it hit the ground. Um, and he was with Carly. Um, check out my Instagram. There's a little clip of her singing. Um, at camp. She's got a great voice, really talented and all of Rich's daughters have killed deer that I would dream to kill. Like they're all like 170 plus whitetail killers. Yeah. And they're all diehard hunters. Yeah. Rodman, you got more money than you do time. Dust that checkbook off. Get a hunt booked with me and Riley next year in Alberta. You, it is a hunt made for you. You can sit around all day and tell all your stories and then you can go shoot monster bears at night and drink lots of coffee, eat good food, have a toddy or two, campfire. Like it's, this hunt's made for my dad. Oh yeah. Do you think my dad should go next year? I know he should go. Okay. Papa Rod, I want to see you at camp with us next year. So lock in. Separation is in the preparation. Catch you on the next one.