The Ontario 500

 Well it all started in Pensacola, FL  in August and 18 hours later and 20 degrees lower I was in Ontario, Canada.  Now to me this was not that bad of a day because it beat driving that whole way but when I got to Timmins my bags did not.  By bags I mean all of my gear, clothes, most of my video camera equipment, and most importantly MY BOW! So I was off to a bad start.  I had already got a call from my cameraman the day before telling me he could not make the trip.  Yes, the day before the trip he cancelled, needless to say he is no longer my cameraman. That just meant I would be filming myself like always.   I learned in this business pretty quick to expect the unexpected. 

            A day later I was in bear camp.  I always carry my camera and tripod with me so I was not entirely useless.  I borrowed a camouflage over suit and shot two different bows in camp but did not shoot quite good enough to be hunt worthy.    As bad as I wanted to kill a bear with a bow the guide let me barrow a .270 short magnum and I was in business.  After a couple of successful practice shots I said, “If he is big enough I will take one with a gun”.  The norm in the area was baited bears with bows.  With the rifle in hand this also granted us a bigger range of hunting options.  We ran into a farmer with a truckload of firewood and he quickly helped us decide which hunting method we would embark on.  “There is a great big old bear been eating my grain A” he said.  We took a ride over to his fields to have a look.

            We were talking in the truck when my guide said “this is his grain field he…” he stopped.  At ounce we both saw the enormous black blob in the grain field and we were both in absolute shock.  The bear was a good 1000 yards away and there was still no doubt he was a shooter.  He looked like a big bull bison on the plains grazing in the golden grain field.  Being a hunting guide myself, I knew this may be the last time we would see this monster because he was already heading for the woods so I got a little footage from that distance in case that was our last look at him.  We popped into gear and parked next to the farmer’s barn. There was a large island of trees between the bear and us so it was now a matter of speed in closing the distance. 

We chopped the 1000-yard distance down in a hurry.  We had made it to the island of trees and belly crawled to the edge for a look.  Like lions in the long grass of Africa, our heads rose out of the grain tops.  A tingle went through my heart when I saw the beast still standing by the wood line in the grain.  The animal was calm but there was no possible way to get any closer to the bear than the island of trees we were already in.  Wearing the same clothes I had left Alabama in two days before, I attached some shooting sticks and moved to the edge of the trees.  I set up my camera tripod, moved the bear into the shot, pressed record, and began to concentrate on the rifle shot.  “ He is at 275” my guide Andy said.  A few complications immediately came into affect.  My gun of choice in which I normally hunt with is a 7mm magnum bolt action with a 16.5 power scope.  The gun I was using was more or less a brush gun with a lever action and a 6 power scope.  I was used to long shots but with this gun it was going to be tricky.

            I began to notice the extreme wind at this point.  The grass in front of me looked like a red flag tide moving around.  The tree I was using as a brace was even moving like crazy because of the wind so I would have to use the small sticks to try to shoot over the tall grass.  Despite his great size, there was only a short amount of the bear visible over the high grain.  I did not like what I saw through the scope but I was not going to let this bear go without me taking my chances on the shot.  I started breathing with the gusts of wind.  I waited, five breaths and five gusts. My crosshairs moved back on him and disappeared in his black coat.  I slowly squeezed the trigger.  I heard the boom of the gun and the whollop of the impact on him as the giant creature disappeared in the grass.  Immediately I was confused because in most cases bears will run after the hit regardless of the weapon or shot placement. 

            After some high fives we went across the field and started roaming through the grain for the bear. When we found him laying dead we had the same reaction as when we had seen him from the road.  The bear was much larger than I had expected and I had no idea a black bear could get that large.  I had lucked up and hit the bear in the head with the shot, which explained his dead drop.  We knew we had something special so we wanted to get him out of there so we could see how big he was.  The farmer scooped the bear up in the bucket of a tractor and dropped him in the truck bed.  At camp we hung the mammoth on the scale. I wanted the bear to break 500 lbs because bears in the 300 and 400 lb range were common at Andy’s camp and I wanted to be a step above.  The needle stopped moving at 505 lbs.  I was stoked at the sight.  Almost no gear at all and a borrowed gun and I had taken the biggest bear in the province for that year.  The bear will also score high in the books with a scull over 20 inches. 

            The rest of the week was another run of bad luck with the ten hunters in camp all getting bears and I only got one miss on camera.  It was as if every person I went with would not kill a bear.  It was no big deal, I had the bear of a lifetime on camera.  A two day trip to get there resulted in a 30 minuet hunt.  I would not change a thing and had an experience I will never forget.  I had used my whitetail deer hunting skills to harvest a bear, spot and stalk.  I will be back next year and many years to come.  If you would like to join me next time on our premier bear hunts in Ontario, Canada please contact me today. 

 www.MizellsMonsters.com   

 251-504-4709 

Check out a video with the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2IJYc3vwck