From the Field

Quebec Bear 2008 and the Moxy™Scent Elimination System™

In early June of 2008, Debby and I returned to Gesti-Faune’s Manoir Brule. We’d visited the Manoir in 2007 and expect to return again eventually.

This year I was looking forward not only to the Manoir’s bear and trout, but also planned to test the new Scent Elimination System™ from MOXY Products, the Scent Slayer™. I found MOXY’s concept quite intriguing. Basically, MOXY™ uses supercharged oxygen molecules to destroy all odors plus all odor-causing microorganisms in clothing. MOXY™ will also renew the scent adsorption capabilities of the various carbon containing clothing that has become popular. I wanted to see how MOXY™ would work on my wool in the bear woods. And I got a pretty clear answer, I think!

My trip started a little earlier than I had expected. A couple of days before I planned to leave for Quebec, I got a call from David Craig, the owner of Gesti-Faune. David had just arranged for a sort of last minute, impromptu hunt for Bill Miller, the Executive Director of the North American Hunting Club, and was hoping Debby and I would be able to make it up to the Manoir a day early, to meet Bill and Melissa, his videographer. Bill had been conducting some business in Quebec City, only an hour’s drive from the Manoir, and the Quebec Ministry of Tourism had asked David to arrange a bear hunt for the North American Hunter TV Show. Heading up a day early sounded great to me, except for having to get a lot done in less time than I’d expected. But, there is always plenty of work that needs doing, so I readily accepted David’s invitation. Also, I’ve been a life member of the NAHC for about 10 years, so it would be a kick to meet Bill!!

I always get a charge out of heading off on a hunting trip, and I particularly like Quebec because the French language adds a little bit of the exotic for this Jersey boy. Also, Quebec is very convenient from my home in the New York City suburbs. Most people around here don’t realize that Quebec is only a 6-hour drive from NYC. The Manoir is about another 3 hours from the border crossing, and driving my pickup lets me operate on my own schedule, and take as much gear as I like.

The Manoir starts baiting basically as soon as the conditions allow …. somewhere around May 20th. They begin baiting by using as an attractant seal blood acquired from the guys working on the Gulf of St Lawrence. The blood has an extremely strong smell that brings the bears in. The actual bait is stale pastry, and once a site becomes active, they stop using the seal blood, and the bear meat does not pick up any noxious taste or odor.

We arrived at the Manoir on Saturday, June 8th. The day was warm and sunny and wonderful. As we approached the Manoir, we were startled to see significant snow still on the ground in the shady spots!! The Manoir is in the Laurentide Mountains northeast of Quebec City, at about 2700 feet. They get extreme amounts of snow there, and the winter of 2007-2008 had dropped about 20 feet (6 meters) of snow on the area. Amazingly, that’s not a whole lot more than normal. The spring was a little late arriving in 2008, and the trees generally did not yet have their leaves. But the bears were on the baits!

We’d barely had a chance to say HELLO to David and get caught up a little when Normand Grenier, David’s head bear guide, returned from his baiting rounds with a story to tell.

Normand is unusual for a Canadian in that he is a serious bear hunter. Bear-hunting Americans are pretty lucky that bear hunting doesn’t interest the great majority of Canadian hunters. However, Normand has been pursuing bear (ours in French!), both by hunting and trapping, for many years, all over Quebec. Including his work culling bear on the Gaspe Peninsula, Normand has taken over 200 bears. So, when he gets excited about a bear, something special is going on.

Normand had just been charged by a big blackie! He explained that he was about to rebait a very active site, and as he approached a huge boar came at him. Normand, completely unarmed, stood his ground, and the boar stopped at about 6 feet (under 2 meters). Normand slowly began to back away, and as he did, the boar advanced. When Normand stopped moving, the boar stood up. Normand is about 6 foot 3 inches (190 cms) and he raised his hand far above his head to show the height of the standing bear. He said this was the only blackie that had ever frightened him, and he estimated the bear’s weight at 400 pounds (182 kg) at least …. a big bear under any circumstance, but especially after 7 months of hibernation!

David turned to me and asked if I’d like a crack at this bad boy!!! ummmmm … YEAH!

One of the reasons I’d returned to the Manoir in 2008 was the availability of 2nd bear tags. Quebec has more bears than the biologists want, and in the area of the Manoir, the bears prey heavily on the calves of a woodland caribou herd that the government wishes to increase in number. I was hoping to take a big bear, but the 2nd tag let me plan on taking a meat bear at the first opportunity, and to continue hunting for a big one. I’ve always liked the saying IT’S BETTER TO BE LUCKY THAN SMART …. and this hunt was to prove another great example of that truism.

Just before sunset Debby and I got a flyfishing lesson from Jacques, a friend of David’s. I guess Jacques is a pretty good teacher, because we caught about a dozen brookies in 45 minutes or so.

That evening over dinner I met Bill Miller and heard about his 3-day hunt with Melissa. Bill is just as nice a gent as you’d expect from reading his column or seeing him on TV. David had made clear to Bill that, despite his celebrity, the handful of best sites had to be held in reserve for hunters who’d committed earlier. Bill did see one big bear, but wasn’t able to get the shot he wanted, and wound up not taking any shots. But one of the bears that Bill passed interested Melissa, an avid bowhunter who’d never hunted bear before. So Melissa handed her camera to Bill, climbed down out of the treestand, grabbed her bow and climbed back up, all without spooking the bear!! Melissa made a great shot, and Bill got it all on tape for a 2009 episode of The North American Hunter!!

It was very interesting talking to Bill about his many hunts and hearing about how Melissa managed to land what would count as a dream job for most anybody, let alone a young 20-something hunting fanatic not long out of college!! I was surprised to learn that most of the Hunting Club’s 850,000 members are Life Members!

On the first day of my hunt, I put my hunting clothes in the MOXY™ unit. The portable MOXY Scent Slayer™ comes with a 24”w X 12”d X 60”t garment bag, large enough for 4 to 6 garments and two pair of boots on the fold-out boot rack, placed in the bottom of the bag. You hang it up, plug it in and the unit creates a flow of multiply bonded oxygen molecules that are extremely reactive, and in 15 minutes my Frontier Shirt, Bunlite Pants and 200 gram Woolpower Ullfrotte were ready for the first sit in the bear woods.

MOXY™, before inflating with supercharged oxygen

I was the last hunter to be dropped off at a stand, and as I gathered my gear, Normand looked at me very seriously and said, basically, COVER ME!!! He was concerned that Big Bad John, as I’d named the charging boar, would be waiting for Round 2. Normand continued, saying that if the bear comes after him again, to please please shoot!!! THIS BEAR IS DANGEROUS AND AGGRESSIVE AND I WANT YOU TO KILL HIM! This definitely got my wires jangled!!! But Big Bad John did not show and I got into my stand without incident. Still, I expected the bad boy to show at any second, and I remained thoroughly keyed up!

I’d been on stand barely an hour when a bear swaggered in. I’ve read about how a dominant bear shows no fear at a bait, and this one certainly acted like he owned the place. No caution, no looking around, not nervous at all. He circled the bait barrel, and he was clearly taller than the barrel, another sign of a big bear. Then, he stood up!! That was it for me -- I decided this was Big Bad John!! The bear lay down flat to lick at something, and he was facing directly toward me, giving me a perfect angle to place a 12-gauge slug through the back of his neck and into the middle of his chest. An unorthodox shot, but at 27 yards, this was certainly a lethal opportunity and I took it. The bear relaxed and rolled onto his side. Unfortunately, that roll put him behind a bush and I no longer had a clear shot if a followup was needed. I’d just finished reading Richard P. Smith’s excellent Black Bear Hunting and Richard had convinced me that an insurance shot is always well worth it. As I climbed down from the stand and approached the bait site, I began thinking …… Wait a minute….. sure, he was taller than the bait barrel, but the barrel was lying down!!! Uh-oh …. that’s not Big Bad John! Then I got a good look at the bear lying there, and was I shocked to realize I had inadvertently carried out my original plan and shot a 150-pound (68 kg) meat bear!!!! It’s funny how buck fever (bear fever!) can happen. I’m definitely a greenhorn bear hunter, but I’d estimated the size of my first two bears exactly (125 and 150 pounds) before I pulled the trigger on them, so it seems a little weird that I could have been so wildly off this time. But I was expecting to see Big Bad John, and, that’s exactly what I somehow convinced myself I did see!!! Good thing I still had that 2nd tag!! Yessir, better to be lucky than smart!!

I climbed back up into my stand and started thinking about MOXY™. The bear never seemed to smell me at all, and had generally been completely relaxed at the bait. The only time he showed any interest in his surroundings was when I brushed my slug gun slightly against a tree trunk as I set up for the shot. I barely heard the noise myself, but the bear certainly did, raising his head and looking in my direction briefly before settling back down. My seat was about 12 feet (almost 4 meters) off the ground and 27 yards (25 meters) from the bait barrel. What was the wind doing? Unfortunately, I can’t remember for sure. But other times and other days, I remember the wind coming from all four directions within a fairly short time. Right on, MOXY™!!!

About 30 minutes after I got back in my stand, a much larger bear showed up, and again I figured I was looking at Big Bad John. My pulse instantly rocketed to maximum levels, but following a few steps behind the bear was an 18-month old cub. Maybe Big Bad John was really Big Bad Bertha??? I thought the bear’s aggressive behavior of the previous day could be explained by the presence of the cub. It made sense to me that Normand, his attention riveted on a charging bear, would not have noticed the cub. It is legal to kill a sow with 18-month cubs, and I would guess that is probably the exact bear to kill in an area where wildlife officials want bear numbers reduced. But, even knowing that this sow would be coming into season any day, and would soon drive away her cub, I felt uncomfortable taking her. Plus, this was day 1 of a 5-day hunt, and I didn’t exactly want my hunt to end after only 90 minutes. Still, there is wisdom in the old hunter’s saying that you should not pass on the first day an animal that you would kill on the last day ….. Regardless, I decided to let mama and the soon-to-be independent cub spend some more time together. I snapped a bunch of pictures, figuring I’d talk the situation over with David and Normand. That’s Bertha and her cub below.

Bertha and her cub

Bertha and her cub spent quite a bit of time at the bait. Bertha didn’t eat much, but the cub certainly chowed down. I was curious to see how Bertha would feel about the bear I’d just shot, a boar that later weighed exactly 150 pounds. As it turned out, she didn’t seem to think much of it at all. The boar was lying only a few steps from the bait barrel, but neither Bertha nor the cub took any notice of it. I still haven’t figured out if they didn’t recognize it as a bear, or whether they understood immediately that it was dead. Eventually, Bertha did walk over very nonchalantly and give it a sniff. In the picture below, my bear is on the ground behind the bush and Bertha is checking his back end.

Bertha sniffs the dead boar

Bertha and her cub stayed in the area quite a while, at least an hour, coming and going 3 or 4 times. Bertha never seemed to have any idea I was around, never showing any nervousness. This was another reason why I thought Bertha must have been Big Bad John. If there was a large boar on that bait, I reasoned that Bertha would have been jittery. In any case, MOXY™ had clearly passed Bertha’s sniff test. Score Two for MOXY™.

As soon as Normand picked me up, I showed him my pictures of Bertha and her cub, and suggested that she was the bear who’d charged him. Normand actually seemed surprised at my suggestion, and waved it off, saying that my pictures showed a 300-pound bear, and Big Bad John was far larger. There was no question in his mind!! Big for a sow, nice bear, but the bad boy was still out there!!

The good people at MOXY™ had lent me one of their early prototypes for this hunt, and when I turned it on the 2nd day, it was making a strange noise and turned itself off quickly. And that was it for the MOXY™ unit. It didn’t function the rest of the trip. Rock Gibboney of MOXY™ later explained to me that the malfunction was caused by a detail in the design of the fan, and they’d already made a change that eliminated the problem.

Days 2 and 3 I saw no bears, and only a couple of bears were seen by the other 6 hunters in camp. Normand said this was due to the weather. The afternoons had been warm and rainy, which was not good, but the real problem, according to Normand, was thunderstorms. Normand told us bears really hate thunder, and will stay holed up for hours after it has stopped. I have no reason to disagree with him!

Day 4 was rain again, like days 2 and 3, but there was no thunder. Right after I got into my stand, it started raining pretty good for a half-hour or so. I always smile when I get rained on in my wool. The Omnilite®, being half-weight wool, isn’t as good against the rain as the full-weight Omnitherm®, but it still sheds a lot of water. Plus, I was wearing 200-gram Woolpower® thermals underneath, so I really didn’t care how much it rained on me, but I didn’t want it raining on the bears! Fortunately, the rain stopped with a few hours of shooting light left, and it seemed to be cooling off. Just right for bears, I hoped!

It wasn’t long before a good-sized sow came in, trailed by another 18-month cub. This old girl was a little slimmer than Bertha, but about as big. Again, I strongly considered shooting. I’d even talked it over with David and Normand, and they felt a big sow with grown cubs was a shooter. But, I still didn’t feel right. The sow was very nervous, she circled the bait once or twice constantly testing the air and then left without touching a morsel of food. She was VERY nervous! Did she sense Big Bad John? Or did she sense me?

After the bear left, I noticed that the bathing suit temperatures at the start of the sit were definitely history, and I wondered just how much it had cooled off. It wasn’t long before the next bear came in.

Is this a big yearling just out on its own? Or a small 2-1/2 year old?

This little guy was the very definition of NERVOUS!! He never relaxed at all. He’d grab a bite, look around, nibble again. After a few minutes he ran off like his tail was on fire and again, I was ready to see Big Bad John. But no such luck. The little guy ran in and out a few times, always scared to death of something.

This part of Quebec has an enormous number of porcupines. They come in a variety of colors from gray to reddish brown to black. They are very attracted to bear baits, and it was normal to see several porkies each afternoon. Varying hares are also regular visitors at bear baits. Supposedly, porkies don’t get larger than 2 feet long, but I could swear I saw a couple that were more like 3 feet (almost 1 meter). A porky walked right up to me one afternoon on the road, while Normand was getting another hunter situated.

The porkies were everywhere

Anyway, the porkies did provide some entertainment. One of the hunters in camp told us how he’d seen two porkies interacting at his bait. A large porky was face to face with another, smaller porky, both of them standing on their hind legs. The big porky slapped the little porky across the face, left, right, left, right. The little porky just stood there and absorbed the punishment, and apparently found the abuse quite provocative, as it very clearly excited him, leaving no doubt that the little porky was in fact a “him”. The textbooks say that porkies mate in fall, and I won’t disagree, but I also noted what seemed to be courtship behavior among the porkies at my bait site.

I watched one porky work diligently for probably a half hour, trying to get the logs out of the bait barrel so he could get in there with the pastries. He didn’t have the size or strength to move the logs, but he got lucky by climbing on the barrel then out to the end of the top log, and with his weight increased by the leverage of the length of the log, the barrel rolled over. The porky fell off and a log dropped on top of him. He seemed stunned, and didn’t move for a while, but recovered and was then able to move the small logs and work his way into the barrel, where he stayed for a well-earned meal.

A few minutes after the porky climbed into the barrel, a bear cub showed up alone, headed right for the barrel. I chuckled when the cub suddenly jumped back as he realized the barrel contained something besides pastry. But to my surprise, the cub regained his composure, then slowly and deliberately entered the bait barrel together with the porky! Shortly, along came another cub, then another cub, then another big sow.

This big girl’s 3rd cub is in the barrel with a porcupine!!

Well, the cubs were having a fine time snacking and sniffing around the bait site, but Mama was not happy. She never settled down. She paced around constantly on guard and after a while she led them away. Last to leave was the cub in the barrel. The porky was still in there. Before long, the adventurous cub was back in the barrel with the porky, but the sow and the other cubs did not come back. Eventually the cub left the barrel, and not long after the porky came out of the barrel. I know it makes no sense, but I am sure the cub and the porky were in the barrel together for quite a while!!

In any event, the behavior of the bears on this day was completely different from day 1. This day, the bears were nervous as could be. The first day they were completely at ease. The difference in bear behavior with and without MOXY™ was extreme.

At dark, it was clearly an awful lot cooler than it had been, and I wondered just how cool it had gotten. By the time Normand picked me up, I was guessing the temperature wasn’t much above freezing. This day had been a perfect showcase for quality wool. It started hot and I was OK. Then it rained hard and I was fine. Then the temperature DROPPED and I was fine. In the morning I learned that the overnight low had been 15F (-10C)!!! Yessir!! Love that wool!

Anyhow, that was it for the bears. On the last day of the hunt, I didn’t see any bears, and neither did anyone else. I was pleased to see a pine marten – only the 3rd marten I’ve ever seen. Some days we all saw bears, some days none of us did. They definitely turned on and turned off. It was interesting.

Conclusions: The wool is great to hunt in (as if I didn’t know!). Quiet as can be and the same duds were comfortable in warm and rain and cold, even when all conditions came on the same day. And the MOXY™ seemed to make a real difference. It is definitely going to remain part of my bear-hunting kit!! Oh …. one other thing. My meat bear has already given us some excellent meals. Bear meat is great!

POSTSCRIPT: A few hours after we arrived home from Quebec, I got a call from an outfitter. He congratulated me on winning the Maine Moose Lottery! I pulled a Cow Moose Tag in Maine for October!! Yep, BETTER TO BE LUCKY ......