Para... I didn’t forget about you; I just didn’t want to steal or step on the OP's original posting.
I actually had hoped to do this hunt a year prior but my plans got altered so we planned again for this year. Now you got to remember, I've never hunted in Maine, never bear hunted over bait and never had anything to do with bait sites and baiting. I learned quickly that there’s definitely work involved with acquiring bait, hauling the gear to the site and then setting up the barrels and bait. This can be done daily or in our case weekly till season started. I actually traveled to my buddy’s place in south western Maine for the official opening of baiting which is approximately a month prior to the season opener. We hunted in the North Maine Woods in the Allagash. We reserved a primitive camp site approximately 10 miles from our hunting area, living out of tents... with no power, no running water, no toilets and/or showers and no cell service. Nearest town was approximately 60 miles away via dirt roads utilized by large semi-tractor trailers hauling huge loads of logs from the harvest areas to the mills. Anybody that knows the area up there can attest that the trucks have the right away, they travel fast and you better get out of the way when you see one coming. Fortunately, my buddy has hunted this area for many years and had a system down for camp setup, hunt sites, baiting, scent control, etc, etc... We spent a few days at camp prior to the opening day kinda setting up, baiting and relaxing some.
Temps were crazy at times. They were all over the place. First day at 2:30pm when I climbed into my stand it was 89 degrees, the next afternoon it was 87. With those day time temps, the night time temps only dropped into the 60's. First two days in stand I had a sow and 2 two cubs come in multiple times. She seemed to be very protective of the site and viewing our trail cams, it was evident that the bear population to this sight had dropped off to usually her and the cubs and just a few other smaller bears that she would chase away. And did I tell you that it poured down rain my last half hour in the stand that night. Got soaked. The next day the weather changed. Nice day but definitely cooler with temps in the 60’s. Had a average size bear come in just before dark but would come in and then hustle away. He did this 3 times and then disappeared before dark and didn’t return. Had a cold, clear, crisp evening with the temps dropping into the 30’s. Glad I had a wool blanket to throw over the sleeping bag.
The next day was the same, but a little cooler yet. Climbed into my stand at 3:30 and settled in. Glad I changed from the lightweight ScentLok gear I had been wearing, to a mid-season ScentLok setup for the warmth. Approximately 6pm a bear appears from the opposite directly that I had seen him from the night before. The bear cautiously approaches the bait barrel but turns and runs away. Two minutes alter he reappears and follows his original path to the barrel, this time sticking his head in but immediately pulling out and running off again. A couple minutes later, here he comes again on the path, sticks his head in to only bolt back out of barrel and out of sight once again. At no time in any of these 3 approaches did he ever stop, stand still, not keep moving or such which mad it extremely hard to take a shot. So now… 5 minutes have gone by and no returning bear. 10 minutes and no bear. So now I’m thinking I screwed up somehow and blew it, he’s not coming back and that’s it. Two minutes later, he reappears traveling the same approach he did the three trips in before. This time he momentarily stops and scans the area hard. Then walks over to the barrel and sticks his head and shoulder in. Now in his last three times he stuck his head in the barrel, he immediately bolted back out and ran away. This time he paused for a second and I told myself as soon as he steps back out of the barrel one step, I’m shooting and that’s exactly what happened. He slowly backed out giving me ample time to place my shot. I was using a AR-15 in 450 Bushmaster. When I fired, he immediately jumped straight up in the air with all 4 paws not touching and immediately took off running directly towards my stand. Now I usually would have left things as is with that one shot, but my buddy gave me specific instructions that if you shoot a bear and its still on its feet, keep shooting. I originally shot the bear at approximately 30 yards. After the shot, it turned and ran straight towards my tree stand. Within a split second he was almost underneath me at about 10 yards when I shot again, which rolled and stopped him within about 5 yards of my ladder. From the time he last came in, stuck his head in the barrel and finally came to rest at my stand seemed like forever, but was actually only about 10 seconds. I spent a little time still seated in the stand reflecting back on the days events and how fortunate I was, as we all were on this hunt. We went three for three on bears. I finally got out of the stand and met up with my hunting buddies as they made their way to me. They were as happy for me as I was. Had an excellent time hunting in Maine. Sure hope to do it again.
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