- By Brandon Wikman
Today marks the very first week of my 2010 fall hunting season. This Friday I leave for northwestern MN to hunt black bear with my bow and arrow. You can rest assured I was absolutely ecstatic; that was until I got a call from my field producer today at 9am.
My field producer, Dick Gunther, spoke words of crushing disaster. The words mumbled out of his hesitant voice sounded like pouring pebbles upon my face. “Camera problem,” he sighed.
As luck does and always will have it, he enlightened me with technical video camera problems. When using video cameras and any mechanical or digital devices, it only takes slight moisture, a little humidity, or a fragile bump to cause havoc. The funny situation is that the HD video camera is only one-month old.
I’m mentally and physically prepared for the hunting trip, yet I find myself in a pickle. Instead of early packing and preparation, now it’s time to get our hands on another video camera. These situations happen more than many people realize. In fact, any time you bring a digital device in the outside elements, whether filming hunts or recreation, things will and do happen. As my friend works on the camera situation, I am arranging the details of the hunt.
There have been a lot of people asking me what type of arrows, broadheads and draw weight my bow is set at for this bear hunt. Everyone in entitled to his or her own theory and opinion, but mine is simple. I use the same exact gear I use for a whitetail hunt. I have a lot of friends who beef-up their broadheads and draw weight to really clobber a bear. Quite frankly, if it works for them, great, but I’ve found that the density of bear skin isn’t radically different than that of a whitetail deer. You can easily strike a pass through on any animal at a mere 35-pounds if you hit them in such a spot where the arrow doesn’t collide with bone.
Over the next few days I will be continuing to shoot my bow and seriously fine-tune it to the point where I can literally pick a spot of hair and nail it. As we all know, confidence is the real key to success. The mental awareness of hunting lies in the primal imagination of “I can.”
With next week’s blog, I’ll hopefully have an incredible story and experience to write about. First things first, resolving the video camera issues!
Bear season opens up in most places within the next week. To all of you bear hunters, good luck and God bless!