Kevin Anderson talks about his trip to Bone Quest Outfitters during a cross bow hunt for Saskatchewan Black Bear.

How did you choose to come hunt with Bone Quest Outfitters?

I spent a lot of time Googling, searching for an area that had high bear numbers and came to the conclusion that Saskatchewan was the place to go and literally just did a Google search and three outfitters showed up and Greg was the first one to call me back, so here I am .

How would you compare the Black Bear hunting here to back home?

We don’t black bear hunt back in Washington. Seasons don’t correlate with other hunting or fishing that I like to do and opportunities that they give you aren’t really anything close to what you would get up here.

What big game hunting do you do?

I do a lot of deer hunting, little bit of elk hunting, have done some antelope hunting and this is my second trip bear hunting.

What got you started in the outdoor tradition?

No question about that, family and friends. Grew up with my my dad and my grandfather hunting on the coast of Oregon and Washington and then ended up moving on with friends when I got older and just kept going from there.

Sounds like fishing is a big pat of you outdoors experience?

Absolutely, Salmon, Steelhead. That’s our primary for rivers and stuff but we fish offshore for all sorts, like Ling Cod Halibut and stuff like that.

What rivers do you fish?

Steelhead, there’s the Columbia River of course, the biggest one. We have the Wamut River, Sandy and then I have the Wuga River right where I live.

What were your thoughts headed to the stand Day One?

I don’t know if I really had any thoughts aside from just how excited I was and then the trip in the Argo, you know driving through the swamp, and then finally getting to my stand. It felt like it was 6 or 7 miles but I guess it was only like 3.2 but when you’re floating part of that time it goes a little slower.

When you are assessing a potential bear trophy, what is your criteria?

Well since this was only my second bear hunt, first one didn’t really see that many bears, I was in Montana. Listening to the guys here that had been here before they were kind of talking about what is a good bear and what you should look for as far as height and different characteristics on the bears and from there I pretty much knew. I had a pretty good idea of what to look for.

How many bears did you pass up?

I shot the first one I saw.

Did it meet all your criteria?

Yeah, and then some.

What is your weapon of choice?

I shot a crossbow. First time using one and I think there’s a lot of guns I’ll be putting down now after using that.

Tell me about the moment when you pulled the trigger.

You know as a hunter if you don’t, if your heart’s not pumping, then you’re doing something wrong. So I would say, after, so everything up to the point of where the bear came in and I knew that it met the criteria it literally laid down and, you know away from me, never looked at me, and uh then it finally, after about 20 minutes, it stood up and gave me the opportunity and uh I took that. He ran off and then I literally stood up and that’s when the adrenaline kicked in. I had a pretty good adrenaline rush going and then standing up in my stand just like, all right that worked out pretty well and next thing I know, there was another bear standing right behind me. So I decided like, okay, this isn’t over. I thought after I shot my bear it’s like I’m not going to see anything now and then I ended up seeing four more bears after that.

How far did the bear go?

It went 15 yards. I couldn’t see it from where my stand was at, so once I got out of out of the tree, I literally could see the bear from where I was at and the guide that took me out there, Greg, great guy, he was like “Well which way did it run?” And I looked over I was like “Uh right there.” So it went 15 yards.

Very clean shot.

Very clean I guess.

How did your estimate compare with the official weigh in?

I was off by 7 lb, so, I knew I was looking for something a couple hundred pounds and uh ended up 195 so just off a few pounds.

What’s Next?

There’s great fishing here as well so doing that and heading off for another guided fishing trip today.

What were you thinking when you put your hands on your bear?

I would say I had a mix of thoughts my adrenaline was still going even though it was uh roughly 2 hours later before I saw Greg. Thoughts I would say just amazement of the power that these things have and how big they are compared to what you’re looking at even though it’s a short distance when you’re seeing them.

How do you like the lodge?

Absolutely amazing top-notch.

… and the guides?

With nothing but respect and friendliness. Just like family. So very nice people.

Are you coming back?

If they’ll have me I’ll be here.

How did the guides help make this a successful hunt?

I would say just making me aware of everything that could happen or to be ready for, so just even though you know, bear hunting’s new for me and as long as I’ve hunted they gave me a lot of knowledge that was very helpful.