How long have you been hunting big game?

We’re from Houston Texas. I’m Frank and this is my son Frank. We’ve been hunting together since he was a little kid. I’ve been hunting since I was probably a teenager in Texas. Our first trip here was last year. This is our second bear hunt and it’s my third visit. I also came to hunt deer in the fall.

How did your tradition of hunting begin?

This is my second trip here. Just growing up, being around my dad hunting, and him being fascinated you know by big game and wanting to go hunt bears kind of was instilled with me and coming out here the first time it was so exciting to see the bears and you can’t wait to come back.

What do you think of the Black Bear opportunity here?

To me, I’ve never been black bear hunting anywhere else but from day one you just see tons of bears and even if you don’t shoot one right away it’s still very exciting to see the bears running around and playing with each other it’s very enjoyable. They interact in many different ways. You see mothers with cubs. You see mothers with year old cubs. You see them fight. You see them talk to each other. They snap their jaws at you. They come and jiggle your ladder stand. They do come around the bait. Seems like there’s quite a few bears here, a lot of bears, would be almost impossible for you to go home without one. We’ve also been lucky enough to take several color phase bears, blonde or brown or chocolate. There are many different names for the different shades.

Tell me about the first day, the ride out to the stand.

Well there’s a little bit of fear, a little bit of anxiety. I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t either. But, yeah, they get you out there in the tree stand and you’re sitting there and you’re like man I’m going to see bears this close up, you know, and it’s way above my expectations of what I had imagined at all. It’s really really cool thing.

How did your guides help you prepare for the hunt?

They told us what to do, what to expect, what to see, told us how to judge the bears. Last year my son-in-law shot a chocolate, nice chocolate bear within 20 minutes of being here with a bow.

Last year our partner, John, he shot the first bear with a recurve here at Bone Quest. This year he’s back with his recurve and Frank brought a long bow.

I think the guides do a really good job too of setting you up and and explaining, you know, like my dad said how to judge the bears and what to look out for to see, you know, is this bear a good shooter bear versus, you know, younger smaller bear ’cause when they first come out you don’t, can’t really tell, it’s hard to tell if it’s a big bear or not. They set you up for success. Yeah, I would describe Bone Quest as accommodating. These guys are shooting not compound bows and they requested a close range at a certain angle so that they could shoot at the angle they were comfortable with and Greg was very accommodating in setting up those blinds at the correct distance and the correct angle for them.

How are the accommodations? Are you being well fed?

More than enough to eat. The accommodations are fantastic. I was telling my dad it just feels like you’re just almost at home and you got a home-cooked meal and, you know, it’s, just the food is good, you know, it’s comfortable to sleep, there’s plenty of snacks, you never go hungry here, and if you want something I think they would go out and get it for you. They will go and get it for you. If you want something special, but there’s plenty, plenty here and Greg and Megan work very hard. The bear hunting is mostly in the evening until late at night so it’s a very relaxed morning, you don’t, you don’t wake up early and you eat some coffee and light snacks and they provide a really good brunch around noon, and then you go out to hunt with sandwiches or wraps or both in your pack and by the time you return at 10:30 or 11 at night there’s a hot meal waiting for you.

How did you make the decision to come hunt with Bone Quest?

Our partner here, John, he he just spoke with Greg and felt like Greg was a good down home boy and said “Let’s give it a try and we’ve been very very happy. We will definitely come back next year.”

How did you feel when you put your hands on your bear?

It’s pretty exciting we’ve never been that close to a black bear never touched a black bear. My bear had kind of curled up and he looked really small when we went up to him as a matter of fact Frank Jr said “Dad what the hell you shot a little you shot a little cub.” Then Greg started pulling him out of there and he got longer and longer and longer and ended up being 224 lbs, something like that which is a respectable bear.

What were you looking for this year?

Put me on a good blind and I did see a large bear, the first bear I saw, and I think that kind of uh held me back from shooting it. Should have shot the very first one I saw but shot a smaller bear of the same color or similar color as the big one. It’s kind of a chocolate colored, light chocolate colored.

Frank Jr., how did your hunt go?

So my dad and John and my brother-in-law they all, you know, they cleaned up and they were done shooting so I was the only one hunting and, you know, Greg, he worked hard to put me where he thought I needed to go and I kept seeing tons of bears and I had one come up and took the shot, and we first got up to it, and it was a pretty amazing experience seeing a black bear so close up and touching the the fur. Really cool.

Did you pass up on any bears?

Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah saw plenty plenty of bears. You have a lot of opportunities especially if you’re shooting a rifle. I have seen on this trip, I’ve actually seen them pull the card out of the game cameras. You can see the bears that come to your blind and they’re sometimes some very large bears there. You just, there’s two beautiful large chocolate bears at the blind I was at. I would say if you just want to shoot any bear you could do that any time in this trip, you know, you see enough bears. But obviously, you know, we all want to shoot a bigger one and maybe get a color but if you’re coming just to see a bear you’re going to see bears.

How did you know your bear was the shooter bear?

Last year it was getting down to the the end of the trip for me. I’d passed up plenty of bears and this one that I saw, he looked like a pretty decent bear and I had a good shot on him and and I took it, and it was a very nice hide, very nice fur, black bear, real deep color.

Was there anything that surprised you this hunt?

How close the bears get to you. They’re not, they know you’re there, I think, but they’re very curious and they’ll come up and get right under your tree stand. I had one last year almost start climbing up the tree stand with me and scared me a little bit, but, had to shoo it off and it ran off. But it’s just surprising how how close they’ll get and how curious they are. We’ve had more wind and rain this year and I think that has slowed them just a little bit, but as soon as the wind died down the bears showed up.

How did you do sizing the bear compared to the weigh in back at camp?

You size the bear by the barrel, the size of the barrel. If they’re as tall as the barrel they’re a pretty good bear. I think I judged my bear pretty comparatively to height and weight, you know. Maybe could have been off a little bit but I think I can tell pretty good by what they’ve told me. Greg and the whole group of, you know, how to judge and how to see, you know, the weights, height and weight.