Post Crescent – by Patrick Durkin
OGDENSBURG – With sunset approaching Sept. 21 and time running out on days he could devote to hunting a giant Waupaca County black bear, Dennis Arndt decided to try something radical to coax the old boar out of hiding.
Arndt, 35, of rural Manawa, gambled that the bear was holed up in a nearby cornfield, probably within hearing of his ground blind. Trail camera photos proved the bear had visited the bait site recently in daylight, so when it didn’t appear by early evening, Arndt assumed the bear knew he was waiting nearby.
Rather than wishing and hoping the bear would risk a late-day visit, Arndt decided to make it think he left the woods. He loudly unzipped the ground blind’s door, stomped out of the woods, climbed into his car about 200 yards away, slammed its door, started it up and pulled ahead a few yards. Then he turned off the engine, quietly left the car, sneaked back to his blind, silently unzipped the door and sat back down with his 12-gauge shotgun.
This trail camera footage shows the 780-pound black bear that Dennis Arndt of Manawa shot near Ogdensburg in Waupaca County on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014.
The charade took about 15 to 20 minutes. According to his trail cam photos, that’s about how much time the bear sometimes took to visit the bait site after Arndt replenished it on previous trips.
Minutes later, Arndt heard the snap of a fallen branch and spotted a large black form moving through the cedars behind his bait station. He figured it had to be the big bruin he nicknamed “Sampson,” because it had scared away every other bear since claiming the bait station in August.
Sure enough, when the bear peeked around a tree about 30 yards away, Arndt recognized it and started shaking with excitement. Seconds later, the bear moved over the bait and turned broadside. When the bear stepped forward, exposing its chest at 24 yards, Arndt calmed himself, centered his scope’s crosshairs on the big ribcage and fired.
The bear roared as it rolled from the slug’s impact, and then righted itself and ran into the cedar swamp. When Arndt and several friends returned about two hours later, they soon found the giant bruin. As they admired the bear in amazement, Arndt shouted, hollered, celebrated and called anyone who’d answer their phone.
Meanwhile, they discussed how to move nearly 800 pounds of bear. They rolled the brute into a large Otter sled, which bulged on both sides from the bear’s girth and bent along its top beneath the bear’s sprawling legs. With three pullers up front and two pushers behind, they muscled their load across the cedar swamp and through the hardwoods, and then mushed out to the road about 200 yards from where the chore began.
From there, they commandeered a Bobcat skidder to hoist the bear onto a pickup truck’s bed, and then drove to a certified truck scale for the official weigh-in. The big bear with its massive gut and thick fat from head to lower legs weighed 780 pounds, which ignited another round of breathless phone calls and more hollering and shouting.
It didn’t take long, of course, before everyone started speculating about whether the bear could be a state record. Arndt doesn’t believe it will score high enough for that honor, because records are determined by skull size, not body weight. He said his bear had a thick fat layer on its head, which made it look bigger than it will probably score.
He expects to have it green-scored soon, and then have it officially scored after the 60-day drying period specified by the Boone and Crockett Club and the Wisconsin Buck & Bear Club. The score includes two measurements across the top of the skull: the skull’s length from its backside to its most forward tooth; and from side to side at its widest points, not including the lower jaws.
Wisconsin’s top-scoring bear was found dead in Monroe County in 2010, and had a skull scoring 23 5/16 inches. This bear also ranks No. 4 in North America in the B&C Club’s record book.
Bucky Ihlenfeldt, Kewaunee, is chairman of the Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club, the state’s official big-game scoring organization. He said that while weights are merely “supplemental” information about record-book bears, Arndt’s bear is one of the largest he’s heard about.
An illegally killed bear in Dunn County in December 2008 weighed 720 pounds, and Ihlenfeldt has heard of others exceeding 700 pounds. Generally, however, 500- to 600-pound bears are considered big, and 650 pounds and heavier are considered huge. Black bears approaching 800 pounds are rare to nonexistent.
According to the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minnesota, the heaviest black bear reliably weighed was an 880-pound 10-year-old male killed in Craven County, North Carolina, in November 1998. Not far behind was an 876-pound 12-year-old male from St. Louis County, Minnesota, killed in September 1994. Also, an 856.5-pound bear was killed by a car near Winnipeg, Canada, in 2001. The largest recorded in Wisconsin was an 802-pounder killed in 1885.
“It’s definitely an older bear and we hope it qualifies for our record book when we measure it,” Ihlenfeldt said. “That is a huge, huge bear.”
If it qualifies for the record books, it would be only the second Waupaca County black bear to make the Boone and Crockett Club’s book, and the third to make the state book. Wisconsin leads North America with 579 black bears in the B&C record book, outpacing Pennsylvania (295) and Alaska (227). Wisconsin’s top counties in the B&C book are Price with 43 entries, and Bayfield and Sawyer with 38.
Arndt’s taxidermist, Brad Kussman of Marion, is creating a full-body mount, and said it will require the largest form made for black bears. The bear measured 6 feet, 6 and 1/2 inches from nose to tail. They couldn’t measure its girth because it was too heavy to roll over.
David MacFarland, large carnivore ecologist for the Department of Natural Resources, said Arndt’s bear was “obviously” a fully mature boar. He, too, wouldn’t be surprised if its skull didn’t match up with its weight.
“There isn’t much correlation between weight and skull measurements,” MacFarland said. “Bears are like people in that their weights vary by individual, and they don’t get bigger and bigger with age. They usually start losing body mass as they get older, so this bear was probably in the prime of its life and had access to unlimited food.”
A tooth pulled from the bear will help determine its age, but MacFarland said test results likely won’t be available for several months.
Arndt said he’s more interested in learning the bear’s age than whether it qualifies as a record. “This is my first bear and it’s a bear of a lifetime, no matter what,” he said. “He was a local legend for many years.”
Arndt became aware of the bear about six years ago, and three friends targeted it in previous seasons without getting a shot. They, too, hunted Arndt’s property near Ogdensburg, but placed their blinds, tree stands and bait sites closer to the surrounding cornfields. Arndt took note and placed his setup in the property’s interior along a cedar swamp.
“I think it felt more secure back in there,” he said. “I knew if I wanted to see it in daylight during hunting hours, I’d have to set up where it felt safe.”
What will Arndt do for an encore?
“I’ll probably go bear hunting again, because I’m a hunter,” he said. “I waited four years to draw this tag, and I’ll probably start applying again next year. But when I get drawn again, I know there’s no way I’ll ever top this one for size and excitement.”
I’m all for hunting to eat; but just for fun wouldn’t be my style. What a magnificent creature it was.
Ditto.
Magnificent!
I’ve read that Native Americans revered bears.
They didn’t like to kill them because the skinned carcass looked very human. I’m not sure of that as I’ve never hunted bear.
I’m a hunter but, on occasion, I’ve seen animals too majestic for me to kill.
I love pheasant hunting. But, good God, they are incredibly beautiful when you really look at them. Even pigeons are beautiful if you watch them closely. Especially in the right light, their iridescent feathers are gorgeous.
I know they can be real pests…I’m just sayin’.
People who bait for trophies make me sick.
Why not grow wild food in an area and let it be wild. Then hunt the site.
Hunting with dogs makes me sick too.
I do not understand people who hunt for trophies. We have always made things from the hides and horns, but we harvest the meat and the rest comes with not wasting any.
I disagree about hunting with dogs. When you stop hunting with dogs, the bears and cougars come right on down into town and start eating the California joggers. (Which might not be such a bad thing, if it weren’t for the flies they draw. 😉 )
Hunting is just like any other harvest of our people’s land. We are all entitled to any portion we need for our basic substance.
Baiting and dogs are tools used to harvest meat, have been forever.
It is indeed the elite who want to change hunting and gathering into a sport that they can sell, who try to demonize the method of harvest that allows the poor man who can’t afford guided trips the ability to get his share of the meat, which the rich man usually doesn’t even eat as he just wants the image of an animal he killed hanging on his wall.
I will say that the biggest fish I’ve ever hooked in the rivers and lakes, I let go as I wanted to see more of their strain in the wild stock.
Don’t know if I would have shot that big black bear if my goal was seeing bigger bears in the future. But it is hard to judge the fellow that shot it. Maybe he will eat the whole damn thing. Bear can be made into excellent jerky. But more likely it was a guided trip and the bear was put down for sport.
Just something every individual needs to figure out for himself I suppose, but it is an imposition when people come to where you live, seeking to dictate your actions and outlaw your way of life because they see your fish, game, and gathering materials as something they can capitalize on, hence pimp to more outsiders.
I am definitely for peoples freedom to do what they want. I would never dream of supporting a law banning dogs or baiting.
Its more of a “I dont respect” a hunter who uses those methods just to get that big head on the wall.
I am for traps(even though I think its lazy) it is very effective for consistent food. It is those that leave their lines un-checked for many days if not weeks that p-me off. Or just rip off the pelts and drop the meat for the coons or in the river for the fish.
As far as California joggers go. That is a game I would enjoy baiting and using dogs on.(no offense #1, Cathleen and any others living in CA)
PS
I never ask the king for his permission.