John Labanc: Idaho Frank Church Wilderness Spring Baited Black Bear Hunt Report

Idaho Frank Church Wilderness Spring Baited Black Bear Hunt

I had the privilege of hunting in the Frank Church Wilderness area of Idaho for spring black bear. Idaho is noted for the large concentration of color phase black bears. On a previous 2021 spring black bear hunt with your guide, the owner-outfitter, I harvested a traditional black bear and a cinnamon phase black bear. My goal and wish was to harvest a chocolate phase bear. I related this request to your guide who reviewed his trail camera footage to determine the most likely baited site to see and harvest a mature chocolate phase black bear.

There were a total of three hunters in camp hunting over bait and one spot-and-stalk hunter. Your guide reviewed with us images of bears from his trail camera at the sites we would be sitting. He quizzed us as to the size of the bears and whether the image of the bears we saw were a sow or boar and large mature bears or small young bears. This was a valuable exercise and gave us confidence in judging the bears we would be seeing at our bait site. There was one hunter per bait site.

My intent was to spend the first evening at the bait site observing the bears and taking photos with my spotting scope and phone to share with your guide to validate my assessment of the quality of the bears. One image was of a boar and sow sitting together at the bait site. This made it much easier to judge the bears. Your guide verified the larger of the two bears was a chocolate phase black bear boar and a definite shooter.

The next day I was at the bait site early and settling in for what I assumed would be a long day waiting until near last light for the bears to come in to feed. I was surprised to see the first bears at 16:30 hours and more surprised to see the boar and sow. I watched the bears feed through a Nightforce NX8 2.5–20×50 mounted on a Blaser R8 300 WSM loaded with 178 gr ELD-X and secured in a BogPod Deathgrip tripod. The bears fed for about 20 minutes. Finally, the boar sat up at the bait providing me with a 164-yard frontal shot.

The entire hunting experience was exceptional. We slept in sidewall tents on wood platforms with twin beds and mattresses. Brunch, snacks, to-go boxes and dinner were prepared daily by Andrew, a professional chef. It took considerable restraint to avoid overeating and gaining weight during the hunt. It is a testament to the quality of service provided by your guide that all hunters were repeat clients. I will be back in the fall for an elk hunt with your guide.