In June of 2022, my friend’s dad told me he had a bear problem. He worried about how close bears were coming to his home. He asked me to remove the biggest one. I got to work trying to pattern this huge Tennessee black bear.

The first thing I did was set a bait barrel and camera to see how many bears were in the area and what the options were. Once I identified the biggest one, I removed the bait and started scouting over the next few months. I determined his exact route through the woods and his bedding areas. Once I was confident he was the largest one, I backed out and gave the area a month to rest before the season opened.

A few days before the season opened, I went to make sure he was in the same routine. I couldn’t find him. A little panicked, I scattered half a dozen cameras in the area. The night before opening day, I saw him on camera so the next day I planned to hunt.

The tree I chose to mount my stand on was perfect for the wind that day and was right next to an oak with acorns all around. I hoped they would be on his menu. I waited until lunch and left. I remounted the stand at 3:30 and didn’t have to wait long before I spotted the bear coming up the ridge at around 150 yards. Twenty minutes went by and he was finally in range. About 4:00, he turned broadside for a shot from my Raven Crossbow using a Rage broad-head. The Lord blessed me with a heart shot and he immediately dropped.