'Ralph and Vicki Cianciarulo and their crew with Archers Choice have
filmed with us now for over 7 years. In that time, they have taken some
monstrous bears, including Vicki's huge Booner, and gave our bears the title
'Manitoba Monsters.' Their 2010 trip was a homecoming of sorts, Ralph and
Vicki's first personal visit after a 3 year absence. It started off strong,
another great Archer's Choice hunt extravaganza. It was also a bit
different, with Ralph and Vicki bringing along two female members of the
Posse. Here's Ralph's round-up on their great 2010 trip.'

Manitoba Monsters 2010

Do you remember Charlie’s Angels? Well this trip ended up being Ralph’s Angels and I dug it! What if you were told you had to spend a week with your wife and two other women up at Canadian Sub Arctic spring bear camp and all in one tent….

That’s how this trip started out up at Ken’s this spring. We flew into our camp and there was Marsh & John waiting to get us all set up and ready to start bear n down. It was a good day, calm & sunny, and that was good since we had two passengers who never flew in a floatplane before. We all were filled with anticipation since it had been a couple of years since Vicki & I were up with Ken. It was Vicki, POSSE members Shannon & Dusty and myself, both girls had never had been on a wilderness hunt before.

We all decided that Shannon & Vicki would hunt & film together and Dusty & I would team up, it was the tall ones against the short ones and we were determined to kick some long legs right out of Manitoba.

We got our Stealth cameras out and made sure we had everything ready to go for the next day. Camp was fun with all the girls and John, Marsh & me, we laughed and knew it was going to be a good week. The first couple of days activity was slow, Dusty and I didn’t see a bear for two days, Vicki & Shannon were on a great bait and we knew it was going to be good for them. On day three we got some photos of two shooters, one a giant black bear and the other was a beautiful chocolate with light color tips. My mind was set and Dusty and I set forth to seek and conquer. It was a long sit with the sun hitting us right in the face, but our wind was good. We were perched up in two Ameristep tripod stands and both of us had our Hoyt’s.

At about 8:00pm I heard a branch snap directly in front of us in the thick brush along the mouth of the river, I whispered to Dusty “BEAR” and about a minute later he appeared, it was the chocolate and he was big. He knew something was up, with the sun blazing down on us we must have looked liked a REALTREE neon sign. He approached looking directly at us and we didn’t move, he came to within 5 yards of us directly facing us. Both of us stood still and then he turned and plopped right down on the other side of the barrel, not presenting a shot. We sat there for over an hour and he would slowly stretch out around the barrel just to check on us. Then after what seemed an eternity he stood up and started to walk away, I had my Carbon Matrix at full draw and when he stopped to look back my Beman tipped with a Spitfire Maxx destroyed his day! He ran 10 to 15 feet and went down. We were pumped and my big chocolate silver tipped black bear just got his one way ticket back to the states.

Dusty and I did our filming stuff and Marsh came to check up on us at about 9:30 and came in, it took everything we all had to get the bear back on the boat but we did it and headed back to camp. Another Manitoba Monster was going to be on Bear N Down 10.

We were all pumped and Shannon & Vicki had an almost, with Shannon drawing back in the ground blind on uneven ground she took a tumble and Vicki got it all on camera. A truly once in a lifetime opportunity for one of the best bloopers we could ever ask for…Thanks Shannon! The bear took off and we laughed so hard the entire night after watching the footage, and she was a trooper taking it all in stride.

We all were sitting for over 10 hours a day in the blinds and stands since we had movement at all times on the cameras, but as luck would have it the movement was not as good as we hoped. The following day Shannon and Vicki were in some tripods and a good black bear came in, Vicki told Shannon to give her the camera and they needed to switch, Shannon was surprised and they were able to pull it off and she shot her first black bear. HE ran only about 60 yards or so and piled up, they were both so pumped, and he ended up being over a 19in bear. Way to go Shannon.

Dusty and I were sitting in our ground blind when we spotted a very good black bear, he was hesitant and took his time to come in, when he did he never gave her a shot opportunity and then he just walked off. I could tell Dusty was so disappointed but we knew he would be back the next day, or should I say we hoped!

The next day we went in and the bait was pounded, he tore apart our ground blind and made sure we knew he was there. We got everything rigged back up and settled in for another long sit. At about 6:30 we spotted movement and it was another boar, not as big as the one we saw last night but he too was very cautious in coming in. It was bottom of the ninth, 2 outs and bases loaded……Dusty was ready when he finally came back in and presented here with her shot and she wasted no time letting her Vicxen do the job. The bear ran to our left and out of sight. We waited 30 minutes and went to check, good blood and it wasn’t far we saw him piled up. We were pumped and excited and right now we realized that the short team was in the lead….

Marsh pulled up about an hour or so after Dusty and I dragged her bear to the shore and we loaded her bear and headed back to camp. On our way back it was an awesome sun set over the hill and as we rode back we could only hope that Vicki had the same luck on her last night.

Back at camp we heard the boat pulling up and ran down to the shore to see what the Tall team did, Vicki didn’t see a bear but they did see some wolfs and a great time. All in all we went 3 for 4 and my bear would end up measuring 20 11/16ths so Vicki still had the biggest bear in our house…Oh well, I’m not scared, I can tell you I had a blast hunting with all three of Ralph’s Angels and I hope I can do it again. It was way better than being in camp with a bunch of cranky old guys…Oh what am I thinking Marsh & John were there….LOL

Ralph

2010 Openings

We have only two September caribou hunts available at this time. Give us
a quick call if you are interested.

2011 Hunts

2011 hunts are filling up quickly. Bear is close to sold-out and moose
and caribou are right behind. Give us a call if you'd like to treat yourself
to a CSAH hunt in 2011.

For 2011, special group pricing is available on spring bear (parties of 3) and caribou (parties of 6 or more).

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