The only other big game animal Mariah Carroll had ever shot was a zebra in Africa almost a year and a half ago.
But on Friday, Carroll, 27, of Oxbow dropped a 510-pound black bear at approximately 9 a.m.
Carroll was on a guided hunt from The Homestead Lodge in Oxbow, a sporting camp owned by Scott Soucy, father of her boyfriend Hunter Soucy.
This is the second year in a row that the lodge delivered a huge boar. Last year, Bob Boberski of Oreville, Pennsylvania, shot a 493-pound bear with Homestead’s guides.
Most sporting camps in Maine employ guides who do the scouting necessary for hunters to find game during hunting season. Homestead guides accompanied Carroll on her hunt, along with their dogs trained to track down bears.
The sky was clear with little wind when the party left the lodge at 5 a.m. and the dogs were let loose at legal shooting time shortly after 6 a.m., said Carroll, who moved to Oxbow from Auburn about two years ago.
The bear came into shooting range with the dogs not far behind it, she said. The bear didn’t climb a tree to try to get away from the dogs as they often do, and Carroll killed the animal with one shot using a 45-70 rifle.
“With the dogs only 5 feet behind [the bear], it was a stressful situation,” Carroll said. “My heart was pumping a lot.”
Carroll, who is a registered Maine guide, has been hunting for about two years and considers herself a beginner. Besides the zebra, she has shot a grouse and has had no luck with turkeys or deer. She also did not get a moose permit, although she entered the state’s lottery.
Her goal this deer season is to shoot a big buck.
Carroll said she likes to eat bear meat and wants to use the hide for a bear rug.
What did Carroll learn from her first successful bear hunt?
“How deceiving the size of bears are and how fast it all happens,” she said.
