Hudson (WQOW) - When the DNR opened a new bear hunting zone in Hudson, one man took advantage of it, and may have come out with a Wisconsin record. Lon Feia shot a massive bear this week on his property just north of Hudson, but it wasn't easy.
Never did I have any idea that it would be anything like this," says Lon.
Lon Feia starting baiting for bears back in July, and spent the next two months catching him on camera. When the bear hunt season started, he went to work.
"So now this dance starts, where he's figuring out where I am, and I'm figuring out where he is, and I go in there and sit, and he doesn't show up, and then I leave, and he comes in, and he's laughing at me," Lon says. "He's beating me! This bear is killing me!"
And that dance continued for the next month.
"My wife thinks I'm nuts, I'm out there every day. We started September 7th, now, it's October 7th, a month has gone by, and I still haven't even seen this bear in person, you know, and the season's over in two days, says Lon.
Finally, on Saturday, he saw him. But it wasn't until Sunday that Lon got his opportunity.
"After about half an hour, he's close enough to where I can get a shot with a gun, but not with the bow. I put the bow down, and I'm thinking this is the only time I've seen him, I'm going to take him with the gun, and I get the shot, and I shoot him, and off he goes," says Lon.
"Then in the morning, I was worried, I had a very sleepless night, I was worried that I had missed him somehow, I don't know how, he's as big as a freight train, I don't know how I would miss him," Lon says.
He found the bear, weighing in at 648 pounds. It's not the heaviest bear in Wisconsin, but it could be a record setter for having the largest skull.
"He's massive. His head is this big. This big! It's amazing, it's just amazing," Lon says.
But Lon says it's not about the record.
"That's not what it's about. It's the hunt that is so amazing. What I'll remember always is the back and forth, and him beating me for most of the month! Until he made one mistake, and then I was able to capitalize on it," says Lon.
Lon says he got 200-300 pounds of bear meat from the bear. He's hoping to turn the bear into a rug or mount it to commemorate the amazing bear.
The DNR has a piece of the rib and a tooth to age the bear. The skull will be measured to see if it's a Boone and Crockett Club or a Wisconsin Bear Club record.
