Oct. 1, opening day of Oklahoma’s 2023 black bear archery season, found 26-year-old Caleb Flies in a tree stand an hour before first light. He wanted to be set in his spot well before shooting time, to let the woods settle.
He’d had a bad case of the nerves since the previous day, and he awoke at 4 that morning to begin his quest. Months of preparation had led him to this point.
For Flies (a name of German origin, pronounced “Fleece”), fishing and hunting had played big roles in his upbringing. He became interested in archery as a youngster, watching movies such as “Lord of the Rings” and “Robin Hood.” And it was traditional archery that especially piqued his interest.
“After I got my first deer with a longbow, I sold the compound and I never really even took the rifle out after that, either.”
On this autumn day, he was pursuing a longtime bear-hunting goal: “I was going for strictly primitive, no modern materials.”
In his tree stand with him was his handmade longbow of Osage orange wood and twisted flax fiber string, with beaver tail leather grip, and Douglas fir arrows fletched with turkey feathers and tipped with an obsidian point that Flies knapped himself.
“It’s not easy to go out and take a black bear,” he said. “Putting in the work every year is the biggest part of it.” For him, that meant much more work than the run-of-the-mill modern-day hunter. It meant spending countless hours and thousands of miles over the previous couple of bear seasons, making sure his feeders were full and his archery gear was just right.
He began handcrafting his selfbow earlier in the spring. His selfbow is a single piece of bois d’arc that he cut, with no enhancements. A decorative wrap of copperhead skin, and a carved silhouette of a bear paw inlaid with turquoise dust lend to its personality. “Lots of work goes into it, from A to Z.”
The bow-building process has taken him years to learn. It started when he attended his first OJAM event in 2017, a selfbow jamboree held annually by the Oklahoma Selfbow Society. Over the years, he has learned how to condition, shape and string the staves, create arrows, and knap the stone points. OJAM keeps the art form alive, he said.
On this hunt, Flies is using handcrafted arrows with stone points of black obsidian, which is volcanic glass. Like many other materials, he sources the obsidian by trading or buying the natural materials from suppliers. He said flintknapping isn’t his strong suit, so he chose obsidian because it’s a bit easier to work with. To practice creating points, he uses regular glass from the hardware store.
Once arrows are balanced and nocks are carved into the shaft end, he mounts a practice point and testfires each arrow just once into a foam block. If the arrow flies true, it earns its place in the handmade hunting quiver.
Flies’ bow has no sight, so he devotes a lot of time learning to shoot accurately. Proficiency requires patience, skill, and dedication.
“I think we owe it to the animal to be as ethical as we can be.
“Also, when you have built this equipment, you’re invested. It means more than something you’ve just gone to buy at the store.”
When September rolled around, Flies had an unexpected chance to go bear hunting in Arkansas. On Sept. 18, he finally took a black bear sow with the primitive equipment he had made. “The weapon is so limiting, and you have to get close.
“When it all comes together, it's the most rewarding experience I could ever imagine in hunting.”
Then it was on to Oklahoma and Oct. 1. His hunting spot is on land that belongs to his mother’s family, near Rich Mountain in southeastern Oklahoma’s McCurtain County. Sitting in his tree stand, Flies can see the place where his grandfather had lived.
“It holds a special place in my heart, that area. And I think Grandpa would be proud and excited to see me hunting in a place where he grew up.”
The morning was mild, and it would soon warm into the 80s. Shortly after sunrise, a black bear sow with two cubs approached his stand. Flies wasn’t going to take a sow with cubs. “They were just awesome to watch.
“Unless you've seen a bear in the wild, it’s just a completely different feeling. I think some of that is a little bit of fear knowing that that thing could be up your tree ripping you apart if it wanted to.
“It wasn’t until noon that I saw the bear that I ended up taking. She was an older sow. She didn’t have any cubs.” His nerves went off the chart.
“She was so close to me, the biggest bear I’ve seen in the wild.
“It’s similar to buck fever. You get so excited seeing this huge animal you really want to take. It’s just a mix of emotions, and there’s really nothing like it.
“I wanted to make a good shot.” Finally the sow came closer, stopped to Flies’ left, and gave me a 5-yard shot. Everything worked out perfect!”
It was a great shot, and the bear expired just 20 yards from the stand.
“Still trying to process the fact that this actually just happened today. Oklahoma black bear with full primitive bow, string, arrow, and stone point. A great hunt, came in uphill next to me about 7 yards away. I thankfully made a great shot ... . I used only natural materials to make this setup. ...Could be the first primitive bear kill here in over a hundred years.”
And Caleb Flies has just made modern-day hunting history in Oklahoma. His harvest is believed to be the first black bear taken entirely with primitive, handmade archery equipment since American Indians did so more than a century ago.
Flies took to Facebook later that day: “Wow, can’t believe this just happened. Primitive archery Oklahoma black bear. Could be the first in over a hundred years. What a dream come true, and a huge bear is just the icing on the cake.”
To those who don’t condone hunting, Flies has a response. On Facebook, he wrote, “I had a tag, which is one of the major fees that fund their research and conservation. I understand bears are portrayed as cute fluffballs, but they’re part of the circle of life, which humans are also part of and have been for thousands of years. Bears kill deer fawn, and even other baby bears. It’s good to harvest some bears and keep their population in healthy numbers. I do like hunting but also want them to thrive as a whole population.”
And for him, harvesting isn’t the end game.
“I’m in love with just seeing bears in the wild, and going hunting is just an excuse to go do that.”