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2001 Fall Black Bear Bowhunt With Fred Lutger
by Robert Hoague

| Getting Ready | 1st Day's Hunt | 2nd Day's Hunt | 3rd Day's Hunt | 4th Days Hunt |
| 5th Day's Hunt | 6th Day's Hunt | 7th Day's Hunt | 8th Day's Hunt |

3rd Day Of The Hunt 
Breakfast was ready at 6:30. We ate it and went to look for my bear. Daylight made a lot of difference. I found a very wide blood trail 10 yards into the woods. Twenty yards later the good trail led into swamp water. Kim Sutterfield stayed with the blood trail, finding blood spots on leaves and trees. Paul Millhuff and I circled ahead. Paul spotted the bear laying in moss and ferns. 

We took pictures and then hooked up a tow rope to each of the bear's legs and it's head. I had one of the guys go back to the stand and run a game tracker string to us so it would be as short a drag as possible. Everyone leaned to it and we pulled the heavy bear out of the muck and woods.

Pat Avendt (a Private Banker in Tinley Park, Illinois) passed up two bears the first night's hunt, hoping to see a larger one. He then moved to two other stand locations. On the 3rd afternoon the woods were still. A little after 6:00 he sighted 3 bears behind him and to the right. The bears separated and moved on different paths and walked in the direction of the bait. The closest bear passed 10 feet from Pat's ladder stand. The 2nd bear moved through the thick brush on a ridge behind the bait. Pat lost sight of the 3rd bear, and the largest. 

The first two bears went to the bait. The larger bear appeared in the brush behind the bait. The other bears ran when they saw the larger bear. As the bear rolled the large logs off the bait Pat shot it between the shoulder blades with his Browning BLR .308. The bear leaped to the right and died instantly.

Peter Voss was on his stand at 5:00. He heard a noise at 7:40 and spied a bear in the brush 25 yards from him. The bear stopped near the bait and then came towards Peter's tree and looked up at Peter. Then it raised it's nose and sniffed the breeze. 

The bear turned and walked to the bait and stuck it's head in the bucket. Peter drew and took a quartering away shot. Peter's arrow passed through the bear and stuck in a log on the bait. The bear vaulted over logs and walked fast for 25 yards and laid over on it's side. Peter waited 30 minutes and got down. He walked to his truck and got his camera and took some photos. Then he picked up Brian and Skip and they helped him bring the bear to the truck.