Group 2 - Day 5:   It Ain't Always What You Think

On yesterday's hunt both Bryant and John Askew had shot bears. Bryant's bear dropped 20 yards from the bait and we recovered it last night. (To Bryant's Hunt...) This morning our plan was for Fred and Don to skin Bryant's bear while we recovered John's bear.

When the bear came in to John's area yesterday it was typically cautious but eventually pulled the logs off the bait, sat down, and started eating. The bear was broadside so John drew, aimed carefully and shot behind its shoulder. The bear ran into the dense brush and John listened to it loudly move away.

We returned in the morning. We immediately found a blood trail and began following it. As always, we tied a Game Tracker string to a tree at the bait and let line out as we went. ()

The trail was modest but steady, but it was slow going because of the denseness of the woods. The area was logged a few years ago and the new forest growth is extremely thick. We followed a zig zaggy blood trail down hill where the land flattened out and wasn't as dense. We went further than we should have for a double lung hit bear.

We were walking on a trail when suddenly John said, "There's the bear."

It was ahead in the trail laying in a shallow ditch about 45 yards from us. When we walked toward it the bear surprised us. It got up and walked 40 yards and lay down in the large hole left by a big upturned tree.

We had a problem. John did not bring his bow.

Bryant went back to the truck for it. John and I sat down on a fat blow down tree about 20 yards from the bear. We could only see the top of it and we saw movement for a few minutes but the part of the bear we could see got still . We stood up on the log to get a better view.

The bear stood up too. 

It stared right at us. And he didn't look hurt at all. I gotta tell you that the next minute passed real slow. The bear watched us. We watched the bear.

Then it turned and walked in the opposite direction and entered another bunch of dense undergrowth. Bryant came up with John's bow and we walked to where the bear had vanished.

We found two small drops of blood and nothing else in the immediate area. I felt we needed to give this situation time so I decided we should return to camp and get Fred. If the bear was dead he could find it.

We returned and Fred picked up the trail and skillfully tracked partial paw prints, broken twigs, upturned leaves and two or three specs of blood for another 200 yards and the trail played out.

On the way out we discussed the shot and Fred said he hadn't realized the bear was sitting when John shot and that was a problem shot, even broadside. John's arrow had passed through the meat of the shoulder instead of the vitals. The bear was very much alive and the wound would heal quickly.