The Bear

 The Bear
             The big boar was walking along an old barb wire fence line when I took his picture. Later on I noticed he was about as tall as the old fence post behind him in the picture so I walked to that post and measured it at 34” high. I am not good at estimating live weight so I will just guess at 350 pounds maybe more. He looked big so I told my friend that was probably the one he should go after if he drew a bear tag.

 

              In my home State black bear hunting is allowed during a fall hunt and tags are drawn for and distributed on a point basis; if you don’t draw a tag you get points for the next draw and so on. My friend drew a tag that year and decided to try for the big bear. Baiting is allowed with certain provisions and other than what weapons can be used (bow or firearm) etc. most of the hunting is pretty straight forward. If a hunter uses bait then the chance of seeing a bear is good and the shooting is around the bait.
             I must note that I have only tried bear hunting once and used the stalking method with little success and gave it up since I wasn’t really interested in shooting a bear. I know, excuses, excuses! I helped my friend select a spot and make a blind and even helped him haul some of the bait a few times then I left him on his own. His story follows.
             Bow hunting from a raised platform or ground stand was legal so he chose to sit atop a huge white pine blow down that was around six feet above the ground and held up by a jumble of smaller trees which had been felled by the huge pine when it blew over. This old pine was huge and the mess beneath and all around it made the tree a natural blind and we felt it was perfect and it helped that this tree was also just on the edge of a small clearing where he could place his bait.
             Each day he would faithfully check his bait each morning and evening and sit patiently atop the pine waiting for something to happen but nothing did for almost the entire season.  Finally, after an uneventful morning post his evening hunt was anything but uneventful. This natural blind atop the blow down was a bit tricky getting into just the right position so he didn’t pay a lot of attention to things around him when he climbed into place. This would be problematic shortly but first things first. That evening my hunter friend  wiggled and squirmed until he was in a comfortable position on the huge fallen tree slightly above the rest of the branches and smaller trees. He waited patiently atop his perch with his bow ready as the sun slipped lower.
             Just as he was about to quit for the night he heard some rustling and scratching so he stayed a bit longer. He was more than a little perturbed when the brush beneath him started to move and even more befuddled when the huge black head pushed out of the brush directly beneath him! Frozen with what I like to call better judgment he watched the large old black bear ease its way out from under the blow down obviously headed toward the bait. He didn’t know if the bear was walking into feed from the woods or if it had been sleeping under the blow down the whole time but whichever was the case the bear was there directly beneath him.
             He never shot or moved for quite some time and as darkness fell heavily on my friend he was finally able to move from his perch and leave the scene quietly  as the bear had a feast on his bait. He said he had the distinct feeling he was being followed out of the woods every step of the way.
             I listened to this story until the very end when I just had to ask why he hadn’t shot at the bear. My friend answered quite matter of factly that the thought had never entered his mind!
Chris