Story of a real bear hunt (not mine... hearsay)


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Just wanted to relay a bear hunting story a buddy of mine at work told me today.

So this goes back over 30 years, but at the time he was 17 and skipped class to go bowhunting. Specifically, a black bear. So he goes out, sets up a tree stand, and just hanging out waiting. He set up bear bait by putting some food on the ground, then piling logs and debris on top of it. The idea being, the bear would smell the food, then go digging into the pile which would both stimulate a bear's natural scavenger instinct to lower its guard, while also slowing it down and ensuring it would remain in one place for an extended period of time.

It worked. So he lined up a shot, took it, and punctured both lungs and nicked the heart. (Found out later.) The arrow punched clean through the bear and lodged in the dirt, and as expected it didn't immediately drop. It let out a growl and ran off. Expecting it to be like a deer where it runs off maybe 10 meters and then promptly keels over, he climbed down out of the stand to ground level to chase it.

But the thump didn't happen. The bear was nowhere to be seen. He started to panic, and then heard his very loud WRRRROOOOWWWWLLLLL in the distance. Thinking he'd just mildly inconvenienced yet heavily angered a quadrupedal murder machine, he broke into a full sprint heading back to his truck. He arrived safely and promptly peeled out, drove to a nearby gas station, and called his friend's dad. He explained that he cut class and shot a bear, and that he thinks it's out to kill him. He explained the whole story, and the guy just bursts into laughter. Saying something like "That wasn't a growl, that was the bear dying. When it dies it loses control over its diaphragm, and the last dying gasp sounds like a growl."

Anyway that guy was cool, calls the school and pulls his son out of class with some nonsense about a forgotten appointment, and sends him to go back this dude up. They go out and find the bear dead, which weighed about 200kg all told. Between the two of them they dragged it back to the parking area, hoisted it into the truck, and drove off to have the kill tagged and registered.

He got a nice European mount of a bear skull, a bearskin rug, and a pretty good assortment of bear steaks and sausages out of that kill, all told. According to him it was fatty, gamey, and kind of tasted like venison plus unsweetened blackberries. He even processed some of the fat to produce bear oil, which is a thing I didn't specifically know existed, and I'm not sure what you'd use it for. But yeah. There you go.

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