dan wrote:Sam Ubl wrote:dan wrote:Getting a small wounded black bear shot off the top of me in pitch blackness...
I think you might have to divulge the rest of the story. . .
I figured everyone had heard that one already...
Junior's bear hunt...
Danny Infalt Jr. drew his 1st bear tag at age 16. We were hunting near the small northern Wisconsin town of Drummond. Junior had high hopes of scoring after seeing the slob bear I arrowed in Drummond the year before. Junior chose to hunt with my Mossberg shotgun instead of bow, this being his 1st bear hunt.
We hunted hard for an entire week with only one sighting the 1st evening, of a small blackie that was passed on. We had only set aside one week of vacation for bear hunting, not anticipating it being this difficult to shoot a bear with a gun. Both of us were feeling little down in spirits. Danny didn't want to give up. We decided we would come back up the next Saturday and hunt one more evening in an area a good friend and local bear expert, Brad Kuhnert, had suggested. It was the edge of a large swamp where local farmers were experiencing extreme crop damage from multiple bears exiting this swamp at night in search of farm crops.
Friday night I got a quick nap after work, then we were on the road most of the night. We passed the time talking about bear hunting. At one point, I told Jr, if you shoot a bear and its not dead... KEEP SHOOTING!! I told him he might not enjoy tracking a wounded bear nearly as much as tracking a wounded deer. Not that either is fun to track, its just wounded bears tend to get attitude problems.
We arrived at the swamp Saturday morning and set up a bait site. We 1st placed to stands side by side then put a bait about 20 yards away. We put a dozen pastries in a circle around the bait then sprayed vanilla extract up into the air to attract bears from down wind.
We then took a ride to Ashland and ate some lunch. When we returned, we heard something run off, and were surprised to find all the pastries gone and the logs over the bait shifted. We quickly, but quietly slipped up into the old Lone Wolf hang-ups and began the waiting game.
This was a long shot. We were hoping to bait a stand and shoot the bear all in one day. Definitely not the best strategy, but the only option left, and besides, you can't shoot one hanging around the living room staring at the TV wishing you were hunting.
We could hear the bear pacing back and forth in the heavy brush downwind trying to smell us. He would not show himself though. Then when we were just about to give up on the bear season, I looked up and saw the bear rise up on two feet to peer over some brush and look at the bait site. I whispered to Danny to get ready! We were almost out of light and the camera would no longer pick up enough light to film.
The bear casually circled the bait taking him right under our stands. He started his slow approach towards the bait giving us a good quartering angle. Jr. raised the gun and squeezed the trigger. KA-BOOM. The bear did a complete flip and was flailing around on the ground. Jr. pumped another solid copper sabot into the chamber and took aim a second time. I told Danny "Don't shoot, he is down."
Suddenly the bruin pops up onto all fours and takes off into the swamp. "YOU TOLD ME HE WAS DOWN, DON'T SHOOT!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO SHOOT TILL HE QUITS MOVING"
I could sense a desperation in Jr's voice, this was his 1st bear, and he thought his senile old man had ruined his opportunity. "Relax" I said, he did not go far. We got down and looked at the blood trail. It looked pretty good, plenty of lung blood. I said lets go eat supper and give the bear a little time, then we will come back and find him.
We needed to hit the road the next morning, so we went to a restaurant and had a quick meal. When we got back, it was black out. You could not see anything without a light. A thought crossed my mind about two things I forgot to do. Bring a compass, and tell someone where we would be hunting.
Danny reached into the truck and got the shotgun out. I told him to put it back it was just one more thing to carry out of the woods while dragging the bear. Well, Danny did not get the Indian nick name of "Fears Coyotes" ( We will cover that in a future article) for no reason, and he quickly stated there was no way we were tracking a wounded bear without a gun, or I was going in alone. OK, scardy pants, bring your stupid gun, I told him. We picked up the trail, and soon I realized we were tracking a bit to far for the double lung shot I had thought the boy had made. The blood was heavy though, so we pushed on. After a while we followed the trail up a mound of dirt and found a hole on the top leading down into a cavern.
The blood trail went right into the hole, but we could not see down far enough to see if the bear was down there. One question. Why do I always get the short straw? Anyway, I crawled down there and found a little opening with a bloody bed in the middle of it, but no bear. I looked around and found a small opening leading out of the cavern with some blood smeared on the sides. We had a problem now. That great blood trail had gone away. By bedding down for a while, he had clotted up, and slowed the bleeding. Now the only blood we were finding was where the bear had rubbed his wound against the underbrush. It was not easy, but we were able to stay on his trail for quite awhile. Then, we get to an open area, where the trees have matured and blocked the sunlight from growing under brush. There was no trail to follow, we looked and looked but could no longer pick up any sign. I shined the flashlight around and noticed one tree that was a little raised up higher in the center of the open woods. I thought maybe we could see something from that tree. Yep, long shot, but, I was doing pretty good on the longshots up till now.
We get to the tree and I immediately smell a familiar odor. For those of you who have taken bear, you know what I mean. Bear have a distinct odor, what I was smelling was that odor... Up close! I started getting a weird feeling like I was being watched or something. Jr. said, Dad, you smell that? The light started flashing all over the place... But we couldn't see anything. I even looked in the tree above us. Nothing.
I was just starting to write it off as some weird swamp gas or something, when I looked down by my feet, which were entangled in a mess of the tree's nasty exposed roots, when I noticed one of the roots had a smear of blood on it. I bent over and touched it, making sure it was blood, and was quite surprised to find it very fresh and still wet, even the portion that was rubbed. I new the bear was close. I tried to look for another spot of blood, twisting around like a circus contortionist to look behind me while my rubber boots were somewhat stuck in the tree roots, and noticed a bushel basket sized hole in the ground leading into the roots.
Just as my flashlight hit the opening, I saw two green eyes shining back. In a flash the bear charged out of the hole which was only a footstep away. He was coming right at me!!! I tried to turn and run out of the way, but my feet got caught in the roots and down I went. My flash light sailed out of my hands, momentarily blinded, I could not see a thing. As I hit the ground, I spun around to face the bear and went for my knife. I felt the bear hit my feet coming right over the top of me, when suddenly and unexpectedly, the night exploaded with a loud KA-BOOM. As the flash of light from the shotgun blast lit up the night, I could see the bear at my feet coming at me, a sight I will never forget! One more KA-BOOM and it was over. The boys back up flashlight lit up the woods, the bear had retreated back down the hole.
The whole episode lasted only a few seconds, We stood there for a second trying to come back to reality.
Once I shook off the attack, I approached the hole, shining the light inside (This time Jr. was right there beside me with the shotgun) No bear in sight. We looked around and found another hole. We could not see the bear! Someone was going to have to climb down there and see if he was still alive. You guessed it... I drew the short straw! Well, since I had to go down there, I decided to wait till morning!! Well, sure enough he was dead in the morning.
We sure got some funny looks at registration when they noticed two plastic slug casings stuck into the bears hide along with some singed hair. I just said two words "Don't ask." Then on the way home Dan Jr., starts up, about how he "Saved his old mans life" and a bunch of crazy stuff about being a super hero. I quickly quieted the boy down, by explaining the only thing he saved, was that bear from getting "one serious kicking".
Pulling the bear out of the hole: