2023 - Issue 3 - May/June

French Canadian Black B Legendary bear hounds williams’ thunder

Black Bear Hand Pies

Beyond the NOthing New Under the Sun Acorns

The bear hunting authority for 23 years

ARKANSAS

BEAR DEN VISIT

By Joleen Morehead

Breeding to a Standard

By TL Jones

Ma y/J une

202 3

Every Hunt is A Predator Hunt

Legendary Bear Hounds Part 45

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Bear Hunting

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May/June 2023 Volume 24 - Issue 3 Cover photo by Kolby Morehead

By Jake Downs

Every Hunt is a Predator Hunt

By Joleen Morehead

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Ozark Bear Den Visit

14

By William Barber

Opportunity Meets Tradition

22

Use of Leashed Tracking Dogs

By Jillian Garrett

By Dawson Smith

26

Beyond the Acorns

By Timothy D. Fowler

Black Bear Hand Pies

Coincidence?

By Stephen F. Fielder

30

Legendary Bear Hounds Part 49: Templeton’s Wild Buford (Hank)

48

Nothing New Under the Sun

By Douglas Boze

32

Dr. Jenn Ballard

Tracking Wounded Bears

Columns 46 Bowhunting Bears

Bear Hunting Magazine Trail Camera Contest Winner Win a Moultrie Mobile Camera!

by Bernie Barringer - Bear Guru

It was at this moment he realized he messed up!

48 Becoming a Bear Hunter

by Douglas Boze - Bear Dude

50 Black Bear Biology

by Dr. Jenn Ballard - Animal Doc

52 Western Bear Hunting

by Jana Waller - Western Hunter

54 Bruin Desinations Submitted by: Andy Frank Minnesota

To enter, submit a unique trail camera photo to info@bear-hunting.com or post to our Facebook page: Bear Hunting Magazine

by Al Raychard - Bear Hunting Veteran

56 Sacred Pursuit

by TL Jones - Hound Pro

58 In Hot Pursuit

by Barry ‘Bear’ Siragusa - Hound Dude

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Bear Hunting

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Bear Grease The Editor’s Note

Kolby Morehead

@kolby_morehead

By the time this issue hits your mailbox, I’ll be gearing up to take my dad on his very first bear hunt.

We’re headed to Baldy Mountain Outfitters in Manitoba, CA. My dad has never been on a guided hunt and I’m excited to get to share that upcoming memory with him. It is a right-of-passage moment when a son is able to take his dad on a new adventure that he has never been able to experience in his lifetime. You’ll see the outcome of that hunt in a future issue of the magazine.

Speaking of outfitters, make sure and check out the outfitter section of the magazine and plan your next bear hunt. Several of them have had cancellations and have openings for this spring, so it isn’t too late to get a last minute bear hunt in!

In March, I was able to share an incredible experience with my wife and a few of my good friends. We were able to go with the Arkansas large carnivore biologist, Myron Means, and his team from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission on one of their den studies. You can read more about that experience further in this issue. I want to take a moment and give a hat tip to the biologists managing our black bear populations; these are the guys following sound science that want us to be able to hunt bears. They are wearing out boot leather in the mountains making sure that the populations are healthy.

With that in mind, make sure and check out the new Bear Biology column with Arkansas Game and Fish Veterinarian, Jenn Ballard. She’s going to be educating us hillfolk alongside you flatlanders with bear facts and interesting science to help us better understand bears. We greatly value her contribution to this fine publication!

Lastly, I was excited to be able to attend my first Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association conference this year.

I had a great time speaking with everyone that stopped by the booth and look forward to coming back next year!

If you aren’t a member of a bear hunting organization or an organization that fights for our rights as hunters, you should be. They are doing a lot of work to make sure that we are able to continue hunting the critters we love and are passionate about. Their yearly memberships are under $50 and they need funds to be able to help in ways that matter for all of us. Have a great spring! #GUARDTHEGATE!

The author is taking his dad on his first bear hunt.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: 1-Year (6 issues) subscription rate is $37.00 for U.S. address, $54.00* for Canadian address (in U.S. funds). 2-Year (12 issues) subscription rate is $57.00 for U.S. address, $89.00* for Canadian address (in U.S. funds). (*rate is higher to cover extra postage) For more information, call us at: 479-839-4335, write to us at: Bear Hunting Magazine, P.O. Box 168, West Fork, Arkansas or E-mail us at: info@bear-hunting.com Copyright © 2015 Bear Hunting. All rights reserved. Articles, news items, advertisements or other print media do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Bear Hunting Media, LLC is not responsible for injury/loss during the implementation of content. Bear hunting is a potentially hazardous activity and people should take extreme caution when hunting.

The author went on his first bear den visit with the AGFC.

The author attended the 2023 WBHA Conference & Expo.

Bear Hunting (ISSN 1553-2488 and USPS 019-451) is published bi-monthly by Bear Tracks Media, LLC, 4052 N Abington Ct., FAyetteville,AR 72703. Periodicals Postage Paid at West Fork, AR and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes (form 3579) to Bear Hunting, P.O. Box 168, West Fork, AR 72774.

Bear Hunting

7

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Every Hunt is a Predator Hunt A Newfoundland Adventure

by Jake Downs

@jake_d_downs

“I’ve shot a couple bears, so I don’t really need another one...” I’ve heard this phrase muttered many times from fellow hunters and I can’t wrap my head around it. Over the years, I have always taken advantage of adding a bear tag to my pocket whenever possible. So when Barb, my Newfoundland outfitter, asked if I wanted to buy one while I was hunting Woodland Caribou, I jumped at the opportunity!

Crazy Caribou:

This hunt started like many other outfitted adventures. I was introduced to my guide, Clarence, a tall seasoned guide who’d lived in Newfoundland his whole life. We quickly became friends and struck out to see what the tundra had to offer. Our first morning was spent traveling via rough two-track roads, as well as stopping and hiking through dense timber and glass “bogs”, which are expanses of open tundra that appeared to be merely floating on water. These bogs were like walking on a big wet sponge with bowling balls, known as tussocks, randomly dispersed throughout. Clarence was very adamant that I do not step in any of the “dark” puddles; he said, “You might go in all the way to your head!” Our first day was slow, with only a few younger bulls and cows spotted, or as the locals referred to them, stags and does. This was a bit of a culture shock. I had been to Canada before, but 10

Bear Hunting

this remote Island was so culturally different. The locals were extremely friendly, at least I think they were—their dialect was hard to follow. But if they were being rude, they did it with a big smile.

Day Two

Day two started with an exciting encounter, at least for one of the other caribou hunters from camp.

Clarence and I pulled into one of his “go to” glassing spots, only to spot one of the other guide’s pickups parked at the end of the road. We decided to walk out on the point and discuss our plans, so we wouldn’t get in each other’s way the rest of the day. When we got to the glassing perch, we quickly spotted the guide and client sneaking through the tundra towards a herd of caribou. The caribou weren’t paying them any mind, the bull was in full rut mode and the cows appeared to be doing their best to avoid his advances. The two of them made quick work of the stalk and appeared to be extremely close, possibly bow range, even though they were toting a bang stick. They settled in and boom! The bull ran only a few yards and went down with the cows scattering towards the tree line. Watching this gave me a ton of hope for my own quest to put one of these beautiful white-caped caribou on the ground with my recurve. If they could get that close, so could I. Day two was slow with only a few caribou May/June 2023

The author got this great woodland caribou in Newfoundland with his traditional bow.

spotted and a stalk on an immature bull that we elect- diately, and glanced to my right. A cow was husting my ed to pass on. The close encounter got my adrenaline way and I could see a dark brown rack bouncing behind pumping and it was tough to fall asleep that night. The her. I crouched low and eased up to the closest tree in next morning, we set out well before dawn and made front of me, pulled an arrow from my quiver, and nocked a big loop back into the area where one of the moose it. The cow crossed in front of me at 20 yards and the guides had spotted several large groups of caribou, bull moved through the same small opening seconds latbut as it usually happens, we only found a few cows er. I went to draw, but he was moving too fast and was and immature bulls. We weren’t discouraged, there was back in the thick brush quickly. I could hear him grunting a ton of country we hadn’t looked over yet. Clarence nonstop and it sounded like he was getting farther and decided we should take a drive down the coastline and farther away. Then suddenly it sounded like he was comcheck some of the large bogs that bordered it, plus this ing back my way. This time, his lady friend was leading would be a reprieve from the rough roads we had been him down the other side of the trees in front of me. She enduring. We made it to the pavement and I was blown walked past me with him hot on her trail. He slowed for away at how much the country opened up. It seemed a second in front of me admiring his girlfriend’s backlike everything along the coast was one giant bog. We side and I drew my bow, anchored, and a split second stopped often and glassed from the bed of the pickup later the arrow was zipping through his hide. He lunged like good “road hunters” do; the only thing we needed to forward and was out of sight in seconds. I knew the shot complete the scene was a truck bed full of empty beer was good as I fell backwards into the tundra, relief and cans! Too bad I don’t drink! Nevertheless, we were able an indescribable adrenaline dump washing out of me. to turn up a mature bull caribou harassing some cows.

I walked to the edge of the trees and waved Clarence They were in a pocket of trees in the middle of the tun- over. We found my arrow buried in the tundra with perdra. I grabbed my bow, put the tree patch between us, fect lung blood covering the fletchings. A short track job and slowly made my way towards them with the wind in revealed my first Woodland Caribou laying not fifty yards my face. from where I had shot him!

I made it to the patch of trees without being detected, at least as far as I could tell. I eased my way Bonus Bear through the trees until I heard grunting. I stopped imme“We have a couple of bear baits that have been www.bear-hunting.com

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The author adds on a bear if available on every hunt. It turned out to be a great decision!

getting hit in the evenings,” Clarence said as we skinned and cared for my caribou while back in camp. I love sitting at a bear bait. So it was settled, the next day we would slip in and check which baits had been hit and prepare for the evening hunt.

The author is geared up The morning of day four found us driving from bait for a long sit over bait.

He appreciates his time to bait, checking which looked best and evaluating the over bait after bears. stands. They were mostly permanent ground blinds built from rough cut lumber stashed uphill from the bait. I found two of the stands at a reasonable distance from the barrel dimly lit tree line.

This hunt was no different. The first night was that appeared to have been hit recently. The trap was set, met with a few squirrels running in and stealing a now we just needed a bear to cooperate. chunk of bait, then scurrying up a tree to eat it, then There’s just something amazing about sitting at a repeating the process. I sat with my back against the bear bait. It gets a bad wrap, some say it’s cheating, which backdrop of the blind, my bow leaned against the left I can rebuttal with ease. Before I killed my first bear, I had wall, arrow ready.

But squirrels were my only company sat on a stand for over 78 hours, and in that time had only before night fell on the trees. As I said before, I am laid eyes on two bears, only one of which came to the bait. grateful for my struggles early on in bear hunting beI know what you’re thinking: I either suck at sitting still or I cause I know it’s only a matter of time. went to a horrible outfitter. Well, I feel I can sit still very well.

In the early afternoon of the next day, ClarAs for the outfitter, on my first bear hunt there was a blind ence pulled down the driveway.

I threw my gear in and hunter in camp and at the end of the week, there were only away we went for another bumpy ride to another bait two folks that hadn’t seen bears, and one of them shot one! site.

Again, we pulled to the head of the trail and I That’s right, every client got an opportunity except me. But headed off down it, slow and steady, hoping that mayultimately, I’m glad that my bear hunting experience started be there would already be a bear on the bait. No such this way. It taught me to love everything about sitting on a luck, but the mud around the barrel was littered with bear bait: the silence-shattering squirrel chatter, the scavbear tracks and scat. enger birds flying in and out, and the adrenaline of those It was starting to get late and looked like it bear shaped shadows that pop up at last light. I have been might be another no bear night when suddenly I caught on many successful baited hunts since those early days, movement in the trees on the far side of the bait. I and every time I lay in wait over a barrel, I get one of the watched intently as a bear stepped from the shadows. greatest surges of adrenaline I have ever felt when a bear He nervously made his way toward the barrel, but kept ambles in or if a bear shaped shadow appears amongst the stopping and looking from side to side. At one point, he 12

Bear Hunting

May/June 2023

walked back into the tree line and disappeared for a few minutes. I thought it was over for sure with the light fading fast. But luck was on my side and he decided that the area looked safe and made his way back out of the trees, this time on the trail that led directly to the barrel. He slowly made his way to the barrel and started nudging it with his nose. His hind end came around as he worked the small hole where the tasty treats fell to the dirt. My bow was already in my hand as he slid over to get a better angle on the barrel. I came to full draw, focused tight on the crease of his shoulder because he was slightly quartered to me, and released.

Whack! The bear tumbled backwards then tore off in the opposite direction with orange fletchings hanging out of his right side. I felt good about the shot, but was a little worried I might have hit a little too far forward.

I waited about 20 minutes as darkness fully enveloped the area and snuck back down the trail. Clarence and I agreed that we should wait until morning since I wasn’t one hundred percent certain on my shot placement.

When we got to the stand the next morning, I showed everyone what had happened and we found blood about 20 yards from the barrel right at the edge of the trees. Once we were in the tree line, I was blown away by how thick it was. A few bear trails zig-zagged through it and, luckily, my bear had decided to stay on trail at least for a little while. He split from the trail about 50 yards into the trees. Anyone who has trailed bears knows how frustrating it can be finding blood, especially in thick cover, and in this case soft, wet tundra. I stayed on the blood trail while the others grid-searched. “He’s over here!” yelled Clarence. Every hunter knows that feeling of relief; I nearly broke my leg sprinting in his direction through the trees.

A new species in a Woodland Caribou is the icing on the cake, and a beautiful black bear is the ice cream (since I don’t like cherries!). “Every hunt is a predator hunt,” a wise man once said. I think it was probably Hugh Glass.

All I know is you should never pass on an opportunity to have a bear tag in your pocket. I know I don’t!

The author with his great Newfoundland bruin!

www.bear-hunting.com

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Photos by: @easttxcamo & @kolby_morehead 14

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Bailee Reaves holding a beautiful sow cub in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas.

Jan/Feb 2023

Ozark bear den Visit

by Joleen Morehead

This sow cub had beautiful coloration on her head and the back of her legs.

The author and her husband holding both bear cubs on the den visit.

Brent Reaves had a calming effect on this bear cub. The ultimate chill.

David McDaniels getting some last minute time with the cub before she goes back into the den with mom.

www.bear-hunting.com

@joleen_morehead

March 17th, 2023 will go down as one of those days that I’ll likely never forget. It was one of those moments where I was extremely grateful to be one of the few people in this world to attend a bear den study.

I held bears, learned new things, and gained a great appreciation for wild things (and the people who track those wild things).

If that morning was a weather report, the headlines would have read, “Today’s forecast has air quality thick with anticipation, 100% chance of having a beautiful day, with zero percent chance of bad moods or grouchy faces ahead.” At least, that’s what I read that morning, totally skipping over the actual weather report which should have said, “Deceivingly sunny and clear in Jasper, Arkansas, and the wind will make you think you fell a hole and landed in Antarctica, so make sure you wear your good puffy and please do not forget your gloves!” Nevertheless, Kolby, my husband, our friends, David McDaniels, Brent Reaves, and his daughter, Bailee, and myself ate a quick breakfast at an Air BnB we stayed in the night before and were all super ready for our bear adventure.

The author and Bailee are bubbling over with anticipation to hold baby bears!

Finally, it was time! We loaded up in the truck and met up with our convoy. We drove deeper in the woods, crossing a creek and bumping along the dirt roads. We had been driving for a while and Bailee asked, “Are we there yet?” We all laughed and secretly wondered the same question ourselves. We followed the lead truck into a beautiful Elk food plot clearing—not open to the public—everyone parked and we gathered up in a circle and waited for our instructions. The wind whipped us, but hot hands were passed out and more clothing layers were added.

Myron Means, our contact for the bear den study, introduced everyone in the group and explained what was going to happen during the study survey and why.

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After over an hour of driving deep into public land, the crew reach their destination.

Arkansas Large Carnivore Biologist, Myron Means, tells the group what the day will look like and why den studies are important.

A small group goes ahead to the den to sedate the sow before the rest of the group join them.

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May/June 2023

Sedated sows are given oxygen and have their vitals tracked to make sure that she stays in good shape.

Biologists weigh the adult bears when they are able to. This sow had a healthy weight.

The bear cubs had sharp nails which makes them great climbers.

www.bear-hunting.com

Every year, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) checks on the collared sows and answers some very important questions such as are these bears healthy? How is the population? Are they eating enough food? How has the environment impacted the bears this year?

Bears typically have a low productive rate, only having about 15 cubs in their reproductive years versus an unspayed cat that could produce up to 100 kittens in her lifetime. It’s the AGFC’s job to track the bears because it could take up to 15-20 years for a bear population to bounce back if something bad were to happen. Last summer, there was a drought in Arkansas and as a result there could be less cubs being born this year. The second part to this survey was that there’s a new drug that will help the AG&F tranquilize the sows so that they can check their health safely and with as few side effects as possible. Most people think that bears go through hibernation, but that’s not true!

They go through a similar process called torpor, which slows down a bear’s metabolism (and other things) and makes some drugs last a little longer in mama bear’s system than researchers would prefer.

Myron Means and the rest of the team went down to the bear den to meet up with mama bear while we waited up the hill for them to give us the “all clear.” I wish I could have seen this part but it was understandably for professionals only. We didn’t have to wait long before getting the “all clear” and heading down the hill to the bear den. Once we got there I was Bear Hunting

17

shocked at what I saw. I suppose I was thinking of a dark, gloomy cave, much like the one I have read to many children over the years, Going on a Bear Hunt. If this was a hiking trail and I was stumbling by, I would have missed it completely. It looked like a bunch of rocks naturally piled up on the side of a hill. The den opening was camouflaged by some rocks and the actual den was down in the ground.

AGFC and the team already had mama bear out of the den. She had some band aids over her eyes to keep her eyes from drying out and they were intubating her to make sure she had enough oxygen. It was a lot to take in, but as soon as I saw those two furry little cubs swaddled up with warm human baby blankets, my eyes turned into heart emoji eyes.

Someone handed me one little black cub and said, “Keep the cubs wrapped up; they are like human babies and can’t regulate their heat yet.” I took off my borrowed puffy—now that I was sweating from the hill blocking all the icy wind—and put the cub in it. My eyes welled up with a little extra moisture and I couldn’t stop smiling. It was so surreal that I was there holding a real living, wild cub.

Both cubs were very different, which was another thing I was surprised about. One of the cubs was black with blue eyes and a pink nose. The other cub was almost a blonde with brown salt-and-pepper color on her face that faded to black on her body. She also had blue eyes but with dark little rings around

Biologist, Myron Means, takes the weight of the male bear cub.

The biologists take several measurments of the cubs to make sure they’re healthy.

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May/June 2023

The biologists take a measurement of the overall length of the bear cubs.

After taking all the measurements it was clear the female cub was bigger than the male cub.

them. I held the black cub for just a few minutes. He was pretty content and snuggled in. I waited a while and then I got to hold the other cub. She was squirmy and bossy and I enjoyed her personality. “Can we take her home?” I asked Kolby, and he said, “Yes, we can!”

Another guy remarked, “You’ll have to feed her a lot of food!” She was squeaking so much that I had to take a video. She reminded us of our squirrel dog at home.

She wiggled a little bit and one of her paws popped out of the blanket: tiny, furry, and small with sharp little claws. She was adorable and fierce. After a little while, I handed her off to Kolby. She wiggled and stretched for him. During one of her stretches, she licked Kolby’s beard and yawned. I happened to be taking a picture at that moment and said, “Did the bear just lick you?” Kolby chuckled. He’s a bear whisperer, I tell you!

Someone shouted, “One hour!” So, Myron www.bear-hunting.com

The sow cub licked the author’s husband. #bearwhisperer

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The den was smaller than one would expect and could have easily been missed.

Means and the team took the cubs back to weigh and measure them and find out their genders. The black bear turned out to be a male and he was also smaller than the other bear. They weighed the salt-and-pepper bear and found that she was bigger than the male bear. Typically the male is bigger, so this situation was very unique. I think she needed to be a little bigger for all her personality. After all the data from the cubs was recorded, the team started to put all bears back in the den.

It was time for the humans to go back up the hill.

We walked up to the top of the hill where our vehicles were parked.

We gathered for a few minutes and chatted about what had just happened over the last three or so hours. It was such a wonderful experience for everyone.

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Part of the team stayed with the sow as she woke up while the rest of the group wait for them in the field.

We would like to thank the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission for letting us tag along on this visit!

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May/June 2023

www.bear-hunting.com

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Opportunity meets tradition THE BEGINNING OF A PASSION

by William Barber

The club had a very successful hunt. There will be several filled freezers from this hunt!

The Beginning of an Addiction In 2017, I spent an unhealthy amount of time watching Steven Rinella, Clay Newcomb, and the show “The Hunting Public.” The combination of these shows convinced me of two things: first, I had a passion for bears, and secondly, I could shoot a monster bear in my home state of North Carolina on public land. This confidence helped me convince my dad and a close friend from Ohio to join me in the adventure of a lifetime.

Plans were carefully developed, and there we were on the opening weekend of the coastal bear season. We saw lots of bears and had multiple shot opportunities but failed to capitalize. Disheartened and deflated, I went back to the drawing board. After chatting with many successful houndsmen, we were convinced to try again in 2018.

Fast forward to an unsuccessful first day of the 2018 season. I was eating my dinner in a local restaurant. While sitting there, I overheard a local hunter talking about the great opening day he just had. He even showed me a picture in which I immediately recognized a friend and fellow veteran. The conversation continued and resulted in an invite to visit the “skinning shed” where I was reunited with an old friend named 22

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Chris Milligan. Stories were shared and success was in the air; they took six bears in one day and Chris had joined the 500 lb club. The smile on his face said it all; he and his son, Davin, had done what very few hunters have an opportunity to do, and took down a real trophy animal. We discussed the possibility of club openings and the merits of public vs private land, especially as it pertains to North Carolina baiting laws. Public land hunting without bait or hounds in eastern North Carolina is a hefty endeavor and will humble even the best hunters.

Growth and Experience In 2019, I received a phone call from Chris and he told me about an opening in his bear club, so I immediately accepted the offer. Chris explained the setup was a combination of hound hunting and still hunting, with each style complimenting the other. This meant you could experience the treeing/baying of a bear with hounds or the excitement of having a bear slipping away from hounds but passing within a few yards of a hunter. We spent the next few months discussing and planning until opening day came. I showed up a May/June 2023

Bear stew was a big hit in the camp. It looks delicious!

day early because Chris is a leader for a non-profit organization that promotes Combat Veterans connecting in a healthy way to the great outdoors. Chris was preparing a bear stew from the previous year’s harvest and welcoming all of the bear hunting club, including the landowner, houndsmen, and local bear experts. After many hours of storytelling and socializing, we all finally went to bed in preparation for an early opening day.

The opening day was epic: five black bears were harvested, and both of the “Combat Warriors” tagged out. Many others were sighted by other hunters. After the shooting was done, the real work began. All hands were needed to drag bears and get them to the skinning shed. Once everyone gathered around for pictures, the next eight hours were spent telling the day’s stories from the perspective of each hunter while cleaning the bounty of the hunt and celebrating the opportunities nature provided. This also allowed the state biologist to come by as part of the NC bear cooperator program. They weighed, took tooth samples, and got hair samples to help them monitor the health of the bear population. It was here that I learned just how much work went into each hunting season.

As soon as the previous season ended, the houndsmen began looking for new pups and developing training plans for their pack. They spent all spring and summer making sure their dogs got the attention they deserved and were able to chase bears yearround. The land owner worked to improve internal road systems and manage agreements with neighboring properties. Then, local bear hunters and the houndsmen began baiting weeks before the season came in to ensure there were plenty of bears hanging around for the hounds to chase. All of these activities seemed overwhelming and really highlighted the amount of physical labor and effort that goes into creating a successful hunt.

A Day to Remember On November 12, 2021, I packed my bags and headed for the same eastern Carolina hideaway I had for the last two bear seasons. When I showed up, Chris asked me to stir the bear stew that had been cooking all day, and, boy, did it smell and taste www.bear-hunting.com

delicious. As many of the bear hunters arrived they ate and complimented the cook, then immediately began discussing the next day events. My friend from Ohio even returned to get a good shot at a Carolina bear. As the evening wound down, we were all so full of excitement we could barely sleep.

At 04:30 the alarm rang, and everyone in the camper moved and started getting ready for the events of the day. We joked around with excitement as we gathered our things and headed to the predetermined meeting area. Some hunters choose to be close to the hounds for their opportunity, and some choose to surround the block to catch bears slipping away from the newfound human presence. As a returning hunter who knew some of the major crossing points, I was asked to help get folks to their sitting areas. Soon, we were off!

The author found a highly used bear crossing to sit on while others in the club hunt bears with hounds.

Chris and I quickly placed hunters at their crossing and off I went to my spot. When I got there, I looked up and caught a glimpse of a large bear sliding into a 20 foot wide canal, avoiding the chaos that was about to ensue. I then moved to a tree roughly five yards from where the bear entered the water and got ready for the excitement. I tried to document my first encounter and the excitement of the 2021 bear season in a short video to my close friends, but as I finished up, a good bear came running down the trail. I estimated him to be approximately 400 lbs, but I was adamant I was going to take one of the monster bears we had on camera. I reluctantly allowed him to slide out of the hunt just a few yards from me.

After reflecting on the moment and feeling some Bear Hunting

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The author’s 500+ lb bruin.

That is a lot of bear!

regret for not taking a good, mature bear, I looked up to see a giant bear. He was hesitant to come in range and drifted off towards another trail where we had no hunters. I sat and pondered how I missed yet another opportunity at a good, mature bear. Then, I heard what sounded like a horse galloping through the woods. I looked up to see the biggest bear I had laid eyes on barreling down the trail that came within five yards of me. I raised my rifle, steadied it on his vitals, and allowed him to get within seven yards before I squeezed the trigger. The Henry 45-70 barked, sending the giant bear tumbling. A quick follow up shot pinned him down, and then reality set in. I had taken the largest bear I had ever seen. As I walked up to see him, I couldn’t fathom how big he was. I tried to collect my thoughts and take a video for my friends so they could see the raw emotion from a successful hunt. It was

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then I realized I had harvested the first bear of the hunt.

A few minutes later, I hear other shots and reports on my handheld radio that other hunters in our group were successful.

I felt that my stand was special, so I went back to fetch my Ohio friend and asked him to come stand with me on my trail. Within 15 minutes of getting back to the heavily used trail my buddy caught movement, so I started filming. Within seconds, a large, mature coastal black bear comes walking into view. I watch and video as my buddy aims and fires, anchoring the bear firmly to the ground. I eagerly announce on the radio we have two bears down now. We both inspect the bears we just harvested and reality starts to set in; there are over 800 lbs of bears sitting on the ground within ten yards of each other. We were so excited about our success that we talked and celebrated loudly in hopes of turning any

May/June 2023

other bears back into the hunting area to maximize possibilities for other hunters.

We listened to the events of the morning unfold on a two-way radio. We heard one hunter took a good treed bear. The land owner had turned his dogs loose and they were chasing a mean bear. This bear refused to climb a tree, but every time the dogs got close to him he would swipe with his paw. He wounded a couple of the dogs and severely injured one of the land owners’ dogs. The land owner took it personally and made a split-second decision to make a move on the bear, and ended up taking down the mean bear that weighed in over 400 lbs.

A quick count using handheld radios suggested we had five bears down. The decision was made to wind down the hunt. One of the unsuccessful hunters, Damon, came down to where me and my buddy from Ohio were sitting. We began telling the stories again. The excitement on our faces said it all. As the rest of the hunters were heading in our direction to help get our bears out of the woods, another bear emerged. Damon quickly grabbed my Henry 45-70, propped the gun on the dead bear near us, and took aim. The rifle reported and the bear fell hard, then a quick follow up shot neutralized the bear immediately. I quickly pulled out my phone to capture the moment and the emotion of the hunt. Standing in one spot, I could see over 1,100 pounds of black bears and three happy hunters. I thought to myself, “This is what hunting is all about.”

Reflection Once we retrieved all of the bears and made it back for weights and pictures, it all started hitting me at once. Fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, and longtime friends all gathered to tell their stories, share their experiences, and pass on their knowledge of bear hunting. I witnessed firsthand the flame that was lit inside my fellow hunters and you could see who was going to be addicted for life. I took it all in, and realized this is where opportunity meets tradition. As I type this article, I am rendering bear fat not only for myself, but also to share with those who helped me along in my journey.

I’m not sure I could ever find or combine the right words to thank everyone appropriately, but I will take a shot with this list: Chris Milligan and Jason Hocutt, along with Combat Warriors Inc. for having an amazing organization and introducing Combat Veterans to the world of bear hunting. To Phil & Camala Ferguson (Stormy Ridge Outfitters) for having one of the best bear hunting properties in the country, along with their very own pack of outstanding bear dogs. To Jimmy Henderson and Justin Key for not only having some of the best bear dogs I have ever witnessed, but also having a way of dealing with people and passing on education and tradition. Lastly, I would like to thank the Eakes family for their local knowledge and ability to make things happen. The logistics of a large bear hunt like this can be a nightmare, but they make it seem simple.

Regardless of where you are in life as a hunter, take the time to stop and reflect on the things that make it possible and worthwhile: opportunity, fellowship, and tradition.

www.bear-hunting.com

A treed bear. Part of the club runs hounds while others still hunt.

A good group of hounds with a treed bear. A treed hound is a happy hound!

Everyone lends a hand to recover any harvested bears.

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Beyond the Acorns @ jillianoriginals

BY Jillian Garrett

An Aspiring Hunter’s Spiritual Journey in the Bear Woods

My accelerated path into hunting began on the worst night of my life. Up until that point, the timeline had been gradual, fueled by many questions and a desire to understand my food source from start to finish.

It’s ironic that it took a negative interaction with a black bear to eventually inspire a love of conserving them.

The bear attack which occurred on that terrible night left me with a dead llama, a dead black bear sow, a new terror of the dark, and a tendency toward extreme panic attacks fueled by the sound of gunfire.

It was such a senseless waste on all counts, as even the bear meat and hide couldn’t be salvaged due to the previous injuries and starvation that had caused the sow to attack. To say that it was a night I will never forget is a serious understatement. I still deal with the psychological aftereffects. Yet what also came out of that night was an intense desire to never again feel that sense of helplessness. While it was difficult for nearly everyone around me to understand, I wasn’t seeking vengeance. I was trying to overcome the traumas of what I had experienced by gaining a better understanding of healthy bear behaviors, and in the process helping to feed myself and my family. Before that night, I had never owned or fired a gun, still possessing a bit of that residual “guns are evil” mindset from my liberal urban upbringing. I had been curious about hunting, though not yet ready to engage in it. I was still mired in that gray space between raising livestock for meat and hunting wild game, unsure about taking the next step.

That was about to change dramatically; I had finally found the motivation to make that final leap.

Picking up a rifle for the first time wasn’t the

difficult part. The stress came from pulling the trigger (or, to clarify, from hearing others pull the trigger). Our property at the time was not large enough to safely hold a shooting range. Instead, my husband had a membership at a local range in town and took me there to learn how to fire a rifle. The problem was that hearing those gunshots going off from other sections of the range inspired an immediate post traumatic response in me—full blown panic. We tried going there at different times of the day, off times when fewer people would be around, but it was still incredibly stressful for me. I doggedly kept on trying to learn, even during the times when I was so overcome with terror that I didn’t think I could breathe, and my husband held me while I sobbed in the truck at the shooting range. When I could finally calm myself down and stop shaking, I would take a very deep breath and force myself to persist. Eventually over time, the familiarity of constant practice helped ease the threat of trauma rearing its ugly head, and though my panic attacks never fully went away, I was better able to control them. As a result of this style of training, I became a very cool and methodical shooter and even began to understand the enjoyment of shooting as a pastime.

Learning how to handle a weapon was only half the battle of becoming a successful hunter, but it at least got me into the field. My initial forays into the bear woods centered around an area of public land in Southern Oregon. This large section of land was not too far away from the suburban sprawl, though in terms of ruggedness and isolation it may as well have been a world apart. Hiking into it was like entering a breathThe author visited the rifle range regularly to get over her fear of guns.

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Bear Hunting

May/June 2023

The author began being interested in hunting after a bear killed her llama.

takingly beautiful new world, one that challenged my body and soothed my soul. This landscape supported an enormous variety of wildlife contained within a multitude of ecosystems, from hot and dry manzanita hellholes to steeply timbered mountainsides to verdant meadows frequented by elk. In short, it was an absolute paradise.

The best section of all was an abandoned logging road nicknamed “Predator Alley” due to its high population of mountain lions and black bears. During my time exploring there, it was not uncommon to unknowingly walk past an enormous black bear drinking from the creek below the road, or to be followed by the specter of an impressively large and frighteningly interested mountain lion. Walking this stretch of old logging road was always such a mixed emotional bag for me; on the one hand, I was completely on edge and terrified, and on the other, I was absolutely exhilarated. Leaving the parked truck and entering the forest during the blurry gray of first light, forcing myself to walk—step by painful step—down that road was one of the most difficult things I have ever pushed myself to do. It scared me more than any of my days spent at the shooting range. I wanted to find a bear, a normal bear, but I wasn’t sure if I could handle the experience of that interaction when the time finally arrived.

Those first few steps into the tall grass of that overgrown road were like walking into a nightmare. Yet over time, the nightmare eventually morphed into something far less frightening and far more spiritual. One of the aspects that I came to appreciate about Predator Alley was that it made me engage in the natural world on a level I had never previously been able to achieve.

Each time I walked that road, I learned to coexist in a place where I was no longer the top predator. Suddenly, “bear” was not a theoretical concept. Bears were a fact of life, and pretty much a constant (if invisible) presence www.bear-hunting.com

in any ambles. Though I never managed to have that face-to-face encounter with a bear, my experiences in Predator Alley were what helped to create a love for the animals that called it home. It made me vow to always live in a place where the wild things roamed freely.

The fulfillment of that promise came when we purchased a large piece of land in a remote corner of northeast Washington state.

Suddenly, we were living in an entirely different ecosystem filled with a puzzling new array of food sources. Instead of having to travel to find wildlife, we merely had to step out the front door. Bears, cougars, bobcats, and wolves were regular visitors to our place, along with the whitetails and elk that called our land home. Yet the vegetation had changed dramatically from what we were used to back in Oregon, switching from oak trees and acorns

The author exploring her property in Washington State.

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The author learned to key in on berries when in season for fresh bear sign.

to evergreens and chokecherries. I was honestly perplexed with how to proceed. Were there any hard mast crops here? What did the bears eat and at what times of the year? These were questions that kept me up at night, and I was determined to find the answers. Yet where to begin? I needed more than a pin on a GPS map. I wanted to understand bear behavior and what seasonal foods motivated their movements across the landscape. Being a successful bear hunter meant learning to think like one, yet the road to success seemed ever further away with no mentor to guide me as I bumbled my way around the woods.

The first time I ever laid eyes on the bear that would consume my hunting journey also happened to be my first face-to-face encounter with a normal bear. The irony of this chance meeting was that it took place three long years and a move of several hundred miles from the time I first began my search. The interaction occurred on a warm afternoon in late spring, in a little grove of cedars surrounding our tributary creek. Peering through the tree trunks, I could only make out the white of a bear snout looking back at me. I let out an authoritative “Hey, bear!” and watched the most beautiful, glossy-coated black sow run off and into the adjoining property in a jumble of galloping paws and bear butt. I realized that I had an enormous grin on my face. I had never been that close to a regular bear before and I was absolutely enthralled. It made me stop and appreciate how far down the path of healing I had come. My interaction with that bear had only elicited joy, not the terror I had battled for so long. In a strange way, she represented to me far more than just a normal bear encounter: she was the embodiment of everything that I had worked so hard to achieve.

The sow spent most of the late summer and early 28

Bear Hunting

autumn feasting on the ripe wild cherries and assorted berries that grew profusely along our creek. Despite the busy farming season, I devoted as much time as possible to hunting those areas. But whether it was due to fate or inexperience or just plain bad luck, I could never seem to be in the right place at the right time. It was maddening. As the berries dried up and September phased in October, her visits grew less frequent, eventually stopping altogether. There was now a strange and sad emptiness to the woods. Clearly, she—and the other bears in the area—had gone elsewhere in preparation for denning up through the winter. My sense of loss could not be described. I felt like such a failure, heartsick and oddly angry at myself for not being experienced enough to have put the pieces together in time.

Yet how was I to know? As a self-taught hunter, my successes and failures rested solely on the results of my own trials and errors in the woods. Despite the books I had read, which often didn’t translate to this unique ecosystem anyway, nothing could have compared with the level of boots-on-the-ground experience that a local hunter might have provided me. Yet I remained on my own, and now the animal that had turned into the embodiment of my spiritual awakening had abandoned me. Even if she somehow returned next year, the odds were high that she would have a cub in tow, making her prohibited in my own moral book as well as in local game regulations. I felt a deep sense of loss that made me question myself and my hunting abilities. What was I doing out here anymore?

Upon deeper reflection, I realized that my journey wasn’t just about killing a bear (though I am determined to accomplish that someday!). Instead, I needed to walk that long and painful path to healing, filled with both fear and failure, to develop an admiration for the May/June 2023

The author has yet to get a bear on her property but was able to harvest her first deer.

The author found fresh bear scat but only a sow and cubs were in the area.

animals that I so determinedly pursued. The sow had simply been an embodiment of that journey.

A point that I often make to my fellow hunters, and one that I think of every time I am stonewalled in my requests for guidance, is this: it is so important to inspire that same passion in others, especially those who have not had the benefit of growing up in a household that hunted.

Today’s mentee is tomorrow’s hunting advocate.

I think of this last statement often when I sit in on WDFW Special Commission meetings, or write letters and emails to the commissioners, or listen to my husband give public commentary. By withholding guidance, we are doing the next generation of would-be hunters a disservice. When the old hunting guard finally stands down, where will that leave us? At the last WDFW Special Commission meeting in my hometown of Colville, you could count the number of 30-something-and-under pro-bear-hunting attendees on one hand. The lack of young hunters in that meeting reflects a larger problem nationwide: hunter numbers have continued to decrease over the years while the rate of urbanization has rapidly increased. As a hunting community, we need all of the help we can get in order to protect a mode of cultural existence that we cherish, as well as the wildlife entwined within it.

So I will say it one more time: mentor an aspiring hunter. Help to inspire that same passion in someone new, and—regardless of whether or not they are successful at obtaining their chosen quarry—they will fight passionately to protect it. I certainly did, and I will continue to do so.

www.bear-hunting.com

- Large and color phased bears.

- Exclusive tents for each hunter with wood stove.

- Spring & fall hunts available.

- 24 hr hot/cold water and indoor shower.

- Five day fully guided hunt.

Minitonas, Manitoba canadabestbows@gmail.com (204) 525-2121 | (204) 281-2746 www.canadianwildernessoutfitters.com

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“COINCIDENCE?” :a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.

by Dawson Smith

@ bndproductionsca

How much of hunting is luck? How much of a successful hunt is hard work, pre-planning, studying maps or harvest data? Is the end result simply a mathematical equation of carbs burnt, miles traveled vs. outcome? Is achievement a consequence of ones state of mind, or perhaps it’s the declaration of a divine will? Can you predict success, can one rely on good karma or is it all just one big coincidence?

As Forest Gump would say, “I don’t know much about that”, but, I do know that my partner Bill Cash and I were sitting on a ridge glassing across a logged basin at a huge red phase black bear. It was early June, late in the day, the waning sun was warm on our faces, northern BC’s pesky mosquitoes had not come out in droves yet, in short it was a perfect day to be glassing for black bears.

Through my spotting scope I could see that the red boar was big, blocky and square, on one side of his head I couldn’t make out an ear, his other ear looked to be half gone.

“Hmm” I thought, “what’s that all about?”

Something wiggled around in the back of my mind but I couldn’t get it to land.

“That’s a great bear” Bill said. “Let’s watch it for a bit and see where it’s heading, we may have time left for a stalk if it works out.”

The bear was feeding along a little creek that ambled down though the basin from the snow above. The basin itself was a big south facing bowl, as if scooped out of the earth by a huge ice cream scooper; the rear walls rose from the bottom to steep heavy timber at the top.

Bill picked up some dander from the ground and tested the wind.

“It’s pretty swirly up here today Dawson” he said looking over at me.

“Ya, that sucks for a stalk” I whispered.

We watched the bear as it moved along the stream munching away at the emerging sedges. There was only an hour or so of light left and the wind was iffy so we chose to stay put.

Bears have an incredible sense of smell, contrary to popular belief they pick up movement really well and lastly they seem to have an intuition about the potential of danger, almost a “spidy” sense. I didn’t want to attempt a stalk unless everything was just right.

The sun had settled over the ridge-line 30

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The author had to glass to make sure this wasn’t a grizzly.

and the nights chill was settling in as we snuck off and circled down-wind back to our truck. Just before leaving our vantage spot I zoomed my spotter in on the bear again. “Hmmmm, what is that about the ears?”

Driving back to our cabin that night I looked over at Bill and said “oh man that’s a dandy bear, I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight.”

Bill knows me and my obsession with red phase bears. “Haha, you and coloured bears” he said. That’s when the penny dropped.

“You know what” I said to Bill, “that’s the bear on the calendar.” he looked over at me with a wrinkle in his forehead, “your right” he said, “I forgot about that.”

A couple days earlier we had arrived at our little cabin south west of Prince George for a week of black bear hunting. As we fussed around getting a fire going that night Bill flipped the calendar on the wall from May (we had been out in mid-May) to June. The June picture on the calendar was of a huge red bear standing in a river. It was big, blocky, square and its ears were all chewed up. It was a grizzly bear but still “that’s a pretty neat picture” Bill had said at the time.

Back at the cabin that night I compared the picture I took through my spotting scope to the picture on the calendar. “Man they could be twins” I said excitedly.

“What’s the odds of that?” Bill replied.

It’s not hard to guess what we talked about that night, the little woodstove crackled and spread its warmth as we chatted the chilly night away playing crib by headlamp. Later, as I lay in my sleeping bag reading my Kobo, I replayed the day’s events, the adventures Bill and I had and laughs we shared. I love the ancillary side of hunting as much as the actual hunting; traveling to a hunt location, being out in the field, spotting and watching wildlife, sitting around a wood stove or fire, talking in anticipation of the next day’s potential events. They are May/June 2023

all just pieces of the greater puzzle.

As apex animals, black bears have few predators; grizzlies, wolves, each other and of course mankind.

We were up and on the go early the next Black bear hunting in British Columbia is becoming a morning, over coffee and porridge we decided to park a few miles away and hike into the vantage spot. controversial topic but for now the hunting takes place Typically bears are not early risers in the spring but we over two seasons, spring and fall. The spring hunt begins in April and ends in June, the prime time to be out is wanted to get into position early and hopefully the during the mating season which typically starts mid to red bruin would be up early as well. The excitement and anticipation was palpable as we got into position. late May and goes through June. During this time bears Morning light slowly took over the high basin, a moose are abundant and many hunters enjoy this time to be afield. The opportunities to see lots of animals and sucwandered through a willow stand nibbling away, flocks of returning dicky birds bustled about, the creek cess is high. The fall hunt starts in September and ends in November. babbled its way down from above. It was a beautiful Only 18,000 years ago, British Columbia was morning to be out in the wilderness. Daylight had arrived but the sun had yet to break the ridge above, we completely covered with ice and black bears were relglassed and glassed as the day came alive but for not, egated to at least two refuges in North America: one in the red bear, nor any bear, showed up and by noon we what is now the United States and one near the Queen Charlotte Islands. Following glacial melting, bears graddecided to move further up the valley. Over the next ually spread back north and also re-colonised coastal few days we got up early, traveled to our favourite lookout spot, switched to other spots in the afternoon BC south from the Queen Charlotte Islands. Ten thousand-year-old skeletons in caves on Vancouver Island then finished up back at the basin where we had spotted the red boar for last light. We saw lots of bears indicate that black bears arrived soon after glaciation and were larger than modern-day black bears. Scientists and a couple bears that offered promise but for one reason or another fell short of what Bill was looking for believe that bears on Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlottes have retained more of their ice-age characor the setting was wrong. In reality, none of that was teristics than mainland bears because of a long period a bad thing, we had perfect bear hunting weather, of isolation from continental populations. One of the cool to cold at night increasing as the sun spread its warmth, then falling as the sun retreated for the night. most widely distributed mammals in British Columbia, the black bear is found in forestland right across the provIt was good time to be afield.

This bear will make the author a beautiful rug.

www.bear-hunting.com

Bear Hunting 31

The author with a huge chocolate bruin in British Columbia.

ince. Its natural range includes Vancouver Island and most coastal islands to the north, including the Queen Charlottes (Haida Gwaii). Although generally absent from alpine, grassland, and heavily settled landscapes, black bears often occur close to the fringes of communities and sometimes wander into them.

The current estimate of the black bear population in British Columbia is 120,000–160,000, they come in a variety of colours and shades; from cinnamon, brown to blonde, pure white and there is a blue phase (glacier) in the extreme northwest corner of the province.

Over the next few days Bill and I followed the same routine, up early and off to the first vantage spot then we would move along as the sun chased shadows away then back to the basin for last light.

We saw lots of bears everyday but nothing either of us wanted to take. “I wonder where that red bear went” Bill said.

“Maybe he smelled us that first night” I said “bears like that are real cagey once they get winded, he could have fed right down, smelled us and took off.”

One day we were in the truck glassing when I spotted movement high on a cut block, “what’s that?”

I said reaching for the spotting scope.

“I can’t see what you are looking at” Bill said.

Through my spotter I zoomed in a on a white grizzly feeding on a patch of grass. “That is very cool” I said directing Bill to where the bear fed. We watched the unique bear for an hour or so, taking 32

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pictures through the spotting scope. Eventually it moved off into the timber and we carried on. It was our last afternoon/evening before we had to head back to town. “Let’s go check that trail back down the bottom” Bill said. We had just started up the trail when a movement on the edge of the trees up ahead caught my attention, “there’s something moving up there” I whispered to Bill.

All we could see was part of an animal through the trees’, “I thinks it’s a grizzly” Bill said, “it’s pretty chunky and I think I see a hump.”

We watched for a few more minutes then eased further up the trail. As we moved so did the bear but we both where convinced it was a grizzly.

I stopped on a little rise about 150 yards out and sat down to glass. The bear moved along just inside the tree line, birds chirped and chortled, a mosquito landed on my hand, I slapped it off.

We had just got up to move closer when an errant gust of wind went across the back of my neck, “Crap” I said sitting down quickly. The bear must have caught our scent as it spun on a dime and started back to where its came from.

“That’s the red bear” I whispered to Bill as we watched it waddle straight away.

I grabbed my day pack and started after it but the wind was right behind me, “this isn’t going to work” I said, “let’s go back to the truck and go up that next road, I think we can see into the clearing from the May/June 2023

top.” We hurried back to the truck and took off. It was hard not to go roaring up the road a hundred miles an hour; even going slowly the trucks engine sounded like a jet screaming, the tires on the gravel sounded like a warning bell, our excitement level was at a peak. At the top of the slope we got out and sat down to glass, “there it is” Bill said pointing below and off to the right.

“Got it” I said.

The bear was moving along a tree line heading up hill. I grabbed my daypack and rifle. “I’ll stay here and watch” Bill said as I slipped into the trees.

I felt the wind in my face, mossy ground helped me walk quietly at a good pace. I hadn’t gone a couple hundred yards down slope when I spotted movement ahead through the trees. The bear was in a gap moving towards a little swale, I sat down and waited. The end was, well, anti-climactic.

I was sitting down, the bear came through a gap in the trees forty yards from me. I found it with my crosshairs and sent a 165 grain .308 Nosler Ballistic Tip through its engine room, the bear didn’t go six feet.

Bill came down and looked at the beat up boar, we marveled in the fantastic adventure, the magnificent bear and the luck we had. “It’s going to be hard to beat that one Dawson” Bill said.

“Oh I think there is some good juju vibe left over in the pot for you Bill. It may take some hard work, destiny, fate or just plain old luck but we will find a tank for you” I replied.

Bill just looked over and smiled...

www.bear-hunting.com

Bear in the air Poem Submission by Kaleb Hughart

Those pure sweet hours, just before the dawn. Dogs are all loaded, collars are on.

We hit those dirt roads, strike dogs on the rig and noses in the air. You wouldn’t understand unless you’ve been there.

The box blows up like lightning, the truck it shakes like thunder. We drop our best trail dogs and leave it up to wonder.

With any luck , they’ll get him jumped, and soon enough the pack will be dumped.

The chase may last for hours or only a few short miles , but one thing is certain we’ll gather under the tree and surely share the smiles.

That first howl of a young pup, the scars of the ol dog that just won’t give up.

Some folks won’t understand it, they’ll say it isn’t fair, but that’s just because they’ve never seen, that ol bear in the air!!!

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Legendary Bear Hounds: Part 49 Templeton’s Owner, Steve Fielder wild buford (HANK)

by Steve Fielder

@stephen.f.fielder

Owner, Adam Barnhart

ALONE!

“The country I hunt consists of a big mountain with thick laurel and the ridges are straight up and down. There are no roads.

It’s all foot travel and I try not to think about being all alone. You keep the thought in the back of your head that you’re dealing with an animal like a bear that could hurt you. I send my recovery collar ID numbers for my dogs to my neighbor and I have someone I can text about the general direction I’m going when the dogs strike a track but there’s no cell service. Once you start in, you are alone.”

– Adam Barnhart Adam Barnhart’s dad was a rabbit hunter, running beagles in the cedar thickets and on the steep hillsides near their rural southwest Virginia home. The Barnharts lived in the country on an acre of ground that contained their house and also owned a small farm for several years but sold it, in Adam’s words, “to pay off the homeplace.” Hunting clubs have taken over much of the available hunting lands in the valley, leaving only a forty-acre farm that is available to hunt where Adam now lives—-in fact, in the same spot where he was raised.

Home for Adam is Honaker, Virginia (pronounced Ho-naker) in rural Russell County.

Human population for the county was 1,318 in 2019, not exactly a metro area. But the nearby mountains are teeming with black bears and at about age 20, Adam began to hunt them. Lawrence Barnhart, Adam’s daddy, never killed a bear nor did he ever want to kill one. When Adam was five years old, his daddy would “pack” him on his back as they followed the rabbit hounds. Like most boys raised in rural America, Adam learned to hunt at an early age, killing his first whitetail buck at Hank with Lawrence Barnhart, the man who loved bear hunting but wouldn’t shoot a bear.

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age nine. He would kill his first bear while still-hunting from a stand at age 16 and his first with hounds six years later.

“I enjoy any hunting with dogs and once I got switched over to bear hunting, I talked Dad into going with me and he absolutely loved it. I pushed it from then on because he enjoyed it so much. Part of that with him was a little funny. He never had a desire to pull the trigger. I would put a .30/.30 with shells in a case in the truck.

Unless someone else needed the gun, it was never taken out of the case. One photo I have with him and a bear was an example. It was really wet that day; we treed the bear over in West Virginia close to the road.

I tried to talk him into shooting the bear.

We could drive the truck almost to it but he wouldn’t shoot it.”

I wanted Adam to tell me more about that bear but I also wanted to know how his Treeing Walker Hank, a one-manarmy against bears and the subject of our tribute in this issue, came into his life. So, Adam tells the tale: “I had two pups and I was trying to hunt with other people,” he began. “It wasn’t working out. My dad and I wanted to be able to go hunting after work and needed a solid dog. We heard about a trained Treeing Walker bear dog over around Elizabethton, Tennessee named Hank. His registered name was Templeton’s Wild Buford and he was a highly-competition-bred coonhound by pedigree. He was born on August 5, 2006 and was four-years-old when we bought him.” Photos will attest to Hank being a beautiful, tri-colored Walker weighing about 65 pounds in hunting shape. Barnhart continued: “I knew the fellow that had Hank, a guy called Wormy. We brought him back home to hunt him. It was a little while before training season came in and the first week of training season would be my trial. The short of it is, I fell in love with him.

Everyone talks about a once-in-a-lifetime dog, and Hank is mine. My problem is I compare all my bear dogs to him and I get down on them.” I asked to know more about his acquisition in hound dog flesh.

May/June 2023

A profile shot of Hank, the one-man-army!

“He was stubborn and hard-headed,” Barnhart said. “He was bred to be a coon dog but he wanted nothing to do with a coon. He was an independent start dog. If I started a bear with him and wanted to pack other dogs to him, it was fine. If I came to hunt with you and he needed to pack your dog, he wouldn’t.

He would go to the right or to the left to find his own track, and to avoid going to your dog. If he was working a bear track and smelled other dog’s tracks with the bear track, he would go somewhere else. He was bred to be an independent coon dog, not a bear dog.”

Barnhart continued, “At the same time, if you put him on a bear track you caught him on a bear track. He would not quit.”

Barnhart also said, “We ran a bear in training season that tore up all of the dogs. I had to run Hank down and tackle him to get him off the bear. It had hit him in the front shoulder with so much force that it broke two ribs behind his shoulder. We later went back to run that bear during kill season. It had killed one of Rodney’s dogs and tore up five others. We had to skin the bear out in the mountains and pack it out. The boy that killed the bear had a full body mount done on his trophy. It was his first bear and the taxidermist said the frame he had to use was for a bear over 500 pounds.

That was the year after we killed the big bear.”

Barnhardt’s reference to a big bear, killed the year before the 500-pound full-body mount bear, is a testimony to the toughness and determination in our legendary bear hound. Barnhart tells the story this way: “I went to routinely feed the dogs in the evewww.bear-hunting.com

ning and noticed that Hank’s foot and one of his toes had burst open. I thought he had caught his toe in the chain leash or something. I took him to a veterinarian in Abingdon but there was so much swelling they couldn’t x-ray him. They gave me some antibiotics and sent us home.

When we got home, he couldn’t stand up to come out of the dog box,” Barnhart said. “So, we went back to the vet. I told the vet that something wasn’t right.”

“In this area,” Barnhart continued, “Hank was the first hound to be diagnosed with blastomycosis. The vet found another vet in Arizona that relayed information to them as to what they should do in treating Hank. He was placed on bed rest for five months. I kept him in the tack compartment in a horse trailer and I could get him to go out to use the bathroom. At one time, they gave him a ten percent chance of survival. He was on life support for his first three days at the vet. But once he got up and started eating, he would get up and walk but he would get tired. After a month, he started acting better to the point you couldn’t tell anything was wrong with him. I would take him once a week to have blood work done.

I had a good vet and she trained me to do a lot of stuff that I could handle. I had to log his temperature three times a day. If his temperature went up it meant the disease was getting stronger.” The effects of the disease were devastating as Barnhart shared, “The disease had eaten a joint on his foot completely out and it ate a hole in his side. Blasto is a fungus that the dog breathes and it starts in the lungs. Once in the lungs, it can spread anywhere in the body. It ate a joint out on his left front foot and a place in his right hip. It went into his reproductive organs and rendered him sterile. He was about nineBear Hunting

35

Barnhart’s hounds were so exhausted after the Big Tumbling bear that they chose a bed of stone.

years-old at the time.”

Hank had been on bed rest for five months when Barnhardt took him back to the vet. It was just before the annual Youth Day hunt that Virginia provides each year for youth through the age of 15. Hank was still on medication but the vet gave him the okay to take him out and run him a little bit. Barnhart tells the story: “We went hunting that misty, drizzling morning.

We were hunting with Rodney Roberts of Wythe County and we went up a hollow and turned the dogs loose.

Taking the kids hunting is something we really enjoy.

We try to load up all the kids and all the dogs we own.

We knew where a big bear was using. The dogs struck and broke into two separate packs. In fact, the second pack consisted of Hank by himself and he brought his track down into the hollow. When the other pack of dogs bayed up, Rodney, his wife, Carol, and his granddaughter, Trish, went in and had a good bear in a really thick place. The shooter, fifteen-year-old Trish, let the bear get by her and it went into Little Walker Mountain.

Checking the Garmin, we could tell that Hank was close to the road. I was going to stop and go in there and get him. When we pulled up on the top of the ridge, Hank was hammered down.” Hammered down is an expression recognized by houndsmen as meaning the dog was solidly treed. Rodney said, ‘Take Trish with you; he’s treeing too hard.’ “‘It was in a really dense pine thicket and when I bent down to take a look, there was the largest bear I had ever seen,’ said Adam. “Because I was relying on a young shooter, I was trying to stay as calm as possible.

Trish fired and missed the bear and it went around the point of the ridge and went up the left-hand hollow.

Trish and I went up the right-hand hollow and went up on the ridge to set up for a shot. She used my shoulder for a rest and I plugged my ear on that side. After the 36

Bear Hunting

Adam Barnhart and Hank with a Virginia Bear.

first shot the bear had run about ten yards and came back to a walk. We were set up on the ridge and the bear walked right up the hollow with Hank behind it. Her first shot had been at about thirty yards and this would be a fifty-yard effort from the side of the ridge. Her second shot was perfect, hitting the bear just behind the shoulder. At the crack of the gun the bear went down in a heap. Both Trish and her sister can shoot. The bear weighed 561 pounds, making it the largest bear harvested that year on Youth Day and the largest bear taken that year in Virginia. The big bruin also qualified for the Boone and Crockett record book.”

A Day On Big Tumbling “It was summertime—-training season—-and I loaded four hounds on my four-wheeler and went to Big Tumbling Creek,” Barnhart begins in our last story of his famous hound. “There’s a big apple orchard on top of the mountain. The dogs I had were Hank, Bill, Jake, and Amanda. The first two were my veterans and the latter two my pups. They rigged a track from the four-wheeler and it ran from Mutter’s Gap to Twin Hollows. The first hollow comes off at the little falls on Tumbling Creek and the other, about one hundred yards distant from where the other hollow comes off. Looking down from the top of the mountain, when they hit the Twin Hollows they turned right. They went to the top of the ridge where the switchbacks are and bayed on top of the ridge. It probably took me an hour and a half to walk through there. About the time I got within one hundred yards from them, it broke and went down the cliffs. I was looking at the Garmin and it showed that the dogs had gone straight off the cliffs, which I knew was impossible.

They would have had to go off a 70-foot drop straight down. Standing on top, I could hear them but I couldn’t see them. I knew they were down there. I went about 150 yards right-handed and started down, not straight May/June 2023

Adam Barnhart and Trish Roberts with the 561 lb record book bear caught by Hank.

off but going about twenty feet to a bench and then about fifteen feet to another. I was about halfway off when I stepped to the edge of the cliff and the edge broke off. I fell about fifteen feet and landed in a laurel bush. I was sure I had broken my right arm; all the skin was torn away from my wrist to my elbow on my forearm. My dad worked in the coal mines and always carried a roll of black electrical tape. I had a roll of it and wrapped the whole arm to stop the bleeding.

I then worked back left-handed to where the dogs were. I got Hank and Bill on the leash but the pups broke with the bear. I hollered and they came back to me. I was three miles from the 4-wheeler with four dogs and one good arm. I dropped straight off the mountain to Red Creek and that’s where I stopped.

The dogs were exhausted and that’s where I took a photo of them resting on a rock pile,” Bernhart said.

It took a month and a half for Barnhart’s arm to heal. When he got to a hospital, he learned it wasn’t broken but was badly bruised. As a testament to his determination as a hunter, Barnhart said, “Once I got out of there and got checked and got antibiotic cream on it, I went coon hunting that night. Barry, my neighbor, had called and he and his stepdad wanted to go coon hunting, so I did.”

The last day Barnhart hunted with Hank was also the last day he hunted with his dad. “The bear was one of the biggest sows I’ve ever seen,” Barnhart began. “We went to McDowell County in West Virginia and went up on top of a ridge. It was reclaimed strip-mine land and they planted 50-60 acres of autumn olive bushes for wildlife. We free-casted Hank and Hunter, a dog Rodney owned, into the autumn olives. They struck and went across the ridge. It was a mean walking and fighting bear. We had two shooters along that wanted to kill a bear and we were trying to get them down in there. The terrain was straight up www.bear-hunting.com

Hank baying a harvested bear. He thought he could kill a bear.

and down. There were some old beaver ponds in there, dammed-up and swampy. The bear got into that and things started getting really mean. The bear was chasing dogs. It was chaotic. The bear was running dogs and I could see blood on the dogs and knew they were injured.

I decided to end it. I got close enough to get a .44 magnum round in the right spot and it was over. Out of the ten dogs we had on that bear, eight of them were injured.

It was a sow bear that weighed 321 pounds.” Shortly after that hunt, Barnhart’s father, who had been having trouble breathing, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.

Within two and a half weeks, he was gone.

It was about a week after Barnhart’s dad passed that he fed Hank for the last time. “I fed him that evening and he came out of the box and ate,” Adam said. “I went to bed that night and when I got up the next morning to check on him, he was gone. I guess that Dad needed a good bear dog in Heaven.”

Reflecting on his amazing hound, Barnhart said, “As far as me, Hank was my measuring stick for bear dogs.

He had a big heart. He would give you everything he had. If it was a mean bear and he was by himself, he was always there—-one of the grittiest dogs I’ve ever seen. On the big bear he was by himself and I’m not sure how many staples they had to put in him. He had a faucet flowing red from his stomach area.”

Templeton’s Wild Buford, aka Hank, is buried in Barnhart’s backyard. There’s a cross to mark his grave with his collar hanging on it. And as a memorial to his prowess as a one-man-army bear dog, there’s a European-mount bear skull lying on his grave. I asked Barnhart if he ever goes out and talks to Hank. He replied, “I talk to him all the time. When you put him on the bear track, you caught him off the bear track. He never quit. He had the mindset that he could kill that bear and he was going to kill it. I’m glad I got to travel the woods with him. I miss him, I know that.”

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Black Bear Hand Pies

by Timothy Fowler

@timothydfowler Equipment •

Plenty of Meat The crew I hunt with often chuckles as we eat some of last year’s game while we’re hunting up this year’s harvest. Is there anything more luxurious than eating game while hunting?

The unsaid concept here is “plenty.” Still having a selection of uneaten inventory at the start of next season means you haven’t run out of meat to feed your friends and family, even as you actively refresh your supply of protein.

These hand pies are an effort saving riff on hand pies. The inspiration comes from both the Pop-Tart and the classic Cornish Pasty.

Pop-Tarts are an almost comic toast able snack, but they are tasty, portable, and fast. While the classic Cornish version is made with short crust filled with a specified collection of raw ingredients and spices, we are cooking the bear meat first and making a deeply flavorful sauce. Every

• • • • • •

12” Cast iron frying pan Stove Oven French knife Paring knife Wooden spoon Cutting board

• • • • • • • •

Cup measures Dutch oven Baking sheet Silicon paper Spatula / lifter Fork Pastry brush Rolling pin

addition to this recipe enhances the flavor and deepens the color of the end product. You will see I have avoided garlic and heavy spice. One could certainly add a few chopped chili peppers for a bit of heat, and garlic would be a fine addition. But, I wanted to focus on building the flavor with paprika and three kinds of onions while taking a break from garlic.

My hope is that you and your hunting pals have a chuckle as you enjoy these while spring bear hunting this year. Do take time to celebrate the richness of the outdoor experience we access and the culinary treat that hunting affords us.

Method 1. Remove the bear and pastry from the freezer a day ahead and thaw in the refrigerator.

2. Once thawed, rinse with the bear cold water, dry with paper towels, and dice in small pieces about the size of a chickpea.

3. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. 4. Season the bear meat with equal parts coarse salt and pepper, and let rest at room temperature while you prepare the other ingredients.

5. Prep the vegetables: slice shallots and finely chop celery.

6. Measure and portion the other ingredients.

7. Add the bacon, bear meat, and oil to the cast iron skillet, stir, and place on high heat. Your goal is to render the fat from the bacon and caramelize the meat.

8. As soon as the bear is nice and brown, add and stir in the shallots, leeks, green onions, celery, and tomato paste. Reduce heat to medium and cook until the shallots start to color.

9. Then add the flour and stir well. Shut off the heat for a minute.

10. Add the wine, stock, and cream, then stir well to absorb the flour and turn the heat back on to high.

11. Add the mustard and fish sauce. Stir well. Bring it up to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer for a few minutes.

12. Pour the bear mixture into the dutch oven and bake for 2-3 hours at 325 degrees F. Check every 45 minutes or so and add water as required. The goal is to end with tender morsels of bear meat in a mixture that is a thick stew to fill the hand pies.

13. When the bear is cooked, remove it from the oven and let it cool.

14. Lightly flour the work table and rolling pin, and roll the pastry to make a thin crust. Cut in 8” squares and add 1/2 cup of cooled filling.

15. Wet the pastry edge and fold the pastry into a triangle. Press the two joining sides of the pastry with a fork.

Poke a couple of small holes in the top of each pastry to let the steam escape.

16. Mix one egg and 2 tablespoons of cream, and brush the tops of the pies with egg wash.

17. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes or until golden.

18. Serve hot, or chill and take a couple of these to the tree stand on your spring bear hunt.

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May/June 2023

Ingredients • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

1 pound or 450 grams of bear loin or leg 2 Tbsp of canola oil 3 green onions, white and green parts finely diced 3 shallots, peeled and sliced finely 4 strips of fatter side bacon, diced 1 cup of diced mushrooms 1/2 cup of diced leeks, just the white part 1 cup of finely diced celery leaves and stalks 1 Tbsp sweet paprika 1 Tbsp tomato paste 1 Tbsp dijon mustard 1 Tbsp fish sauce 1 cup red wine 1 cup of venison (or beef stock) 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp of heavy cream 1 egg A 395-gram package of frozen tenderflake puff pastry 2 Tbsp all purpose flour, plus some for rolling dough

Note: this fish sauce is found in Asian markets. Michael Ruhlman shared the trick of adding a bit of this sauce to his braises in his book Ruhlman’s How to Braise: Foolproof Techniques and Recipes for the Home Cook.

This is another example of value-added treatments to game meat. www.bear-hunting.com

Bear Hunting 39

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Bear Hunting

May/June 2023

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Bear Hunting

41

The Michigan Bear Hunters Association’s annual convention featured new additions in 2023 designed to engage youngsters and those new to the hunting community, with attendance higher than anticipated.

The March meeting at Shanty Creek Resorts is the MBHA’s biggest fundraiser of the year, bringing together hundreds of bear hunters and their families with lawmakers, Department of Natural Resources officials and conservation leaders to preserve the state’s hunting traditions.

This year’s event drew on decades of experience to raise tens of thousands for Michigan Bear conservation and efforts to preserve hunting rights through raffles, drawings, merchandise, dinner tickets and other contests, but the MBHA also offered new attractions for novice hunters and trappers.

The convention featured its first trapping and hunter education classes that ran concurrent to the daytime festivities, which allowed dozens to earn certifications over two days.

“It was very successful. It went really well,” said Dale Hendershot, former president of the Michigan Trappers and Predator Callers Association who helped put on the trapping class with officials from the DNR’s Outdoor Skills Academy. “The students got a lot out of it.

“And they got to learn how to do things like you’re supposed to,” he said.

The trapper education class went beyond the basics and laws to teach students how to set up traps, with MTPCA providing each student with their own to take home.

Instructors “also talked about how to put the fur up … and how to handle the fur,” Hendershot said.

“The hope is when they leave they’ll have enough knowledge not to make some foolish mistakes,” he said.

Jeff Lash, DNR staff who attended the event with DNR educator Ed Shaw, said he was impressed by the turnout, which included about 20 students who earned trappers ed certificates and about double that amount who attended hunters ed on the second day of the convention.

“I expected to get maybe 10 and we had a waiting list because we ran out of seats for hunters ed,” he said.

Discussions are now in the works to make the classes regular features at the convention for both youth and adults.

The MBHA also expanded its Big Bear Award to youth hunters in 2023, recognizing a half-dozen young hunters who harvested bears in the 2022 season. The awards went to youngsters ranging from 10 to 17 years old from across the state.

Other youth activities at the convention included the Whispering Pines Mobile Zoo from Reed City, which offered kids an up close, hands-on experience with pigmy goats, tortoises, an alligator, an African serval, snakes and other creatures.

Those who attended also chowed pizza as they colored crafts, while MBHA organizers doled out prizes to all, including MBHA blankets, science kits, glow marbles, survival bracelets, dog leads, outdoor equipment, fishing poles, and other hunting supplies.

The 2023 convention recognized Iron Mountain seventh-grader Brianna Yakel as the MBHA’s 2023 Bear Patch Design Contest winner, as well. The annual contest allows students to submit designs for the Michigan Bear Management Cooperator Patch, which the MBHA sells throughout the state through a partnership with the DNR to raise funds for bear education and research.

Yakel took home $100, while Alura Wolz, a Portage 42

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ninth-grader, finished second to earn $50, followed by Indian River sixth-grader Morgan Ashenfelter, who received $25.

MBHA Director Sandy May presented MBHA-Bill Walker Scholarships at the convention to five college-bound students with a passion for the outdoors. First place went to Laura VanNoord, who received $1,100 to pursue nursing in Iowa. Lisa Hewitt took home $950 for second place for dental hygiene school, and Zebedee Swagger received $750 for third to study mechanical engineering at Michigan Technological University.

Donovan Blust and Isaac Hopp each received $350 for fourth place, with Hopp slated to study accounting at Central Michigan University.

“The MBHA has always supported kids and new hunters in the field and engaged through contests and scholarships, but the success of the education classes at this year’s convention confirms our efforts to build on that are working,” MBHA President Keith Shafer said. “It also shows our commitment to preserving bear hunting as a key to responsible scientific bear management is resonating with the next generation.”

The 2023 convention’s daytime speakers included DNR large carnivore specialist Cody Norton and Chris Powell, host of the Houndsman XP Podcast.

Norton provided an overview of the Michigan bear population, expanding distribution in the Lower Peninsula, updates on bobcats and other species, wolf-dog conflicts in the Upper Peninsula, and the state’s surrogate sow program, which successfully places orphaned cubs with collared sows.

Norton also highlighted the department’s efforts to upgrade bear nuisance live traps, which has included four MBHA-produced traps and more in the works to replace the DNR’s fleet of older style traps. The main benefits of the new traps is they’re lighter, more portable, and detachable from the trailers, he said.

Powell spoke about the money and motivation behind efforts to ban hunting and the need for houndsmen to “control the narrative” about their passion, citing the 85% of the population that “really don’t care whether you hunt or not.”

The situation means hunters need to understand and be prepared to articulate why they hunt, beyond the family traditions that motivate many, Powell said.

He suggested hunters educate themselves on how laws and regulations are enacted, as well as the ways hunters and houndsmen contribute to conservation. Examples of houndsmen aiding research in southern Utah, why hounds are considered fair chase, and understanding the funding mechanisms behind wildlife conservation are more compelling ways to win over those who don’t understand, Powell argued.

He suggested hunters engage folks in the field, chat with non-hunters along the roadside, connect kids with hunting hounds, and other simple ways that influence the public’s perception, and in turn the future of hunting.

“We need to look for those opportunities to be positive influences in our spheres and our circles,” Powell said.

Join MBHA to make our voice stronger, and receive our association’s 16-page publication, The Bear Facts, four times a year, plus Bear Hunting Magazine, with its MBHA column, six times a year.

To get your membership (worth $20) and magazine (worth $25 more), send only a $20 check, made out to MBHA, to Phil Hewitt, and his address is 7796 Ainsworth Road, Lake Odessa, MI, 48849. Please include your name, address, email address and phone number.

May/June 2023

NC on April 29th. This is awlays a great event which Spring has arrived and brought with it longer days, warmer weather, and some fresh bear raises money for community members in need. Plan tracks. The bruins are starting to stir in North Caroli- on coming to see us at this event from 11 am to 4 pm at 661 Vale Road, Newland, NC 28567. na, emerging from their winter slumber.

In the mountain region of the state, there The NCBHA has sprung into action as well. has been discussion on some possible changes to We have recently created a Facebook page in an the deer hunting season. This is likely gaining some effort to become more visible to our membership legislative traction, and the mountain region’s bear and audience. We appreciate everyone working with us and sending submissions to be featured on season would be affected by any changes. Currently, the mountain region’s gun deer season runs our Facebook page. We invite everyone to check out the page and give it a “like” and “follow”. On in between the bear seasons. But there is growing consideration for the deer season to be in during the page you will find up to date information on goings on within the organization and the world of the current second bear season – in order allow bear hunting in NC. You can also find some detailed for deer hunters to take advantage of the rut that history of the organization along with pictires and occurs later in the year in that part of the state. The videos highlighting the sport and its deep traditions line of thought is currently that the mountain bear season would run continuously for the same number in North Carolina. The page is found by a simple of weeks that it currently does, but without a split in search of “NC Bear Hunters Association”.

The NCBHA recently held our annual board the season, and therefore ending around the start of the original second season. The have been to date of directors meeting. The meeting included a two NCWRC regional public hearing forums on this presentation by the NCWRC on the 2022 bear topic and possible solutions and changes. These season harvest data, and some insight on where the NCWRC feels the bear population is at. As far forums saw substantial participation from the mountain bear hunters, and many of them supported the as 2022 harvest data, the state recorded record high harvest number. The NCWRC will be rolling out possible changes to the seasons. Yet there still exists some questions in regards to these season changes the coastal bear management study starting this year, and it will be interesting to see the results as it potentially adversely increasing the harvest numbers pertains to the bear population data of the coastal of sow bears. In order to accommodate both bear region in the coming years as the multi-year study and deer hunters’ interests (as well as the biological interests of the bear and deer populations), some concludes. work will have to be done since changes to one will The NCBHA addressed concerns over continual road closures on National Forest Land that inhibits be contingent on simultaneous changes to the other.

However, we feel that progress is being made to the ability for many bear hunters to access viable public land, and in many cases hinders the ability to come up with a solution for all involved.

For all those interested in becoming new successfully catch hounds from getting into highway or residential danger. Many of the roads in question members of the NCBHA, or for those ready to renew their current membership, you can do so by mailing a are closed for seemingly no reason, and with no timeline of reopening. Not much progress has been check and application form (available on the Facemade on this front, but the NCBHA will continue to book page) to 130 Holly Mt. Church Road, Mt. Gilead, NC 27306. We are exploring a “pay online” option work towards finding some answers. method of joining and renewal.

The American Plott Association held its Lastly, we would like to extend a special annual Breed Days event in Tennessee this year, and prayer request for Keith Nations - longtime NCBHA the NCBHA’s presence garnered a sharp increase in both new and renewal memberships. We always member and father to current board member Cody Nations. look forward to this event every year, and it’s a Thank you all for reading and participating, great opportunity for bear hunters from around the country to get together. We would like to thank the and we wish you all success in your spring endeavAPA for allowing organizations and vendors like us ors and related spring bear activities – whether its getting the hounds in shape and training new pups, to come participate.

The NCBHA will next be at the Daniel Boone scouting bear for later in the year, or going on a hunt Bear Club annual spring benefit dinner in Newland, somewhere with a spring bear season. www.bear-hunting.com

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Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association Inc. May/June 2023 WHBA Members, Another WBHA convention is in the books, and thanks to you (WBHA members) it was yet another huge success. As always, I like to take this opportunity to also acknowledge and thank the WBHA Board of Directors for the fine job, they are the engine that makes this organization work like a fine oiled machine. This year in many aspects was another record year.

We will need as much help as we can get as you know our enemies are at the gate.

Save the date• The Northwest Town Hall Meeting will be held on Saturday April 29th 2023 at the Browtine, 1361 100th St., Amery WI. • These Town Hall Meetings are “member’s only” events, with memberships available at the door.

These events will include guest speakers, legal updates, door prizes, raffles, silent auctions, and a good place to get to know your WBHA Board of Directors and Officers. Doors open at 1:00 PM

I will update you what the current issues facing the WBHA today. There is a supreme court race that will be over by the time you read this and hopefully we can get a justice that will keep lawsuits from stripping away our rights. I am already hearing that if we lose this race, we will be faced with lawsuits that will negatively impact our ability to manage wolves in Wisconsin and stripping our rights to hound hunt on federal land in our state, and the kicker is that you could still use dogs to hunt upland game on federal land. This is a divide and conquer strategy that the ANTI’s have perfected.

The DNR is also trying to take away any bait that will have chocolate in it. Baiting is one of the current targets of the day to further restrict hunting on state and federal land. If you know any bait sitters that hunt bear over bait let them know that this will effectively prevent them from hunting bears the way they prefer.

Bait sitters have far more to lose than hound hunters and they do not know it! This will effectively knock out two thirds of the bear hunters in this state. Remind any bear hunters that do not use hounds that they are the target!

As we gear up for this training season I will remind you of the concerted effort by anti-hound residents to organize at the town and county level to make trespassing a big issue and try to change how this is enforced locally. Be respectful of residents and build those relationships with these landowners it is a great way to build a good defense against the forces that are trying to kill hound hunting in Wisconsin.

Thank you.

Carl Schoettel, WBHA President 44

Bear Hunting

May/June 2023

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Thanks to all who sold and bought tickets for our annual raffle!

www.bear-hunting.com

4/23/9 - WI

Bear Hunting

45

The Strategic Bear Hunter

How I Got This Way

by Bernie Barringer

Every so often someone asks me how I got started in bear hunting and why I put the effort into the hunting, especially baiting for bears, that it takes to be successful at a high level. I’m not really sure how I got hopelessly addicted to this, but I can tell you my story.

I made a good living as a commercial fur trapper in the 1980s living in Iowa and targeting mostly raccoons and minks, but also making good catches of foxes, muskrats, and beavers when the opportunity presented itself. I worked on a commercial fishing boat in Alaska in the summer of 1988, then came back to find that the fur markets had crashed. Long story short, I went to a community college and got my degree in Journalism/Photography in an effort to figure out a way to keep from getting a real job, I suppose. Turns out God had gifted me with a natural ability to tell stories, and I quickly began making a living doing so.

I began writing full time in the early 1990s and selling magazine articles to hunting and fishing magazines. I specialized in whitetail deer hunting and I was also involved in fishing tournaments. Bow hunting was really growing at that time and I worked hard to become a leader in that category. I found that a few deer hunting magazines would buy almost everything I produced, notably North American Whitetail Magazine.

But I had always been fascinated by bears from a young age. Living in Iowa, I had no opportunity to hunt bears without traveling. In 1993, I was covering the Professional Walleye Trail Championship for a magazine story, which was held at Wheeler’s

The Journey of the Strategic Bear Hunter

Point where the Rainy River meets Lake of the Woods in northern Minnesota. I combined that with a bow hunt for whitetails, and also noticed that it was an area where people were pretty avid about their bear hunting. That was something I filed away in the back of my mind.

In 1999, Jeff Folsom had Bear Hunting Magazine up and running and he was looking for experienced writers to help give the magazine traction. I was the writer he needed, but I didn’t know anything about bear hunting, so we worked out a deal. I would do a guided bear hunt in Northern Minnesota and write a story about the experience from the eyes of a first time bear hunter. I called up an outfitter near Lake of the Woods named Chris Ford and proposed that he provide me with a hunt in exchange for the publicity he would get in the magazine.

Chris was not just a great bear hunting guide but he was an aggressive marketer, so he went for the deal. The rest, as they say, is history. My intent had been just to kill a bear with my bow and check that off my list. I would just move on to the next experience. Well, I shot a nice bear on the hunt with Chris, but I found bear hunting, especially with bait, to be very compelling. I was fascinated by the whole experience, and I knew it wouldn’t be the last time. Chris ended up getting a lot of calls from the story I did in Bear Hunting Magazine, and he was thrilled. I was, too, because I realized I could do more of this! Then things changed radically for me on November 8, 2000.

In the mid 1990s, I had moved a used travel trailer onto my property in Iowa, which I had converted to an office for my writing and publishing. On that November day in 2000, a propane leak caused an explosion and fire that destroyed every single scrap of that office. Fortunately, no one was in it at the time, but I had lost everything, including 75,000 photos and all computers and digital files of books and magazine articles, both finished and unfinished. It was life-changing to say the least.

My wife and I and our five kids had vacationed in the Brainerd area of Minnesota for years, and we had discussed how nice it would be to live there. After the fire, I convinced my wife to move. I packed up my family and headed north.

We bought a place north of Pine River FEATURING REVOLUTIONARY RESISTANCE PHASE with the Foothills State Forest at our DAMPING AND OUR NEW BRIDGE-LOCK doorstep.

STABILIZER SYSTEM, THE PHASE4 IS THE I was now in bear country, and my INTERSECTION WHERE SPEED MEETS STEALTH. smoldering interest in bear hunting was AVAILABLE IN 29 & 33" ATA. about to be fanned into a roaring inferno.

At first, I really struggled. I put out many baits, but most of them had few, if any, bears on them and I discovered it was extremely difficult to get bears to come to a bait site in the daylight. I didn’t understand the value of location nor the right foods to provide for the bears. I would

ALL BITE. NO BARK.

46

Bear Hunting

May/June 2023

take the film from my trail cameras 45 minutes missed a shot at to the nearest Walmart for development, only to one on opening discover I had picture after picture of raccoons day one year. Things and ravens. finally started to Regardless, I had three things going for come together. me. First of all, and most importantly, I was pasOver the next few sionate about it. Secondly, someone in the family years, I would form a system that could get a tag every year and I was getting one really helped me understand the value of a good location and most every year. Therefore I could bait each year, the features I wanted to find that I knew would make a great bait which really shortened my learning curve. And site. These days, I can pick out a great spot from an aerial photothird, there was no restriction on the number of graph, walk into the place, and drop in a bait with a huge degree baits a hunter could put out—that really helped of confidence. But it took more than 20 years of experience, and me learn. I would put out around 10 baits. At the a lot of mistakes, to get to that point. I also hunted with a lot of end of the season, I would analyze each of those outfitters across North America, from British Columbia and Idaho baits, which ones were good and which ones to Maine, and a lot of places in between. I eagerly learned bits were not. Maybe two or three of those would be and pieces from each hunt. I’ve killed nearly 40 black bears and pretty good, so I kept those and abandoned the every one taught me something. rest. The next year, I would bait those top two or As I started to get the location aspects figured out, I bethree and add a whole bunch more. Once again, gan to learn more about the right types of baits, how much bait I would analyze my notes and trail cam photos, to put out and how often, and other items of baiting strategy. I picking out the best of the best. wrote the book The Bear Baiter’s Manual in 2013, and I have even After three to four years of doing this, further refined my approach. My DVD “How to Bait Big Bears” some patterns began to emerge. I would look came out in 2015, which gave illustration to the things I had been at the baits which had been consistently good putting into print for many years. Both of these resources are year after year and try to find things they had nearly sold out and I am now putting most of my bear hunting inin common. Why were some locations good and structional materials on my YouTube channel “Bowhunting Road.” others not? Proximity to water was one. Heavy I continue to learn about bears and tweak my stratetravel cover was another. Security and lack of gy. Any changes now are in very small increments, but I am still human intrusion were yet another, as well as entry learning and hope to always be. The fun years of biting off big and exit strategies, stand locations, etc. Using chunks of knowledge are gone, but that just makes it so much this knowledge, I finally shot a couple of bears. more rewarding when I learn a new little nugget about bears that My kids got a couple as well, and even my wife I didn’t know before.

My fascination with black bears, and how to get the mature ones to walk into a bait during legal shooting hours, has never waned. The passion burns strong, even as my hair turns gray and my body complains about the hard work it takes to do so.

The more I know about bears, I realize how much more there is to know.

The author teaching a bear hunting seminar.

The author with the first bear he ever harvested.

The author with a bear he took during Covid in Wyoming.

The author setting up stands for him and his son.

www.bear-hunting.com

Bear Hunting

47

Becoming a Bear Tracking Wounded Bears Hunter with Doug Boze

@bozeandbears

Shot

In this issue of our series entitled “Becoming A Bear Hunter,” we are going to discuss tracking a wounded bear. Now you may ask yourself, “Why not just call it tracking wounded game? Isn’t it all the same?” A great question, but the answer is no, it is not the same.

There are important differences between tracking an ungulate and a bear. So, let’s get into it.

First off, I want to stress the importance of shot placement (see the March/April 2023 issue). We all want to drop an animal in its tracks when we send a shot to avoid unnecessary suffering, and so we don’t run the risk of losing the animal. But if you hunt long enough, you will find that you will miss the animal or may place a shot that is less than perfect for one reason or another. You seasoned hunters know just what I am talking about: an animal can turn or jump right at the last second, an unforeseen twig could have misdirected your arrow slightly, wind could have pushed the projectile off course, and, heck, even your scope could have been bumped, causing it not to be zeroed. The point is, if you hunt long enough things will go wrong, one way or another.

With bears, sometimes you can have a great shot through the vitals and the creature who is tougher than woodpecker lips still takes off. Sometimes due to terrain and brush, we don’t know if it went 10 yards or 100, but hopefully it just piled up. But when it’s wounded and takes off, you must bring out your inner Chuck Norris and go in after it. After all, a wounded predator is nothing to take lightly. Where I am from in the Pacific Northwest, that means I will likely have to crawl through some of the nastiest plants we have to offer. These include thorny blackberries that stand anywhere from ankle high to well over my six foot frame. And let’s not forget devil’s club (which is aptly named) with its broad, thorny leaves and tall, stalked, and even more thorny branches. Each region has their own similar challenges without question.

This brings us to the first point I want to make; be prepared to search hard for your animal. For me, that means I am bringing leather work gloves along so I can go into this brush without any issues to my hands.

A nice thick pair of leather gloves allows me to grab devil’s club without caring at all about getting poked.

Included in my pack while hunting bears is a small pair of garden clippers; these can be really handy when you are on your hands and knees like a “tunnel rat” during the Vietnam war working your way through the brush.

Using the clippers to trim back troublesome branches is not only helpful for travel but marks your path a bit as you progress down the blood trail. This gives you a clear route if you need to circle back to find the trail again or look for a blood direction.

Why are bears different from tracking ungulates? Well, I am not saying they are completely different but there are variances. For example, deer and elk will often just make a beeline for the nearest way out: down a gully, up a ridge, etc. (with the exception 48

Bear Hunting

Don’t Rely Solely on Blood of whitetail, who seem to head to cover real quick). However bears, once hit, seem to head for the steepest, nastiest cover they can find in the immediate vicinity. That means you have to go after the wounded predator in very close proximity. That can be a serious gut check for lots of people, especially a solo bear hunter or a hunter with limited experience. My advice is that anytime you can have a partner while looking for a bear, you should do it for safety reasons.

Make sure you are not stumbling over one another messing up the blood trail and, of course, always know where each other are located to ensure you don’t mistake each other for an animal.

Not only do bears head for the deepest cover when hit, their hide and fat (as previously discussed last issue) will often plug the entry or exit wound with far greater effectiveness than a deer or elk. This can make following a blood trail a challenge. It is not uncommon to lose blood or not find much blood once you are outside of the original impact area, even on fatal shots. This is very important and something I always try to imprint on new bear hunters, which is that if you are not finding a lot of blood or even any blood, it does not mean you should give up looking. It is imperative that you make sure you are looking for other signs of the bear’s traveling direction other than blood. This includes hair, busted branches, turned up dirt or leaves, prints in the dirt or mud, torn up grass, skid marks on rocks, loosened moss off rocks, claw marks on logs, and so on. I will always pause after a shot, if the bear disappears, and just listen to see if I can hear the direction it is traveling or if I can hear a “crash” and then silence, indicating it might have piled up. This can give you at least a general direction on where to start.

A good example of this was my 2009 spring bear.

This was my first spring bear season (it was a special draw) and what a good time it was! After several days of hunting— and an attempted break-in to my truck by some junkies on motorcycles—I worked my way into an area that was covered in bear scat and fresh green grass, bordered by trees that had been recently peeled by bears. Finding my way through the marshy opening, I spotted a boar probably 50 yards out grazing aggressively on the grass. I watched him for a bit as I hid behind an ancient cedar stump. The partly sunny sky glistened off his glorious black hide as he fed. When I was confident it was a bear I wanted to take (a male with no cubs and decently sized), I pulled up and fired my .300 WSM Tikka. The bear spun and bit, then bolted straight for cover.

The “cover” being a set of dark, tangled woods choked with blackberries and salmon berries, which were chest high in some places.

After the shot, I went over and found a little bit of blood and searched for some time. I ended up backing out as it was getting late and I wanted my brother to come help me look in the morning. He and I searched high and low for hours the next day, having lost blood in the marshy area. We were looking for any clues and found little. I felt the bear died for sure and was likely just out of view someplace. Near the early afternoon, after searching since sunup, I decided to cut through the woods to a logging road I knew was there and just follow it in the hopes of finding some sort of sign. I May/June 2023

made my way to the old cut and began slowly walking the road, checking for any blood, any sign. I went about 300 yards down the road, which was probably about 450 yards from where I shot, and noticed a bear print in the mud coming off the hillside to my right. I was guessing it was a day old or less and appeared to have crossed the road, at least given the direction it was heading. On the left side of the road, I observed another print that went down into the ditch and past a culvert into another wooded area that was swampy.

About 50 yards into the tree line as I followed the general direction of the print, I spotted the bear piled up, surrounded by lush green grass, frogs croaking in the distance, and scarred trees from all the bears peeling their bark.

A sigh of both relief and sadness came over me. I was ecstatic I found the bear, despite it being almost blind luck, but was sad that the bear went that far. I knew in my heart that he likely died within a few short minutes as he traveled along the wooded hillside and into the marsh, but it still made me want to do better as a hunter. I hit the bear a little further back than what I like, hence why he was able to get so far.

But the point is that I had lost blood several hundred yards prior to finding the bear and the only clue that led me to recovering the animal was a day-old footprint in the mud. Be very observant as you track. We recovered the bear, all the meat was still good, and he now sits as a full mount in my man cave, all because of a little luck and perseverance.

Years back, my little brother shot a bear right at dusk. The bear was eating huckleberries off an old cedar stump when he shot. He saw the bullet hit and the bear fall, but it was already in a tall clear cut surrounded by cover. When it got on all fours, it had completely disappeared down the steep and treacherous draw. He found blood that evening, but it was getting very dark, so he pulled out and called me up. We ended up going back to the spot the following morning at the crack of dawn, trudging up the hillside in the already warm August morning. He had to work that day, but I volunteered to search for his bear for him— we weren’t going to let it go to waste. He gave me general directions where he hit it and while doing so

we heard some brush crashing not far from there. Now we didn’t know if the bear was dead or wounded and ready to fight waiting for a hapless moron like me to go in after it. Well, like they say, if you’re going to be dumb you better be tough, so off I went down into the ravine as my brother headed to work. I was able to find blood on the stump where it was initially hit and then worked my way into 12-feet-tall alders and blackberries, painstakingly cutting my way through the tangle. As the heat rose, so did the mosquitos who relentlessly ate at my back and neck as I hunched my way along in shaded misery.

After a good few hours of tracking (but only going about 150 yards from the impact), I could make out a bear next to a log only yards in front of me in the thick brush. I raised up my rifle and held tight, not knowing if the bear was still alive. Moments seemed like hours and there was no movement from the bear. I worked my way closer and discovered it had died. A key point here is this: in thick brush, a bear could easily hide and be waiting to ambush you. If that bear had not been dead, I have no doubt he would have known I was there long before I saw him. I continued dressing out the bear in the 90 degree heat and was able to get the first load of meat out to the road above me just as my brother returned from work. It was a miserable, yet fun experience.

The nice thing about ungulates is that you have an antler rack to look for when tracking. But bears tend to ball up and hide under a log, rocky outcropping, depression in the ground, and so on when hurt and will often die in that position, making it more difficult to recover them. I like to compare a wounded bear to a tick; it will ball up and hide in the most inconvenient places, so be sure to check every nook and cranny that you can.

By the time you read this, many of you will be in bear camp for a spring hunt. I wanted to wish you all the best of luck. May your shots ring true! I hope you find success even if you don’t notch your tag. I hope your love and tradition of bear hunting is passed along to someone who can help carry the torch. Happy hunting, my friends.

Wounded bears tend to run to thick cover and steep terrain.

Since bears don’t leave a good blood trail it’s a good idea to pay attention to other signs.

www.bear-hunting.com

Bear Hunting

49

Black Bear Biology

Nothing New Under the Sun

with Dr. Jenn Ballard @arwildlifevet

Dealing with Wildlife Diseases

The Osage author John Joseph Mathews once wrote that, other than hunters, the coyote’s only real enemies were those of a “microscopical” form, referring to pathogens and disease. “Every species has such enemies,” he wrote. “[And] such enemies are a part, a very important part, of the balance, and are not only invisible but mysterious to me.” Like Mathews, I find the microscopical enemies of wildlife both mysterious and fascinating.

So much so that I have dedicated my professional life to understanding and managing them, but I am not just a wildlife veterinarian. I am a hunter, a wife, and a mother trying to live field-to-table like so many others. From that perspective, I can’t help but notice that outdoor media is increasingly inundated with disease-related information, and many of my fellow hunters seem thoroughly burned out on the subject. Who can blame them, really? So, what’s the deal with all the disease stuff? Is it hype or a good old fashioned sign of the end times? As usual, the truth lies somewhere in between.

Disease was once considered to be a normal part of wildlife ecology that rarely, if ever,

Sarcoptic mange is an emerging disease issue for black bears in parts of the eastern and central U.S. The condition is caused by a mite that infests the skin.

Many animals recover on their own, while others progress to a pitiful and lethal state.

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required intervention. That perception was based largely on an unwavering faith in the adaptability of species and the misconception that disease transmission naturally stops when outbreaks reduce population densities. In recent decades, it’s become clear that disease can be a major threat to wildlife conservation, having driven declines and extinctions worldwide. Add to that a growing awareness of wildlife pathogens as a threat to human health, and you have the perfect recipe for an explosion of trendy disease research. On the plus side, our understanding of these issues has grown exponentially, with many genuine benefits to the cause of conservation. Conversely, as new science spills into the popular press, it can be difficult to filter out what’s important. It’s true that not every disease has serious implications for wildlife managers or hunters. Many are a normal part of species’ ecology, but it’s equally true that some diseases have genuinely ominous implications, usually falling into three categories: public health, food security, or conservation.

The classic bear parasite Trichinella spiralis is a good example of a pathogen that is significant

Photo courtesy of Justin Brown, DVM, PhD PennState College of Ag Sciences

May/June 2023

almost exclusively for public health reasons. The parasite itself causes no disease in bears, mountain lions, or a multitude of other animal hosts, but serious issues arise in humans unfortunate enough to consume undercooked meat from infected game. Once prevalent in commercial swine, the parasite was well known to previous generations, like my mother who considers “floppy” bacon a near-death experience, but younger generations and new hunters may be less familiar with the food handling practices needed to mitigate this concern. To complicate the issue further, species of Trichinella found in the far north require different precautions than those found at lower latitudes. Although research on Trichinella continues, a lot of it leans to the academic side, and media campaigns targeting hunters are largely intended to maintain awareness as hunting communities diversify and hunters become more mobile.

Some wildlife diseases garner attention for the risk they pose to livestock and commercial food supplies. One timely example is the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Starting as a mild strain of flu in wild waterfowl, this virus increased in its ability to cause severe disease as it shuffled back and forth between domestic poultry and wild birds in Asia. It made its way around the world on the wings of migrating ducks and geese, reaching the U.S. in late 2021. HPAI has affected over 800 poultry flocks in 47 states, with a loss of more than 58 million domestic birds. Waterfowl hunters reported geese falling from the sky during the peak of the 2022-2023 season, and a wide range of other species were exposed to HPAI by eating infected birds.

Infections were reported in everything from bald eagles to marine mammals, including black bears in multiple states. At this point, there’s no evidence that HPAI is circulating in bear populations or being passed from bear to bear, but every new species infected is an opportunity for the virus to evolve and adapt.

The unfortunate truth is that some diseases are a genuine threat to the health and stability of wildlife populations. Although wildlife have a phenomenal ability to adapt to new challenges, including diseases, adaptive potential is not a panacea against all evils.

Sarcoptic mange is a disease that has seriously impacted wildlife populations around the world and is an emerging disease issue for black bears in parts of the eastern and central U.S. The condition is caused by a mite that infests the skin, resulting in inflammation and hair loss. Many animals recover on their own, while others progress to a pitiful and lethal state. Although the mite has been present throughout the black bear range for generations, the relatively recent emergence of clinical disease in some populations indicates a change in the balance between host, pathogen, and environment.

The factor, or factors, driving that change and the risk to bear populations requires further investigation.

Coming back to our original question, why are hunters being bombarded with information about wildlife diseases? It’s complicated. We’re living in a rapidly changing world with land use practices that encourage disease emergence and global commerce that spreads www.bear-hunting.com

them with startling efficiency.

Increased awareness, funding opportunities, and new technologies facilitate additional research, and current trends in science push researchers to share findings publicly that would have historically ended up in research journals and ivory towers. Admittedly, I’m not sure there is a solution for all of this. Certainly, global land use and commerce are more than we can tackle in one article, but a significant onus can be placed on scientists to be judicious in their messaging. The trend toward open science communication is a positive one, but it comes with a responsibility to present science with context and meaningful application, avoiding sensationalism at all cost.

As hunters, we may also have to acknowledge that wildlife disease is going to be part of the conservation conversation moving forward.

My best advice is to hang in there and rest assured that wildlife managers are just as tired of talking about diseases as you are of hearing about them. But we can look for common ground in wanting what is best for the wildlife resource; this means addressing whatever challenges they face, be it disease, habitat loss, or something else. I would ask every conservationist to remain vigilant of wildlife health when in the field, report anything that seems unusual, and support conservation efforts that take a holistic approach to species management. That is our best bet for resilient wildlife populations in the future.

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Western Bear Hunting

Back to Basics

with Jana Waller @skullboundtv

Planning a Western DIY Hunt

There’s a reason you are a subscriber to Bear Hunting Magazine. Maybe you are an avid, that it is slightly different than on a deer. “Middle of the middle” experienced bear hunter that enjoys escaping into is a phrase I’ve heard often, but I personally like to then add a the pages of the magazine to read about exciting couple of inches toward the shoulder. However their hair often adventures that fuel your passion for bears and hangs down up to six inches past their bodies. Bears are tough bear hunting. Maybe you are searching for other animals and can leave little or no blood trail to track when a hunting opportunities or knowledge when it comes shot is less than perfect, so “aim small, miss small” and familiarto specifics in baiting, bear behavior, or hunting ize yourself with a bear’s internal anatomy. with hounds. Whatever the case may be, whether If you’re planning on using a rifle, there are a few you are new to bear hunting or are a seasoned factors to keep in mind. Know what your caliber is capable of veteran, one thing’s for certain: bear hunting is one and remember that your shot may be from a steep angle, far of the most thrilling hunts you can experience! distance, or from a prone position. Practice at the range is For this issue, I decided to go back to the always crucial but also know that angle, winds, and shooting basics and write this column toward those readpositions are factors that are all going to make a difference in a ers who are new to bear hunting. I talk to many precise shot. I could write an entire article about different rifle hunters as I travel throughout the country during and ammo capabilities, but I’ll save that for another issue. I have expos, trade shows, and conservation banquets, taken bears with my .300 wsm, 26 Nosler, 28 Nosler, and 30 and I often hear the comment, “I love to deer or Nosler rifles at distances from 80 yards to 450 yards. There are turkey hunt, but I’ve never bear hunted and have no many calibers that can get the job done but know the maximum idea where to start.” Some interested hunters go distance you’re comfortable with when factoring in angle and with an outfitter, especially if they are looking for windage, and stick to that. If you use a Kestrel to help calculate an out-of-state experience. But in this article I’m ballistics, you’re going to take most of the guesswork right out going to break down some simple basics if you’re of the equation. I also like to use an app called Shooter. After thinking about planning a DIY spot-and-stalk style chronographing your ammo and figuring out your exact speed Western bear hunt. and weight of your bullet and plugging that info into the app, One of the first things to consider is Shooter calculates your exact location’s altitude, barometric whether or not bear hunting opportunities are pressure, temperature, humidity, and winds (according to the OTC (over the counter) or if you need to put in nearest weather station)---all factors that make a difference. If for the draw. Some states like Idaho, Montana, you’re going to be hunting where you won’t have service, I recWyoming, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Col- ommend printing out a dope chart and keeping it on your rifle orado, Arizona, and Alaska have OTC bear huntstock. ing opportunities depending on the spring or fall With today’s technology it’s easy to do some virtual season. Some states like Idaho, Washington, and scouting before going into a new spot. Make sure you do some Alaska even have areas that offer multiple tags per research on the areas you plan to hunt. I love to use the OnX season. Another important thing to be aware of is Hunt 3D layer on my laptop before going into new areas. It’s that some states require a bear identification test like having an actual bird’s eye view of the mountain or canbefore purchasing a bear tag, which can be taken yons. You can measure distances and use the radius tool to map online. Every state has different regulations when it out how far you want to hike in or even mark great areas like comes to bear hunting and it’s extremely important south facing slopes that will contain a lot of grass or sources of to become schooled on the rules when you decide water. And it’s now easier to see the terrain by using the “tilt” where to plan your adventure. And keep in mind feature. The OnX Hunt app is going to give you unit boundaries, that the regulations can change year to year, so tell you which kind of public land you are on, and dispel private depending on when you’re reading this, I’d still landowners names in case you need to get permission. It’s also recommend double-checking each state’s website possible to cache the maps into your cell phone when you’re in for current information. service so that if you head into an area without cell coverage, After you’ve decided on where, there are you’ll have the maps available no matter what. Make sure to many “tools of the trade” needed when it comes mark your vehicle every day before you head out. There have to planning and preparing for a DIY spot-andbeen many days that we hiked into the mountains, found sucstalk bear hunt. The first obvious tool needed is cess, and had late night pack outs. Knowing exactly where your a reliable, worthy weapon that can get the job camp or vehicle is can save you from getting turned around in done. If you are planning a spot-and-stalk archery the dark. hunt for bears, then you’re adding an obvious You’re going to want a good pair of binoculars for any element of difficulty to your hunt. While bears are spot-and-stalk style hunt. A lot of bear hunting is spent on your known for their poor eyesight, they do have an bum glassing the opposing ridges and logging roads for that almost superhero sense of smell and hearing. It black stump that suddenly moves! I’d recommend a pair of at can be challenging getting within bow range on a least 10 power binoculars with either a rangefinder built in or crunchy logging road or hillside but not impossible you can carry a separate range finder with you. Distances can when the wind is in your favor. Shot placement be so deceiving, therefore it’s best to take the guesswork out on the bear is key, of course, and keep in mind of the equation. A good pair of bino’s are a must. I also carry a 52

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spotting scope in my truck but I admit I don’t always tuck it in my pack if I am concerned about weight. It often depends on how much other gear I have along, which often includes cameras, extra lenses, a striker water boiler, food, and water.

The weather can drastically change in a matter of minutes when you’re in the mountains.

I’ve often experienced 50 degree temperature swings in a day, and nothing can ruin an adventure quicker than being cold, wet, and miserable. Even the best weathermen are routinely wrong, but being prepared with an insulated, moisture-wicking layering system and good rain gear will be a game changer.

Nowadays there are many great brands to choose from, but I’ve been a fan of Kryptek’s for over a decade. They not only have a great variety of camouflage colors and patterns to choose from depending on the terrain, but the quality of their clothing is impressive—built on tactical military apparel and using the most technologically advanced materials on the market. Whatever brand you choose, make sure you have a system that can be easily layered and packable. Don’t rely on the forecast but pack for the “just in case”.

Speaking of packs… you need to be prepared for a long, heavy pack out after you notch your tag.

Choose a pack that is not only spacious but comfortable for the long hike out. It’s easy to remember your extra clothing, food, water, headlamp, skinning knife, and emergency kit, but is your pack capable of adding a bear hide, head, and meat? I always recommend trying on a variety of packs to make sure they fit your torso and ride nicely on your hips. Many packs nowadays are adjustable not only in the shoulder and waist straps but in the entire shoulder system. I love the Eberlestock F1 Mainframe with either the batwings or vapor 5000 pack when it comes to bear hunting. It’s a system that has plenty of cubic inches for gear, but allows a hide or meat quarters to easily be added with some extra straps (which I always carry).

Also, don’t forget the game bags; they help keep your hide and meat clean and make the pack out so much easier. Just like clothing gear, there are a lot of great companies out there, but make sure you choose a quality backpack that fits your body and has the capacity to help you pack out a bruin!

I realize these tips are basic knowledge for many of you, but it’s my hope to inspire new bear hunters to join in on the passion. There are many states that offer bear hunting not just in the West as mentioned in this article, but across the country. I strongly believe in the benefits of sound predator management for the survival of other species, but I also want readers to understand that bear hunting is well within their reach. Best of luck to everyone!

OnX in the field is an invaluable tool for learning a new area. You can also use it to approximate yardages if you forget your rangefinder with the line distance feature.

A good sturdy frame pack is a valuable piece of gear for the backcountry.

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ry

Great Hunts

Bruin

Destinations

New Brunswick - Maritime Bruins

by Al Raychard

When I first started traveling outside my home state to hunt bears, New Brunswick was the first place I headed for. At the time I hated flying—still do, especially with weapons and dead animals in tow. However, New Brunswick’s geographical location next door to Maine, where I reside, made getting there by vehicle convenient. I could leave home and be anywhere in the province, set up in camp, and ready to hunt in a matter of a few hours. I now believe New Brunswick’s location is one reason why it continues to be a hot destination for American bear hunters, not only for those within driving range but for those when flying is a necessity. Crossing the border these days is no big deal; roads to and through the province are excellent, and for those further away several international, commercial, and smaller regional airports make air travel quick and easy.

Since then I have had the good fortune of hunting New Brunswick numerous times over the years. In that time, I have met and hunted with some great outfitters and guides, all of whom were avid hunters, knew bears, were very friendly and accommodating, and knew how to put on a good hunt. I have also killed a few good bruins in the process. As much as I enjoyed hunting other destinations in eastern Canada, New Brunswick remains one of my favorite bear destinations. There are several prime reasons for this fact, reasons fellow bear hunters planning a quality bear hunt anytime soon might want to take into consideration.

From a hunting perspective, the major thing to keep in mind is the province has a sizable black bear population. For years, as I recall, the New Brunswick Energy and Resource Department’s Wildlife Division put the estimated province-wide population at around 10,000, and even then the hunting prospects were good. Today, the estimate is between 17,000 and 18,000, the highest in Maritime Canada.

Hunters shouldn’t have any difficulty seeing bears or having a shot opportunity. In fact, the bear population is doing so well that the fall hunting season has been extended several times in recent years to help maintain bear numbers within management goals.

The annual limit was also increased, allowing hunters two bears within the same calendar year. Bear licenses are easily obtainable through outfitters or a draw, although hunters must tag their first bear 54

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before purchasing the second license.

New Brunswick wildlife is managed under 27 Wildlife Management Zones (WMZs), 25 of which are open to bear hunting. The two zones with no open bear seasons are offshore islands. In 2021, the most recent harvest year for which bear numbers are available, bears were taken in all zones open to hunting. The sightings of bears and opportunity to fill tags is generally very good over much of the province, with most producing an annual harvest in double or even triple digits. But year in and year out, with some variation depending upon the availability of natural foods and other factors, certain zones produce the most bears.

In 2021 WMZs 2, 8, 10, 15, 16, 20, 21, and 22 were top producers. With the exception of WMZ 22 east of St. John, all are along Maine’s easternmost or are close to it. These zones combined contributed 50-percent of the total bear harvest in 2021. Each of these zones are sparsely populated and heavily forested—with some areas even considered remote—and therefore they are prime bear territories. Each also offers plenty of outfitters that cater to bear hunters, but experienced outfitters and good bear numbers are found province-wide. While some hunters might use higher harvest figures when planning their hunt, some of the largest bears each year come from zones with lower hunting pressure, such as the northern zones along the border with Quebec and zones where bears exit dens early and stay active longer in the fall, such as those in the south along the Bay of Fundy.

Bear hunting has always been popular in New Brunswick, especially among non-resident hunts, and overall bear hunting seems to be gaining in popularity now that COVID-19 restrictions are behind us. Prior to 2000, less than 4,000 resident and non-resident bear licenses were sold annually, but since the turn of the century license sales have never fallen below 4,500.

In 2021, 9,320 bear licenses were sold, 7,430 of those to resident hunters and 408 to non-residents. Historically, the 408 non-resident licenses sold is low, but much higher then the 58 sold in 2020 when COVID-19 protocols and travel restrictions were in place. I would expect the number of visiting hunters to increase this year and will continue to do so in coming years. In 2022, the non-resident success rate was over 70-percent.

May/June 20230

New Brunswick

Estimated Bear Population: 17,000-18,000 +/Annual Bag Limit: Two (2), one (1) per license. First bear and second bear license may be used during spring or fall season. Second bear license available only through licensed outfitters after tagging of first bear. Non-resident licenses valid only in WMZ note on license.

Areas Open to Bear Hunting: All mainland Wildlife Management Zones, WMZs 1-25. WMZs 26

& 27 closed to bear hunting.

Spring Season: Yes, April 17-June 24*, 2023.

Fall Season: Yes • General-September 1-November 4, 2023*.

• Bow/Crossbow Only-September 25-September 30, 2023*.

Baiting Allowed: Yes, during spring and fall seasons.

Hounds Allowed: No. License Availability/Cost: Through licensed outfitters and through random computer draw.

Check with outfitters for price details.

Legal Weapon: Centerfire calibers, muzzleloaders, bow and arrow, and crossbows. Check with

outfitters for specific legal and recommended calibers and draw weights.

Contacts: New Brunswick Energy and Development website or Wildlife Branch/Fredericton - 1 (506) 453-3826 New Brunswick Outfitters Association website or 1 (506) 391-5164

Overview

*Also, check the ads in Bear Hunting Magazine.

Bear Questions/Answers With Al Raychard

Q-I’ve successfully hunted black bears before, but always with a firearm. Now I have my first fall bow hunt scheduled this year. Would you recommend fixed or mechanical broadheads?

A-I’ve successfully killed bears with both but my personal preference is cut-on-contact fixed heads. While some archers prefer the larger cutting diameter mechanicals provide, bears are covered with heavy layers of hair and fat and are big boned; it takes lots of energy and deep penetration to hit the vitals, and hopefully achieve a pass-through shot.

A heavy 125 grain mechanical will retain good energy, but there is an argument concerning speed and therefore energy and penetration being lost during expansion while little is lost with fixed heads. There are several variables involved here— proper shot placement being highly important—but when all is said and done, I prefer fixed heads.

Q-You have been hunting bears for years. What is your biggest tip to achieve success?

A-There are several, but I would have to say when a bear is finally within sight and you’re preparing to pull the trigger or release an arrow: be patient, keep your cool, control your breathing and excitement level, and wait for that perfect shot. I’ve heard too many stories in camp about bears being www.bear-hunting.com

wounded and lost because hunters got overly excited and made poor shot choices.

Q-I understand heavy bears are able to be seen and taken wherever bears are hunted, but why are huge bears so common each year in states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina?

A-A number of factors come into play including good management practices, the gene pool, hunting pressure, and legal hunting tactics, among others. But the abundance and wider variety of wild food often mixed with abundant agricultural foods, milder winters, and a longer growing season are also factors.

Q-What is your favorite method of hunting black bears?

A-I have hunted with dogs, spot-and-stalk, with calls, and over bait. In terms of success I prefer bait hunts. Baiting allows the hunter to scrutinize or “judge” a bear, and to bide time for good shot placement. Unfortunately baiting is legal in only a handful of states, although it’s legal across Canada. I’m getting too old to chase dogs over “hill and vale”. Calling can be challenging, as well as up-close and exciting. The same is true of spot-and-stalk hunts, but I’m not much of a long range shooter; I prefer crossbows and bows over guns.

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Sacred Pursuit with TL Jones

Breeding to a Standard @TLJonesHVP

Seven Fundamentals 1. DRIVE

In my personal estimation, drive is the most essential characteristic of any big game hound. Drive is also referred to as heart. Drive is the desire to find, pursue, and stick with dangerous game. Without drive, nothing else matters. A dog with an abundance of drive can overcome some deficiencies in other areas just by sheer will. Dogs with appropriate drive don’t have to be coaxed and they don’t quit when things get a little difficult.

2. INTELLIGENCE Dogs with sufficient brain power are less trouble training and are less trouble hunting. Within the scope of canine ability, they are problem solvers. Where other less intelligent dogs may get stumped, the more brainy dogs will figure things out and be able to turn potential disaster into success.

3. NOSE Almost no bear hound character trait is debated more than nose. Some say all hounds have near the same ability to smell, and others say that some dogs have a far superior ability to detect and follow scent. I’m not going to enter into that discussion here. What I am going to say Every bear hunting houndsman wants great is that if a hound can’t smell it, a hound can’t catch it. dogs. I’ve never met anyone who wants mediocre Primarily I’m talking about trailing ability (not winding). hounds. Yet, in reality, there are a lot of hounds that can’t produce in the woods. And unfortunately, there’s Regardless of its cause, some dogs have the nose to take plenty of breeding taking place that produces subpar some tracks that other dogs can’t or won’t. If you live in litters of puppies that are unlikely to improve the mat- a place so full of bears that every track you run is red hot, you’ll have to have a dog that can detect scent and ter.

How can hound hunters get better dogs? That’s follow that scent. In a perfect world, we’d prefer a dog that can take a colder track nose-down and move the a simple question, but it has a lot of variables in the answers. I just want to address one aspect of answer- track in the right direction until the bear is jumped, then lift its head up and run the wind. A dog that won’t put his ing that question, and that is that getting better bear nose down to grub an old track will leave you passing on dogs begins with having a standard in mind and then otherwise runnable tracks. And a dog that won’t pick his working toward that standard. A standard is a rule of measure. Everyone attempting to breed for better bear head up on a running bear will just fall too far behind on dogs needs a standard by which they gauge their suc- a long race. cess or failure. I realize that sounds like a given, but I promise you it’s not. Lots of “cross your fingers” matings 4. GRIT Grit is a hound hunting term meaning courage. are attempted every year, and these crosses are seemGrit makes all the difference in the world when pursuing ingly made with absolutely no standard in mind.

A lot of factors need to be taken into account dangerous game. Houndsmen vary in the degree of grit they want in their hounds. I’m not going to try and argue in setting a standard for your breeding program, so everyone will have to personalize it for themselves based on the needs within their own region. I’m going Have a hound topic you want covered? to share some of the things that my family considers in a bear dog. It’s really not important, in the end, if you Email requests to: adopt our standard, but it is important that you have a sacredpursuit@protonmail.com standard. The following are the basics that are important to us in catching bears: 56

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someone out of their preference, but I will tell you that in my experience I’d rather have a little too much than not enough. There’s a reason some packs of dogs will walk a bear all day and never get it treed or stopped, and then one particular dog added to the occasion seals the deal. I will also say that if a breeder isn’t very selective, he’ll be too low in grit in a hurry.

5. SPEED A dog, like a human being, can only run so fast. There’s a reason that some of the richest men in the world who use the best genetics possible and the best trainers possible seldom break horse racing records. Every species has limitations, including canines.

However—all things being equal—the more head up running speed, the better. Some folks would be surprised at just how fast the traditional “coon dog” breeds are even in comparison to “running” breeds.

Slower dogs may work for some people in some conditions, but they are nearly worthless in the mountains of Appalachia.

6. ENDURANCE This refers to how long and how far a hound can perform. Endurance has a genetic component and should be considered in breeding. It also has a conditioning/nutrition aspect; when proper genetics are wed to proper conditioning/nutrition, a hound can run an unbelievable number of miles and an unbelievable number of hours. For those who are not familiar, endurance is also sometimes referred to as “bottom”.

A coon dog may have to run two miles, but a bear dog may have to run twenty. Dogs with “mo bottom” catch the game but other dogs do not.

hours to get there, those dogs should stay. Real tree power isn’t in barks per minute, it’s in staying treed. It’s not uncommon for the best tree dogs to remain all night until someone arrives the next morning when circumstances call for it.

Other traits such as color, ear length, voice type, height, weight, etc. can be factored in according to personal preference, but they are “bells and whistles”.

The above describes the fundamental traits of better dogs. A dog lacking those traits doesn’t meet the higher standards. Breeding with those things in mind will get you closer to dogs that can get the job done.

7. TREE POWER Tree power to us is two things: 1) locating and 2) staying treed. When a bear trees, the dogs in pursuit are not always within eyesight so they have to know the track has ended and locate the bear in the tree. Some hounds are not as good at it as they should be. Bear hounds should almost never be slick treed. Once the game is located and the hound begins to bark treed, I’m not too concerned about how many barks a minute that dog barks. Those 120 barks-per-minute dogs are fine, but 60 barks works just fine as long as the dog stays treed. How long should a bear dog stay treed? Until someone gets to the tree! If a bear trees in an extremely difficult place and it takes

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{Hounds and Bears} Column

IN Hot PUrsuit

By Barry ‘Bear’ Siragusa @thehuntinghound

No Foot, No Dog matters of the Paw

AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE! Have you ever experienced a tire blowout on Prevention the highway? As in rubber pieces flying everywhere and Early Season Roading: erratic driving as you struggle to maintain control of I will cover several preventative measures here, but none are as crucial as early season roading and conditioning. your suddenly unbalanced and bucking vehicle? Well, I Have you ever headed out to hoe the garden after a long have. About the only thing I can imagine would make it winter of shoveling snow, only to find the skin between worse (apart from a sudden and abrupt stop involving a telephone pole) would be if I then needed to wait for your thumb and forefinger covered in blisters after only a that tire to grow back and heal up before I could use the short time? Yet, by the end of the summer, your hands are vehicle again. Sounds terrible, right? Welcome to hunting tough and calloused? The same idea applies to the feet of your hounds. If you expect them to do the work of a big game with hounds.

Our hounds have four points of contact with the toughened hound after six months of living the lazy life in the kennel, you are going to have some mighty sore-footground and when even one of those points is comproed animals on your hands. mised, the whole animal is compromised. I have seen Depending on when my season starts, I like to hounds run over tarmac after crossing an open creek in start roading my hounds a month or more before I expect the winter and leave parts of their anatomy behind, stuck to dump the box to put some serious miles on them chasto the asphalt. Twigs and sticks, as sharp as #2 pencils, ing game. Roading is not only good for feet, but good puncture webbing between toes. I have seen toe nails for joints, circulation, tendons, muscles, and their mental get torn off in cracks in the rock and ice, and pads get well-being. What that looks like here at my kennel is letlacerated on the shale and scree slides that stripe many ting them trot at 10-12 mph for 30 minutes, three to four a mountain. Once the injury happens, it is time to box days a week in the beginning. I make sure that they get that hound and prepare for some time hunting without at least two consecutive rest days a week, and I increase him/her. There are some preventative measures that can the training by 15-20 minutes every week. By the time we help avoid a lot of issues. Later, I will discuss what to do are after game, the hounds are roading for 1.5-2 hours to reduce recovery time and get them back on all fours. three to four days a week. I do a quick feet check after 58

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every run and if I see abrasions, or scuffs that look deeper than the first layer of skin, I will put some ointment on their feet. Paws R Protected, Musher’s Secret, or Bag Balm are all good choices. I will continue doing this the entire training and hunting season. That should take care of any small injuries before the next training or hunt.

Feeding: I’ll put this really simply: if you feed your hounds a sub-standard food, the first place you will see digression is coat and skin quality, and that includes their feet. Feed a food with enough fat, Omega-3s, and antioxidants. It will keep your hounds’ feet healthy and keep them fueled for the grueling task ahead of them every time you dump the box. I have had good experience with Inukshuk and Red Paw, and there are several other excellent foods on the market. Do your research and ask your buddies how their hounds’ feet are and what they feed them.

Hydration: Another key aspect to keeping your hounds running like the super athletes they are is hydration. A dehydrated hound is just not going to perform like you want it to.

Their skin will be chronically flakey, and their feet will be as cracked and as coarse as a cat’s tongue. A good indication of how hydrated your hounds are is what color their urine is. Is it pale yellow or almost clear? That is a well hydrated hound. What about dark yellow, red, or brown? That hound is most likely dehydrated and, in the case of red or brown, likely worked so hard that its body has started flushing damaged red blood cells out through the kidneys.

First Aid So, you have roaded all season. You feed a quality food. You water frequently, and your hound is peeing clear and often. You look over your shoulder only to find Murphy’s Law laughing hysterically behind you. Your best hound (it’s always the best one, isn’t it?) has managed to stab a stick through the webbing between its toes, or has found a glass coke bottle from 1886 and now you have a lame and bleeding hound on three legs. What now?

Well, box that hound. Their contribution to that particular hunt is over. Get them off the bad foot before they make it worse or cause themselves muscular injuries in their shoulders or back trying to compensate for that bad foot while they try to stay in the race. When you get home, clean the injury. This can be a challenge, especially with a frustrated hound that has spent the last several hours in the dog box.

A trick that I use often with my hounds is to take a dog crate with a solid bottom and fill the bottom with a couple of inches of warm water and a dash of hand soap. Stick that hound in the crate and they will stand there, looking miserable, while the soap and water cleans up that foot. If the hound lets you, clip the hair away from the wound. Grab yourself a tube of zinc-oxide diaper rash ointment and smear that on the cut or abrasion. They will most likely lick it off after a while, but it will still help. Wash and smear twice a day for a week and, depending on the severity of the injury, this should clear it up quickly.

Give them enough time off. These hounds are tougher than is good for them. Most hounds will happily hunt on three legs the day after an injury, but don’t let them. You will have a healthier hound that is capable of more in the long run if you give them a week or two off (again, depending on the severity of the injury). Consider putting a dog bootie on that foot the next couple times you run them. Dogbooties. www.bear-hunting.com

com, and NonStop Dogwear sell decent booties in bulk to dog kennels. You may wear out 2-3 boots over the course of a long bear race, but that wear and tear will not be on that hound’s recently injured foot.

If you can, ease the hound back into it after an injury. Even as I write this, I realize that is far easier said than done. Still, each hound will be different. Some are perfectly content to ride the box and start stretching those strike dog muscles while they heal. Others will destroy themselves, your box, the rest of your pack, and try to eat your hunting partner in an attempt to get in on the chase. Do what you can. I once tried to box a hound with a foot injury in the middle of a race and she shucked and jived and stiff-armed me like an all-American running-back, then ran another 15 miles before I could tackle her and get her off the injured limb.

Apart from long distance sled dogs, there is no other canine in the world that puts as much mileage on their feet as big game hounds. If you can give them the pre-season training and the nutrition to keep their feet healthy and, when they do get injured, use some of these tips to get them back on track, then they will stay healthier overall and hunt longer as they age. I like how the old houndsman and dog musher, Gareth Wright, once said, “No foot, no dog.”

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Steve Ulberg UP Michigan Fall 2022

Theresa Woychik Ontario 2021 Dave Moon New Brunswick Fall 2021 79 Years Old!

Joe Stevens Ontario 2021 First Bear!

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Nolan Butcher & Dad SK, Canada Spring 2022 450 lbs!

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