gamestalker
member
Of all the hunts I have ever engaged in, turkey hunting has put me in some extremely close encounters with just about every animal in the southwest, but nothing more often as bears.
I just returned from a 6 day fall turkey hunt, and as usual, I came close to having a face to face encounter with a very large black bear. On Saturday morning we were all gearing up, eating breakfast and preparing to head out to the roost. It was just starting to get light in the eastern sky, and the forest was just starting to come to life. I'm sitting in a chair by the fire eating my breakfast when I heard something very large crashing through the tree's, and it was getting closer by the second. A good distance off I also heard dogs, hunting dogs and they were also getting closer. that was when I figured it was likely a bear, with some dogs putting chase to him, I was right. He came running straight through our camp, didn't do much more than look in my direction, thankfully. But he passed within about 20 yds. or so, I had my shotgun at the ready, which was still full of 00 buck and slugs, which I keep in it during the night.
It doesn't end there though. Minutes after that, we broke up camp and headed out to the roost. While we were sitting there waiting for the birds to fly down, again, I heard the crashing and the dogs coming, great, there goes another opportunity at the turkey. Once again, the bear comes running through, this time he nearly ran into me. He wasn't visible until he was about 20 yds. of me, which is when I yelled Hey! at which time he put the brakes on and turned away. But who knows how he would have reacted when coming face to face with me.
And it still doesn't end there. Late Sunday afternoon, probably 45 minutes from dark, we were sitting on a knoll waiting for the birds to fly up to their roost, when all of a sudden I heard something running straight toward us. I thought, great here we go again. But to my surprise it was one of the dogs that had been lost since Saturday morning. She came running straight to me, I grabbed her collar, we took her back to camp and called the handler / owner. She had her GPS collar on, but when we spoke to the owner he said her collar had malfunctioned, so he thought he probably lost her for good. Both dog and hunter were reunited that evening, everyone was happy.
End of story, the hunter got that bear around noon Saturday. It was a really big boar, estimated weight was about 400 lbs.. I don't remember what the skull measured, but he said it was a book bear.
Great times, and very exciting too!
GS
I just returned from a 6 day fall turkey hunt, and as usual, I came close to having a face to face encounter with a very large black bear. On Saturday morning we were all gearing up, eating breakfast and preparing to head out to the roost. It was just starting to get light in the eastern sky, and the forest was just starting to come to life. I'm sitting in a chair by the fire eating my breakfast when I heard something very large crashing through the tree's, and it was getting closer by the second. A good distance off I also heard dogs, hunting dogs and they were also getting closer. that was when I figured it was likely a bear, with some dogs putting chase to him, I was right. He came running straight through our camp, didn't do much more than look in my direction, thankfully. But he passed within about 20 yds. or so, I had my shotgun at the ready, which was still full of 00 buck and slugs, which I keep in it during the night.
It doesn't end there though. Minutes after that, we broke up camp and headed out to the roost. While we were sitting there waiting for the birds to fly down, again, I heard the crashing and the dogs coming, great, there goes another opportunity at the turkey. Once again, the bear comes running through, this time he nearly ran into me. He wasn't visible until he was about 20 yds. of me, which is when I yelled Hey! at which time he put the brakes on and turned away. But who knows how he would have reacted when coming face to face with me.
And it still doesn't end there. Late Sunday afternoon, probably 45 minutes from dark, we were sitting on a knoll waiting for the birds to fly up to their roost, when all of a sudden I heard something running straight toward us. I thought, great here we go again. But to my surprise it was one of the dogs that had been lost since Saturday morning. She came running straight to me, I grabbed her collar, we took her back to camp and called the handler / owner. She had her GPS collar on, but when we spoke to the owner he said her collar had malfunctioned, so he thought he probably lost her for good. Both dog and hunter were reunited that evening, everyone was happy.
End of story, the hunter got that bear around noon Saturday. It was a really big boar, estimated weight was about 400 lbs.. I don't remember what the skull measured, but he said it was a book bear.
Great times, and very exciting too!
GS
Cool story!
