Bear Huntin Im'a Goin'

[butlersrangers]

I'm glad you guys had a successful Hunt. Your Krag - Roared!

[FredC]

Knute, since you brought it up in another post about the small bear. I will relate my story, I was care taking on a ranch in the hill country right after I got married. My employers would give me one or two doe tags each year. Well I shot a doe that looked pretty big in the scope. It was only 20 yards away and was a small fawn. On top of that it was just across the property line. I reached over the fence and lifted back to my employer's side, yeah she weighed way less than fourty pounds. Looked up and the neighbors were watching me from their house. Oh, and the neighbor was Ace Reid, the famous cartoonist. Now that was embarrassing! Not sure if I was mentioned in the funny papers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_Reid

Some had mentioned mature bears might taste off. Much less likely with a young animal. Older male pigs and javelina can really have a really off taste. Young ones are better to eat. With all the pigs we killed here during the first years, I decided life was too short to eat the stinky old boar hogs. Sows killed too late at night just got dragged off. When your freezer is full and you are looking at an other wise edible pig at 2:00 AM it it got to be too much work. Eight or nine PM and a sow with the freezer full, yeah I would clean it and give it to a friend.

[Knute1]

Thanks for sharing FredC. It takes a hunter to understand something like this. It didn't help last week when an 11 year old girl was reported to have gotten a 700# plus bear on the same day I got mine. She was hunting southeast of me in Wisconsin. I'm happy for her. And as a hunter knows, it isn't all about harvesting the animal. My brother and I had a good time and met some good people of similar interest. When my bear was recovered I was disheartened. But the other hunters that showed up (some didn't have a permit, but just wanted to be in the woods helping another hunter) admitted to having gotten a smaller bear like this one as there 1st bear. They were still happy for me.
Did I want a trophy. Sure. But I knew the odds were against me. I spent one day in the bear woods. Could have waited a few more days, but the outcome could have been the same. Would I have been happier posing with a bigger bear with my Krag? Of course. But my goal was mostly realized. Proving that the old Krag could still do it as it had years ago.
My brother was kicking himself. Although he got a larger than average harvested bear, he did not have our Great Grandpa's 1895 Winchester during the afternoon hunt. He had it during the morning hunt. But in the afternoon he was concerned about seeing a bear as it was getting dark and wanted a light gathering scope. So he took a 6.5mm Creedmore, or something like that. He could have easily gotten the bear with the 1895. He was in a ground blind by himself about a mile from where I hunted. He looked to his left from his blind in time to see a bear about 5 yards from him heading to the bait in front of him. He shot the bear when it got out in front of him at about 10 yards. A second shot as it was running anchored it and there was no need to follow a blood trail. This happened about 5 in the afternoon. As he was trying to kick himself for not have the 1895, being a good brother, I offered for him to bend over as I could more easily drop kick him into the next county.

[butlersrangers]

It's not about size of the Bear, but, the anticipation, Hunt, adventure, shared memories, humor, and using your Krag!