Recently I admitted here to being a groundhog freak. Well, I have another admission. I'm a closet bear freak. There's nothing that gets my motor running other than chasing and shooting bears. I've been very lucky so far with 8 black bears and 2 brown bears falling to my handguns up to now.
I did the first three behind dogs. I was young and dumb. Walked my butt off for hundreds of days doing that. Now that I'm old as the mountains, chubby, and have bad arthritis in one knee, my dog days are over.
I met a farmer who is now a very good friend that has hundreds of acres of corn. We shot permit deer each summer and saw lots of bears. Then WV opened a fall bear season the last week of Sept. about 8 years ago. He invited me to come.
I didn't know where to go so the first year I went on a very big mountain beside a river and his corn fields. Bears lived there and came down, crossed the river, and ate the corn. Luckily, I had a very big bear feed right at me at the end of the day. I hide behind a large oak. 48 yards was close enough. Shot him with my .325 WSM XP and a 180 gr. X. 6'2", 350#, a good start.
The following year I was one the mtn. the first day. Nothing. I went to the cornfields and walked the perimeters. Saw a black "cow" walking on a trail above the cows. It was a bear!! 279 yds., .325 WSM, 200 gr. AB.
Then I found one patch of corn that had very large bear trails coming to it. I built blinds there with shots from 180-220 yds. Got 3 in 5 years. Skunked twice.
I was back to my old haunts this year. The first 6 days of season I saw 3 bears and 1 enormous coyote, all moving so fast I couldn't get a shot.
I was bummed out day #7. Hot, humid, and a neighbor shooting targets about a mile away. Nothing by the last 30 minutes of legal shooting. I was done. This year he strategically placed hay bales that I used as a blind. I stood, unloaded my gun, and visited mother nature. I took one last look at the low river where they usually crossed. Bear!! Holy cow! I quickly reloaded my .375/.284 XP with a 250 gr. Lehigh Chaos bullet.
By the time I got on him in my 3-12X Burris BPlex he was walking to knee/chest high grass, weeds, stickers toward the corn. I turned the scope to 9X and waited. In 4-5 minutes (of pure terror) his head stuck out of the grass. I waited until he got out to the edge of the dirt road beside the corn and fired.
He was knocked down and was still. I reloaded. In 15 seconds he started rolling toward the grass. No shot. I hurriedly walked up to the area with my 6" S&W .500 and a 5 cell Mag light.
I finally found a little blood. Walking in the grass was miserable. After 40 minutes I found nothing and was really bummed out. I went to the farmer and told him. He said he'd help in the AM.
I came back at daybreak and searched for another 30 minutes before the farmer came. We found just a little more blood and separated looking. In 30 seconds he said, "it's here". It was only 2-3 yds. from where I'd walk, but was in tall grass in a sink hole.
Nice 200 # bear. I shot from the hay bales in the back-144 yds. He entered the tall grass where the orange flag is on the fence
The Chaos entered the mid left shoulder. Pedals broke of and went in the lungs, abdomen and spine causing about 1" of damage to the other side of the bear. The base exited just below the spine causing a 3-4" tract of damage. Great bullet.
So, that makes 6 bears in the last 8 years on this farm WITHOUT dogs. Guess where I'll be next year?
Yep, you could say I'm a bear freak.
I'm glad I bear-ly made the shot before season closed.
