Pennsylvania Game News - November 2010 - 24

short drives. Halfway through the first drive, Mike called and informed me that he could hunt the rest of the day. He agreed to meet us along Little Mahoning in less than an hour. After dropping off my truck, we headed north toward Little Sandy Creek and Game Lands 31. The rest of the afternoon was spent still-hunting the grapevine entangled reclaim piles of the former strip job. The highlight of the day was when I flushed six grouse within 60 yards along one such ridge. With daylight fading, we hiked down a small tributary of Little Sandy Creek, noting where a mink had apparently taken the same route the previous evening. Once again, Mike had to work and definitely wouldn’t be able to hunt the final day. Knowing this, Troy and I decided to really work on one of our old bear hunting buddies. Chris Pounds had hunted with us for many years and had even managed to harvest a bear a few years back. Troy and I phoned Chris and eventually convinced him to join our team. The next morning Troy and I waited in my basement, bad-mouthing Chris for being late. When he finally arrived, I informed him of our plan. With a grin on his face he said, “Sure, we can do that.” The twinkle in his eye quickly tipped us off that Chris knew where we’d find a bear. After arriving at our destination Chris mapped out the drives we would do. I felt confident that by the end of the day we would jump a bear. After the third drive, Troy stated that he would walk this one, and either Chris or I could post. Both of us declined, though, because Troy had never harvested a bear. After completing the fourth drive, I called down to Chris and asked him what he thought about bringing the hillside the rest of the way down
24

around the point. With a questionable “sure” as his reply, I continued on toward Troy. Halfway through the drive Chris and I heard music to our ears. The close range shot rang out across the valley and was undoubtedly Troy’s .308. As I looked down toward Chris I could see him pumping his fists in the air, just as two more quick shots were fired. Not knowing what exactly had transpired, Chris and I made our way to Troy’s position. Upon reaching Troy he was in disbelief. All the years of hunting bears and he finally had one running right at him. As he stood there wide-eyed and shaking he explained that at 70 yards he first saw the bear running toward him. His first shot was a clean miss and had really put the bear into gear. However, it continued running right at him as he put what would become the fatal shot in it at 40 yards. It then ran right past him as he missed it by using his see-through mounts. Unsure of the hit, we decided to wait an hour before picking up the blood trail. The bear was headed for a steep ridge intertwined with multiflora rose and grapevines. With Troy and Chris positioned in the event the bear was jumped, I picked up the blood trail. Within 70 yards I let out a yell, as I spotted Troy’s bear. The bear managed to fall into a 6-foot deep drainage ditch partly filled with downed treetops. With a lot of hard work we managed to move away some of the smaller logs, and get a drag rope onto the bear. After Troy tagged it, on the count of three we hoisted the bear up out of the ditch so Troy could field-dress his trophy. A long, steep drag awaited us, and I quickly volunteered to carry the guns as Troy and Chris began to inch the bear toward the truck. Troy’s unexpected opportunity to once again pursue bears really emphasizes that everything does happen for a reason. His bear weighed 165 pounds and was later determined to be two years old.
GAME NEWS

Pennsylvania Game News - November 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - November 2010