Pennsylvania Game News - July 2021 - 17

friend, Eric Brickett, in another stand 150
yards away. They exchanged waves.
A while after, Ingram heard something
cracking in the woods. He looked toward
Brickett and saw him raise his muzzleloader,
try shooting it more than once, then
swap the gun - which wouldn't fire - for
his bow. He shot and killed a black bear.
" I was happy for him, but I'm not going
to lie, I was a little disappointed, too, "
Ingram said. " I thought that bear might
have been headed my way. "
The friend tagged and field-dressed
the bear, but decided to wait for reinforcements
to move it. So Ingram climbed back
into his stand, hoping that there might yet
be another bear around.
" Sure enough, I'm sitting there doing
a little pouting like a little kid, and I see
something out of the corner of my eye. It
was like black shadow coming through
the woods, " Ingram said.
It was indeed another bear, working
its way toward Ingram. He shot it and
watched it run off.
By now it was late in the day, so Ingram
decided to back out of the woods and
search for the bear in the morning. That
proved difficult.
When he returned to the woods with
his 7-year-old son Emery and a friend,
they found a good blood trail right away.
But it disappeared after 100 yards.
They searched and searched with no
luck. Ingram tried calling for a tracking
dog and likewise struck out there. Then
his friend had to leave.
" I don't mean to be preaching, but
that's when I went back to that last spot
I found blood and knelt down and said,
'God, if I'm going to find this bear, I'm
going to need some help.' "
Fortunately, two other hunters, familiar
with the area and on site to do some
scouting of their own, arrived. They led
JULY 2021
Ingram and Emery along an old gas well
road leading toward a swamp where they
thought the bear might have gone.
That was a good move, as they all
found the bear, about 300 yards as the
crow flies from where Ingram shot it. It
turned out to be a 2-year-old female with
an estimated live weight of 130 pounds.
Ingram hit it in the chest, but fat plugged
the hole, accounting for the lack of blood
on the ground.
But after two decades of trying, Ingram
had his bear.
He followed that up with a spring
gobbler that he harvested less than three
miles from where he took his buck and
bear. It had a 10 ¼-inch beard and 1-inch
spurs and completed his " triple trophy, "
the name given to the trick of taking a
deer, bear and turkey in the same license
year.
" So now I guess my next thing is I've
got my fingers crossed that one of these
days I'll get drawn for an elk tag and add
that to my bucket list, a Pennsylvania elk.
That would be great. I think I'd retire from
hunting at that point, " Ingram said. " Well,
no I wouldn't. "
He can't, really. He's got a pair of
partners to mentor. Emery shot his first
deer, an 11-point buck, with Ingram's
same crossbow last fall, and loves to hunt,
fish and camp above all else. Five-yearold
Elijah, coming up fast behind him,
has all the makings of a future diehard
hunter, too.
That's changed Ingram's perspective.
He dreamed of getting a triple trophy, and
of a bear in particular, for decades.
And now?
" Emery asked me, was the day you got
your bear your best day ever of hunting?
And I say it was until you got your first
buck and I was there with you to do it, "
Ingram said.
17
Pennsylvania Game News - July 2021

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