Pennsylvania Game News - October 2021 - 29

BEAR-HUNTING LUCK
My hunting started in 1964, when
Woolrich clothing was the fad. Hunting
was a family tradition. Both of my grandfathers,
my father, and my two brothers
hunted.
But we never had the bear-hunting
opportunities we have today.
I remember listening to Gary Alt
speak about how we could grow the bear
population with the proper management
program, and so we did!
I'd grown up hunting in those days
of no bear season, a one-day season or,
in most years, a two-day season. Now
in some parts of the state, bear season is
in for almost three months, and there are
statewide archery, muzzleloader and firearms
bear seasons beginning in October.
In 2020, the firearms bear season that's
open to senior hunters came in Thursday,
Oct. 22. While attending my grandson's
high-school football game on Friday, my
son Rob and I made plans to leave my
home in Marysville early Saturday morning
and head for a favorite hunting spot in
Tioga County. I'd hunt bear with a rifle on
the final day of the special firearms season;
Rob would hunt deer with a bow. We left
about 4 a.m.
We'd made this 2½-hour trip north
many times before, but today was different.
We talked a lot on the ride about my
previous close encounters with bears. In
many years of hunting them, I had two
really good opportunities to shoot one
- first about 35 years ago, then about 22
years ago. Both of them ended up with
someone else tagging a bear I'd hit first.
The area we hunt near the Pennsylvania
Grand Canyon gorge is a good mix of
hardwoods and swamps, and there's an
area that was timbered years ago that's
now maturing. All of it makes for great
habitat, and there's plenty of food and
seclusion cover for bears. We arrived
around 6:30 a.m., quickly got our gear
together and started in on a hiking trail in
the center of a huge hollow that leads to a
swamp. Rob took one side of the hollow
and I set up on the other - my favorite
side - by the old timbered area.
BEAR DOWN
The area is miles from civilization.
It's quiet, but at the same time, sounds
carry for a long distance if it's not windy.
Shortly after 9 a.m., Rob sent me a text
message that he'd heard people talking on
the hiking trail, some distance away from
him. He sent another text about an hour
later, and this time I could hear them, too.
Rob wasn't happy about all the talking he
could hear, but around 10:30, a small buck
and a doe came running by me, toward
his spot, before apparently veering away
from him.
I texted Rob at 11:14, suggesting we
meet at the truck at noon to eat lunch and
decide our next move. It was only a few
minutes later when I decided to gather
my stuff together and take a long way
back instead of backtracking the route
I'd walked in. I only went about 30 yards
before I saw something black out ahead
of me. I thought it might be a bear, but it
just as well could have been a stump. Then
it moved, and I said to myself, " stumps
don't move! "
I pulled up the Remington .30-06,
placed the crosshairs on the bear and fired.
TURNED UPSIDE DOWN
OCTOBER 2021
29
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - October 2021
