Bear Hunting

Written on 10:19 AM by Jim Harmer

I had a wild week hunting in McCall, Idaho with my brothers and dad. We left on Monday at 3 AM for the opening week of bowhunting season. Thanks to Emily, I had tags for deer, bear, elk, and mountain lion.

On Monday I was sneaking around on a trail and suddenly saw a flash of bear fur on a little ridge about 20 feet from me. I stepped off the dirt road (illegal to shoot from a road) next to the steep embankment so that I could shoot as soon as the bear showed himself. That was stupid. All of the sudden, the bear came out of the bush and I was FACE TO FACE with a bear. AAAHH! I drew back my bow and put the pin on its vitals when I suddenly realized that it was a cub. I came down on my bow and stepped away from it just as 250 lb momma bear burst out of the bushes behind the cub. I scrambled for my bear spray that I was wearing on my belt and pulled the safety pin. I sprayed out a little pepper spray and the bears sprinted away. WOAH!!! My heart was pounding for an hour.

Later in the week I shot a deer from 45 yards away. The unsuspecting deer immediately bolted and it made the arrow hit a little far back behind the heart and lungs. My dad, Ben, Sam, and I followed the blood trail for FOUR hours. There was a lot of blood, but it ended in a large grassy field and we couldn't find any more blood. Despite our best possible efforts to recover the deer, it ended up being bear bait.

Immediately after shooting the deer, I sneaked down to where I shot it and grabbed my arrow. I stepped back about 20 feet from where I'd shot, and suddenly another bear appeared. I drew my bow and waited for it to come out from a bush. My arm started trembling because I was nervous and the weight of the bow. When it stepped out from the bush, I let the arrow fly... right over the back of the bear. NUTS! I was too nervous.

On Thursday I got my last chance at taking a bear. I saw two bears fighting, so I drew back and shot at one of them. I was sure my arrow hit him, so I started snapping pictures of the bear--thinking that the one I shot would soon die. After waiting 30 minutes and the bears having walked off, I went down to get my arrow and then skin my bear. SURPRISE! My arrow was clean, there was no blood trail, and there was no dead bear. I had missed! All that time snapping pictures, I could have taken another shot, but I thought it had been hit! NUTS! I guess that's one goal I'll never knock of my list of 50 things to do in life.

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