On the first week of the hunt I had a few firefighters up for a hunt. All was going well and the baits were getting hit hard, and often. So it was common sense that the baits had to be replenished on daily bases. We knew there was a couple of big ones in the area, and one huge one... Anyhow after Joe (not real name) hunting a site for a couple of days and passing on a couple of smaller bears at that stand site, he asked me if I would take him to hunt another bait site about a mile away from the first bait he was hunting. So hey, he's the paying client therefore away we went. We jumped on the ATV and I went and dropped him off at the second bait site then headed back to camp.
At around 7:30pm I got a call from Joe on the two way radio telling me he had shot a huge black but the bear took off into the thick/dirty old cutover. I asked Joe where he hit the bear and he told me he was positive he had hit him right through both lungs with a 10 yard shot and that he heard the bear crash after a few death screams, so I told him to stay up in his tree and hang tight until I got there. When I arrived at the spot I asked the hunter in which direction the bear took off to and so on. Anyway, we found the arrow and it had good lung blood all the way up the arrow right to the fletching. So I turn to Joe and tell him to follow me and seal my a$$ as I only have a knife on my belt. I'm following the blood trail tracking the animal in this thick stuff that is so thick you can't even see 10 feet in front of you!. We got about 50 yards into it and all of a sudden we hear a big growl which I figured was a little ways in more but I found out how wrong I was...
When I moved another 20 feet or so into this thick stuff staying on the blood trail I heard branches breaking and a louder growl the next thing I knew I was dwarfed by this huge and really pissed off bear, standing up on his hind legs no farther than 10-15ft from me and as I said he was really pissed off. But Joe who was right on my tail and good enough of a shot with his bow ( darn good thing) to give him a finishing shot right into the heart, then the bear swung around and went another 20 yards before pilling up. After we were done gutting the bear it was clear that he had hit the bear with a single lung shot and not both lungs... Anyway, I'm home safe and sound and Joe has his trophy black bear weighing in at 536lbs!...
LW
I think I'll stick with deer hunting. I'm glad you and Joe were not part of the bait pile.
Neve have enough TRUE fire side storys too oass on. Glad ya be back fer awhile.... 
