Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!doug.cae.wisc.edu!osnome.che.wisc.edu!hunting
From: roa@davinci.acc.virginia.edu ("Robert O. Anderson Jr")
Newsgroups: rec.hunting
Subject: Story
Message-ID: <1991May14.062657.4965@doug.cae.wisc.edu>
Date: 14 May 91 11:26:57 GMT
Lines: 55
Approved: hunting@osnome.che.wisc.edu
Originator: hunting@osnome.che.wisc.edu


      About 4 years ago, I was in a treestand in the mountains. Nice day,
not much wind, mid October and the leaves hadn't started to turn, yet.
A couple of hours had gone by and the squirrels were everywhere. As you all
know, a squirrel makes sounds just like a deer....until you hear a deer.
It was 8:00 AM and I decided to rattle. Thought it was a good idea to get
comfortable first, I put my bow in the holder and grabbed my 2 liter 
gingerale bottle(the green one) and stood up to pee into the bottle. After
fishing my pecker out of all those clothes, I proceeded to relieve myself
carefully as to not spill a drop. A crashing sound to my right caught my
attention and I saw a big bunch of honeysuckle shaking...."Huh, a squirrel
must have fallen out of a tree and landed in that honeysuckle." All of
a sudden, this bear stands up on his hind legs! I look at the bear and
look at bow and look at the bottle! I look at the bear, then look at the
bottle. The bear, the bottle. The bear....the bottle. After what seemed
like and eternity, I eased the cap back on the bottle, picked up my bow
ever so slowly and turned toward the bear. As he went behind some thick
stuff, I nocked an arrow and stood ready, my mind already made up that
I was going to cast an arrow at the best opportunity I had. Limbs, 
leaves, or trees wouldn't stop me from shooting. I caught glimpses of
him as he moved parallel to me and I pulled back and waited for him to 
clear the thick stuff. Where did he go? I eased the tension off the bow
and tried to find him when I looked down and there he was....I pulled
back and put all four sight pins on his back and let fly. He took off
like a horse out of the starting gates and was gone. I sat down, thinking
I'd just made a good shot on a bear, but I wasn't excited at all. I
think, in my mind, that I would never kill a bear with a bow and it
was one of those things that happen without it really sinking in.
I wasn't nervous and was kinda disappointed that it wasn't any more exciting
than it was. "Huh, that wasn't so bad, shooting a bear, I'll climb down
and see if I hit him. Naaah, I'll wait like you're supposed to do.
Okay, it's been ten minutes now, I'll check my arrow. Naah, the book
says 30 minutes! Well, I couldn't wait 30 minutes so I tied the rope
to my bow and started lowering it down. Naaaaahh, I'll climb down
"with the bow" incase I *need* it. You can't shoot a bow climbing 
down a tree! "I'll wait the 30 minutes," as I pulled the bow back up 
the tree.
      Now, guys, I'll tell ya', It was hard to come out of that tree!
I tracked that bear ever so slowly(no blood) for twenty yards...then
I found the fletching half of my arrow. It was covered with hair and
blood. 
      I went straight to the farm house and got the owner, his helper
and his big black dog. Well, that big black house dog scared the sh*t
out of me several times while tracking that bear through the thick
stuff. There wasn't any blood on the ground, but when the bear went
through the honeysuckle it was red where it rubbed his back. We lost
the trail near the creek where the woods opened up. I was really
disappointed, but then his dog started barking on the side of the 
next ridge. He was dead. He died right in a logging road. We just
backed the jeep up to him and loaded him up. He wasn't a big bear,
(150 lb.), big enough to fit "on the wall" in the rec room.

Bobby