Hunting Season Harvest Report 2010

The simple harvest report is three deer and one bear. But as every golfer, fisherman, hunter, (and those who live with us) knows, part of the success is in the telling, and retelling, of the story. This year's highlight was the bear. So I'll bore you with that story.

October 22, 40s and breezy. Sitting in the tree stand at the Upper Gate food plot. That's the one way out on the SW (lower) corner of the big field. 6:15 PM/ I hear a deer scamper behind me and wonder what must have scared it. Perhaps a doe being chased by a buck. I stand slowly and turn around and catch a movement 25 yards out in thick tangles of autumn olive, multiflora rose, and honey suckle shrubs. Focusing, I am surprised after a few seconds to see a black bear approaching my tree stand. I freeze. Motionless, yet leaning to keep the tree between me and the bear until it passes. It pads quietly towards me as thoughts race through my mind. Is it a legal bear? Not supposed to shoot cubs or a bear in a group. It looks reasonably big and there are no others. Do I want to shoot a bear? Well, it did just chase a deer away and we seem to have more than we really need in the area. I would prefer to have deer bedding in that brush patch of a pasture. Not bear. I have never shot a bear. Never had an opportunity. I will eat it, share it, and because it's bow season, it would be particularly unique to harvest a BEAR. I recognize it's not a monster bear, but I am really not sure how big it is. I am that close and up a tree. I only know it's not a cub. And it is really close. Definitely a shooting distance well within my range of shooting confidence. I decide to shoot. 5 seconds have gone by since I first saw it. It is passing by my tree three or four yards away. I am practically looking straight down upon it. Now I must prepare to move and shoot without being sighted and strategize how it might play out. Will the tree stand squeak as I shift my weight? I try to fasten my release to the bow string. I fumble. Second attempt, it’s latched. The bear reaches the edge of the brush and sticks its head out into the field, lifts its nose in the air. Will it smell me? It’s past me now. I feel like now is the time to draw when it will least likely be apt to see me move. I draw and anchor. Will I be able to hold full draw long enough for it to make it’s move? Moments pass as it surveys the open field for safety. Did I practice enough? I am about to find out.

The bear is now almost out of the brush, at the edge of the field. It sticks it’s head out, raises its nose, and sniffs the air. Sensing nothing, it turns left, broadside, at 7 yards out. I shot. I hit it hard. I heard the arrow hit and the bear let out a woof. It went tearing across the foodplot, through the upper gate, across the corner of the big field, and went crashing through the hedgerow 40 yards away. I could hear him hit the barbed wire fence. Sounded like he hit it again, like there was another fence. There isn’t. Thrashing through the leaves. Then silence.

I sat down.

Strangely, I was pretty calm, considering.

It was 6:15 PM. Darkness would be here shortly. You are supposed to wait up to 20 minutes to an hour before you track an arrow shot animal. But because of the ensuing darkness, and excitement, after ten minutes or so, I climbed down to check. I found the arrow. It was a pass through shot with blood on the fletchings. I followed the bear’s path through the food plot, across the big field where it hit the fence. I could not find a blood trail. I decided to wait until morning to track, and hopefully, retrieve the bear. I really didn’t want to deal with a possibly wounded bear with just a sliver from my quiver. I waited in the tree stand until dark for any other possibilities. As I stood to pack up at dark, another bear shadowed away about 20 yards away. I think. I took my time climbing down.

The next morning, I picked up the trail. Crawling on my hands and knees through the brush, belly crawling under the fence, I soon began to find a blood trail. Not much. But then, a piece of a lung, which encouraged me. Soon, another piece. It began to open up enough that I could stand. I still had difficulty finding much blood and carefully marked the trail with pieces of paper towel. I was mostly tracking by the disturbed leaves it left in it’s wake. Looking ahead, listening. I spotted the bear. Approached carefully. But it was dead and had died immediately when I last heard him crash the night before. It had been a perfectly placed shot. It ran no more than 75 yards.

Now the retrieval. I must admit that I had no idea how to field dress a bear. I suspected it was similar to a deer, but the night before, I went on line and did some Googling to make sure. That part went pretty easy. It had been a cold night so I had no concerns about the quality of the meat. And fortunately, the coyotes had not found it. Once finished, I began the arduous task of dragging it out of the woods. Not that it was so heavy. It was about the same as a big deer. It was the thick brush. But after I cleared a trail, I finally got it back to the field. Then used the tractor to get it to the house and load it on the truck.

The plan was to take it to Painter’s meat shop in Elkland, PA. It was Sunday but I called and Roger was there. But first, of course, I had to stop up on the hill and show it off to the hunters. Then stopped to show it to Tim who was working down at Troy’s.

I had them skin it so that I could make a rug. The meat: a few steaks, the tender loin, ground, and about 30 pounds of hot dogs. The hide is in my freezer until I figure out where to take it.

The harvest report from DEC shows that only 43 bear were taken in Steuben County in 2010. Only 6 in the Town of Woodhull.