Eastern Carolina Bear Hunt

studabaka · December 19, 2007, 08:06:35 PM

Well I headed off to take a friend up on his invitation to go bear hunting. Them boys out there are serious about their bear hunting and are darn good at it. It was a very different hunting experience then anything I have ever done, cause it wasn't still hunting or stalking. It was with dogs. The first morning we were crawling along logging roads looking for bear crossings. The CB radio was filled with chatter from several other trucks doing the same thing. One of the trucks found a crossing and when we arrived at the spot there were probably a half dozen trucks, a dozen or so guys, and a whole heck of a lot of dogs. Four or five tracking dogs from various trucks (one from ours) were put on the trail and off they went. Trucks and hunters then dispersed to various spots on the logging roads around the section of reforestation with extremely thick undercover. We took a position on a dead end spur and could here the dogs from time to time. Then we started to hear a few dogs on the opposite side of the road and a little while later a bear comes running across the road about 100 yards up from us. I barely had time to register it was a bear let alone take a shot

We jumped in the truck and pulled up to the crossing while advising the sighting on the CB. Almost instantly there were several other trucks there and we all emptied our trucks of dogs onto the trail and moved down along the logging roads in the direction the bear and the dogs were headed. The chase crossed into another section and folks were spread out on all sides in case the bear tried to cross another road. Folks started working into the brush and after a bit a shot rang out and word spread that the bear had been shot. By the time all the dogs were gathered up and the bear drug out it was early afternoon. The bear was not a big one and was estimated at around 150 Lbs.

I still hunted in the evening, but didn't see anything.

The next morning before dawn we were out on the edge of a corn field bordered by similarly thick woods. Except on a few game trails, you couldn't see more than 5 yards, these woods were so thick. There were just three of us with one other guy about a qtr mile away on a logging road. Me and another guy took a couple of dogs down a mowed trail just off the corn field and within minutes they were carrying on and we let them loose. We ran along the trail for probably 100 yards trying to keep up with the sound of them. Then they seemed to stop and the other guy says to spread out 50 yards and we head into the thick. I'm moving slowly fighting briars and brush, towards the sound of the dogs. Then I hear the bear growling and the dogs barking, so I try to move faster, but it is hard and I'm making noise as I fight my way through. The whole time I'm expecting I am going to run straight into a bear :shck: A shot sounds not 20 yards ahead of me and I push my way there, now only hearing the sounds of the dogs. I find the guy there working to leash the dogs who are barking and biting the bear that is dead from a single shot square between the eyes. The guy (Steve) tells me as I help secure the dogs that he was trying to wait for me so I could have a shot, but he could hear me coming through the brush and so could the bear and with only three dogs the bear was looking like he was going to make a break for it. I didn't really care that I didn't get the shot, but Steve and my friend were clearly hoping that it had been able to work out that way. This one was a bit bigger, but still only estimated to be 200 lbs, though it felt like more by the time we finished dragging it out .

So the first bear with lots of dogs went a long way and the chase lasted hours, but the second bear with only three dogs (mostly just one) went only a few hundred yards. The first one the initial strategy was to watch the roads for a shot and then move in. The second one was to get right in. I felt like a total green horn on the first bear and then the second, cause it seemed opposite to what I expected/anticipated from the day before

But to these guys it all seemed intuitively obvious on what to do, how to do it, and when. I think I learned a lot, but have a lot to learn when it comes to hunting bear with dogs. It is slow, then there is the chase and then stuff happens fast in woods sooooo thick you can barely see.

A bunch of guys joined us a little while later and the dogs picked up on another bear, but lost it. I think they were planning on going after it again today, but I haven't heard how they made out. I drove home last night with a bunch of bear meat and the hide from the second bear and another frozen hide of a bigger one gotten the week before. Man those hides take some work to flesh :shck:

HaMeR · December 19, 2007, 10:15:01 PM

Thanks for taking me with you on your bear hunts Stu!!

Nice writeup.

Nelson · December 20, 2007, 04:35:12 AM

Nice write up and hunt Stu.

Nelson

KySongDog · December 20, 2007, 06:54:50 AM

Great story, Stu! I've hunted wild boar with dogs and it's kind of similar to what you experienced. Glad you had a good time.

Semp

Hawks Feather · December 20, 2007, 07:50:56 AM

Stu,

Great write up on your hunt. It sounds like you had a good time and now have some work to do on bear hides. I miss the sound of dogs running a trail, but that was on coon - not bear.

Jerry

FinsnFur · December 20, 2007, 06:16:15 PM

Quote from: studabaka on December 19, 2007, 08:06:35 PM
Man those hides take some work to flesh :shck:

Sounds like you enjoyed yourself though. That entire trip sounds exactly like the way the group of guys up here that hunt coyotes. to a "T".

CB's, dogs, and a lotta trucks

studabaka · December 20, 2007, 06:53:03 PM

The fresh hide fleshed out a whole heck of a lot esier than the frozen one did, but they were both a 'bear'

I hope the frozen one doesn't slip cause there was a bunch of fat on it. It will be way purdy if it comes out good

I have to say that this was a very counter intuitive experience........ Working through brush that you can't see but a couple yards in, towards the sound of a clearly pissed off bear :shck: The sound of an angry bear that is maybe 20 yards away, but you can't see is an experience I won't soon forget

iahntr · December 20, 2007, 07:57:48 PM

That's cool Stu ! I've been trackin bear up in Canada in stuff so thick like that and heard the ol huffin and jaws poppin, it definitely gets the blood a pumpin.

I've never ran em with dogs before, sounds like it could be alotta fun. Thanks for sharin it with us.

vvarmitr · December 21, 2007, 07:56:30 AM

Stu & iahntr: That's why you go "loaded for bear!"

Hey Stu , maybe that's were that comment came about a difficult task ... "it was a bear?"

Sounds like you had a true adventure. I've always wanted to try it myself, but I'm afraid the dogs would turn on me & run me up a tree & some idiot would shoot me.