GOOD BEAR HUNTING TRIP

Stoner Burkhammer

It started one morning, the second Thursday of bear season in WV. They was five of us in our hunting party that day. We left at 3:00 0’clock that morning, it was about a 3 hour drive and we stopped and eat something because you don’t know when you might eat again. We got to the hunting spot about daylight. We had never hunted this spot before, so we did not know what to expect.

We found a few larrel thickets so we started walking through them , we walked for 3 hours leading dogs with no luck so the man that owned the property that we was hunting on new the area so we decided to start Rigging the roads, we Rigged for about 3 hours before we had strike. It was a really good strike so we decided to turn the dogs on the ground One of the Dogs was starting to come in heat so we Argued weather to turn her loose or not so we decided to turn her loose. It Didn’t take long for them to jump the bear that we struck and then 30 Minutes later the dogs had it treed.

There were 3 of us in one vehicle so we decided to go ahead and go to the tree because the other to guys were 3 miles further away then we were it took about 20 minutes to get to the tree when we arrived at the tree we seen that it was a good size bear so we started catching the dogs, when we caught the last dog of the tree the bear started down the tree, since it was a good size bear I started shooting at the bear but with all of the excitement I realized that I only had 3 shells the rest was at the truck.

The bear went over the hill not knowing if I even hit it, so I went over the hill looking for it , then I discovered that there was blood on the ground so I knew that I must have hit it. Then it really started getting exciting , this all took place on the river face of the Gauley River then I seen the Bear 10 feet out in the River swimming the river, But remember I have no Bullets not Knowing how bad the bear was hit we decided to turn some dogs loose, so we turn three dogs loose and they swim the River after the bear, but when the bear reached the other side of the river it could not get out on the bank of the river but the dogs was already in the water going after the bear, then at that moment one of the other members of the party arrived and he was carrying his pistol he tried to shoot the bear but he only had 3 bullets then the dogs swam out of the river and got in front of the bear and started face barking at it , so the bear decided to turn and swim back toward us the dogs jumped in after it and 1 of the dogs jumped on the bears back (the one we argued about turning loose) the bear and Dogs are in the middle of the River and we have no shells The Dogs and bear is fighting out in the middle of the River the dogs decided to go back to the other side, but the Bear kept swimming toward us .

Then all at once we seen that the bear had died in the middle of the river. This River is a River that you white water Raft on, and the bear was floating down the River in Rapids and we was chasing after it on the bank, but soon we relized that it was going to sink if we didn’t get it soon. when it came to a calm pool and we caught our Breath Bill Blankenship one of the Hunting Partners jumped in the water after it, Now remember that it was the Second week of December 25 degrees and snowing that is a true friend and hunting partner When finally retrieved the bear and Bill from the water we discovered how big it was, we could not drag it up over the River face so we had to leave it and come back later with a boat. This was one of the many exciting bear hunting Trips that I have had. The bear dressed out at 300lbs.

It would not be as exciting without all of my friends so at this time I want to say thanks to Bill Blankenship, Jay Waugh, J.D. Casto, Jeff Asbury, Don Ratcliff, Hershal Thomas, Andy Winterstien and last but not least Thanks to the Guy that owned the property Jim Waugh.

Thank you,
Stoner Burkhammer