October 30, 2010
I had planned to hunt my favorite stand this morning but as I turned onto a county dirt road I noticed a vehicle had already been down the road on top of the nights dew. The thought immediately came to me that this is most likely going to be the guy that is hunting the adjoining property about 50yds from my stand. As I pulled up to our common gate so did the wheel sign I was following....*#!%!*.
I was already a little late but rather than go on to the stand and stare at my neighbor for 2 hours, I decided to go to another stand. My nearest stand was a mile and a half away and I had to get thru 2 gates to get there. I turned the truck around and headed for Moccasin Drain. I was not looking forward to a hunt here however. I had been running a trail camera there for over a month without catching a single buck on camera. I really had no hopes of seeing anything there.
Well, I humped all my gear and myself into the stand and got everything setup for the mornings hunt, good or bad.
It was an entertaining morning. The birds and squirrels were very active and it was obvious that there was a major feed going on. There were some turkeys roosted a short distance away and they were extremely vocal, coarse yelping and cutting. I started calling back at them with just my mouth and they got really fired up. One hen even flew tree to tree over to me. There were several cackles that I thought were turkeys coming off the roost but I never got to see one.
I think it was about 7:45 when I glanced over to a small opening to the west at about 45yds. At the left edge was a dark brown form there that I did not remember being there earlier. Not knowing if it was looking at me I sat motionless until finally it moved. It turned its head and gave me the chance to raise my binoculars and give him a check......Buck! A Shooter!
I went into action, got the video camera rolling and pointed at the deer. The only problem was one step and the deer could be behind a screen of palmettos and young cabbages. The camera suddenly lost its importance and I quickly raised my Encore and settled the cross hair on the buck as he turned. I touched her off, smoke belched from the barrel and the bullet was on its way.
At the shot the camera fell forward and started videoing the ground. As the smoke cleared I could see the deer on the ground thru the palmettos. I tipped the camera back up and got on the deer. About then I realized the deer was still struggling and I had better reload in case I needed to shoot again.
I turned the camera to me to get some footage of me reloading. Just as I set the bullet in the barrel I glanced towards the deer and saw what I perceived to be a monster black boar hog rushing my deer. I went into overdrive, ramming the bullet down the barrel. I could not understand what a hog was doing running up to a downed deer? Never heard of that. I shouldered my Encore to shoot the big hog and was shocked to see it was not a hog….it was a bear!!! and he had my buck by the neck! About that time he took off with him. All I could think to do was holler at him.
I hollered at the bear with my most menacing voice and to my surprise the bear stopped. I hollered again and he dropped my buck and took off to the Northwest as fast as he could.
That was just about the most incredible thing I have ever witnessed in the woods! Unfortunately, I really blew it on the video footage. I missed the kill shot and only ended up with a couple of seconds of the bear, just a black dot in the distance. I missed the best part where the bear was fully visible as he ran thru a small clearing.
It turned out that I had shot real high and just barely caught the deer in the bones the stick up above the spinal column. He was broke down in the back and struggling when the bear rushed in and caught him. Talk about bad luck!
I did get some after the fact footage and still pictures and it is quite evident where the bear had the deer by the neck. The hair is all wet with bear slobber and there are several visible puncture holes and scratched
The oddness of the story does not end there however and once I got to the buck and realized the bear appeared to be gone, I noticed he had a large growth on his right jaw. As I got closer I could see he was covered in warts and was a sight to see. Otherwise the deer was in healthy condition. I did do some research on deer warts and found out they are caused by a virus but is not known to be transmitted to humans. I did however take the precaution of wearing some protective gloves for the quartering. My ole huntin buddy Steve on the other hand, being a seeker of knowledge, made a through examination of the warts, minus the gloves! His wife a b o u t h a d a f i t when she discovered he'd been touching the ugly, bulbous, black growths....bare handed!
About 45 minutes before dark I heard something approaching from the east. I got the camera going and was surprised to see another big black bear coming down the trail! I have a digital trail camera right in front of my tree stand and had swapped the card before I climbed into the tree. The bear eventually got close enough to the camera to smell where I had been and got up and started tracking me down the trail I had used to get to the stand. He passed by my tree at less than 4yds. He continued down the sand trail and when he came to an opening, I kissed at him to stop him and get a still picture. He stopped, swung his head around and realized something was wrong. He was off like a shot, crashing thru the palmettos.
What a day! I have been hunting for over 30yrs. and could count the black bears I have seen on one hand and that day I had seen two in one day including having one catch a crippled deer I had just shot, incredible.
Everyday in the woods is an adventure. You just never know what you are going to see.
Best of Hunts,
Larry Stephens
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