The last bear hunter

Bear season is over

The last hunter for the season,Tony Brinks from Iowa, has headed home. Tony was our only hound hunter this year. The hounds ran hard the first 3 days but could not get the bears to hold long enough for the hunter to get there. On the 4th day it was a whole different game . Hunting off the same bait that we started on at the begining of the week we turned the dogs loose just at daylight. They picked up the scent and headed for the steep part of the hill. With GPS collars on the hounds we could track every turn they made. 20 minutes later they were treed now we had to get the hunter in there for a shot. All the dogs were on the tree when we got there and the bear was perched some 50 feet up a big spruce. After gathering up the hounds Tony went in to see if he could make a round hit the target up through all the branches. The 45-70 roared the bear held on and started to falter. The next rounds were fired as the bruin tumbled toward the ground. He hit hard but was on his feet and flying down hill. The next volley of shots as he went end over end did the trick. The bear,a boar, had one of the nicest coats any of us had seen this year. A short half mile drag and we were at the truck all in less then 2 hours.