Post by: bearcat_outfitters on February 11, 2013, 07:15:45 PM
There was evidence of a huge bear in the same meadow again this last spring. Dan figures he treed the bear when training his hounds in early May before the hunters showed up for the year, but wasn’t 100% sure it was Slew Foot. I have tried numerous times to try and sneak into the meadow and shoot the bear as it was feeding, but the wind always seems to be wrong when using the only practical access route into the meadow. I would suggest this is the main reason the bear has lived to an old age. Getting frustrated, I set up a trail camera in mid-May. We got pictures of a huge boar the first day then a few days with nothing then he showed up again with a sow. Our next group of hunters arrived and a plan was set for Dan to walk one of his best hounds into the meadow on a leash and see what transpired. Sure enough ‘Cricket’ went ballistic upon entering the meadow and Dan released her and a couple of his other best hounds. They quickly sorted out the huge bear’s trail and the race was on. It ended up treeing after ‘only’ a couple of hours chase. It was the first morning of the Battaglia’s family hunt and we got them all to the site once the bear was treed. Marg is awaiting knee replacement surgery, but was still able to make the steep descent into the canyon where the bear had treed. We got some good photos of the bear up the tree, then Tony Battaglia made a fine shot with his bow to fell the monster.
We aren’t really sure if this was, in fact, the bear that had been wounded years ago due to the time lapse since that incident. Having said that, when Tony and I skinned out the old boar we found some old bruising and damage to his left, front leg…..
A memorable hunt for us all and an extremely nice trophy for Tony'’s collection. The bear squared over 6.5 feet and has a huge skull. His hair was beautiful and soft and at least 3 inches deep. We will await formal scoring to see where he ends up in the record book.
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