PURSUING THE BRUIN Have you heard the phrase the best things come to those who wait? Well my (Lora Engleman) turn finally came after a 4 year bow hunt of a black bear. My husband, Joe, and I are avid bow hunters; in fact all we do is bow hunt. Well, besides being the busy owners of Dubois Honda ATV. In September of 2001, Joe took his first black bear and with a PSE Team Primos bow. It was a magnificent, beautiful creature! Not 10 minutes after he shot his bear, an even bigger bruin came in. Although I had a license, I was not prepared. I took great footage of the bear on video at only 15 yards! Joe and I have practiced shooting each others bows, but it does not do much good when the quiver of arrows are stuck in a branch of the tree 12 feet below you, and the bow is hanging at the bottom of the tree. So all we could do was respectfully watch this enormous bear. He watched us as well, and thanks to night shot on the video camera we were aware of his every move. I hunted this big bruin every evening til the season closed, and never caught sight of him again. I continued to hunt black bear with a bow during both the spring and fall seasons, and finally this Spring I was given my chance. But of course it was not easy. I had spent many hours in a tree stand, one day I even sat for 11 hours, and no bear. A few times he would pass by my tree at 100 yards away, but not close enough for a bow. I tried everything I could to get this very smart bear. Then on June 14th, 2005, one day before the spring season closed, he made a mistake. I was in the tree for only about 10 minutes and saw him coming. He walked up to my tree and laid down for a short nap. I tried to get a shot, but there were too many branches below me. After about 2 minutes he got up to wander off. I shot the bear at only 15 yards. He slowly walked 20 yards away and I had successfully harvested a magnificent Black Bear. I was calm the entire time until I walked up to him and new he was dead. Then I was so extremely excited I could hardly talk. Weighing in at about 280 pounds, and well over 5-1/2 foot tall, I had accomplished another lifelong goal with my AR34 Bow. I have never harvested an elk before-though I have been close, not close enough. My goals were to harvest a Black Bear and a nice Bull Elk this year with my bow. I am half way there, and know my day will come. I have passed up a few elk this season, and hope that I will have more chances. |
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