The Russian Olive Boar
I had a hunting buddy stop by one afternoon in June because he had been playing softball and had a couple hours free time. About the time he sat down the phone rang. It was one of the local conservation officers and he had a bear problem. It seems this bear had been run over by a truck and knocked out, but when the truck driver got out examining the bear it jumped up and took off.
According to the officer, it had happened in the night and they had been over there that morning looking for the bear with no luck. The farmer that owned the land heard about the wounded bear and wanted it moved or killed because of safety issues. The officers thought the bear was probably dead and wanted me to trail to the bear and find it. It would be nearly 2:30 P.M. by the time we arrived and I started to tell him it was too late to trail an overnight bear in the heat of summer. But I went anyway because they asked.
My buddy and I got to the scene and the two officers showed me the track. I put Ike, Ryan and Choco on the track and they went out on a silent cold-trail. We all four followed and got into the Russian olive trees near the river and Ike started to open. I figured well, he’ll trail to the bear and they’ll all blow up when they find it. Right? Wrong!
Those three hounds jumped the bear, across the river bottom, the river, a canal, then through a guys fenced front yard, over another fence and onto the highway, across the other fence and treed two or miles out in a Russian Olive tree. Meanwhile, I was running across the river bottom, crossed the river and canal, and found a young man on a four wheeler waiting for me.
“Are those your hounds?” he asked. “That darn bear came running through my yard, jumped the fence and out onto the highway. And your hounds were right on his rear end.”
He was kind of excited and I was afraid I’d find all three of my hounds dead on the road. What a train wreck!
Well, the two officers and my buddy brought the two trucks around and met me there. They heard the story and figured if that bear ran three miles and jumped three fences he probably wasn’t hurt too bad. They told me they had decided not to kill the bear and for me to go on to the tree and run him out of the country.
We looked him over good at the tree and he had an injured shoulder but used both front paws striking at my dogs. I put a scene from that video on my new DVD, Hound Dog Crazy II that is scheduled out in October. I hope to put together a little trailer for my web page to advertise the new release by September.
Looking back, I learned a tough lesson about assuming a bear was probably dead and turning dogs out to trail near the highway. So I thought I’d pass that on to you guys.
I'm pumped for bear how bout you guys?
Ike
I had a hunting buddy stop by one afternoon in June because he had been playing softball and had a couple hours free time. About the time he sat down the phone rang. It was one of the local conservation officers and he had a bear problem. It seems this bear had been run over by a truck and knocked out, but when the truck driver got out examining the bear it jumped up and took off.
According to the officer, it had happened in the night and they had been over there that morning looking for the bear with no luck. The farmer that owned the land heard about the wounded bear and wanted it moved or killed because of safety issues. The officers thought the bear was probably dead and wanted me to trail to the bear and find it. It would be nearly 2:30 P.M. by the time we arrived and I started to tell him it was too late to trail an overnight bear in the heat of summer. But I went anyway because they asked.
My buddy and I got to the scene and the two officers showed me the track. I put Ike, Ryan and Choco on the track and they went out on a silent cold-trail. We all four followed and got into the Russian olive trees near the river and Ike started to open. I figured well, he’ll trail to the bear and they’ll all blow up when they find it. Right? Wrong!
Those three hounds jumped the bear, across the river bottom, the river, a canal, then through a guys fenced front yard, over another fence and onto the highway, across the other fence and treed two or miles out in a Russian Olive tree. Meanwhile, I was running across the river bottom, crossed the river and canal, and found a young man on a four wheeler waiting for me.
“Are those your hounds?” he asked. “That darn bear came running through my yard, jumped the fence and out onto the highway. And your hounds were right on his rear end.”
He was kind of excited and I was afraid I’d find all three of my hounds dead on the road. What a train wreck!
Well, the two officers and my buddy brought the two trucks around and met me there. They heard the story and figured if that bear ran three miles and jumped three fences he probably wasn’t hurt too bad. They told me they had decided not to kill the bear and for me to go on to the tree and run him out of the country.
We looked him over good at the tree and he had an injured shoulder but used both front paws striking at my dogs. I put a scene from that video on my new DVD, Hound Dog Crazy II that is scheduled out in October. I hope to put together a little trailer for my web page to advertise the new release by September.
Looking back, I learned a tough lesson about assuming a bear was probably dead and turning dogs out to trail near the highway. So I thought I’d pass that on to you guys.
I'm pumped for bear how bout you guys?
Ike
