Richard Thomas Memories

BLACK BEAR HUNT

I had contracted a guide from Colorado with his hunting dogs. They had some people from Michigan that had been hunting mountain lions in Colorado and came to California to hunt black bear, When I got there the hunters from Michigan were on their last day and no bear. They were hunting on the east side of the Sequoia National Forest. When my turn came we decided to try the west side and went to the town of Porterville, California and my guide hired a local guide (Stormy). I later used him for a bobcat and mountain quail hunt. 

We were road hunting with four wheel drive 4x4 trucks working our way up the mountainside with the two best dogs on top sniffing the air for the scent of bear. This was our third day out but my first day alone with the guides. We soon reached the snow line and the big pine trees. We saw some old tracks but no fresh tracks. Soon we saw this large track and stopped to look. After some discussion between the guides (I had three) they agreed to put the best three dogs out. They thought the track was 12 to 24 hours old. But the bear in this area don’t range far. 

PHOTO: Bear tracks

We sat and listened to the dogs. In about 15 or 20 minutes we could tell that they were coming back down the mountain. We jumped in the truck and drove up the road approximately a quarter of a mile and as we rounded a bend in the road we saw the dogs cross the road about 50 yards ahead. We drove to where they crossed and got out to look at the tracks in the snow. That bear track looked the size of a grizzly bear track to me (haha). In 10 to 15 minutes we heard the dogs barking like they do when they have treed a bear (these same dogs also hunt mountain lion). The two young guides took off running down the mountain toward the sound of the dogs. The older guide and I started to work our way down this very steep mountain. About a quarter of a mile down, we found the dogs, bear, and young guides saying, “Look up there.” About 60 feet up this big pine tree sat this bear looking down from time to time at us, feeling very safe. 

We took some pictures and got all the dogs tied up or someone holding them. Then they said, “He’s all yours, take him.” I loaded six rounds in the 44 mag, took good aim at his left front shoulder area and fired. To my surprise, I hit him in the left rear shoulder. This one hit. He made three quick jumps up the tree before I could fire my second shot. This one hit him in the upper middle of his back, breaking his spine and going on through to his heart. 

Down he comes, hitting the ground with a thud, and rolled into some logs in a sitting position. I ran up to within 20 feet, ready to finish him off if he attempted to get up. He acted like he was going to get up, so I shot him in the chest area. Later when we skinned him out is when we knew that last shot had not been necessary. However, they say to keep shooting until you know they are going to stay down. More pictures and the skinning begins. We quartered him out and seven of us took the hide and approximately 100 lbs. of meat back up the mountain. 

More pictures, and we loaded the dogs and found that one was missing. Of course, it was the best one. She was still wearing her tracking collar, so we started to drive in the direction of the strongest signal. About four miles later we came to the end of the road in a lot of snow and large Sequoia trees. The two young guides took the tracking instrument and hand held CBs and headed off through the snow and trees. After one hour we would blow the truck horn every 10 to 15 minutes. After one more hour we could pick them up on the CB. We kept blowing the truck horn now every five minutes. About 20 minutes later they were back to the truck with the dog. By now it was almost dark. They said that when they found the dog she was cold tracking a mountain lion. So back to town for a shower and a good dinner.