When: September 2000
Where: Haliburton Highlands - just south of the Alagonquin State Park, Ontario Canada
Who: While working as Operations Manager of a Shipping Company in Pittburgh an attorney asked me to join him on a hunting trip to Canada. I turned him down the first year. The second year he twisted my arm hard enough I finally gave in.
Why: Because at $900 for the liscence, gas, guide, food, and lodging, I thought it was a great deal. The guide even guaranteed us a bear that weighed at least 250 lbs.
This bear was the 4th I had seen. The first two days I had 2 bears within 5 yards of me. I had picked a spot along a river that they crossed and sat up along the trail. I was too close and could not get my gun up. I sat there for about a minute with the bear directly looking into my eyes. That was very cool. After seeing the same or similar smaller bear(250lbs) I decided to try a new spot. On the third day I moved to a new spot and saw a 400 pounder in the morning. I set up that evening in the same place and caught him passing through. He weighed 420 lbs field dressed. It was an awesome experience I will never forget. I shot at the bear and got a clean shot right behind the shoulders. The bear did what they mostly do and started to thrash around and let out the horrible wailing, moaning growl that is called there death wail. As the bear was doing this I set the gun down and took a picture. Then the bear started to run off. I quickly grabbed my rifle and squeezed another shot off at the running bear. I always thought I had missed that second shot. When I skinned out my bear I found the the two holes entrance and exit. Later when I had the meat cut up the butcher gave me the expanded bullet that he had cut out of the bear front right leg. That got me to wondering. I called up Daryl Muir my taxidermist who was tanning the hids of teh bear and asked him how many holes. He explained that it looked like the bear had been shot in the right side and exited the left. I had shot the bear on the left. After a short discussion I realized what had taken place. It was a once in lifetime occurence onlong the same lines of Robin Hooded arrows. My first shot had entered the bear on the left and exited on the right. The second bullet had gone in the same exact entry hole making the hole slightly larger. Sincethe bear was running quartering away from me the bullet had angled and lodged in the bears right front shoulder.
Here is the bear right after I shot it. I chased it down and walked up to it. I was told by my guide that I should have waited for a little while before taking out after it. I just wanted to make sure that he did not get away.
Where: Haliburton Highlands - just south of the Alagonquin State Park, Ontario Canada
Who: While working as Operations Manager of a Shipping Company in Pittburgh an attorney asked me to join him on a hunting trip to Canada. I turned him down the first year. The second year he twisted my arm hard enough I finally gave in.
Why: Because at $900 for the liscence, gas, guide, food, and lodging, I thought it was a great deal. The guide even guaranteed us a bear that weighed at least 250 lbs.
This bear was the 4th I had seen. The first two days I had 2 bears within 5 yards of me. I had picked a spot along a river that they crossed and sat up along the trail. I was too close and could not get my gun up. I sat there for about a minute with the bear directly looking into my eyes. That was very cool. After seeing the same or similar smaller bear(250lbs) I decided to try a new spot. On the third day I moved to a new spot and saw a 400 pounder in the morning. I set up that evening in the same place and caught him passing through. He weighed 420 lbs field dressed. It was an awesome experience I will never forget. I shot at the bear and got a clean shot right behind the shoulders. The bear did what they mostly do and started to thrash around and let out the horrible wailing, moaning growl that is called there death wail. As the bear was doing this I set the gun down and took a picture. Then the bear started to run off. I quickly grabbed my rifle and squeezed another shot off at the running bear. I always thought I had missed that second shot. When I skinned out my bear I found the the two holes entrance and exit. Later when I had the meat cut up the butcher gave me the expanded bullet that he had cut out of the bear front right leg. That got me to wondering. I called up Daryl Muir my taxidermist who was tanning the hids of teh bear and asked him how many holes. He explained that it looked like the bear had been shot in the right side and exited the left. I had shot the bear on the left. After a short discussion I realized what had taken place. It was a once in lifetime occurence onlong the same lines of Robin Hooded arrows. My first shot had entered the bear on the left and exited on the right. The second bullet had gone in the same exact entry hole making the hole slightly larger. Sincethe bear was running quartering away from me the bullet had angled and lodged in the bears right front shoulder.
Here is the bear right after I shot it. I chased it down and walked up to it. I was told by my guide that I should have waited for a little while before taking out after it. I just wanted to make sure that he did not get away.
You can see the mass of his body with my gun laying along side of him. He was 6' 8" from his tail to the tip of his nose. His skull measured 11" by 7" for a total of 18". I will try to find a picture of his paw and scan in.
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Here is my guide holding the bears paw.
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