First Black Bear Still Somewhere Out There

By Randy Davey, The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C., The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C.

Dec. 30–I’ve always had an urge to hunt black bear even as a kid. It all started when I went bear hunting with my grandfather. I’d heard stories from him about the bears in the mountains of North Carolina where he lived as a child. I can remember looking at the gun magazines that he had sitting on the tables in his house in Chapel Hill. They all had ads in them showing a man standing in front of a charging bear holding a rifle in his hands.

My favorite was the Winchester ads with their lever action rifle. I think I liked it best because it was a cowboy gun from the “Old West.”

My grandfather always went bear hunting with his old Colt 45 revolver at his side, but I liked the big guns. The 45-70 caliber was the biggest bullet that I had ever seen. It was the old buffalo bullet from the Old West.

I know that as a kid I could never shoot one of those big guns but now I’m not a kid anymore. And I have one of those big guns and I now am looking for a big black bear to use it on.

I almost found one this year. One of my hunting buddies saw a black bear out on our hunting grounds early this deer season. He said it was a big boy. He saw it two different times out in the power lines. I never have seen that big boy but I sure did see signs of him.

Louie Westawski is the one who spotted him. He and I were hunting together one day last month and as we were walking through the woods to my ladder stand he said, “Hey dude you’re stepping in bear droppings.”

Now I’ve never looked at bear dropping before in my life but Louie has seen it all over the Croatan Forest while hunting out there.

Now this bear must have had a big meal that day because he had droppings all over the woods and most of it was in right front of my tree stand.

Now after that day of walking though all that bear poop, I made it a point to take my 45-70 bear rifle and my 44-magnum pistol with me in the hope of having him cross my shooting lane in the woods. But as of yet I haven’t had the luck to see that big boy.

But if he does come my way believe you me I’ll be ready for him with that big bore 45-70 rifle with a 405-grain bullet with his name on it. And I’m saving him a place on my wall along with that big buck that’s there now.

As for eating bear meat, I don’t know how it’ll taste. If anyone has any good way of cooking it send me an e-mail and let me know how to fix it — but only if I am lucky enough to bag him in this last week of hunting.

Randy Davey is a longtime photographer at the Daily News and an avid outdoorsman. Contact him at rdavey@freedomenc.com.

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