oh yea... he got his ram. Beautiful full curl - 29 mile pack from kill site to truck so he earned it. No BS he shot it within 1/4 mile of where I suggested he hunt. He called me this morning so excited and pumped up, and appreciative. By the way he said it was a 500lb. + black bear that charged him to within 20 yds while he was going through a raspberry patch. Normally I'd say BS to a black that big but we've seen this bear before and its a monster. Glad to see his ram was the only thing killed.
Wonderful story. Great ram. Just a quick "me-too" on the huge black bear experience. November 2017 I did what has been an annual solo hunt in Adirondack designated wilderness. Five mile hike in from pretty remote trail head. Absolutely no one else anywhere around. Always looked for a bear but usually see deer there. 3AM my first night I could hear an enormous bear approaching my tent. Because it was 13 degrees F out, I was bundled up tight in the mummy bag. Getting caught inside a tent as a huge predator attacks is a recipe for death or serious injury, so I struggled to get out and confront the bear with a headlamp and hunting rifle. The faint light beam lit up the huge bear and I said out loud "One more step and this will be the shortest hunting trip I have ever had." He stared and studied and then turned and went around the lake. I went back to bed. Next day I am way up on this snowy mountain, far from camp, and I hear a ruckus below me. It's the bear, hot on my trail. At fifty feet he stops, looks at me, starts sniffing (am I pepperoni pizza?), and I shoot for his neck. He turns and runs. No blood in the snow, and later I find the small beech twig that deflected the bullet. I figure the deer have heard this mess, and I descend the mountain and do a mile-long sneak down below, leading me back up to the base of the mountain, at its far southern foot. It's a wild area where I have sat and watched fisher, pine marten. Really a quiet spot. Here and there I'd hear twigs snapping up top, and I put it down to spooked deer or heavy snow breaking spruce branches. Well...as soon as I sat down on a rock on a deer path where I killed the biggest deer I have ever seen in the wild some years ago, I hear a twig snap. Looking up hill I see a flash of black fur. No way, the bear is coming back, but this time he is sneaking in. A minute later he is peeking at me through the space between two fallen trees above me, and slowly gathering himself for the rush and pounce. When I saw what I was sure was his neck in my sights (no scope, I am super old school), I fired. He went down at thirty yards. After his death moans died off, I slowly picked my way up to him and then put two more into his chest. Based on the photos and the size and weight of his hide (54 pounds fleshed, squared over six feet without the head, with the head 77 inches long), head, etc we estimated him at close to 600 pounds. When people say black bears aren't predatory or dangerous to humans, I can say one literally tried to eat me. Undeterred by getting shot at. A total predator. I will never see them the same way again, and I have enthusiastically hunted black bears for a long time. Your guy had a real run-in with one, too, and was lucky.
