By: Dave Cronk
Certain endeavors require years of dedication and unchecked motivation. Hunting Montana Black Bears “Spot and Stalk” style with traditional archery equipment requires these traits and then some. I spent three years hunting bears all over Montana with a good buddy of mine Matt Arkins. In the beginning, we set out with very little knowledge about bears and big dreams of killing bears with our superior ninja-like skills. We were both good deer hunters with Matt holding a World Record Mule Deer so, “How hard could hunting bears be?” we asked ourselves. Well, without saying much more about specific encounters, we spent the next three years spotting, stalking and spooking many bears. We spent thousands of dollars in gas and put hundreds of miles on our boots. By the end of third spring bear season, we were beat down, and although we enjoyed the time in the mountains during the spring, we decided to hang up the desire to kill a bear with traditional archery gear and focus on hunting Deer and Elk with our stick bows during the fall.
September had arrived in the very same year and we had found a new zone to hunt for elk. One afternoon I went up in by myself hoping to do a bit of scouting and possibly run into some elk later in the day. While creeping through the woods I came across a beautiful wallow I had never seen. Being a gorgeous day, I decided to sit down in shade above the wallow and have some lunch. I had cell service there so I gave Matt a call to tell him about the wallow I had just found. Mid conversation I heard a twig snap and a bit of grunting down below me, and with a quick, “Dude! I got to go!” I hung up the phone and slowly stood up so I could see clearly over the brush between the ravine bottom and me. To my surprise I saw a black animal moving up through the brush toward the wallow. At first I thought it might be one of the cattle roaming up from the fields below, but it was not a cow at all… It was a big beautiful Black Bear sow! I could hardly believe it. After all the hard work I had put in over the last three years, by chance alone, I was standing 15 yards from a big bear. This was awesome! I watched and waited for a painstakingly amount of time making sure she didn’t have any cubs and just as I decided to shoot, she got up out of the mud and walked up the bank of the ravine directly towards me. The situation was changing quickly and with all the brush in the way I had no real shot. For a brief moment I thought about my pistol, but it was holstered on my pack and my pack was on the ground behind me… so much for carrying a pistol for bear protection. Within seconds the bear poked her head out of the brush less than 10 feet in front of me. At this distance having the wind didn’t really matter anymore. She smelled me, and with one quick move she bolted back down the ravine, through the wallow and up the other bank. In that split second, I thought to myself, “Well… #%@*! Another blown opportunity on a bear.” And then… she stopped and turned around to see what the hell it was she ran into. I said to myself, “Ahh, you can’t do that darling” and sent the arrow on its way. There is no tracking story to tell as the bear ended up rolling back down ravine and into the wallow. I gave the bear some time and called Matt back. He couldn’t believe it when I told him I had just killed a nice bear. Actually, I think I was saying something like, “Bear Down! Bear Down!” I don’t really remember because I was still in a bit shock over the whole situation. I think Matt was as stoked as I was, and he was nice enough to drop what he was doing and come up and help me get the bear out of the mountains.
After careful reflection on the encounter, following the years of toil and continuous failures, I could come up with only one conclusion; “Sometimes hard work and dedication don’t mean a damn thing. Sometimes, it’s just dumb luck that puts you in the right place at the right time.”
Dave's bear (Matthew Arkins Photography)
Special thanks to Matt Arkins (http://matthewarkinsphotography.viewbook.com/) for taking this awesome photo.
See more of Matt's (Camera man) and Dave's (Co-Producer) work
with the short film they helped make 'Into High Country.'
