When I was a kid, I always wanted a little brother. I remember asking my parents for one throughout my childhood. No matter how much I asked though, it just didn’t happen. That was until one morning when I was 12 years old. Just about to head out of the door to go to school, my parents gave me the news that I would indeed be having a little brother. That morning, as I swung on the swing set with my best friend, we chatted about how awesome it was going to be, me having a little brother. We talked about the things we would teach him as he got older. We looked way into the future and gazed at the days we would share a campfire together. It’s hard to believe that was almost 20 years ago.
The term “OTC Tags” is one that is growing more popular everyday in the hunting community. For those of you that don’t know what that stands for, it means “over the counter.” It is getting increasingly harder to draw tags through lottery systems. I don’t think it is going to start heading in the other direction anytime soon. We spend a ton of money every year on bows, clothing, optics, you name it. Hours and hours are spent at the range shooting our rifles and sighting in our archery equipment. For a lot of folks, myself included, it is disheartening when you invest so much time and money into something, only to be told you can’t go hunting this season. Not going hunting is just not an option on the table in my house. This is why I focus most of my attention on OTC tags.
“Never say never.” We’ve all heard that a time or two. I remember especially hearing this phrase as a kid. Maybe it would come up during a rough football game on T.V. Our team would be losing with very little time left and I would hear my Dad say, “never say never.” Most times the obvious would happen, but sometimes they’d end up pulling through and winning. You just don’t know how something is going to play out, unless you see it through. I think this phrase translates perfectly into hunting.
Over my years of black bear hunting there is a consistent theme that wafts its way past my ears every now and then. On multiple occasions, after posting a successful bear hunting photo, folks have asked me, “Why did you shoot a bear? You can’t eat bear.” This leaves me puzzled every time I hear it. Their surprise after I tell them I eat bear a few times a week never gets old though. So, with this piece, I want to lay that question to rest.
If you’ve been following along with me for the past few years, then you know how much of a bear nut I am. Last year I wrote a story called Canyon Bruins, which took you along the epic journey that was my 2015 season. If you read that story then you know that is when I was able to harvest my first black bear. On that morning, we were able to see 9 bears in about an hour and a half, all within 300 yards of each other. Everything from the shot to the packout was nothing short of an adventure. It took me 3 years to find a good bear spot here in AZ, so you can imagine how excited I was to get back to that magical hell hole that these Canyon Bruins called home for the 2016 season.
Finding a good hunting partner can sometimes be just as difficult, if not more difficult than hunting itself. A lot of things have to lineup between two people in order for it to work. This became all too apparent when I really got into all of this. Up until a certain point, I had always hunted with another person. As the fire grew inside of me to be out in the field though, I came to a fork in the road. Either I was going to not go out at all or I needed to go out alone. I chose the latter and throughout my adventures have really grown to love hunting on my own. Even with that being the case, I still enjoy getting out into the mountains with good friends and family. After all, that is how I ended up loving hunting as much as I do in the first place.
2015 was a pretty exciting year for me in the field filled with new experiences and opportunities. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago, when I stopped to think about it all. It was almost overwhelming reflecting back on everything, which is what I intend on doing here. Being relatively new to the hunting lifestyle(3 years), means a lot of things happened to me for the first time. The deeper and deeper that I dive into this, the more things that I want to experience someday and the things that I do get a chance to experience, seem to create new traditions that I can’t wait to take part in the following year. There were way to many firsts that happened during 2015 to list here, but I would like to take the time to reflect on the major ones.
As most of you probably have figured out by now, I am a big fan of the podcasting world. So much so, that I almost find my self listening to hunting podcasts now more than music and that means a lot coming from a musician! They are a great way for like minded individuals to interact and help all of us become even better at our passion. In this case, that is obviously hunting. The knowledge and just pure entertainment that I have gotten out of these shows has been endless. My only problem is, as I have said in the past, finding the time to listen to them all! So many good shows and not enough time in the day!
After the emotional roller coaster that the August bear season gave me, I honestly didn’t know if I was going to hunt bears again during the 2015 season. To lose an animal of that caliber, after all of the hard work that I have put in over the past 3 years, was a crushing experience. No matter how much we prepare, we cannot control the outcome of a situation. That was all too real for me. Countless talks were had with family and friends about my lost bear and how we did all that we could. It didn’t change the fact that I still felt awful. Bears are an animal that have truly become special to me and that I admire to their core. The way they move seamlessly through rugged terrain, their behavior, toughness, and intelligence are all intriguing to me.
In 2013 something happened to me that changed my life. The kind of thing that no matter how hard you try, you can’t stop thinking about. I went on my first bear hunt here in Arizona. Going into the hunt, I read everything that I could about bears in Arizona. Where they like to reside, what they like to eat, and their overall habits in the rugged environment that AZ has to offer. No matter how much I read though, I felt ill prepared for the journey ahead. It’s hard to picture something standing on a hillside when you have never really seen what you are looking for. By some stroke of luck though, it happened. I saw a bear on the evening of opening day. Because, of the bear being obscured by brush and other vegetation though, I wasn’t able to take a shot. From that point on I was caught hook, line, and sinker. I hunted bears for the rest of the season and never did get another look at one. That didn’t matter though. I would be back next year.
Copyright 2019 Dialed In Hunter
Design by NXNW.
