WBHA Member Stories

A story by NICK MURAWSKI:

Here's the story of the 1st bear we killed last year. I found the track in the bait and knew it was a bear that had been chased by us 
for the last five years or so. It had always managed to give us the slip. Jody, Tom, Chad, and I turned the hounds loose and they started picking away 
and eventually cold trailed across the main road. 

The hounds jumped and immediately went to baying. Tom, Josh, and I all had tags so we all went in to try and end the fight. I chose the best spot so I 
arrived on scene first and just as I got there the hounds started chopping treed. I could see it had no ideas of coming down so I was able to  let Josh take 
the bear. It was a nice boar that dressed at 356. It was also Josh's first bear, I think. It was a nice bear and no one lost their head during the tense moments. 
That's about all for now good luck to all good hunters. 

Thanks, 
Nick

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Sleepy Hollow Bear Hunters

Submitted by Joe Janak

Training season is finally upon us here in Wisconsin and there seems to be plenty of bear for everyone. Several of the baits are getting hit several times a day, or as often as you bait them. The first couple days of training season started off with dry conditions and warm temperatures in Price County. The dogs had a hard time getting a track going the first couple of days and I was getting pretty disgusted, until I talked with a few other crews who were having the same problem with starting tracks. On about Thursday we got some well needed rain and conditions got considerably better. We’ve treed several bear so far this month and a couple of the bear gave the dogs the workout they needed.

I have several young dogs in the yard and our crew has started doing something I thought we would never do again. It’s called running in the evening. You have to love the sound of three or four young dogs screaming off a freshly hit bait. So far, most of the ones we have been running in the evenings have been giving us short races and have been treeing not too far from the road. I know our good luck is bound to run out sooner or later. I guess on the up side, all the dogs get their exercise, and you don’t have to worry about the start dogs going out of hearing before you get a chance to pack young dogs to them.

It always amazes me on how many nice bear are treed during training season, but when harvest season comes around these big bear that were on the baits all summer seem to disappear or back off to only hitting the bait once a week.

We did get on one the other evening that gave us a run for our money. We turned two dogs loose at the bait and because of the wind we were never able to get any more dogs to them. The bear made a big loop and headed due north, ran for about three hours and treed. Travis and I could hear the dogs treeing from a logging road we walked in on, so we headed to them. Sure enough, we got about fifty yards from the tree and could hear the dogs start screaming louder as the bear was coming out. Needless to say, the two dogs left us in the dust and ran for several more hours. We finally ended up picking the dogs up crossing a road.

Until next week, keep them running and I’ll see you at the tree.

Youth Hunt