[Farmland]

I shot my first bear and only bear back in 1985. I was sitting an the side of a mountain that had a small bowl shaped depression below me. I heard something that sounded liek it was dragging its feet through the leaves. Soon I saw a nice size black beer walking through the bowl.

It never even saw me so I took the time to lay on my stomach and used my extra jacket for a gun rest. I had my trusty 30-06 ready to go loaded with Rem factory 180 gr. It wasn't a long shot maybe between 50 and 70 yards.

Then it flashed through my mind where the heck do you shoot it? I really had no clue so I place the scope on the shoulder and pulled the trigger. The bullet found its mark and the bear hit the ground at the same time I started to get up. The bear rolled then it beat me back to its feet.

Now this is where everything went a little crazy, I couldn't believe this bear was back on its feet. Not only was it on its feet but it was running like all heck. I emptied the additional shells in my Rem 760 pump then ejected the magazine and put another one in. I promptly emptied that one too.

The end result was that the bear kept running and was soon out of the bowl and over the side of the mountain. I will admit that the 8 following shots probably hit a tree, the ground or the moon as far as I know. I'm as sure today as I was then that I never hit that bear other than the first shot.

As I recovered I found the spot that I had first shot at the bear and there was enough blood so I knew it was a solid hit. The long story short the shot had gathered a crowd and we tried tracking the bear. About an our later another hunter had killed the bear. It had been shot prior with one shot to the shoulder.

I have never seen another bear during beer season but I know I will never aim for the shoulder again,