On Thursday, Tasha Zickefoose shot her first black bear with the help of hounds in Bowerbank, WMD 14. The massive bear, weighing in at 466 pounds, marked a significant achievement for Zickefoose and the team that helped catch it.
Zickefoose, whose husband Bryan is a guide with Grove Hill Outfitters, had already seen their clients tag out earlier in the week. Eager to take her own shot, she asked if there was an opportunity to pursue a bear, and Thursday proved to be the day.
The bear, which had been spotted on their trail cameras for nearly two weeks, was appropriately named “Scar” by the team due to noticeable scars on its body and head, explained guide Ezra Dean.
The hounds trailed the bear to the edge of a body of water, where the bear likely laid down before being jumped by the dogs. From the moment the hounds struck the bear’s scent, to when it was caught took about two hours. Houndmen Ryan and John worked with three dogs each, and their GPS units revealed the dogs’ frequent stops, baying every hundred yards.
After about a four-mile chase, the bear was bayed near a remote area, roughly a mile from the nearest road. As the team approached, the bear made another break, but was quickly caught again and bayed by the dogs, allowing Zickefoose to take the shot from ten feet away with her .450 Bushmaster.
“When we saw the size of that bear, we knew we couldn’t quarter it in the woods. We had to get it to the scales,” Dean said.
Fortunately, the majority of the Grove Hill crew was on hand to help with the drag, which took nearly two and a half hours. “It was a team effort,” Dean said. Two of their clients, who were seasoned CrossFit athletes, treated the drag like a workout.
Hunting with hounds is a team effort, requiring cooperation between both dogs and hunters. The success of bagging a bear like this — and the thousand-yard effort needed to drag it out — proved that the challenge was well worth the effort.
