[Jeff Higgins]

It got turned into a very nice rug, and I have the skull all boiled out and lacquered. He was an old boy, probably somewhere around 15 years old. His molars were almost completely ground down and one of his canines was broken off at the base. There are some deep scars that show even into the bone on his skull; he had been in some pretty good scraps over the years.

He was actually right out at the fringes of a small herd of cattle when my son had spotted him. He had shot a nice 26" 3 point muley the day before, and we were actually looking for one for me. When my son pointed him out I actually told him to be quiet and keep walking; it looked like a yearling calf to me. He convinced me to look through my binoculars, and sure enough, it was a bear.

Then the fun began. He was way out of range of my old .45-70, so we began to put the sneak on him. After about an hour or so we were about 80 yards away and I planted one on his left shoulder. He went down immediately but, low and behold, he started rolling like a big old beach ball down the hill he was on. We were at the base of that hill. He regained his feet about 30 yards away and seemed a bit grumpy, so I put one on his right shoulder. That really made him mad. He kind of stumbled down into a slight depression where we couldn't see him and really started tearing up the place. This went on for about ten or fifteen minutes before all went quiet.

We stayed right where we were for a good couple of hours. When we felt the coast was clear, I made about a quarter mile loop downwind and up the hill behind him, leaving my son with his 6.5 Swede right where he was, to guide me down the hill to where the bear should be. That took another hour or so, but I found him laying right where he should have been. He still looked like a calf laying there. My son teases me to this day; every time we see an all black calf it starts all over again...