Hunter Discovers 8-Point Buck Beneath Enormous Black Bear After Successful Shoot

Hunter Discovers 8-Point Buck Beneath Enormous Black Bear After Successful Shoot

A hunter from Sedgwick, Maine had an unexpected surprise during his hunting trip last weekend. While searching for a deer he had shot at earlier, Sam Allen stumbled upon a large black bear feasting on a whitetail carcass. Allen quickly took aim with his .308 rifle and killed the bear with a single shot.

Allen had been deer hunting on November 4th when he encountered a buck in the area. He took a shot at it but missed, and after two hours of searching for a blood trail, he abandoned his search. However, he decided to return to the same spot the following Saturday in hopes of finding the buck. As he made his way down a steep draw, he spotted the large black bear.

Unsure if it was a bear or not, Allen cautiously approached and realized it was indeed a bear. He decided to take the opportunity to hunt the bear instead of the deer, as he prefers bear meat. With one shot from his .308 Thompson, Allen brought down the bear.

To his surprise, the bear dropped in its tracks, which Allen had never experienced before. Usually, bears run off after being shot. Allen speculated that either the bear was too heavy to flee or he made a well-placed shot. After waiting a few minutes, Allen approached the bear and realized it had been feeding on a whitetail carcass. Upon closer inspection, he discovered it was a mature 8-point buck with solid main beams.

Allen contacted his friend Tyler for help in packing out the bear. Together, they hauled the bear up the hill on a sled, taking breaks along the way. Eventually, they were able to load the bear onto a four-wheeler that Allen had brought to the area on a trailer attached to his Toyota Prius.

The dressed black bear weighed 332 pounds, which is not uncommon for adult boars. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife states that bears in the state can even reach 600 pounds. After dressing the bear, Allen and his friends went back to the scene with a game warden to investigate the deer kill. They concluded that the carcass had been there for less than a week and did not have any bullet holes, relieving Allen’s worry that he had accidentally shot the buck.

Allen plans to have the bear and deer head mounted by Cassida’s Taxidermy in a design that replicates the scene he stumbled upon. He envisions the bear standing on top of a dirt pile with the deer head sticking out, as if guarding the pile. Allen believes this hunting experience will be hard to top in the future and emphasizes the importance of hard work and the luck he had in finding the bear.