It's Time for another Bear Hunt

[Charlie Lamb]

Thanks for the pics Chris! Must have been some kind of distortion for Gary's bear to have come out looking so big.... o.k. so it was an honest to goodness 350-400# bear.

Mine made a much nicer wallet!

That picture of Tim is a classic. A habit I've made of different places I've hunted is to leave an arrow as a memorial/good luck piece in hopes of returning to see it one day.

In this case we all shot one into the rafters of the cabin and signed each with a majic marker. If memory serves, Russ missed the rafter and shot the arrow up through the roofing. LOL

 Never have been back there.

Is Gary coming back to tell "the rest of the story"?

[Gary Norris]

" The Rest of the Story"  Sorry that it has taken a few days to get this story told.  I hope we haven't lost too many readers.  Taylor was going to tell his part of the hunt but, he is in Florida with his family so I'll finish up.  
Tim did kill a nice bear with a nice shot that put him down in a short distance.  We went back to have Tim "relive " the moment and we almost got lost getting out of there.  

Charlie mentioned that Russ had a great sense of humor.  I assume the Rest of the Story was Russ' doing.  In the first story Charlie also mentioned that Russ left us a few years ago.  Please let me take just a moment to reflect on a "Good Man"  
It would be nice for some one to say that about all of us.  It really says it all.  Russ wasn't perfect , far from it.  But , he was a good man. He left us watching Elk on a far mountain with his wife at his side in the Jeep.  In an instant he was gone.  Just like all of us want to go.

 "

[PV]

The time to leave comes to us all Gary. What more can a man ask for than to leave good memories in his freinds hearts?

Thank you for the story gentlemen. It prompted me to dust off a few of the old alblums and take a few trips back down memory lane. Priceless........

[Gary Norris]

It is all we can ask.  I guess that's why we tell stories and remember the times we had with good friends.

I'm sure Russ was thinking of how to get back at me from that moment on.  We had the best hunt you could imagine and then we headed home.  Just before we left at the main road, Russ had to close the gait.  Russ stopped and took a chain saw out of the truck and cut a huge tree down.  He dropped it right across his driveway.  I guess that did it.
 
We all took our skins to have them tanned and Taylor was to take care of mine when he did his.  We planned to meet in the winter for a weekend in Missouri to hunt rabbits or whatever at the hunting club I owned at that time.  We made a date and it was going to be great.  Steaks, beer and good times.  
My hide seemed to always have a problem according to Taylor.  Well, it should be done by the time we get together.  The weekend came and sure enough Taylor would pick up my Bear rug and deliver it at the steak dinner.  The guys all got there. Russ came all the way from WY.  Said he hated to miss a free steak and beer even if he did have to drive 29 hours to get it.  
I had to guide all day so the guys were getting everything ready for the steak fry when I came in .  We drank a few beers, told stories and sat down to a nice dinner.
Taylor had almost forgotten that he brought my tanned Bear rug.  In case you forgot the size of my bear, go back and take a look now.  Tim went to his truck and brought in my trophy.  The biggest Black Bear I had ever seen was handed to me in a box that was about 12" X 12 "  I couldn't believe my eyes.  I asked what the deal was and Tim explained that the taxidermist had a little trouble with it and it kinda dried out.  He was sure he could stretch it out for me.  As I pulled it out of the box,  Damn I broke one of the ears off !  By this time I am down on the floor with tears in my eyes trying to unfold this dried up piece of coyote size bear skin..  I had done a better job than this on several deer skins.   I just couldn't believe Tim had let this happen.  There wasn't any stretching that would fix this.


I also couldn't believe these friends of mine were actually laughing !!  I looked up from the floor and the beers were held high.

"Pay Backs can be Hell"  That was Russ.  I have thought of that time as one of my fondest memories. Not the great hunt, but the great joke that all of my friends played on me.

Thanks Again to all of you.

[Charlie Lamb]

Greg Dwyer... sorry I didn't answer your question earlier.

The bows I made at that time were all 68" long with an occasional 66" bow for shorter draw archers.

I still like them pretty long. My favorite longbow is an all bamboo glass backed bow called "Crow Wing". It's 67"... bobbed it to get more weight.

I don't shoot longbows much any more. From time to time I'll string one up and shoot it, but mostly I love my recurves.

Here's a pic from a few years back. Hog hunting with my buddy Joe "JC" Coots.
   

[Charlie Lamb]

Gary... yep, that was one of the all time great jokes. I had my hand in on that one as well and loved watching you sweat!

Since this has turned into a bit of a tribute to a good friend let me remind everyone reading this to draw your friends close and love them like the brothers that they are.
Life is fleeting at best and times spent with buddies are precious. They are family after all.

I could go on and on about the adventures Russ and I had together in the rabbit patches of Missouri or off in the wilderness of the Wyoming Rockies.

Like bear encounters up Spring Creek, or chasing elk in the pole patches up on Black Mountain, or the time we nearly got caught by hypothermia hunting moose up Willow Creek.
I'll save those stories for another time and leave you with this picture of a dear friend at his peak.
   

"Some folks say he died up there. Some folks say he never will."
We'll hunt again one day old friend.
   

[Gary Norris]

Very Nice, Lamb