I came across a thread here the other day by Gary "Weekend Warrior" Walker, about an old Kittredge Bow Hut catalog. That name won't mean a lot to many of you but for the older guys it will be quite familiar.
Doug Kittredge started the company in California many, many years ago and did real well with it. He offered just about anything the archer could want or imagine.
Doug was a hunter and did very well at it. You'll find his name in the Pope and Young record books very near the top in at least a couple of categories.
It so happens that in the thread Kittredge Catalog 82-83 (http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=047725)
Weekend Warrior mentioned the date of publication and being the curious type I rolled my chair away from my desk and reached into my book case where I have a couple of Kittredge catalogs sitting.
Sure enough there sat an 82-83 catalog. Hmmmm! I thumbed through it and sure enough found a picture I'd sent them of a bear I'd killed with his Signature recurve.
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b164/kywarrior/Charlie.jpg)
It's so far back now that it's almost hard to believe it ever happened... but it surely did. Fact of the matter is it almost didn't happen.
Any of you new guys out there expecting me to finish this tonight? :D
Charlie, we need the story of the hunt to go along with it.....you know that!
tease :mad:
I'm gonna give you more than that! :thumbsup:
This one will wash down well with coffee in the morning. :coffee:
Actually, knowing you Charlie, it will be more than one morning ;) :coffee: :coffee:
Well the time was 29 years ago last June 10th. I'd rode along with my old huntin bud Larry Hultquist to check a bear bait he had up in the Wind River range of the Wyoming Rockies.
Larry had a small guide service and had had a couple guys from Chicago up the week just past bear hunting with him.
He'd tried to discourage them from coming weeks before the hunt and continued to do so up until the date of their departure.
You see the mountains were waking up slowly that year.
It was the bane of our bear hunting existence.
With the season ending in mid June it seemed the bears barely had time to adjust to life above ground and taking solid food again before the season was over.
If the snow pack didn't melt off early enough, the bear hunting could be real slow and that was the case that year.
I have to hand it to his hunters. They were just happy to be away from the city and off in God's country. They sat their baits like troopers and never complained.
When their week ended and they were headed back home, Larry waited a couple of days and asked me if I wanted to ride up and see if anything had hit the bait.
You sure didn't have to light a fire under my butt to get me off into the hills lookin for bears.... still don't.
I loaded my bow into the truck and climbed in. The Kittredge Signature Hunter (a Howatt Hunter made just for Doug's company) sported a modified 4 arrow Bear bowquiver, an elevated rest and a small Bear hunting stabilizer.
The quiver was loaded with 2219 aluminums and for the first time ever, they were fletched with plastic vanes.
Larry and I had experimented all winter in his garage with the plastic and thought they were just gonna be the cats pajamas.
I'd settled on a fletch pattern of 75x105 with the vanes angled slightly helical to the right and a mere 4 inches long.
In all our testing they flew like a dream whether I was shooting broadheads or field points.
After a bone jarring hour of mountain travel we arrived at our destination and pulled the vehicle into the shade.
This bait site was closer to where you could park than anything else we had going on and it didn't take long to get to it.
A gentle breeze crooned through the trees and an unseen raven cronked his dicordant note to the mountains for no reason at all.
In the distance a Gray Jay called and the heavy scent of lodge pole pine made me giddy with a feeling of being more alive than ever.... it was and is always like that for me.
Snow lay in heavy wet patches all through the forest and we made our way around and across them as we trailed up the mountain toward the bait.
I hefted my bow and cradled it in it's familiar spot under my right arm against my ribs. Larry had left his bow in the vehicle since he didn't expect to need it.
I never go anywhere in the woods without my bow. Who knows when you'll have to kill a marauding stump?
We weren't more than 70 yards from the bait when Larry through his arm across my chest and froze in place all in one silent motion.
Through a small opening in the trees ahead of us was a rusty brown patch of fur. It could only be a bear.
Your bringin' back memories Charlie!!!!!
Back in the mid-late 1970's my buddies and I did all of our hunting with Bear recurves with a Bear "weather-rest",shootin' aluminium Game Getters with plastic vanes.
My buddies all used 4-blade Savora broadheads,but I liked the old green Bear razorheads (I even liked SHARPENING them too!!!!!)
I carried all of my arrows in a back quiver too.
Man! Am I getting sleepy. Nighty nite all! ;)
Oh man, good stuff;) Looking forward to the morning and more of the story.
Is that the bear that ended up as a rug on your living room wall?
Ahhhh....another gem from the master story teller...Take your time bud,no need to rush :goldtooth:
Charlie I hope you don't take this as a insult but I have noticed a while back in your younger pics. you could pass for Charlie Chaplin.I have always enjoyed your stories no matter who you look like so carry on.Kip
Well, it's mornin', I'm finally home from work and all I have to read is part of a story... :banghead:
Can't wait to read the rest of it. Maybe after my nap? :campfire:
Booo to needing sleep! Hooray to story telling! He has got to be getting up soon, right? Great story.
I got my cup of coffee, and I'm eagerly awaiting the rest of the story.
Thanks for sharing the memories Charlie.
It didn't take long to confirm what we knew from first glance. A very nice size bear with a multi color coat was on the bait.
I cast a questioning glance at Larry. I imagined he was kicking himself for leaving his bow back at the truck.
He drew close and whispered, "go ahead and see what you can do."
We had checked the wind before entering the timber and it had been good. A hasty check to confirm it showed nothing had changed.
Mountain winds are much more stable early in the morning and late in the afternoon.
The evening wind blew steady out of the northwest.
I eased ahead with arrow nocked. The low sun beamed through the trees and glinted briefly along the razor edge of the Pearson Switchblade I was carrying that year.
Larry and I had honed our shooting in his garage all winter, to the point that we were shooting at 4 penny finish nails hung from dental floss in front of the target butt.
It had gotten to be a little mundane so we'd advanced to shooting the nail while it swung slowly back and forth. It wasn't uncommon to make 3 or 4 hits on the swinging steel out of five shots.
I felt ready for the bear.
A narrow lane, the remnants of an old logging skid trail, passed within a few yards of the bait and along this I slowly made my way.
I'd made quick progress the first 15 yards since the newly melted snow had wet the pine needles that carpeted the forest floor and made them soft but not "squishy".
It was a stalkers dream.
I soon came to a large area of unmelted snow that I'd have to traverse.
It wasn't deep. No more than 8 inches max. I stepped onto it expecting to sink slowly and quietly with each step.
But the snow was not soft and quiet. It was crusty, granular and crunchy. I cast around for a different approach, but the snow field was broad. A direct approach was still the most practical one.
QuoteOriginally posted by Charlie Lamb:
Larry and I had honed our shooting in his garage all winter, to the point that we were shooting at 4 penny finish nails hung from dental floss in front of the target butt.
It had gotten to be a little mundane so we'd advanced to shooting the nail while it swung slowly back and forth. It wasn't uncommon to make 3 or 4 hits on the swinging steel out of five shots.
I felt ready for the bear.
Whenever you're ready to teach, I'm ready to learn :readit:
Lovin it Charlie, fantastic story as always. What chapter will this be in "THE BOOK"? :saywhat:
That picture in the first post of this thread sure does look like a chapter introduction doesn't it? :readit:
Each step across the snow would bring me that much closer to the bear and of course that much closer to detection if I did anything wrong.
My boots just made too much noise on the frozen carpet in front of me.
Quickly I sat down in the wet pine needles, unlacing my boots almost before the seat of my Levi's started absorbing water.
Soon I had stripped off my boots and was back on the snow in my sock feet.
Much better!
My feet were getting pretty cold from the very beginning, but I barely noticed it. I was on the stalk and my blood ran hot in my veins as I focused on the auburn fur that I could still see through the trees ahead.
Briefly I worried about my clothing. Larry and I had come straight from work and I hadn't changed into any camo or even put on my favorite gray hooded sweatshirt.
I'd striped it with a few strokes of dark brown stain one day and it made excellent camo.
Now all that stood between me and the bear was what natural cover I could put between myself and the bruin and moving only when the critter wouldn't see me.
The light tan work shirt seemed ever so bright to me.
Finally I had approached to within 20 yards of the feeding bear. The cover between us provided excellent cover, but also shielded the animal from any possibility of a shot on my behalf.
Suddenly the bear turned from the bait and strode steadilly down the hill toward the trail I was on. I sunk quickly to one knee and raised the bow in preparation for the shot.
The bruin turned it's head in my direction even before it's shoulder had cleared the brush along the edge of the trail.
I froze in place, bow in front of me for cover and trying to will myself invisible.
The bear seemed not to see me and turned away from me. He walked quickly off into the brush on the other side of the trail and at an angle that took him away from me.
There had been too much unpredictable motion to make a shot and I held my position until the bear disappeared in the huckleberry and lodgepole saplings.
Break time... see ya at lunch. Gotta go make some yella shavings. :wavey:
Ahhhhh...that's the Charlie I know and love! I think the guy who wrote that famous Heinz ketchup commercial got his idea from reading Charlie's stories: "Anticipay-yay-shun...it's making me wait." :p
Your sure bein Complementary to ole Butc..er Larry :bigsmyl: AKA "SPEARMAN" :biglaugh:
Charlie I hope to someday meet you. It would be an honor.
:bigsmyl: :thumbsup: was wonderin when I'd get ta hear another Charlie story.
Charlie
:campfire:
Great story Can"t wait to read the rest..
Thanks
Keep er comin!
Thanks!
Dangnabbit, Charlie, how long you take for lunch?
It's gotta be mid afternoon somewhere in the world! :bigsmyl:
This is definitely the highest and best use of the Internet!
"Ishi don't surf!" (shameless Apocolypse Now parody) :D
Working on the next installment right now guys. :campfire:
Facts to face, this is gonna take awhile. Read into Weekend Warrior, this is going to take all weekend :readit: Face it, it will be well worth the wait, after all its been decades since it happened :D And Charlies just getting around to telling the rest of the story. And if anyone knows the timetable its you guys! :saywhat:
And he is not only out to lunch he's making yellow shavings. That would just have to be someones bow.
Brent
As soon as the bear disappeared in the brush I hurried forward using a big lodge pole to cover my approach to where I thought he might be.
As I peeked out from around the pine, I spotted the bear a mere 20 yards away sitting on his haunches. His front paws were held close to his mouth and he was obviously eating some tasty morsel of meat from the bait pile.
There was no hint of concern in the bears attitude... I wrapped trembling fingers carefully around the bowstring and leaned out from behind the tree.
Giving myself plenty of room for bow limb clearance I finished my draw and settled my middle finger firmly into my corner of the mouth anchor.
In my peripheral vision the arrow lined up perfectly at a height that would send it into the bears chest just behind the right foreleg... I let it slip.
And then......
The arrow????
Well the bear is on the cover so I think I know the end ....
yes, but do we know if it took more than one shot?,did it charge?,how far the bear went?
Very cool Charlie. Well written but you are really teasing us now so lets hear it...
Great job!
Bill
In the relaxed atmosphere of Larry's little shop my new set up had tuned perfectly with super arrow flight.
Even shooting at the little ground squirrels that were so abundant in the area I'd had no problems.
But in the excitement of a big game encounter shots are sometimes delivered less than perfectly and dead calm is a relative term.
I was certainly excited and although I'd have sworn that I got off the string cleanly there was an obvious "jump" to the arrow as it left the bow.
(I would later find that the plastic fletching would hit the sight window on a less than perfect release and send the arrow way off target.)
The broadhead tipped arrow passed through the thick fur of the bears neck and cut nothing at all. The shot had gone a foot high and that much left of it's intended target... it didn't help my state of mind!
Instead of bolting out of there and out of my life forever, for some unexplicable reason the bear jumped up on the side of the tree directly in front of it.
It looked in my direction and not seeing my still form turned it's head in the opposite direction. Another plastic fletched arrow had appeared on my bow and I drew down on the bear again.
(http://www.tradgang.com/upload/charlie/BearontreeR.jpg)
The results of this shot were little better than the first and once again the bear moved up instead of coming down and leaving. In those days I routinely head shot rabbits and called the shot before hand... no brag, just the way it was.
This was not doing my confidence any good at all.
Pulling a third arrow from my quiver I figured Kentucky windage (I had to do someting) and let it fly.
The arrow struck high in the shoulder of the bear who then headed way up the tree. It did little damage, apparently hitting nothing but muscle.
Anyone who has never seen a startled bear climb a tree can't even imagine how fast they can gain altitude.
I had one more broadhead arrow in my quiver and two blunts... it was crunch time.
tell us more!!!!!!!!!!
So...What's his options :scared: :scared:
Shoot the Bear in the front feet with the blunts hopin he'll let go and fall out of the tree :bigsmyl:
When ya finish with this one tell them about the cub up the tree next to ya :goldtooth:
come on tell me more heck its 8 am here and i got up early to read the rest of it and!!!! :coffee: :coffee: :coffee: :biglaugh:
Come on Charlie....get your tired old butt up from your nap and get on with the yarn. :bigsmyl:
Charlie
Don't leave us hanging...
You can eat super later :biglaugh:
Dang you guys are crotchety! Hold on a bit and I'll finish up.
Grasshopper sits patiently at master's feet....pebble is still firmly in master's hand ;)
As it happened the bear climbed waaaaaaay up in that lodgepole and sat draped across a limb looking down at me.
I reached in the back of the quiver for my last broadhead arrow. It was a special arrow and I'd planned on testing it on something other than a bear.
One of the guys from the previous weeks hunt had left a prototype broadhead from a company called New Archery Products. I'd never heard of them.The broadhead was called a Razorback 5 because it had 5 blades... and it rotated on it's ferrule.
What it had going for it was the fact that it was mounted straight as a dye, it was razor sharp AND the arrow it was mounted on had feathers on it.
I sidled around a little bit and looked the situation over. It was a fairly long shot and almost straight up. I slid the arrow across the rest, nocked it and made ready to shoot.
The only real angle I had would send the shaft into the bear's exposed belly and angle upward into his heart lung area.
Bending hard at the waist I came to full draw, took an extra half second to settle in and let the feathered messenger go.
The arrow strobed through a couple of light beams slanting down through the pines and buried to the fletch in the exact spot I was concentrating on. The broadhead came to a stop, protruding a few inches from between the bears shoulders. I knew I had him and stood there watching like a dummy.
As the bear started to lose his grip on his perch I realized I was in danger of getting squished by a very dead bear. I back pedaled out of there a few yards.
The bruin slipped from the branch and hit the branch below him and snapped it like a soda straw.
It flew out and away from the tree.
It was about then that I realized that the real danger might not be from the falling bear at all, but the huge limbs that were raining down around me. I gave the tree even more room.
The bear hit the ground with a resounding thud and lay still. It was over.
As I stood there staring at my prize I was feeling a little numb from the experience and the adrenaline let down.
Before long I was aware that Larry was pounding me on the back and babbling incoherently about the whole show. He'd come along behind me on my stalk with 35mm camera recording most of it.
We'd later find that the action shots were too blurry (obvious camera shake) for any kind of veiwing.
I learned a valuable lesson that evening and wasted no time in adjusting my bow for better clearance of the fletch. I shot plastic fletch for quite a few years after that day with very good success and never experienced the same frustration I had that day on the mountain with a bear and a good friend.
(http://www.tradgang.com/upload/charlie/bearhandshakeR.jpg)
a good ending
I've got chores to take care of but I'll be back in the morning to clean up a couple of loose ends.
Gary... hope you enjoyed the story behind the Kittredge Bow Hut photo.
Already its over? Winey winey and crotchety :D We though love ya Charlie! :readit:
Good story as always :thumbsup: Now what am I going to do the rest of the weekend? :jumper:
Brent
Saweeet. I killed my first deer with a compound with a Razorback 5. I remember staying up polishing the ferule and blade cartridge so they would spin if you blew on them. When we were up in Canada, they hade 8-10 boxes of blades and practice blades in their archery section, brought back many fond memories (though I'm much happier with my broadhead selections now).
Thanks Charlie, enjoyed it immensely as always.
Nice story .... better then most in TBM
Charlie
Great story :thumbsup:
Thanks For Sharing :clapper:
Thanks Charlie for the great story and a walk in the past...Doc
Your the master my friend, no better story teller alive.
The other year, in the "Keen-Kill-Sharpener" thread of yours, you already told us you killed this bear with a Razorbak-5, but nothing more! So I knew it had to show up - in your bow - and it was well worth waiting for ...! Nice story! I can see it! Almost if I've been there myself! Thank you Charlie! :notworthy:
Falk
I really look foward to your stories Charlie. Thanks for sharing them with us. I'm in agreement with everyone else. Ya gotta write a book.
Thanks for the story Charlie, it made for a good Sat. morning read, There's no bears around here but a lot of woodchucks to stalk today.
Thanks Charlie, I couldn't think of a better way to spend my Saturday morning at work with my coffee.
Thanks Charlie :thumbsup: :clapper: :coffee:
QuoteOriginally posted by Charlie Lamb:
"Ishi don't surf!" (shameless Apocolypse Now parody) :D
heh, heh...I think I'll shamelessly pilfer that one!
Great story Charlie. Those broadheads sound pretty crazy. Got a pic of them by chance? JC?
I think I can help here ;)
(http://www.broadheads.de/Bilder/Foren/TradGang/NAP_1975_Razorbak5_02.jpg)
This is the original 1975 model with the conical tip. A year later they had changed to a pyramidal tip (which I can show you also if really needed).
The blades are molded into a cartridge (gray plastic) - or better vice versa. The cartridge can rotate free on the main corpus. Very tip and ferrule screw appart to replace the cartridge. Training blades in full plastic were available. Produced later also as 3-bld and 4-bld version.
Falk... very interesting! I was told by the guy that gave me the Razorback that it was a prototype, but given the date of introduction (the picture is the same head I used) and the date I shot the bear, there is about a 3 year difference.... guess he was blowing smoke up my dress.
I lived pretty far out in the sticks at the time so wouldn't have known any better.
I never used that type head again. Wasn't impressed with penetration. In later years I was given some "prototype" Thunderheads by the same company.... 2 bladers and big. 1 1/2" if I remember correctly. Still got one in my stash.
Could have been fed a line of bull on that one too, though. :banghead:
Thanks for the good read. Chad
Awesome story tellin as always sir! Now when are you gonna write that book? I remember hearing that you were gonna start on it this summer.
Chad... the book is still in the works, but I'm closin in on it. Just made a good contact the other day about gettin it done.
Good stuff Bud! Good story fer sure!
I too found a new publishing contact. I'll call you later. CK
Very good readin Charlie, and I read it allin one sitting (Always wait till at least pg. 5 to avoid getting crotchity). :p
Love the line about the arrow strobing through the light streaks in the trees. I can see that!
And ravens CRONK , right out loud! love 'em! Thanks, Charlie!
Killdeer :thumbsup:
OK... found a couple more pics from this hunt. The first on page 3 is very blurry as stated.
On page 4 is a shot of my buddy Larry and I shaking hands over my bear. Note the broadhead sticking from between bears shoulders.
I want to thank everyone here for the support you give my stories. If I don't think the audience appreciates what I have to tell I usually keep my mouth shut.
You all are the inspiration for my tales. :notworthy:
I,for one, hope you never keep your mouth shut! I always enjoy the stories and the advice you so freely share. Really looking forward to the book.
Good Stuff Charlie! Thanks for sharing. :)
Charlie, I'm glad to hear it. We have to keep on you about the book because your gettin older and we don't want you to forget! :D It would be a real shame for your stories to go untold. Thanks for taking us all along with you. :notworthy:
Excellent Story....
what else can i say, thank you sir for sharing. :clapper:
Not only is the story tellin superb, but it's so neat that you can share in that level of detail!
Man...that is a talent! Wish I'd have started "journaling" when I was younger cause now I can't remember diddly squat...