DAN SANBORN 

Friday, 9/14/18 was a night to remember! Dan was sitting for what would be his third evening in a stand. Although the sites were very active the entire season, he had not yet seen a bear! This night would prove to be different. At about 6:15 pm, the bear came in, knocked over the barrel, and then immediately left not offering a shot.A few minutes later, he came back in and placed his front paws on the over-turned barrel. Dan released his arrow and heard the impact just before it passed clean through the bear. He knew he had hit the bear well, but it ran off into the darkening woods. The retrieval crew soon arrived and the tracking began after finding the bloodied arrow.

BACK AT CAMP FINALLY!

We looked for the bear and found some blood and tracked it until we lost the blood trail in the dark. It was  late, and we didn't want to risk pushing the bear any further. Opting to let the bear lay down and expire, we marked our trail at the last known blood spot and stopped our search for the night. The next morning, we resumed the search bright and early. After about an hour and a half, Dan hollered out "I've got the bear!"  The bear had traveled about 175 yards, but the search was over and so was that uneasy feeling we all had in the pit of our stomachs. Great hunt, great recovery, awesome job, Dan! Hopefully, the first of many Maine black bears!

See Dan at the Old Town Archery and Survival shop in downtown Old Town.
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** Special thanks to Dan Kane for assisting in the search and recovery!