I had the young man settle into the shooting bench, get comfortable and explained the target ranges to him. He told me he was hunting with his uncle’s Marlin 30-30 rifle and wanted to check the zero before the hunt, having recently acquired the lever gun. At that time, neither he nor I knew how special his hunt would turn out to be.
It was Monday during the second week of the bear over bait hunting season, I was in the Tucker Ridge dining hall kitchen preparing the nights supper for the clients getting ready to come off stand on their first days hunt when my phone grunted with an incoming text at 6:45 p.m.
‘Raccoons beat the bear to my bait’. It was from Danny Plant from Lisbon, New Hampshire, here for a bear hunt for the first time with his father Dan Sr. Another buck grunt from my phone, ‘They knocked the drum over and are feasting on my bait!’ I could tell he was worried that a bear wouldn’t come in, fearing the bandits would clean out the bait barrel leaving nothing to attract a bear.
‘Normal. Stay focused bud. They do it all the time. And bears follow them in’ I replied and sent him a snapshot of the target bear visiting his site to calm his nerves and keep his focus. ‘Look out for this guy’ I told him. He replied ‘OK’. It was 6:57 p.m.
Exactly one minute later, my phone grunted for the last time as the text came in. ‘Bear down.’ Danny made a great shot at 70 yards, bagging a 172 pound boar with a beautiful hide.
A few days later at camp, I was chatting with Danny after breakfast. I wanted to know more about his uncle’s gun and the significance behind his choice to use it on his first ever bear hunt. I have always found the stories behind client’s firearms intriguing and Danny’s was one of the most inspiring I’ve ever been told.
Roughly six months ago, Danny’s Uncle Tom inexplicably collapsed on the factory floor where he, his father and uncle all worked. Suspecting a stroke, Tom was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer that aggressively forms tumors on the brain. Danny’s family never had any indication that Tom was ill. At 67, he was still a very active outdoorsman and showed no signs health problems. It came as a complete shock to everyone.
Despite the best efforts of the premiere medical facility in New Hampshire, the cancer raged and the tumors spread like wildfire. Within a month and a half, Uncle Tom lost his brief but heroic struggle. As Danny told me the story, I could see him fighting back the emotions he was feeling.
Uncle Tom’s gun collection passed down to the family, with Danny receiving the cherished 30-30 Marlin. He made a promise to himself and his Uncle Tom that day.
Danny told me that while he doesn’t pray as much as he should, he bowed his head, clasped his hands and said a prayer on the morning of his first day before going on stand. ‘I asked God to grant me an opportunity to take a bear for my Uncle Tom with his rifle and asked Uncle Tom to help me be successful’.
‘Well Danny’ I replied, ‘if that doesn’t make someone a believer, I don’t know what will.’ We both smiled and as he headed down to the lodge to meet up with his father I know we were both thinking about how special Uncle Tom’s gun really is.