LEGENDARY BEAR HOUNDS: PART 34

LUKE’S JOSEPH

- STEVE FIELDER

Bear hunting is an extreme outdoor sport with many devotees, many storied legends and many means with which to accomplish its goals. But, for this writer, nothing compares to the excitement of a hunt for the icon of the North American forest like a hunt with hounds.

As I’m writing this, I’ve just concluded an early season bear hunt in southwest Virginia with longtime friend and houndsman Heath Hyatt. I spent three days in the company of Hyatt and members of their bear-hunting party, each of which have proven to be among the most dedicated houndsmen and women of my experience. On a five-day hunt in December of 2019, we treed a bear each day. Recently, we treed or caught six bears on our three-day hunt, a Freedom Hunters Outdoors Adventure with special guest hunter CMSGT Chad McCoy. Chad, a decorated twenty-two-year veteran pararescue specialist with the US Air Force, had never been on a bear hunt with hounds or otherwise.