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Strange Bear hunting Mauling story
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I don't have anymore details just picked it up off of www.keepandbeararms.com

I guess I wouldn't try killing a bear my hitting it with my rifle.

Hunter recounts black-bear attack
Daughter details chase that left Rockingham native severely injured

BY ALICIA PETSKA
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE Nov 24, 2006


The Rockingham County hunter mauled by a bear last Friday has described a horrific scene. He even tried to fend off the attacking animal by offering it his hands, according to the man's daughter.

Contrary to reports, Shea Willis said her father knew the hulking black bear was still alive when he approached it.

"He knew he was in a standoff with the bear," she said. "But he was trying to put it down mercifully."

A 600-pound beast
Thurman Hensley, a 60-year-old DuPont retiree, had already shot the bear once, expecting to inflict a mortal wound. But the bear, which weighed an estimated 600 pounds, didn't go down; instead, it escaped farther into the woods.

Hensley continued to track his prey, encountering along the way one of his daughter's neighbors who was hunting with his son. The three continued the pursuit, at one point discovering the bear and shooting it again only to have it, again, run away.

The second time they tracked it down -- at this point joined by another of the neighbor's relatives who was called in to bring extra ammunition -- Hensley, an experienced and avid big-game hunter, decided there was only one way to end its misery. He had to shoot it in the head.

Gunshot to bear's head
The Rockingham County native drew closer to the wary bear. Game wardens investigating the attack initially said Hensley thought the animal was dead.

The hunter drew his gun and struck the bear in the head. But the blow didn't kill it.

"It just made it mad," said Willis, one of Hensley's two adult children and the family spokeswoman. "He said it . . . 'came out of the bush like it was shot out with rubber bands.' It was that fast."

The bear -- injured, scared and angry -- attacked, clawing at Hensley's thighs and face, and destroying both hands he intentionally put into its mouth in an attempt to slow it down and prevent it from killing him.

Had it not been for the other hunters there, Willis believes her father wouldn't have survived. "The bravery is astounding," she said.

The other men fired their last remaining rounds but failed to land a shot. They then did the only other thing they could think of: They beat the bear with their guns.

"They started hitting it with their rifles, breaking them into toothpicks," Willis recounted. "That made it upset, and it began to chase them."

Weak at this point, the bear was outrun by the other men. When it returned to the site where it had left Hensley, he was gone.

Though severely wounded and able to see through only one eye, Hensley had managed to roll farther down the mountain during the chase, his daughter said. He was able to escape while the distracted bear searched for him.

"I can't imagine what that was like," Willis said. "He was laying in the leaves watching it look for him. If you see him now, there's not a part of him that's not messed up. I don't know how he did it, but he did it."

Listed in fair condition
When gaming officials investigated later, they discovered the bear dead, evidently of its multiple gunshot wounds. Hensley was flown to the University of Virginia Medical Center, where hospital officials listed him in fair condition this week.

Loved ones describe Hensley as someone who not only loves hunting but loves animals, particularly those that inhabit the mountainous woodlands of his native Shenandoah Valley.

He taught his children to be stewards of the land and to fight against unethical or lawless hunters. Neither he nor his family blame the bear that attacked him, saying it was the natural thing for it to do in that situation.

'A pretty strong fellow'
Willis said that, considering everything, her father remained in relatively good spirits. "He's a pretty strong fellow," she said.

Last Friday was not his first fight with nature. Previously, two bears had attacked him, one in Colorado, the other locally. He had not been hunting either of those, his daughter said, he was just in a "bad place at a bad time." On both occasions, his injuries were far milder.

In yet another incident, a fellow hunter shot him after mistaking him for a turkey. Hensley also once broke his back falling out of a tree stand.

"This is his life," Willis said. She predicted he would be out hunting again next year. "This man would shrivel up and die if he couldn't spend his life in the mountains.

"You may as well tell a freight train not to run down the tracks."


Alicia Petska is a staff writer at The News Virginian in Waynesboro.

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Posts: 19314 | Location: wis | Registered: 21 April 2001Reply With Quote
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Some people do have to learn the hard way.
 
Posts: 9920 | Location: Carolinas, USA | Registered: 22 April 2001Reply With Quote
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This guy has had some string of bad luck with bears, 3 bear attacks so far in his lifetime? I've encountered nearly a hundred bears in my lifetime without any kind of close call at all. This guy has had his share of bad luck with bears for sure. I feel sorry for him and wish a speedy recovery..............If I were him I wouldn't hunt bears next year.
 
Posts: 5603 | Location: Eastern plains of Colorado | Registered: 31 October 2005Reply With Quote
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Sounds like he has had enough bad luck for one lifetime. Hope he has a speedy and full recovery.


So Many Guns, So Little Time!
 
Posts: 61 | Location: Central Oklahoma | Registered: 18 November 2006Reply With Quote
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