Growing up in Northeast Texas, my father had my brother and I outdoors since before I can remember. We grew up hunting squirrels and whitetail deer in the fall and winter, and fishing and hunting West Texas gobblers in the springtime. My father spent endless hours teaching us to love and respect the outdoors and the creatures that live there—teachings that we learned through words and actions. These are the lessons that my brother and I knew we would pass on to our own children one day.  

We grew up watching hunting and fishing shows on what seemed like every evening of my childhood. One particular species of wild game that always intrigued us was the black bear. When I was in college, the three of us made a pact that one day we would hunt black bears together. We assumed we would have to pay for an outfitter to be able to achieve this “bucket list” hunt until five years ago when we were presented with the opportunity to join a hunting lease in Howard County, Arkansas. This is a 1500-acre piece of land that is just a stone throw away from the Ouachita National Forest, and only 2.5 hours from home—an opportunity that we jumped on without hesitation. All that us East Texas boys knew how to do was hunt whitetail, but we thought, ‘How tough can this be?’ We learned quickly that deer hunting and bear hunting were vastly different.  

After coming up empty-handed our first season, we began researching and finally found the Bear Hunting Magazine Podcast with Clay Newcomb. We landed on the Dummies Guide to Baiting Bears and the Beginner’s Guide to Bear Hunting episodes and they changed the game for us. Everything we know about bear hunting began with the Bear Hunting Magazine, so we owe it to them to tell the story of our 2023 bear season. 

In the state of Arkansas, baiting is allowed up to 30 days before the opening day of bear season. For us, this is the start of our favorite time of the year and the beginning of hard work that doesn’t end until, hopefully, the bears are skinned and quartered. Every Wednesday evening, a group of six or more friends and family gathered to prepare the bait that will go to our six bait spots on our hunting lease. For the last several years, our children have helped with preparation and baiting but were not yet ready to hunt with us.  

Before the 2022 season, my niece Kinslee and my son Asher (both age 7) began showing interest in harvesting bears themselves and asked if they could hunt. We began teaching them gun safety and marksmanship with their single shot .22 caliber rifles that their Paw Paw had gifted them on Christmas the year before. As they progressed, my brother and I purchased crossbows for them. They were ready; however, three days before the 2022 opener, the bears we had been getting on camera vanished. Asher and Kinslee sat patiently in the stand until dark without success. On and around our lease, human interaction becomes so high after opening weekend that the bears do not stick around. If a bear is not harvested during the opener, opportunities become slim until the next year. 

In 2023, there were a few Saturdays that Asher and Kinslee were not able to tag along during feeding, but they were always there if their schedules permitted. Studying trail camera photos of bears that were coming to their bait sites became a Saturday evening tradition. One Saturday, we were short on time and I had forgotten to take an SD card with me to swap in the trail cam. I landed in a heap of trouble with Asher when I returned home with no pictures to show him. After the first week, there were five bears that came to bait sites and eight distinguishable bears after week two. By the time we checked cameras on the third week of baiting, there were so many bears hitting bait sites that we started having trouble telling them apart.  

With bear season opening on a Wednesday that year, we had agreed that all bear hunters would hold off until Saturday evening to go hunting so there was an equal opportunity for everyone. On September 15, 2023, we fed during our normal feeding hours between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. We pulled cards to study that evening and retreated to camp where we waited quietly until the following day at noon. At Asher’s bait site, three bears came every day between 3:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Of the three, one was a large, solid black boar with no chest markings, and another was a large chocolate-colored bear that was similar in size. The large solid black bear and the large chocolate-colored bear that were pictured at Asher’s bait site were also pictured at Kinslee’s stand along with three smaller bears. We laid out our gear and went to bed early, but sleep was hard to come by that night.  

Saturday finally arrived. This would turn out to be a day that will echo forever in the hearts and minds of two very proud fathers. Their 7-year-old children, a rowdy pair of inseparable cousins, had practiced endlessly for over a year to hone their accuracy with their Barnett crossbows. With the two young hunters following quietly behind, we made the trips to our buddy stands at noon. The last month full of preparation, baiting, and prayers had led to this moment. In one stand, Josh Snow sat with his daughter, Kinslee. In the other, Kyle Snow sat with his son, Asher, while his father Tommy (Paw Paw to everyone that knows him), sat in a lock-on above them. Three generations of hunters with hopes of backstraps and bear rugs sat in those trees that afternoon.  

Everyone had always teased that Paw Paw must carry around a lucky rabbit’s foot and that one day we would hold him down until we found it. Asher refused to hunt without him, claiming that he “needed his Paw Paw luck”. At 4:37 p.m. we got word that Kinslee had shot a big bear. It was the large, solid black bruin that had been seen on camera nearly every evening for the last week. Josh would later tell the story with a grin on his face that I thought would never go away. The bear had been heard 30 minutes before slowly making his way to the bait. He spoke to her about controlling her breathing and squeezing the trigger when she had a perfectly broadside view. When Kinslee finally got a shot, the bear was shoulder deep in the bait barrel. She sent the arrow home and giggled uncontrollably, pumping her fist in the air, as her dad whispered, “You smoked him, Kins! You got him.”  

Now it was Asher’s turn. We sat impatiently in the stand as dread began to sink in. What if one doesn’t show? What if all the hard work and effort was for nothing? Patience is a hard lesson for a 7-year-old, and all was quiet. Around 6:30 p.m. the silence was broken by the sound of large rocks crashing into each other—finally, a sign that a bear was in the area. Then more silence. For 30 minutes, we held our breaths looking and listening for another sign that the bear may be on the way. The silence was broken by the sound of more rocks tumbling down the hill followed by another ten minutes of silence.  

At 7:10 p.m. there was movement. A dark mass moved up the trail directly in front of us and stopped. The bear stepped out of the bushes and stared directly at us for what felt like hours. The big boar took two more steps forward and sat on his haunches before turning broadside. Asher squeezed off a perfect shot. The bolt tipped with a Slick Trick Magnum passed through and stuck in the ground behind him. Through rapid breathing, I heard Asher say, “Daddy, I got the chills!” And all I could reply was, “I know Buddy, Daddy did too!” 

The boar turned out to be the large chocolate bear that had frequented the bait site. Our two target bears were down; Asher’s bear weighed 307 lbs and Kinslee’s bear weighed 290 lb. We sat in the stand for the next 30 minutes laughing and chatting about how large the bear was and about what we were feeling when Asher sent the arrow into the boar. The amazing group of men and women on our hunting lease all pitched in with the recovery of the two large bears, and even though the work lasted until the early morning hours of the following day, everyone was proud they got to be a part of such a special night. Asher and Kinslee will never forget this hunt.