By Russ Murdock

I think it's safe to say that every hunter has an itch they would love to scratch. In my case, bear hunting was at the top of my list. I live in the northwest corner of Connecticut and, while we are up to our eyeballs in bears, we will never get a season until someone gets killed. Sadly, that's what it's going to take.

My bear hunting consisted mainly of watching hunts on our sportsman's outdoor channel, and it was here that I first stumbled upon Dan Wagner's Great Northern Outfitters up in Allagash, Maine. His operation was being featured and what struck me was the fact that Dan looked rather reserved, almost as though he was uncomfortable finding himself the center of attention. There's no shortage of bombast and sky-high promises on most of these shows, but this guy was different. I was intrigued.

I made a point of firing up the computer and wistfully reading his website whenever my wife was sitting next to me until she finally told me to just call him, see how much it cost, and ask if he had an opening. Our first phone call lasted nearly an hour. I really liked him and he seemed to like me. Information was exchanged and three months later, I was headed 650 miles north for my first bear hunt.

The Allagash region is one of the most beautiful areas of Maine with hundreds of thousands of wooded acres teeming with wildlife. I arrived at Great Northern on a Sunday afternoon and was soon settled into my cabin, which would be home for the next six days. I shot a few bolts with my crossbow to confirm I was on target and called it a day.

The first three days were uneventful due to poor weather, but on Thursday I finally got my chance. I brought my Kindle with me to read, since this helps me remain as still as possible, but put it away as the magic hour—the hour before sunset—arrived. Seemingly out of nowhere, a bear appeared at the bait, and for the first time in my 45-odd years of hunting I experienced buck fever (or in this case, bear fever). I was shaking so badly with excitement I thought there was no way he couldn’t hear my teeth chattering. But he didn't, so I let loose with the crossbow and then endured the agonizing wait for Dan to come pick me up. When he got there, I climbed down out of the tree full of doubt as to how well my shot placement was, only to discover my bear had traveled about thirty yards and piled up. Prior to coming up, I told Dan somewhat apologetically that this would be my once-in-a-lifetime hunt, but when I finally put my hands on my bear I turned to Dan and told him I'd be back again someday. However, I never would have guessed what my next hunt would consist of.

As a teenager I had the opportunity to hunt raccoons with hounds, but a hound hunt for bears had never entered my mind. All of that changed when the State of Maine nearly lost the option of hunting bears with hounds. 2016 was an election year and a hound hunt ban was on the ballot. It was defeated, but it was a lot closer than anyone would have guessed. To say this would have decimated bear hunting in Maine is an understatement, and at that moment I promised myself I was going back up to hunt with Dan's Plott hounds. Another three years would pass, but in October 2019 I again headed north, this time with my youngest brother, Mark, and a friend, Jim Gillespie.

A hound hunt with Dan starts long before sunrise with breakfast, trucks loaded with dogs, and anything else we need to spend a long day in the woods. Dan heads out in one direction and his guide, Grant Starrett, in another. Two hunters in one truck, the other riding solo as you visit bait sites and see who showed up for a snack and what time they were there. I was the last to hunt, and Mark was up first. He fell in love with the first bear we came across on camera, and the hunt was on. After a couple hours of cat and mouse maneuvers, Mark rolled his first bear with a perfect shot as it galloped across a logging road. No other action happened that day, so we returned to the lodge.

That evening, after a delicious meal, we sat around talking about the day and Dan proceeded to tell us about a bear he named Houdini. This bear was a thorn in his side, having injured several of his dogs and killing a dog owned by a friend. I guess bears have different personalities—much like humans do—and Houdini's was anything but laid back. Dan talked about the bear's habit of letting the dogs nip at his heels, then spinning around and scooping a careless dog up with his unusually long front legs. He got his name based on his habit of disappearing from his usual haunts whenever Dan was hoping to make a play for him, one "escape" after the other that made him difficult to pattern.

The following day, Jim Gillespie harvested a beautiful bear that the hounds treed. His hunt was over and he left for Connecticut the following day. Now it was my turn. However, several rainy days sent bears and the hunters to their rooms, leaving me with Saturday, our last day, to hunt.

Dan Wagner is a great guy, a hard worker, and fairly quiet on a good day, but he was nearly mute as we set out that beautiful, chilly morning. I asked him if I had done something to irritate him, but no, it was just the fact that he tries to give everyone the hunt they expect. And that last day, the pressure was on. We made our way to the first bait, then Dan pulled the card out and popped it into his laptop and immediately stopped scrolling. "What's wrong?" I asked. "Houdini's back. Man, I don't like this bear. He's so hard on my dogs," he replied. "Let's run him," I said. But Dan had no response, just stared at the photos. At the beginning of the week, I told Dan I would like a bear 350 lbs or better, and at that point he wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less. He said he's not 300 and I said, “I don't care. He's hurting your dogs, so let's go after him.” For half an hour, we both stood there silently until he finally relented and quietly called the name of his start dog, Alley. She patiently stood on the tailgate while he put on her collar, then she hopped down with her nose to the ground and the hunt was on. 

For the next four hours, we rode a rollercoaster of stops and starts, backtracks and mad dashes as Houdini made us look like morons. I watched the icons representing the dogs as they trailed and occasionally fanned backwards as Houdini spun on them to go in for the kill. Dan pointed out that the bear was being pushed out of his usual haunts and our chances were looking better and better. Finally, nearly eight incredibly exciting hours after we woke up that morning, Dan and I were dodging through the trees in a race to intersect the barking hounds. My heart was pounding as I skidded to a stop when the roaring freight train approached. Glimpses of black made its way through the brush, and I prayed I would not hit one of Dan’s dogs. I noticed a gap between two saplings and aimed at it, waiting for Houdini to fill the void. He did, and I fired. One lucky shot from my Marlin 30-30 and Houdini was mine.

I'm not the kind of guy who can afford to hunt in places far away. I'm very content to deer hunt close to home, and then hunt coyotes the rest of the year. I'll bet everyone reading this has had the misfortune of spending money on a hunt and having a bad experience, or knows of someone who has. I consider myself extremely lucky that I stumbled on Dan Wagner's episode on the Pursuit Channel back in 2016. The only time I've hunted with an outfitter has been a very enjoyable experience. As for my once-in-a-lifetime hunt, I've done it three times so far with two bears to show for it. And I am looking forward to number four, another hound hunt. For all you folks who look down your nose at this method of hunting, try it. It's another one of our rights that could be taken away. I promise you won't be disappointed.