By the Bear Tech | @Kolby_Morehead

It was bear season in the eastern mountains of Tennessee, and Gavin Casey was out working his pack of hounds made up of Red Ticks, Blue Ticks, and Plotts.  The hunt was off to a great start, and they were hot on the track of a good bear when Copper, Gavin’s best trail dog, split off from the pack, which isn’t like him. Gavin and the group stuck with the pack and had a nice 280-pound bruin treed.  After harvesting the bear, it was time to locate Copper.  The rest of his pack had worked hard that day, so he decided it was time to call in the fresh-legged young gun pup, a 15-month-old Blue Tick named Hank.

Gavin, his cousin, and young Hank set off towards Copper.  As they got closer, they begin to hear the beautiful melodic sound of a hound solo, and Hank jets off to lend his voice to the chorus.  This is now a hound duet that would fill any houndsman’s heart with joy. These two hounds worked together and bayed a bear at the base of a rock face.  Gavin and his cousin position themselves directly above the bear and everything seemed normal.  It was the perfect opportunity for his cousin to take his first bear. 

As they approached the bear, they notice white on the bear’s front paws.  They soon discovered that the bottom of the bear from its chest to its abdomen was completely white as well.  They have seen bears before with a spot of white on its chest before, but nothing ever as stunning as this one.  They harvested a one in a million bear.