Typically, not catching any fish, and enduring a freezing cold boat ride back while being eaten alive by mosquitos would set a weekend up for failure, but this was certainly not the case. After putting all of Friday afternoon’s unfortunate events behind us, this was a weekend made in sportsman’s heaven. Christopher Rabil and I were in for a treat.

Due to the late ending of the RMA boy’s varsity basketball game at Faith Christian, Chris arrived in Hobucken at 2:30 AM, where he found me sound asleep in a bunk room. After a night’s rest we were both eager to get into the blind after scouting 600 teal flying in and out of the impoundment. I was very disappointed to find out that it was 55 degrees out with a heavy dose of mosquitos. After working up a sweat from hauling the decoys and gear to the blind, I was hoping the hunt would be worth it. As the first few minutes of light began to show, so did the ducks. Five minutes before shooting light we had green-wing teal landing on the edges of our spread. My dad whispered “next pass let’s take them”. Shortly after he said that, a small group zipped by his side of the blind and before I could lift my gun they were 40 yards away and still traveling. Dad took his safety off and picked one out. At 45 yards, the bird dropped like a stone. Two minutes pass by and another group swing in from behind us headed the opposite direction. Rabil mounts his gun and shoots, instantly killing one at a great distance. I had yet to pull the trigger, but that was about to change. Finally, Chris and I dropped a few ducks as they flew by the spread. Soon after I sent my dog out to retrieve some of the fallen birds, there was more action. Another few birds down. After collecting the downed ducks, we all were telling stories waiting on the mid-morning flight to pick up. After seeing a pair by the edge of the impoundment I eased out of the blind, scared the teal up and dropped both in one shot. They turned out to be a drake green-wing and hen blue-wing. After shooting a few more birds, and feeling drained of blood due to the mosquitos, we decided to pick up. Compared to the lack of birds last season, we were all very pleased with double digits of teal.

The breakfast after our hunt led to a great early afternoon nap before we began our search for Pamlico County black bears. By this point in the day it was roughly 60 degrees, no wind, sunny, and humid. These were not ideal conditions for bear hunting, but we were both hopeful to due to the recent sightings near the impoundment. I was headed to the impoundment stand and Rabil went to one of the stands that bordered the marsh. After fighting off dozens of wasps we were settled.

After being in the stand for only 40 minutes, I saw a black dot about 150 yards to my right. I was facing the lane in front of me and had to turn sharply. I looked through my binoculars and saw a large bear. I tried to ease my gun up to get a shot off but as soon as I had him in my cross hairs, he took off into the pines. I knew now to face down the road in case he were to come back. After a few more minutes he reappeared but only for a split second. I flicked the safety off, but before I could pull the trigger he was already in the other side of the pines. I now realized that bear would not stick around this logging road for long. I was hoping that another one would pop out and give me a shot, but that would not happen that afternoon. Though I didn’t kill a bear, I enjoyed watching teal and wood ducks pour into the flooded corn. Knowing that there was a grilled venison backstrap back at the house made it that much easier to get out of the stand as well.

Chris didn’t see any bear the day before, so we knew that we had to make the last day count. We made the decision to sleep in and just do an afternoon hunt. The conditions were perfect. A cold front moved in overnight, lowering the temperatures to around 40 degrees. Finally the wind was blowing 15-20mph as well. The direction of the wind was perfect for two of our stands. I went to the far marsh stand, and put Chris in the stand in which I previously hunted from. While walking to our stands, we both spotted a decent sized bear in between us on the long logging road. Rabil attempted to get in the stand and get a shot off, but the bear disappeared into the woods before he could manage to send one his way. My hunt started slow, but certainly didn’t end that way. The wind was howling and it was very cold out, so I knew eventually something would be moving around searching for food. About 40 minutes before dark, a small doe wandered to the corn pile and eventually right under my stand. She and another doe were exploring by the drainage ditch, when suddenly they ran back from where they came. I knew that animals were seeming to be increasingly active so I kept a watchful eye. Within five minutes, a shooter bear walked out right by where the deer had come out. The bear was headed towards the corn pile. I slowly grabbed my gun and rested it on the side of stand. I could see the bear’s shoulder in the center of my crosshairs. I slowly pulled the trigger of my Kimber 8400, and let the 300 WSM round do the rest of the work. After hearing the shot and then the impact of the bullet hitting the shoulder of the bear, I knew it was a hit. All I could see through my scope was the bear lying where I had shot it. It later rolled a few yards out of my field of vision. After getting Chris, we went to load my bear up. I had given it about half an hour of time to make sure not to jump it. “Nice bear, heck of a shot on it” Chris said, congratulating me on my first bear. We took a few pictures and loaded the 250 pound black bear in the bed of his truck.

On Highway 33 we both felt very satisfied leaving Hobucken knowing we were successful. We killed some ducks and I had killed my first bear. Though it was not huge by any means, it also was not tiny. I was just grateful for some awesome memories and an unforgettable November weekend.