Hampden-Sydney Hunter is Hunted by Bear

Hampden-Sydney resident Karl Schmidt had an unusual experience while deer hunting on Thanksgiving Day. On the other hand any hunting trip Karl makes is unusual by most hunters’ standards.  Karl suffered a spinal cord injury in a 1980 accident and is confined to a wheelchair and has limited use of his arms and hands.

However Karl didn’t let his injury keep him from enjoying life. He is still an avid hunter and sportsman.  Virginia law permits disabled sportsmen to hunt from a vehicle.

Here is Karl’s Hunting story:

“I’ve had countless experiences in my near 50 years of hunting but, what happened this past Thanksgiving evening makes every other experience I’ve had and story I’ve told pale in comparison.

Due to my disability, I must hunt from a truck. I had a friend drive me out to the far corner of my land where I can look down into a scenic creek bottom. Not long after he left me, I heard shots and wondered if he had fired on a deer. Soon after that, I felt the truck move. I figured my friend returned to tell me about the shots.

I then felt my truck shake even more and thought my buddy had leaned against the truck putting gear away. Then the truck shook a lot like someone was trying to get my attention and playing games with me.

My friend isn’t the type to do goofy things as that and I wondered who else this was. By this time, I was becoming slightly annoyed my hunt was being disturbed this way. I then tried to see who it was.  I grabbed and rotated the rear view mirror instead of twisting my neck around. What I saw in the rear view mirror was not what I expected

When the mirror lined up to the side rear glass, I saw a jet black bear with a head fat as a bushel basket looking in the window at me with his pretty brown nose just a few feet from my face!

All along, it was he who had been pushing my truck and on the rear glass to get in.  I had a .270 rifle resting on a shooting platform out my window and suddenly thought how easily the bear could come around and swat the rifle away . I instantly grabbed the rifle and pulled it in with me just so the muzzle rested at the edge of the open window. I figured if the bear was especially aggressive and tried to get in my window, the rifle muzzle would be in his face where I could deal it a deadly repulse!

The bear must have seen me go for my rifle because I heard leaves and brush crunch behind the truck in the woods. Fortunately, (and for all his size), the bear was not aggressive but just curious. Even so, an animal with any reputation of being a man killer up that close sets off all the panic alarms in one’s mind.  When we later came in from hunting, I went around and saw bear tracks all over the side and back of the truck taking pictures of them for proof of what happened.

My land has various hunting blinds scattered about and in the past, I’ve seen muddy bear tracks pushing in on the sliding Plexiglas windows they have. This bear must of thought my truck to be a new blind and tried to exercise the same kind of “vandalism” on auto glass and found he had to push harder this time!  It was a unique experience the likes I’ve never heard before.