By Jordan Nailon
For Peninsula Daily News
FORKS — Hunting bears is not an activity that most rational human beings actively pursue in their leisure time.
Even rabid hunters rarely head into the woods specifically seeking out a bear encounter. For one thing, bears are often hard to find when you are looking for them in particular. For another, they can fit a human head in their mouth and quickly make mincemeat out of the most manly of men.
Taking those facts into consideration, most hunters purchase a bear tag as a side note, just in case they stumble upon one while pursuing other, more common game animals, like deer and elk.
That common logic did little to dissuade a pair of young bucks from Forks from heading headlong into the woods looking for a black bear to bag though.
In the case of Parker Browning and Reece Hagen, to borrow a line from a twanging country song, they’re old enough to know better but still too young to care.
On. Sep. 24 Browning, 17, and Hagen, 21, ventured into the woods just on the outskirts of town in sole search of a bear. It was Browning’s first bear hunt and he brought Hagen along for support, and the good company.
Browning and Hagen were first teammates for the Forks Spartans on the gridiron, hardwood and diamond. They’ve been hunting together now for a few years.
“We hunt everything together,” said Browning, who admitted that Hagen is the better hunter of the two.
“He’s more experienced than I am. He’s an old fart.”
Man of the woods
In addition to his four years of seniority, Hagen is also a logger by trade and so spends a solid portion of his time in the woods where bears are known to do their business. So with a modicum of know-how and a whole lot of youthful exuberance the duo set out for the woods that overlook Forks High School.
“We were just kind of out there and it looked like a good spot for it,” said Browning, who noted that he and Hagen had an inclination that there would be bears around.
Even though the pair of camo-clad Spartans were in the thick of bear country the good ol’ boys had a hard time keeping a straight face in the early going.
“He [Hagen] was telling me a story and I couldn’t stop laughing. He was like, ‘Hey, do you hear that?’” remembered Browning.
Still lost in a fit of laughter that he has become infamous for in tightknit Forks circles, Browning at first had a hard time hearing Hagen or pinpointing the cause of his growing concern.
“He was like, ‘Dude, there’s a bear right there,’” recounted Browning.
“It was kind of just sitting off to the left. I have no idea how long it was sitting there either. It just kind of wandered up on us.”
Eventually the affable Browning was able to see the tree-obfuscated outline that had given his hunting partner so much pause.
By the time the picture became clear in his mind, Browning said the bear was within 100 yards and it was well past time to shoot.
“It finally clicked in my head and I calmed down and shot it,” said Browning.
“It was pretty cool. It was exciting and a little bit frightening in a way because it was my first bear hunt and my first bear.”
Browning noted that he dropped the bear with just one perfectly placed shot between the eyes from his 7mm Remington magnum rifle, killing his quarry more or less instantly.
The bear, a female, dressed out at about 200 pounds. “It was a good first bear,” said Browning.
The excitement was not confined to just Browning though as Hagen experienced a vicarious thrill of the hunt and a visceral thrill of not being eaten by a bear.
“He was just jacked up,” Browning said.
“First bear down right before dark. It was pretty sweet.”
Browning skinned and froze the hide and hopes to make a furry fireplace rug out of it later on. For now he’s concentrating on blanching the skull to hang on the wall while he awaits a haul of pepperoni and sausage from the butcher.
Black bears are not the only animal Browning has hopes of sighting and dropping this year though. He said he’s been out hunting elk already this year and plans on stalking deer later this season like he usually does. He said he’s seen a few elk this year, but none during the right season.
“Every time I’m out I don’t see them,” said Browning.
Of course, that’s the way it had been for Browning and black bears prior to a few short weeks ago. Browning offered the following advice: “Just have patience and don’t give up. Keep trying and you’ll eventually get one.”
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Jordan Nailon covers sports and outdoors in Western Washington.Contact him at jnailon@hotmail.com.
Parker Browning (right) and his hunting partner Reece Hagen, both of Forks, show off Browning’s first bear harvest. Hagen spotted the bear first from about 100-yards away. Browning dropped it with one shot.
