If you’re looking for an exciting hunt that gives you multiple shooting opportunities at interesting trophy animals, all for a low price, consider a bear hunt behind dogs with Andrew Gregory of Deadwood Industries. Gregory has been guiding clients for black bears behind hounds in the Tahoe National Forest for the past five years. It’s been six since he last saw a black bear - a black-colored black bear that is. Bears in this part of California’s High Sierras are dominantly color-phase bears, with a chocolate pelt most common. Cinnamons, blondes and even brindles are available as well.
I hunted with Gregory this past fall. On our first day, we treed a sow with two cubs. The second day, we treed and tagged a two-year-old boar with a light chocolate pelt. The third day brought me a six-foot, 300-pound-plus boar with a black pelt and a white ‘V’ on its chest. That’s right, mine was the first ‘black’ black bear seen here in six years.
Gregory hunts primarily in Sierra and Nevada counties, just west of Reno, Nevada. This is gold rush country, where the habitat features lots of steep and deep canyons, oak trees, ponderosa pines, firs and granite peaks. The elevations range between 4,400 feet and 8,100 feet above sea level, and access can be limited by snow or heavy rain. Fortunately, there are enough bears in and around ranchlands and gold rush ghost towns that Gregory can hunt terrain suited to any hunter....
