Son joins his father for a successful U.P. bear hunt

John Cronk, a disabled veteran, teamed up with Mark Evans and Hunters for Life for a bear hunt in the Gwinn Bear Management Unit. A hunt John will never forget!

Hunters for Life provides hunts for disabled hunters, hunters with advanced illnesses and youth hunters. Other hunters draw these hard-to-get tags (elk and bear) and then donate them back so the hunters I mentioned can use them.

John Cronk, along with his son, had a terrific Sept. bear hunt!

The hunter who donated his tag so John could go on this hunt is John Polin. What a great thing to do, helping out another hunter. Often, outfitters or other hunters who work with Mark donate these hunts and put everything together for the hunter at no cost.

This hunt, the outfitters were Tyler and Brendan LaRue. They own The Back Forty Taxidermy and Guide Service located in Gladwin, Michigan.

John’s hunt started earlier, but he waited until his 19-year-old son, Jack, could get to the U.P. to join him. Jack and John have hunted together for years, and he wanted to share the experience with him. On Saturday, September 12, John and Jack began John’s bear hunt together.

John told me that they had a lot of bears on camera, some really good bears! But on Saturday they did not see a single bear.

This was not John’s first bear hunt; he has been hunting them for years and has killed some nice bears. John planned to harvest a mature black bear.

On Sunday, excitement was about to come their way. They got into the blind about 4 p.m. It was a very windy day. They were concerned a tree would blow over onto the pop-up blind they were hunting in. Around 7:30 p.m., the wind died down and everything became very quiet in the woods. They heard a few twigs snap, and shortly after, a very large bear appeared on the trail leading from the heavy brush and just stared at their blind. Like he knew something was not right.

The bear moved toward the bait and started ripping the heavy logs that covered what he thought was going to be a meal. Then the bear stopped, moved off, and looked back into the brush, like there might be another bear coming in. While this was going on, it gave John and Jake time to judge the bear’s true size. It did not take long for them to decide it was the bear to take.

The bear offered John a broad side shot, and John shot the bear with his Savage 7mag. The bear was hit hard, ran about 20 yards away, then turned and ran another 60 yards right toward their blind.

John said they both thought the bear was going to run right into the blind. It gave them a moment or two when their blood pressure rose very quickly. The bear dropped dead at 12 yards away from their blind.

In that moment, they couldn’t hold back their excitement about what had just happened. John was glad he could share it with Jack—his hunting buddy and, of course, his son.

Brendan LaRue arrived a short time later and it took the three of them some time and a lot of energy to finally get their trophy out of the woods.

John’s bear’s dressed weight was 359 pounds, with a live weight over 400 pounds—a true trophy Michigan black bear. I am sure that both John and Jack will think about these great memories for the rest of their lives.

There is nothing better than sharing these memories with family and friends.

The Author is Jeff Pendergraff, a retired Captain from the Law Enforcement Division of the MDNR.