EDITOR'S NOTE: Ralph Cianciarulo of Lanark, Illinois, professional bowhunter, the host of the "Archer's Choice" television show on the Outdoor Channel and producer of Archer's Choice hunting videos, is sponsored by Hunter's Specialties and enjoys the sport and art of stalking bears with a bow.

On another occasion, I had a client come in when I used to have a bear camp. They said they'd hunted a fair amount. He came back to camp elated because he shot the biggest bear he had ever seen. The bear was huge. No one had ever seen a bear that big. He told me exactly what had happened. The bear was quartered away--right below the tree by the bait. When the hunter released, he watched the fletching and heard the bear take off and moan. When someone tells me that he heard the bear moan, it gives me chills.

I figured we'd get that bear. It was dark. So I got there, and I could see the track where the bear had run. But because it was in moss, I couldn't see any blood, and I couldn't find an arrow. The hunter told me he had watched the bear disappear. I figured the arrow had to have gone through the bear. Normally you would have some signs somewhere. But I thought the arrow could've stuck in the tree and snapped off.

I looked with my flashlight and said, "Get back up in the tree" to the hunter. I tried to simulate how the bear was at the time of the shot. As I came down, I tried to position myself how the other hunter was standing.

When I looked up, the bear stood up. All of a sudden, I caught a fluorescent glow in the tree next to me and there was the arrow. The hunter said without a shadow of a doubt the arrow hit in back of the bear's front shoulder. He heard the death moan--the whole nine yards. What actually happened in reality was that this guy was so caught up in the moment that he came to full draw and hit the release eye level. His arrow was literally 10 feet above the bear. The arrow stuck right in the tree. He wanted to hit the bear so bad that his mind told him it was a perfect shot.

I had been running a bear camp for a number of years, and I had almost gotten to the point where I was done--one of the last days of Ontario's season. We were going to be packing up everything. I remember I had a cinnamon bear come in to the bait site. I was hunting right on a separate run with a rapid creek that was noisy. I sat there and watched this beautiful cinnamon bear with its great coat and beautiful color. This bear came in and took the bait. I thought to myself that this was going to work.

Suddenly, a giant black bear came crashing right below my tree. I had no clue that this bear was there. He came crashing. The two bears started fighting less than 10 yards in front of me--going toe to toe.

They fought for about 5 or 8 minutes and hit each other so hard that I actually felt like I could feel it. I thought I needed to shoot these bears with a bow or they were going to kill me. My heart felt like it was going to come out of my chest. They broke off, and the cinnamon bear sat down. The black bear circled around the crib that we had built. When the cinnamon bear stood up, he gave me a broadside shot. I scored, and the bear ran about 35 to 40 yards. I could see it.

The black bear was right on it. Biting this and that, the bear fell down and expired. The black bear turned around and jumped on the cinnamon bear a few times. It came right back and looked right ahead. My adrenaline was pumping. This black bear looked at me. He turned around, looked, smelled the arrow, turned around and went back down toward the other bear.

I jumped out of the tree, ran to my truck and got out of there while I tried to stop hyperventilating. I went back to camp and told everyone I needed help getting this bear because there was no way I was going back there by myself.