Red Dot ~ A Tough Lady Hunter

I became friends awhile back to Dorothy "Red Dot" Grantham on Facebook.  She is an avid hunter and lives in Bush, Louisiana.  I wanted to share with you some of her great experiences in the wild.  I recently asked her to share her story about her first big bear harvest in Alberta, Canada, where she was 70 miles into the wilderness and got there by a small private plane.  This is her story...


On my first trip to Canada, a HUGE bear crawled all the way up my ladder stand. I was sitting in a clamp on with handmade ladder about 15 ft. He came all the way up and put his left hand on the platform where my feet were and was slapping at my back sack with his right hand that was hanging to his left side on the stand. I got out of my safety gear and stood, thinking I could get a good shot at him...but he never gave me one. I stamped my foot at him and told him "you better get down from here" He looked at me and put his right paw on the stand and reached for me. I just shot at him with my bow and he jumped down and ran away.


I did kill one that year though. They took me to another stand a long way from where I was. It was so VERY cold. When my bear came in, it layed down at the feed barrel. I tried to pull my bow back and with my right shoulder with a rotatoryit  cuff problem, I couldn't pull it back. The guide left a rifle (.370 an old gun that the guide carried with him when he put out food) for me in case I got into trouble again and I shot him with that. I had him mounted standing. He's beautiful! He stands from bottom of feet to top of head 5'7".


The next year I went back to the same place and killed two smaller bears. I have one of them mounted that looks like he's coming through the wall. I'm very proud of them. The third one I killed (with my bow of course) was destroyed by Katrina when the electricity was off for 33 days. The bear stalked me for 3 hours and wouldn't come close enough to get a good shot.  I was OK at 30 yards, but he stayed 45 to 50 yards away.  Finally, it came in when he knew I wasn't leaving and I got him. He would growl, stomp his feet, snarl and snap his teeth at me. I just sat quietly until I could get a good shot.  At least I have 2 out of 3!!!


I shoot a Concept 99 bow with 99% let off and I am GOOD with it. Killed many whitetails, an alligator, three bears and a bunch of hogs with it. I even stabbed a hog once!!!   You go Red Dot!!
 

Practicng from a treestand in the snow in Alberta, Canada.