Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-03-26
HIS LITTLE RATCHET
WITH IT IKE PRATT OF VERMONT
HAS KILLED MANY BEARS.
Association With This Weapon and His
Modesty Have Made Him the q. w. Of
Gear Hunters-How He Sets and Bats
His Traps For Unsuspecting Bruin.

His Traps For Unsuspecting Bruin.
| Ike Pratt Of Bennington, VT, is tho
inan who kills bears with Ratchet He
does not go still-hunting them in the
woods with this domestic weapon. He
waits until he gets them into trap before
he begins splitting them, but, considering
the number Of bears he has converted into
| meat this way and the fact that at 70
years he is still in the business, his speciality
as bear man is worthy of special note
When he goes ont to empty his traps, he
carries a gun with him for safety and oc-
cnsionally when he finds some unusually
quick tempered and unoompaniOnable bear
he has to use it. Occasionally, too, when
he hash t his Ratchet with him he uses a
stout club. But his regular bear sticking
outfit consists of his Ratchet and a big
jackknife, with blade like an eighteenth
century pirates cutlass, which he uses to
do tho final carving. Ike doesn't think
his method Of dispatching bears is remark
able. Apparently he regards bear stick
ing in much the same commonplace light
Us pig sticking.
Tho success which he has been able to
achieve in his long career of bear staying
has been due, it seems, to his careful at
tention 10 details. When he runs across
his bear, caught In his trap, he always
makes sure first that he is in tight II he
had almost torn his foot off, or WAS so
slightly caught that he might at last break
away, he might put the hunter in an EN-
barrassing position. Having assured him
self Of this Mr.. Pratt gets out his Ratchet
or his club, sticks his knife in tree near
by and goes to work.
With bears, as with men, Mr. Pratt
thinks, it makes q difference how they are
approached Most people rush up to them
too suddenly and get them all excited, and
then there is trouble. He himself walks
up in "a calm and confidential way and
waits around, he says. just outside of the
reach OF the tethered animal, until the
bear gets sort of used to him. Then he
draws up his Ratchet and waves it around
in front of the bear, and when he sees a
chance he raps him, either between the
eyes or OH the nose. That stuns the bear,
and before he collects his bruised and
wandering Thoughts Ike has jumped in
with his knife AND emptied his remaining
life through his jugular vein. Bears are
good boxers, he says, but he never missed
his blow yet.
1t makes difference, however, just how
hind leg caught it makes the problem
more intricate than when he is held down
by front paw, and often in the latter
case he has to go TO the expense Of shoot
ing them. a bear that is quite old, too,
Will discourage a too close acquaintance
on the part OF any one. But then 1t is all
a matter of knack. There was a man In
Pownal few years ago, he says, who
didn't have the knaek. In fact il was his
first bear that he tackled. He heard it
yelling back of the house and started
out with his AK The first blow the bear
countered and Knocked the AK out of the
mans hand. Then he turned complete
somersault, and when he came up again
he carried the mans shirt and vest, and
also considerable of the superficial area of
his abdomen, on his hind claws This
made the man somewhat more cautious
He waited around good while and took
u good deal of lively exercise, but finally
he got in a first class hit, which raised his
batting average considerably and won the
game But he had a good day s bear hunt
ing out OF it when it was all done.
Mr.. Pratt has another distinction. For
reasons best known to himself, perhaps
from his long association with his little
Ratchet, he is the George Washington OF
local bear hunters. He is not an imagina-
tive, poetic sportsman, like that inspired
bear hunter of Williams
town, John Barney Wright. On the con
trary, he is just fine workman with
bears, who enjoys his work from the
standpoint OF an artistic workman, but
takes it more or less as matter of course,
without any fuss Or self advertisement
For instance, when asked how many
bears he has killed in his lifetime, he fig
ures the number at about GO. Now, as he
has been trapping since he was 25 years
old, or for 4o seasons, almost continuously
and has taken out of the woods from two
to Fix bears every year the probability Is
that his score is fully 100 by this time
But not only does he probably underesti.
mate tho size of his CATCH but he claims
that in all his experiences with his bears
he has never had any particularly exciting
times.
Mr.. Pratt comes by his sporting iu-
5tincts naturally, for both his grandfather
and his father We're the greatest hunters
Of their times and used to chase the deer
about the hills to the eastward of the vii
uge when deer We're more plenty than
foxes are now. Ike thinks, however, that
IA his long experience he has improved on
The methods of his ancestors and SAYS he
would like to try trapping with them now
Ills father, he says, always thought it was
necessary to set his traps in spring hole,
put ho has found he has fully as good sue
less on bare ground. He generally tries
% find place where the animals cross
through the woods. Sometimes they have
beaten paths, he says, just like cattle. In
hese paths he sets his traps. He is great
nan for finding traces and dents of
bears. Dent is early nineteenth CEN
Jury for tracks" Ike never says tracks"
IN batting Mr.. Pratt prefers a sleeps head,
cut he also uses other meat and honey CO.
He doen't think much Of bait
ointment, for he says when bears are look
ng for food they generally find the trap,
md when they don't want it you can't in
luce them to touch your bat anyway. In
he summer when vegetable food is plenty
and in winter when the bears get through
eating naturally he thinks it generally
small use to trap for Springfield
Republican.
Uniform Spelling.
a discussion having been raised in the
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