It was 6:30 am on the third day of bear season in Ashfield MA. It was a bit foggy, with a light mist in the air. I was walking down the edge of a cornfield the bear had been frequenting off and on. I was going to stand so I could see both sides of a field but opted to walk down to my left so as to see only the right side of the field. Watching one way is better than swiveling your head to watch 2 directions. As I stopped to turn and watch the right side of the field as planed, there was a bear just heading into the corn. I had a split second to aim and shoot. I only had the left rear half to shoot at so I tried to spine the bear. I shot at the exact moment he was disappearing into the corn. 35-40 yard shot and it was good. I had the crosshairs of my 30-06 even with the edge of the corn. I couldn't have called it any closer. He lunged forward and the hunt was on. I ran over to were he was, and to my right was a slope that overlooked the cornfield. I walked up about 20 yards and could see the corn stalks moving were the bear was going. He stopped about 30 rows in. I called for my hunting partner Dick Holden. He stood on the slope as I told him where I had last seen movement in the corn. I then walked down to the field and started walking from one end towards the spot were the bear had stopped. There was a swath of corn missing were I was walking so I shook the stalks so dick could tell me when I was at the intersecting spot I had pointed out to him and he hollered "there, atop and look right there. Sure enough on the ground were blood, guts, and bone. I knew he was hit well. I then had dick come down to where I was and watch for the bear. He might come back through there. I on the other hand went to the edge of the corn and got on my hands and knees to look down each row for the bear. About 20-25 rows down I saw the bear lying down on his left side licking at his wound. I had a clear shot at his chest so I thought this would down him for good. I took aim and shot for his chest. As luck would have it I was a little unsteady in the position I was in and later found I had hit it in the right front shoulder. He was off again. Damn. I went over were he was lying down and found a socket bone, blood, and intestines. I knew he was hurting now. How he could have got up and run again is beyond me. I was beside myself. Damn, he's a hard kill. Well now we figure to let him settle down and maybe stiffen up or hopefully die. An hour went by and we were off on the trail. He went south down the middle of the corn and we came to an intersection of what seemed like grand central station. Tracks went everywhere and most were fresh. We hadn't had any rain so the tracks in the field all looked fresh for the most part. Then we saw a drag mark. This was our lucky break. Bears don't bleed much, so I now know. We figured the drag was from a leg, possibly the right front, which I later found out I nearly blew off. He came out on the west side of the corn and crossed a brook into the woods. I crossed and looked for about an hour left right up down to no avail. No blood, nothing. Then dick called me over to the upper part of the brook. We could see silt flowing down stream so he had disturbed the brook further up, and as we walked up stream, dick showed me were he had crossed. There was blood and some intestine. It looks like he had a bit of trouble negotiating a small fence that was half way up a 12-15 foot embankment. We started up the bank and soon found more evidence of were he had gone. I had just been through there not half an hour earlier, so we split up. Dick went left and I went right. There was a path that I was on earlier and saw what looked like real fresh prints. By now, I was getting pretty disappointed. I can't believe I'm not going to find this guy. Damn. Such well placed shots for what I had to shoot at. He should have been dead after the first shot. Well as I was walking up the path I caught movement off to my right and there he was walking parallel to me at maybe 15 yards. I swung up my rem 7400 30-06 and leveled the crosshairs on his left vital area and said die now as I touched off the final and fatal shot. Down he went and the chase was over. I never hunted anything in my 40 years of hunting that died so hard. Well we were both pleased the hunt was over. It turned out to be a 100 lb. dry sow. I had hunted over a bait in 95 in Maine, but this was by far the most fun and excitement I have ever had hunting. If you have never been bear hunting, you don't know what you're missing. It's a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. Do your scouting, figure out the ways, coming and goings of the bears, use a good cover sent. Camo is also a must along with rubber boots. They're out there. Remember, they are more apt to run the other way than go after you. They want no part of humans. They can smell you a lot further away than a deer. Their smell and hearing are acute. Make no mistake about it. So go out this next season and enjoy what could be the best hunting you ever had. I'm far from a bear hunter, but I'm a dedicated bear hunter now. Thank you for reading my story.