The Michigan Man Who Brought Down Three Bears With A Homemade Spear

I know bow hunting season is coming up soon, but when is homemade spear hunting season?

Robert Manley is an old school hunter. He not only made his own weapons, he stalked his prey, and brought them down not by shooting them from a distance, but by sneaking up on them and coming within inches of them, and then stabbing them with a spear.

Manley, after hearing word of bears lurking in the area of his home near Fulton in Mid-Michigan, fashioned a knife out of an old rusty spring from a 1950 Ford truck, tied it to a long stick and stalked the bear down, killing it with his hand spear.

He did this twice more to bring his total to three bears, which was probably totally legal back when this went down. But if it wasn't, are you going to tell a guy who makes his own spears that he can't hunt bear? I didn't think so.

This story was shared in the book Michillaneous by Petoskey writer Gary Barfknecht under the category of '2 Old Fashioned Hunters'.

So naturally, I went to Google to try and verify the story. There was nothing under Robert Manley killing bears with homemade spears, but since Barfknecht is a highly regarded, well researched author and keeper of Michigan lore, I have to believe it's true.

The book also mentioned that Manley hunted using boomerangs, and by throwing knives and throwing spears.

As for the other 'Old Fashioned Hunter', it was a guy named Billy Killian, who brought down a 230-pound, fifteen point buck at 50 yards using a flintlock, muzzle loaded rifle. Billy was, at the time, the National Flintlock Rifle Champion.