2 Cabot hunters bag triple crown
CABOT — Virginia Schnur just got back into hunting. Travis Neel is just getting started.
Both Cabot residents stumbled upon the sport's Triple Crown within the past two years without initially intending to aim for it.
Neel, 14, got his Triple Crown in 2008. He bagged the turkey on Memorial Day that year, got an 82-pound bear Nov. 24 near Cabot, then got a 5-point buck Dec. 6.
This deer season, Neel bagged a spike buck and a doe.
"Pretty much everybody in Cabot goes hunting. That's how I got into it," Neel said.
He hunts with his father, Dave Neel, who's been a hunter for 29 years and has never gotten a Triple Crown himself.
"I had a chance to get a bear the same day Travis did," the elder Neel said. "I saw four of them and headed them toward Travis and (friend) Steve Bergbigler.
"Travis shot one. Steve shot one. My scope was off and I missed mine."
Schnur hunted for years before taking a break to raise her son, Matthew, and daughter, Chelsey, now 21 and 19, respectively.She returned to hunting five years ago, "when my kids were old enough to watch themselves."Her children and husband Timothy are avid hunters."I never thought about the Triple Crown," Schnur said. "It just happened."She bagged an 11-point buck on Oct. 10, 2009, then got the turkey Nov. 12, both in Butler County.Schnur got the bear first on May 27 while vacationing in Quebec."We were on a trip celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary," she said. "We decided to hunt black bear while we were up there and I happened to get one.<BR><BR><BR><BR>
"They take you to the hunting area by boat. I was in a tree stand and saw the bear coming across a creek."She shot the 135-pound bear twice before it fell backward into the water and sank to the bottom of the creek."It took some work and the help of a few people to get it out of there," Schnur said.While the Schnur family normally hunt bears in Elk County, Virginia Schnur had never gotten one before. Schnur also got two does with her bow last fall."I don't know if that will ever happen again," she said of securing the Triple Crown.Neel is hopeful of repeating the feat, but recognizes it won't come easily.<BR><BR><BR><BR>
"We went bear hunting again (in 2009) and never even saw one," he said.Travis is the oldest of four brothers. Dalton Neel, 12, also hunts, but didn't get a deer last year. The other boys are 10 and 8."I'm sure they'll all be in the woods eventually," Dave Neel said. "I've got a couple buddies who have done (Triple Crowns), but that was three or four years ago."It's not an easy thing to accomplish. I'm excited for Travis. I wanted to see him have success more than myself."
