There’s an inspiring side note to the recently ended Louisiana black bear hunting season, which was a highlight in itself because it’s the first one in the state since 1988.

A Lafayette outdoorsman, U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient who has devoted his life to help other military veterans harvested one of the 10 black bears during the short season.

Deron Santiny, a Wounded Warrior Project peer support group leader and former academic advisor for veterans at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, pulled the trigger Dec. 17 in Tensas Parish and killed a 696-pound black bear with state record-breaking potential. The bear will be measured after the 60-day waiting period for Boone and Crockett scoring.

“To say this is an awesome experience would be an understatement. I had the privilege of being one of the 10 hunters allowed to hunt the Louisiana black bear for the first time since the 1980s,” Santiny wrote that day on his Facebook page.

Santiny, who was injured while serving in Iraq, got his hands on one of the few hunting permits thanks to the Healing Road Foundation, which held a raffle and donated the tag to a military veteran.

He enjoyed some of the bear sausage with a friend and fellow veteran, Ryan Gonzales, the night of Dec. 28 in New Iberia. Ironically, Gonzales passed on the tag.

“It’s good, very good. Not ‘gamey’ at all … close to beef. You’ve just got to make sure you cook it properly, get it up to 165 degrees,” Santiny said in a cell phone call the day after the meal.

Santiny, 58, has hunted deer, elk and antelope but never, ever, stalked black bears before December.

“I’ve never been bear hunting before. That was the first time I’ve actually seen a Louisiana black bear, other than one on the side of the road,” he said in a story posted online by www.nola.com.

His first-ever black bear hunt was with Healing Road Foundation founder Gino Attardi of Eagle Nest, New Mexico. They sat and waited four hours before making the lucky shot, Santiny said.

“We knew there was going to be a big bear in the area because the (hunting camp’s) landowners were watching him and we ended up getting fortunate enough that he came back out,” he said.

That Santiny harvested the biggest black bear of the season was fitting. He’s been on a mission to help other service veterans since he recovered from his injuries suffered in Iraq.

At ULL, he met a veteran who was in his 70s, older than most students, who had two tours as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. Later the veteran served during Desert Storm and did one tour in Iraq.

Santiny invited him to a WWP peer support group meeting. The older man attended, apparently enjoyed himself and shared stories with other veterans before abruptly getting up to say goodbye and shake hands while noting he had something to take care of.

The Lafayette hunter also said goodbye and gave the other veteran a hug. He saw him the next day and again at a veterans coffee hour at the university.

About 1 ½ years later, the older veteran showed up at one of those meetings, called out Santiny and honored him with a handmade Challenge Coin case he specifically designed to honor Santiny’s career as an infantry soldier.

The old vet then shocked the gathering and Santiny.

“What (Deron) doesn’t know is that he literally saved my life (at that initial meeting),” he told the group, also reminding them he left early that evening because he “had something to do.”

“I had a plan. I was going to take a certain road with a tree on it and I was going to get my truck up to about 100 mph, hit it and kill myself. I couldn’t deal with it any more until you stood up and gave me a hug and thanked me for coming and showed me that I had something to live for. That hug changed my mind, and I took a completely different route to get home. …”

Those words have stayed with Santiny ever since.

“To me, it’s proof that the peer support groups work because we’re giving the opportunities to warriors to build that connection,” he said. (EDITOR’S NOTE: The full story about Santiny and the other veteran can be read at newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org.)

His mission and peace of mind apparently carries over to his recreational activities, including fishing and hunting. He was spot on with three shots — two well-placed from 100 yards (the first one dropped it flat) and one from about 15 yards with a Winchester .375 — at perhaps the biggest black bear killed in the Sportsman’s Paradise.

“I was going to use my 308 (AR10),” he said, but deferred when Attardi urged him to use the .375 the New Mexico native uses to kill big game like moose.

Eleven black bear permits were allocated to licensed resident hunters through a lottery system for the hunt held Dec. 7 through Dec. 22. Black bear hunting was confined to four parishes – Tensas, Madison, East Carroll and West Carroll, plus portions of Richland, Franklin and Catahoula parishes — in the northeast Louisiana region known as Bear Management Area 4.

Santiny said the season was well-planned and tipped his cap to LDWF, Healing Road Foundation and Osceola Hunting Clubs, among others.

The black bear Santiny shot was an adult male, one of eight male black bears killed during the season, according to the LDWF’s large carnivore program manager John Hanks. The veteran game biologist was impressed with the biggest one taken.

Hanks told Andrew Greenstein with the Louisiana Radio Network in an online story posted Dec. 23 on the louisianaradionetwork.com, “That’s the biggest one I’ve ever put my hands on. They certainly have had bigger ones in the United States, but I don’t know if we’ve ever had a bigger one in Louisiana, at least not in recent decades.”

Overall, the first season had a tremendously positive impact on the future of hunting bears in Louisiana.

Louisiana black bears typically weigh between 450-550 pounds, he said.

The previous biggest bear he has seen in the state, he said, was a 608-pounder killed by a vehicle.

This past black bear hunting season was special because it’s the second time the state has been able to take an endangered species and bring it to the point it can be hunted safely, the first state to do so with two species. The first instance is the alligator.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Madison Sheahan, in her first year at the helm of the state agency, realized the significance the day the season opened and said, “Being able to increase a recreational opportunity today and throughout the next couple weeks as we venture on this black bear season is a historic thing for Louisiana.”

Hanks estimated there were 1,200-1,500 black bears statewide before December.