Black Bear Hunt Failure (experience... thank you Rob :) )

brybenn said:
Bears are not hard to kill but hit them wrong and they wont stop. I hit a 185lb ish dry sow at 164 yards with a 405 gr remington flatnose jacketed bullet froma 458wm. Muzzle velocity was 2400fps. She was running away from me up a ridge to thick spruce. She went over a giant dead log as i shot. It was a surprise to see her as i walked in to my bait. It was a snap shot but she dropped. I watched for several mins. Nothing so i drank a coke and lit a cigar topped up my rilfe and took my gear back to the quad about 400 yards away. I drove back thru the clear cut and sown the slope parked. Finished said cigar. Went over to claim my prize and i cant discribe the sinking feeling when my prize waa a pile of dead sticks. No bear. No blood. No hair. No clue what happened. I grabbed my rifle and looked around in circles. Finally i climbed the hill and went into the thick spruce and i heard the nastiest growl ive ever heard. Made my 160lb mastif sound like a puppy. The branches moved not 10 yards in front of me and i fired a shot. All went silent and i backed out slowly. Down the slope and went up wind and lit another cigar. When i dinished it i headed straight back toward where she growled from and as i crested the hill she broke thru a spruce limb not 3' from my muzzle broadside. Ahe took the 5000ftlb plus energy hit the ground and got back up one the one remaining front leg and snarled. I racked the gun and watched her fall over. The bullet became a bomb. It took the front leg clean off at the joint. Ripped a football size hole thru the chest and her heart literally fell out of her chest. Thw most amazing part was the 9"×5" entrance hole above her back hips that broke 8" of vertibre and continued forward breaking all the ribs but 1 on her right side and smashing thru the front right shoulder flattened out qider than a twoonie against rhe chest hide. Ruined the backstrap completely and even tore into the intestines. There was no blood to be found up untill the 2nd hit. I even went back tracking and found the nice tree i shot. She went more than 50 yards and survived for nearly 45 minutes
They can be tough critters and if hit wrong it dont matter what you use.
I also dont like to admit it but i once took a shot at a small bear running down a logging road. It rolled 3 times and took off faster then a kentucky pure bred. Hours searching revealed a 1" branch with a 1/2" notch. About 10' behind the bears tracks lay the evidence of a redirected bullet. I still dont know what made him roll. Maybe he took a victory roll maybe that bullet wizzing passed him scared him that much. Ill never know
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Ninja bear pulled some matrix #### on your ass. Lol
 
I was positive I hit a deer once, spent 2 hrs looking for blood before I found I had tagged a 3" poplar, it happens, yes the rifle was shooting right. It says a lot about your character coming ahead to seek advice like you did!
 
Wow... I am honoured to be part of a fraternity as positive as this. Thank you so much for telling your stories and not nailing me to a wall. I admit, I was apprehensive about sharing my experience, but I am so glad I did. You have all been so kind and supportive... so much so I found myself out of bed at 5am this morning and back in the brush, even though there were no sightings, it felt good to cover the same ground in an attempt to try again. Much love and many thanks.

I have some pics... I wish I knew how to post in a way that you didn't have to click a link, but catching fish and lighting fires in the pissing rain is far more in my skill set than computers, as I'm sure it is yours! Forgive the technological illiteracy.


https://flic.kr/p/JQFFH3

https://flic.kr/p/24dNwmQ

https://flic.kr/p/24dNyd5
 
I’ve shot lots of bears.( four while in my socks and underwear) And missed some easy ones. I’d say you missed. It seems like there should be no way but it happens. Move on and go kill your bear. I guarantee you are a better hunter than you were a week ago. Once that bear is down you’ll be better still.
 
Runningfool said:
Great pics and way to get back on that horse!
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Thanks man, felt good to cover the same ground again. I ended up on a new "road" it is severely overgrown and you could tell that a bear is frequently using it as a thoroughfare as the were numerous turds in a pretty much straight line. Also he has been creating an obvious tunnel. I did realize as I was moving down this road that if I did come across him, we would be close (40-50 yards max) and that if I did shoot him, I'd have a hell of a recovery on my hands... so I turned around and went back the way I came to more open ground... So last Saturday was not without its lessons :)
 
savage 110L said:
I’ve shot lots of bears.( four while in my socks and underwear) And missed some easy ones. I’d say you missed. It seems like there should be no way but it happens. Move on and go kill your bear. I guarantee you are a better hunter than you were a week ago. Once that bear is down you’ll be better still.
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OK, one bear wearing your socks and underwear is strange; but when 4 of them start wearing them
its downright weird. Has there been a chemical spill or lab accident recently?
 
lots have commented, I have nothing new to add except to agree with most of the others.
There is nothing wrong with 270 as a black bear calibre. The chioce of bullet might affect things but generally speaking it's fine for this size of game.

Learning to hunt includes accepting the random nature of things. There are alot of factors that contribute to a successful kill and your particular example didn't happen to end in one. Just like dating, don't treat an individual failure as a systemic failure. There are a number of factors that might have led to this miss that you will never know about. Just stick to the skills you have obviously learned and you will be on your way to success.

IS.
 
Ian Sa said:
lots have commented, I have nothing new to add except to agree with most of the others.
There is nothing wrong with 270 as a black bear calibre. The chioce of bullet might affect things but generally speaking it's fine for this size of game.

Learning to hunt includes accepting the random nature of things. There are alot of factors that contribute to a successful kill and your particular example didn't happen to end in one. Just like dating, don't treat an individual failure as a systemic failure. There are a number of factors that might have led to this miss that you will never know about. Just stick to the skills you have obviously learned and you will be on your way to success.

IS.
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Very well spoken, read that aloud to my lady :)

Thank you
 
Read through most of the posts so I can't really offer anything new to the CSI on your bear hunt except to say that I have taken a few new/novice hunters out in my time and especially with big game, buck fever/excitement/whatever you may call it happens frequently even with experienced hunters. I have seen the excitement turn a great shooter into a total mess. I have killed enough deer that my heart rate doesn't even budge when I see a deer anymore but when I started hunting Black Bear, my heart jumped when I saw first bear and I was a seasoned hunter by that point. Even changing weapons can result in a hot mess. I remember seeing my first animal with my bow when I switched from rifle and it was another jump in excitement. Don't sweat your miss and be grateful that you didn't wound the animal. My best friend hit a deer in the ass from a poor quartering shot at 150 yds or so. We spent 4 hours trying to track the animal and never found it. Every time we found a pile of blood the deer had moved on. Eventually the trail disappeared and we had nothing left to follow. I haven't wounded an animal yet (knock on wood) but I would never make somebody feel bad for not cleanly killing an animal either as it is no sure thing. If it was it would be called "butchering" and not "hunting".
 
I was going to comment earlier on but anything I would’ve said has already been covered, as a relatively new hunter I can empathize with you. It can happen to anyone as far as I look at it, how you deal with it or learn from it is the important part. If you do your due diligence to try and find the animal and take the event seriously then you did the right thing, good on you for getting back out too. Persistence is an important part in being successful while hunting, the more you are out there on the ground the greater you chances will be of bringing home meat. Hopefully you’re next bear encounter will be better than the last one, I’ll be heading out for my first bear hunt with a buddy shortly. I’m looking forward to it to say the least!
 
Dogleg said:
OK, one bear wearing your socks and underwear is strange; but when 4 of them start wearing them
its downright weird. Has there been a chemical spill or lab accident recently?
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Why do you think I shoot them? Socks and underwear are expensive and bear poop stains them badly.
 
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