Hunting bear alone.
- Thread starter Briang
- Start date
blacksmithden
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Ok. I have hunted around bears in Ontario. First of, for the most part, unless someone has been feeding them, or it's a sow with cubs, black bears are the most cowardly animals in the world. My uncle drove one up to me during a deer hunt one year. I raised my gun to a ready position, and waited. The bear got to within 20 yards of me, and I yelled "BEAR!!!!" That thing took off like a scalded cat. It looked like a big bowl of jello floping though the bush and it couldn't get away from me fast enough. My uncle then gave me #### for not shooting it. I told him that I didn't have a bear tag. That's when he tells me that he did, and he was intentionally pushing the bear towards me....nice time to tell me now.....anyway, getting off topic.
If you don't want to mess around bring a big enough gun. 308....303 British....30-06.....is TONS big enough...stuff like that or bigger. You do NOT need a flipping 458 Winchester Magnum with exploding tracer rounds to kill a black bear. If you do see one, DO NOT be afraid to shoot it in the head. I've heard so many BS stories about how it will just richochett off. Yea, ok. A friend of mine shot one dead smack in the forehead with a 30-30. A gun which most would consider too light. "Well Dave, what did the bear do???" It droped dead where it stood and barely even twitched. They're not an indistructable animal.
One thing though. They're a real bugger to drag out of the bush in one piece. It's like trying to drag a big bag of jello through the bush with nothing good to hold onto. Also, the "big bag of jello" smells like a "big bag of rotting urine". The two that I've helped to drag out were NOT fun
After the last one I helped my uncle with, I told him to do it himself next time because I was OUT!!! Have fun
If you don't want to mess around bring a big enough gun. 308....303 British....30-06.....is TONS big enough...stuff like that or bigger. You do NOT need a flipping 458 Winchester Magnum with exploding tracer rounds to kill a black bear. If you do see one, DO NOT be afraid to shoot it in the head. I've heard so many BS stories about how it will just richochett off. Yea, ok. A friend of mine shot one dead smack in the forehead with a 30-30. A gun which most would consider too light. "Well Dave, what did the bear do???" It droped dead where it stood and barely even twitched. They're not an indistructable animal.
One thing though. They're a real bugger to drag out of the bush in one piece. It's like trying to drag a big bag of jello through the bush with nothing good to hold onto. Also, the "big bag of jello" smells like a "big bag of rotting urine". The two that I've helped to drag out were NOT fun
After the last one I helped my uncle with, I told him to do it himself next time because I was OUT!!! Have fun 
I do not want to stir the pot, as I stopped hunting bear since they cancelled spring bear in Ontario. Most of hunters that hunt bear in Ontario without baiting or dogs will likely be driving the farmlands looking for a bear in a field and then stalking within shooting range? When you go to recover your bear take along someone that cannot run as fast as you? We now spend our time in camp shoooooing away camp bears since there there hasn't been an increase in the bear population since? (here I go again)?
black bears are the most cowardly animals in the world. .....................smells like a "big bag of rotting urine". ..................The two that I've helped to drag out were NOT fun
figure I've shot, guided, and helped with 22-24 bears now.
Never had one smell like piss
bears are easily spooked but ANYTHING BUT cowardly when cornered, wounded, or protecting their kill/young.
bears have on of the strongest "will to survive" of any animal i've encountered. never underestimate one for a second.
that being said, with proper bullet placement they can be killed very rapidly and easily
A couple tips for the new bear hunter (I'll try to make this post "helpful" for once" :
Play the wind. worry not about camo, scentlock, and other bull####. play the wind. a bears nose is king, eyes see motion well but does not recognise "people" shape at distances much over 100yrds if you're not moving about. move when the bear moves, or has it's head down to feed. watch the eyes as thebigger ones will "fake feed" and watch you, if you're presence is known, often waiting for you to get closer (this is a creepy scenario, best avoided). one it knows you're there the gig is up, move on.
never rush. if a bear is feeding, chances are he'll be there a LONG time. they get into a good patch of grub and park their asses. if they don't know you're about, and are eating, you have all day to get set up and shoot true.
EVERYTHING comes down to the first shot. make it a good one. follow up shots, no matter how competent the marksman are NEVER as accurate as shot #1. the effectiveness of the second shot is dramatically less on game. that being said if you can still see the bear after shot 1, and feel concerned, no harm in shooting again.
shoot behind, and as close to, the shoulder as possible. bears pile up good and fast with a pnumothorax. a hole in a lung is a dead bear 100% of the time. don;t worry about breaking shoulders, a good heart/lung hit and the yogi wont be using his legs long anyways.
after the shot, wait 20mins. USE A WATCH. 20mins feels like a long ass time after a shot. a well hit bear will usually drop where it stands or make a pair of death bounds into the trees. wait 20mins. if the bear is not hit well giving it time to crawl under a log and stiffen up/bleed out is a good thing. unpressed I have never seen a bear go more then 40yrds. wait 20mins. have a coffee, smoke, etc.
directly after the shot mark your shooting position with flagging tape. after the 20mins walk directly to the spot you shot bear and mark it.
bears are awful for blood trail. thick hair soaks up blood, and the large stores of fat under the hide effectively seal wounds quickly. hence the flagging tape. another reason to wait 20mins.
when going in after a bear move very slowly. don;t speak. don;t chat with your buddy. listen for anything moving. weazing is a great size of a well hit bear. as is crying or moaning. look for a TINY bear. 7ft+ bears can roll up into a ball the size of a sleeping black lab. look under logs, roots, etc. they will usually try to but the wounded side down.
bears tend to always run in the direction they are pointed. never aproch your "dead" bear from the snarly end. toss a rock at it when you're close enough and look for any twitch. watch very carefully for breathing or paw/toe flexing. just this last spring we aproched a bear after a solid chest hit with a .338mag, that was piled up, "dead". it stood up and came back at us. 2 more 338 slugs put it down for good. a bear is never dead untill you;re taking pictures with it. well, not even then, but that's a story for Bullcoon to tell....
Bring Rope. bears have wide wrists and the hair is slippery, they are hard to hold on to. tie back legs together then secure a leash around the center (between the paws) then to a big stick. yes it;s against the grain hair wisem but then you don;t deal with a bobbing head. bear hair is tough, don;t worry about buggering up the hide by dragging. oh yeah, gut it first. this will drop 30%+ of the body weight.
Last edited:
oh, and since it's ontario, if anything does go sour, just walk/crawl the 300m to the nearest highway and flag down a soccer mom
That's totally uncalled for. I have to walk at least 500 metres
If your fairly new at this, I'd suggest that you go with a friend. I sure do hope that the people who previously supported hunting bears with a .223 (especially an SKS POS) do go alone though. bahahaha
That's very professional advice.
- Location
- Ft. Mac. Alberta
I've hunted bears wityh about everything there is to hunt with that can kill them, and guided for a number of years before baiting was allowed in Alberta.
Hunted them alone, hunted them with a partner, shot them in the cabin, from a canoe, shot them in stuff so thick you couldnn't see 8 feet, shot them at 100 yards in the open.
Thbey're fun, they can be big, and they can get nasty.
One thing I learned is never to let your guard down......
Cat
Hunted them alone, hunted them with a partner, shot them in the cabin, from a canoe, shot them in stuff so thick you couldnn't see 8 feet, shot them at 100 yards in the open.
Thbey're fun, they can be big, and they can get nasty.
One thing I learned is never to let your guard down......
Cat
- Location
- The Conservative part of Ontario
Black bear can be easily taken with the 30-30, and I always hunt them by myself. Although help isn't far away. Bears can be a bastard to drag on your own. They roll around trees like a ball on a string.
Amphib's post is very good.
There is nothing wrong hunting 'em by yourself - but to be honest, I think with bears its' best if you can go with someone the first time or so.
As was mentioned - there's no sweat the 99 out of 100 times they go down hard. It's that last time where they go into the bush that gets your trousers a little full. It's best to have someone with a little experience around.
Bears are notoriously hard to track. Keeping an eye out for a bear that's ahead of you and keeping an eye on the ground for sign is not easy without experience.
Oh - and btw, you DEFINITELY want to give the bear some time to die if it got to the bushline. Don't go charging after it. 20 mins is not inappropriate. If it stops running and lays down it'll go into shock and die. if it hears you coming and you can't see it... there can be real problems.
There is nothing wrong hunting 'em by yourself - but to be honest, I think with bears its' best if you can go with someone the first time or so.
As was mentioned - there's no sweat the 99 out of 100 times they go down hard. It's that last time where they go into the bush that gets your trousers a little full. It's best to have someone with a little experience around.
Bears are notoriously hard to track. Keeping an eye out for a bear that's ahead of you and keeping an eye on the ground for sign is not easy without experience.
Oh - and btw, you DEFINITELY want to give the bear some time to die if it got to the bushline. Don't go charging after it. 20 mins is not inappropriate. If it stops running and lays down it'll go into shock and die. if it hears you coming and you can't see it... there can be real problems.
blacksmithden
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Yep, all very good advice Amphib. If you corner or wound anything, it's not going to react well. I wouldn't argue the will to live thing....but.....I was hunting with a gang once, and somebodys dog (not ours) chased a moose right up to one of the guys watches. It came over the hill, and he started blasting with a 300 win mag. He didn't think he had hit it because it just kept coming at him and didn't slow down. After it had passed, (and Al had calmed down), we found blood EVERYWHERE on the rocks. We followed it for probably 3/4 of a kilometer and found the thing in a chunk of swamp kind of staggering around. We pitched rocks at it and it went to shore and collapsed. We walked up to it after about 5 minutes or so, and the damned thing tried to get up. One of the guys smacked it in the back of the neck a couple of times with a hatchet, and that finished it. When we gutted it, there was hardly a drop of blood left in it. Al had hit it 4 times square in the chest with the 300. Just goes to show you what adrenaline can do when an animal is being chased and it's wounded.
That is an awesome "instruction manual" Amphibious. I certainly appreciate it as I've only shot 2 bears in my entire life, and I hopefully will make good use of it this fall. Just wondering though....a while back I saw some pictures which described best shot placement on a bear, broadside etc. I'm particulary interested in say....a frontal shot. I know, one should probably wait for the bear to turn for the optimium shot, but what if 'YOU'RE" in it's crosshairs???
No kiddin'...not unlike the world's biggest bait barrel
. When I was a kid, hunting with my dad in the East Kootenay's, the town of Elkford did not even exist at the time. Fording coal was building their mine site, so there was a camp on site. Needless to say, a garbage dump was part of the scenery. We came up on a scene much like the previous pictures of numerous bears posted above, but they were ALL massive grizzlies. Pretty impressive and humbling sight.That is an awesome "instruction manual" Amphibious. I certainly appreciate it as I've only shot 2 bears in my entire life, and I hopefully will make good use of it this fall. Just wondering though....a while back I saw some pictures which described best shot placement on a bear, broadside etc. I'm particulary interested in say....a frontal shot. I know, one should probably wait for the bear to turn for the optimium shot, but what if 'YOU'RE" in it's crosshairs???
shisk-kabab it. works good. aim dead center in the chest. if to low you take out heart. dead center liver/lungs. to high, lungs/spine. WAY to high and you give it a 3rd eye...
Republic of Alberta
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- ,location, location
With the exeption of the first one I shot when I was 18, all the bears I have shot I have been alone. Amphip gives good advice, and one thing I would add is that I feel it is importatant to get close (less than 100 yards, more like 50). This allows you to more accurately juge the size of the bear, see if it has any rub marks in the hide, see if there are cubs and provided a much better oportunity to make a good shot. Not only because it's easyer to hit somthing close but also because you are able to make out the vital area rather than seeing one big black blob with no defining features.
I would also practice shooting, reloading and shooting again accurately. It is quite possible you can get a second shot into him as they sometimes spin around biting at the wound from the first shot.
I would also practice shooting, reloading and shooting again accurately. It is quite possible you can get a second shot into him as they sometimes spin around biting at the wound from the first shot.
