opening weekend bear hunting results....

[fratri]

I came back yesterday afternoon and did not have the courage to post the results until now..... Here's the story....

Pyd, thanks for the gloves, between the thermacell and the gloves the bugs stayed away... First night was a tough afternoon, did not see anything and had an uncomfortable tree stand, my butt was killing me....

Day 2 in late morning we went out and set up another stand (2 man ladder stand) over another active bait, I choose to sit on this new stand (much more comfortable) I get in my stand before 5pm and about 8:40 pm a nice looking bear comes sneaking in....Don't ask me how but I guess anything is possible...

I have been testing my shotgun for over a month, practicing with different slugs and from different shooting positions and distances, I finally decide on one type of slug and sight it in dead on at 25 yds....according to my guide/host this would be the shooting distance...So I practice this shot quite a bit from a bench and off hand... so tell me, how does one miss a standing still bear at 30 yds broadside, especially when I have my gun on the tree stand rest? For the life of me I can't figure what went wrong...

After the shot, the bear looked like it was hit and ran off grunting....I thought I saw through the trees it go down 80yds away or so....no death moan though and it was getting dark in the bush....I waited 5 mins or so and got enough courage to climb down the stand walk over to the area he was standing and look for blood, I didn't see any, my heart just dropped... I went back to my stand, waited for my guide to show up...My guide and his buddy did a complete search of the area with flashlights as I did the best I could guiding them from the tree stand to where I thought the bear was heading, they found no sign of blood...The guide and his buddy concluded, I had a clean miss....

I left the next day very disappointed, came home and first thing I did was go out and shoot my gun from that exact distance, 7 shots all off hand everyone of them in the kill zone, the setup is fine, so how does one miss

I have rebooked myself for next years hunt already.....

Special thanks to my hosts Ray (bigr) and his wife Shannon, great people that made you feel welcomed...See you next year....

Those are the facts, and unfortunately sometimes all the planning in the world doesn't help...

[sumner4991]

Maybe, you should not have used the solid rest. The recoil may have thrown you off. Try shooting from a similiar rest and then again freehand and see if there is a difference. I've had that happen . . .I took two shots from a solid rest at a deer, completely miss over it's back. It took off running and I had to shoot freehand when it stopped. It stopped and I shot, it dropped. I was wondering how I could miss a 80 yard shot with a rest and connect on a 140 yard shot freehand. That was a long, long time ago. I had laid my rifle barrel directly on the trunk of a fallen tree. I keep my hand between my rifle and the rest I'm using now.

Just a thought . . .give that a try.

Good luck on the next trip!

[inmysights]

Fratri,
Blame the STAND!!!!! but don't tell me its the one I'm thinking of.

[Grizzly Adam]

Maybe, you should not have used the solid rest. The recoil may have thrown you off. Try shooting from a similiar rest and then again freehand and see if there is a difference.

This is sound advice. The rest you use when taking a hunting shot should be very much like the one you used to sight-in.

I sight-in my hunting rifle OFF MY HAND ... with exactly the same hold I use in a blind or stand taking a rested shot.

Beyond that:

My experience with bear-hunters and bear hunting has taught me this:

ANY HUNTER CAN MISS ANY BEAR, AT ANY TIME!

I don't care what you can do in any other situation, what a bear-hunting guide friend of mine says holds true: "Put fur and teeth on the target, and all bets are off!"

Indeed!

[Big John]

I have to agree on that one. Been Bear Hunting a long time, and ANYTHING can happen. Including falling down a cliff!
Thats why I'm not out there this season. I've seen guys miss with bows at ten yds. And guns at twenty yds. Doesnt matter, when the time is NOW, all bets are off as Grizz said, until the meat hits the ground, you just dont know. And I've seen guys shake so bad when the Bear is that close, that they cant shoot, never mind straight, ask Boo! Have fun next year anyhow!!

[dick195252]

You'll get him next year

[mikej]

good luck next year

[Mike P]

I may offer a different scenario here. Maybe, just maybe you didn't miss him.

I have personally had this same thing happen shooting pigs with a slug gun. I have cranked big boars at thirty yards and have them act hit and run off. Walk up to the area where the pigs were standing when I shot and there is no blood. Follow the route the pigs took escaping and there is no blood. We then search in ever increasing circles and find no blood. Our hosts then looks me in the eye and asks "What do you think, was the shot good?" And when I answer yes he goes and gets the dogs.

And every time the dogs have found the pigs. I really dislike slug guns and sabot slugs but that is all we can use here in Ohio during the whitetail gun season. Whitetails have no "staying power" however and slugs usually leave copious amounts of blood.

But pigs are tough.

I suspect bears are also.

[Grizzly Adam]

Bears are very easy to kill ... they fold up with surprising speed ...if you hit them solidly through the vitals.

However, a marginal or bad hit almost always means a lost bear. They have incredible tenacity when wounded, and can put unbelievable space between themselves and the danger.

Even a well-hit bear can be hard to track ... because of the fat and thick fur. Their fat and hide can slip over the entrance hole, blocking blood flow. Their fur can hold a lot of blood, allowing them to get a long way from the site of the shot before they leave much blood. Their fur can also hold clotting blood and nearly stop blood flow.

One of the most common problems I've seen with people who come hunt bears is poor hits. Many, many people shoot bear too far back in the body.

[Pydpiper]

Pyd, thanks for the gloves, between the thermacell and the gloves the bugs stayed away... First night was a tough afternoon, did not see anything and had an uncomfortable tree stand, my butt was killing me....

You are more than welcome! If you want company for the next trip just say so.

[mikej]

believe it or not i have seen a wounded bear pack a bullet hole with mud once and stopped the blood trail

[Mike P]

believe it or not i have seen a wounded bear pack a bullet hole with mud once and stopped the blood trail

Yeah, but then Chicago traded him to the Bengals and now we are stuck with him as our running back.

[sumner4991]

believe it or not i have seen a wounded bear pack a bullet hole with mud once and stopped the blood trail

Yeah, but then Chicago traded him to the Bengals and now we are stuck with him as our running back.

[mikej]

believe it or not i have seen a wounded bear pack a bullet hole with mud once and stopped the blood trail

Yeah, but then Chicago traded him to the Bengals and now we are stuck with him as our running back.

i'm lost mike , i don't know who you are talking about. but then again i only follow real football teams

[MADMAX2]

fratri thanks for sharing your story maybe you should have packed the excaliber and brought your son the way he was shooting at the club he was nuts on at 20yds but seriously that's hunting and a trip of a lifetime and the next one I would hate to be the bear!!