Blonde bear down

[n_mathews13]

Got a call last night from a friend, saying he arrowed a bear while deer hunting. We always go help each other out, but last night I had a test to study for. So my brother went. Was suppose to ran today so they wanted to fund it last night. Good blood for 50yds then went cold so they backed off.
I studied most of the night. Come 4:am I knew I had to go, who doesn't want to be apart of that. Got there at sun up, and we started it over. I found more blood .we went another 100yds in 5 hrs. Wasn't looking good. Got to a point we started looking for a body more then blood ( mistake). In one last back track effort , we went back to last blood. My bro found it 6' from where we had walked. Was a good day. And I passed my test ( barely )

[Dan-o]

Wow.... and with traditional gear to boot!

Kudos!

[carpsniperg2]

sweet congrats to him

[csaaphill]

good for all and glad you passed your test 

[Machias]

Awesome, great job sticking with it!

[Widgeondeke]

Nice job. 

[jasnt]

Congrats to the hunter

[Bearhide]

Good looking bear 

[losdaddy7]

Beauty!!

[Okanagan]

Love the color on that one. 

Ditto kudus for sticking with it, and for going out to help track.  More eyes really pay off and allow one person to roam ahead a bit more while one stays with the track like glue.

Re tracking, especially tracking a wounded animal:  When an animal walks or runs or travels in any way, it leaves some sign of its passing.  ALWAYS!  I may not be a good enough tracker to find that sign but it is there.  If we believe that we will track better and more persistently.  A dog can track by scent across a surface where I cannot detect any sign of passing, but it is there and the dog proves it.  Maybe we should start another thread on tracking, mainly to encourage hunters to stay with the track and keep working it rather than change from tracking to wandering when they don't see any more blood to follow.   I tracked a bow hit buck for 8 1/2 hours and found it after a 400 yard circular trail in swamp and brushy timber.  At one point that turned out to be the crux, it took me 50 minutes to find the next hint of blood amid many deer tracks.  It was a pinprick and only 18 inches from the last one, but it gave me the buck's change of direction and eventually an improving trail. 

Tracking a wounded animal is the highest percentage hunting we can do.  We know that a legal animal that we want is at the end of the trail, a sure thing if we can follow his trail.  It is worth intense effort and lots of it and the animal deserves it as well.

You did well!

[shanevg]

Congrats and way to stick with it!  Beauty of a bear!

[boneaddict]

Nice color

[johnhart84]

great sticking it out! great blonde bear!

[pianoman9701]

Beautiful color and a nice trad kill. Of course, the arrows have to match for it to count, but...  Tell your friend: Well done. He needs to be on the forum.

[Buckewe]

Great bear and way to track it down .