Bear hunting question

[NewHunter24]

Plan on hunting black bears for the forst time by my self, do you reccomend waiting half an hour before approaching a bear that you hit & is bleeding out or try to find it right after the shot?

[Alan K]

I would always go after it. The colder a trail gets the tougher it is. Bears are tough animals, take the time to make a good shot and he won't go far.

[nwwanderer]

 

[trophyhunt]

It’s always fun looking for a bear you shot in the thick stuff, lol. But I’ve never waited, at least just long enough to make sure my sidearm is ready!

[trophyhunt]

Hope you don’t mind me asking a bear hunting question? Was in the backcountry yesterday looking for a bear, west side.  Beautiful area, but the berries are gone. So, will the bears still be in the area, or do they move to another elevation to eat something else?? What is their target food now that the berries are gone??

[dilleytech]

Depends on the shot like anything. If you hit double lungs it’s dead by the time you can gather your stuff and move. If it’s not you will probably lose it anyway. They don’t bleed great and can be hard to track

[Okanagan]

(Oops, Dillytech beat me to it while I typed, and did it more concisely.  Will post my reply anyway.)

Depends.

Sorry for the real life ambiguity but that is a better plan about following any game animal than a rigid “always follow right away”  or “always wait 30 minutes” etc.

Sight picture, range, terrain, thickness of vegetation, rain, time of day, solo or have some help, and probably a dozen other factors all (should) have input as to whether to follow a wounded bear right away.

ALWAYS mark the spot where you were standing at the shot, (which is the most likely thing I forget in the excitement of the moment).  Then I prefer to ease to the spot where the bear was when hit, and examine the ground, bushes etc. for any sign:  blood, cut hair or other that tells me what happened, how badly and from where the bear is bleeding, (if he is bleeding), etc.  At that point I decide whether to follow immediate or give him some time.

Just one codger’s reply, and our mileage does vary, which is fine.  A good thing is that you are thinking about it. Do what you think best at the time.

[Rob]

My buddy and I both shot a spring bear this year.  One with a 300 WSM and one with a 7MM Rem Mag.  One was at 40 yards and the the other was around 100 yards.  Both bears took off after the shot

Neither bear left a drop of blood to track.  Ground they were on did not leave much of anything for tracks.  There were a couple broken twigs and maybe one spot where they slipped or skidded while going up a hill.

My recommendation is that 0.5 seconds after you have your last view of a retreating bear, you start moving towards where you last saw it!  Between the fur and fat, those wounds seal up fast.

[boneaddict]

Archery tackle I wouldn’t go charging in, but rifle I always am hot after it. 

[swampbear]

Depends. Making a good solid shot is key. I’ve double lunged a bear and had it run 100 yards into the thickest, nasty stuff. I’ve also shot a bear and had it run 25 yards into the brush, even though it’s heart was literally exploded. I’ve had bears drop in their tracks. In recent years, I’ve stepped up from 308 and 6.5cm, to 7mm rem mag, and 300 rum. 308 and 6.5 are plenty to kill a bear. I want to anchor that bear exactly where it’s at though. That way I don’t have to try tracking it into dense brush.

In brush westside stuff it’s a gamble. Go in right away and possibly push the bear deeper if it’s not dead, or maybe deal with a pissed off bear that’s not quite dead. Or you wait, lose your bearing of where it went in, and have a hard time locating it. I personally like to wait if I saw the bear run. I’ll make note of where I last saw it (even take a pic with my phone and edit it with a mark showing exactly where). I’ll make note of where I took the shot. Then when I go into the brush, I generally zig zag a 50 yard wide pattern. Sometimes the bear doesn’t go straight once it gets in the brush, sometimes you can’t find blood. It lets me cover a lot of area. If I don’t find it, I move out another 50 yards and zig zag trying to locate the bear or blood.

[dilleytech]

It’s worth adding the wife and I have killed 12 bears or so in the last 5 years and when you shoot them in the heart or lungs they will always run between 20-100 yards and unless you get heart, (and the hole doesn’t happen to get plugged right away) they don’t bleed much. Only 3 fell in there tracks. Two shot in lung/spine, both gave death moans. And one I shot right along the shoulder mid way up that jellied the lungs and just happened to cause the beer to do a roll where it was standing  as though it thought something had bit it and it was attacking the thing. Giving it enough time to die in that spot. The only bear I have lost was hit in the shoulder.

I think if I really don’t want to have to track a bear I’m going for neck or head shots.