almost had meat in the freezer

[tony04]

on saturday a buddy and i went up in the huckle berries and spotted a nice bear about 300 yards away. we closed the distance as far as we could and got a good rest. he shot first, then i gave a follow up shot. then it took off running up a steep hill so we threw a couple more rounds at it. it disappeared so we KNEW it was down. turns out there was a bench we couldnt see. my buddy ran back to grab more ammo and while he was away the damn thing appeared farther up the hill side. so i shot at it 2 more times. i was pretty shakey by then and wasnt able to use a rest. we searched and searched, but no bear. he went up and over the hill side down into some very thick brush. we looked as long as we could but never found it. we were both pretty bummed out. we went out again on sunday and seen 3 more. the first 2 we seen were on the same hill side about 300 yards apart. they we're both spooked and took off running. we ended up seen one more but let it go becuase it was late in the day. we had a great time and i plan on going back and try my luck again. all 4 bears we in the huckleberries. we ate quite a bit while searching for the one bear.

[machine]

Sounds like you have a great spot.

[woodswalker]

Sounds like some shooting practice is in order  ....did you get up and find the spot the bear was at when you hit it the first time?  What did you find there?  Did you call your hits?

[chrisb]

almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

[Atroxus]

almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

And nuclear missiles.

[400out]

almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

AND LOVE! I have almost been in love before 

[HereDuckyDucky]

Sounds like some shooting practice is in order   ....did you get up and find the spot the bear was at when you hit it the first time?  What did you find there?  Did you call your hits?

I don't want to get personal, and I wasn't there, but this is exactly what I was thinking.

Again, I wasn't there, and I don't claim to know your shooting ability, but the story reads poorly in regard to respect for that animal.

RW

[JackOfAllTrades]

OK, here goes more..  But please use this as constructive critizism.

he shot first, then i gave a follow up shot.

So who's tag were you going to put on the Bear if you had recovered it?  This type of hunting is illegal.

Go with enough gun. Don't shoot beyond your capabilities. Look at where the animal may go if hit and not dropped right in it's tracks. Can you track an wounded animal there?  Do you 'want' to track a wounded animal that can fight back, there?

-Steve

[littletoes]

I'm with Jack, and again as he said, Please don't think we are ganging up on you, or picking on you. I'm not, and I'm sure Jack isn't either.

look, on a personal note, its not fair to the game if you are not familiar with your weapon, and/or have no idea where it hits at the range you were shooting at. Yep, we all miss at times, but if for one instant you think that you actually put bullets into that/those bears, then you killed them. You wasted them.

Hunting is a responsibility, so is shooting, so please practice, or at least sight in your rifle, maybe it got bumped.

And to add, If I am wayy off base here---Please forgive me.

I've just seen so many unexperienced shooters out there banging away at game.....it just bothers me to see it. Folks like that kill way more game than they ever realize. 

[JackOfAllTrades]

Have I ever left a Bear in the woods? Yes. 300yd shot on a big boy. We know I hit him twice, hard, where it should have done him in. Hot hand loads with good bullets too. I saw him all tense up in the scope with both hits. Rocked his world is what my partner said. Then he took off like a freight train up the mountain to gain about 700 feet of elevation and go over the other side long before we could get there. So many tracks in the snow up there and not enough blood to follow when he dropped into the timber on the other side. Sickest feeling I ever had was to leave that mountain that day.

-Steve

[littletoes]

Have I ever left a Bear in the woods? Yes. 300yd shot on a big boy. We know I hit him twice, hard, where it should have done him in. Hot hand loads with good bullets too. I saw him all tense up in the scope with both hits. Rocked his world is what my partner said. Then he took off like a freight train up the mountain to gain about 700 feet of elevation and go over the other side long before we could get there. So many tracks in the snow up there and not enough blood to follow when he dropped into the timber on the other side. Sickest feeling I ever had was to leave that mountain that day.

-Steve

HELL YES.

Anyone that has hunted a lot, especially bear-they know how tough they are. Once you get the skin off, and you see the layers upon layers of pure muscle, you realize you don't never want to mess with a bear.
Folks are always talking how tough elk are, I think bear are tougher.

[seth30]

been there done that, and I know how bad it feels to not find your bear.  August 1st was a eye opener for me and bears.  Try to get another set of eyes on your spot, and look under rocks and logs as well. 

[tony04]

after re-reading my post i realize i left out a lot of details and it kind of made me sound like rookie. first off, we shot our rifles before we left. both our rifles we dead on. i shot a 3/4" group at 100 which is the tightest group ive shot with my rifle. i've shot 3 bears with that rifle and all have dropped right in their tracks. we looked for that bear untill it was damn near dark. we had blood at first but then it tapered off and we couldnt find anymore. we couldnt tell where it went because the brush was just way too thick. we did look a little more the next day but with no trail to follow we had no clue where to look. so we wandered around the brush hoping to get lucky. i still feel sick that we couldnt find it, gives me that sick feeling in my stomache.  we could have shot at 2 of the bears we seen the next day but after losing that one, i think we were a little "gun shy" and didnt want to screw up and lose another one.

[JackOfAllTrades]

Again,  We're only trying to be constructive. Can't condemn a man since we weren't there to see everything. One thing that does hurt many that post is leaving out details. Being 'gunshy', may have been a little of analyzing the current situation compared to the situation the day before. Sometimes we see a target, but don't take into account the possibilities after the shot if the animal doesn't drop in its tracks. I bet you've learned from this, and although it has come at a bears expense, it does sound like you gave every effort to recover the bear. Like I said in my other post, I've lost one in the woods too. Sucked. But I learned from it too.

Safe hunting to ya.

-Steve

[brew]

all i've got to say is it's a bunch of crap when people jump on the bandwagon badmouthing people when folks say they have shot an animal then can't find it....it happens and is never a good feeling but its a fact of life....all we can do as sportsmen is try to do the best we can to harvest an animal humanely....i know i've spent countless hours on the range sighting my weapons in to kill an animal as quickly as possible...but that doesn't mean that something can't go wrong.... just a couple weeks ago I set up in an area that I knew a bear was using...after 5 days I finally got a shot right at 8 pm.  I was using a rest and the bear was right at 100 yds.  after the shot the bear started doing back flips and tumbles.  I tried getting another shot into it but all I saw was feet flying between the trees.  He dissapeard downhill into a drainage and thought for sure he was dead.  Went back the next morning and followed the blood, found a large chunk of bone and blood trailed it for over 400 yards before it petered out.  Most of the time we were on all fours crawling through salmon berry bushes.  I was shooting a 7 mm mag 160 gr nosler partition bullets that I have taken 3 bears previous, countless deer, elk and a moose.  I still feel sick about it as it is the only animal that I've ever shot with that rifle that I couldn't find.  It happens