Lost my 1st bear

[huntnnw]

a 1 lunged bear can survive

[6x6in6]

It's an hour and a half away from your Everett workplace.
Looks like you have 3-4 standing offers to help you on your search.
You should really stand back and take a 2nd look at this situation your in.  If you truly feel that the drive and 4 mile bike ride in is part of the equation on why you are not returning to exhaust your search efforts, do sportsman in general a favor and burn your license and sell your gun. 
I hope you take up someone's generous offer of their time to try and salvage some face here with your peers.   You owe that bear the respect he/she has earned. 

[huntnnw]

to just notch your tag and leave the bear! cause its no good IF its dead.

[sebek556]

OK I posted my  earlyer that he should go back out and look but now it seems to me that its getting kinda ugly, the guy made a bad shot, yes I think he should go back out and look. He had some guts to post it on here, a wounded bear at night can be dangerous so cant say I blame him for backing out due to night. But lets not crucify him or burn him at the stake, it was his first bear after all.

[huntnnw]

one thing I learned looong ago... if you shoot a bear in the evening..you better be able to get to it and pack it out..come morning its no good...bears spoil fast! I wouldnt touch a bear overnight in 30 degree weather. I have spots where I have a time where I pull out..maybe a hour till dark,but if I cant give it some time and hike to it without getting dark theres no sense in hunting till dark.

[flinger]

1 1/2 hr drive 1/2 hr bike ride ,up at 6 back in there by 9.weather should be good sounds like a good full day in the woods
GO FIND YOUR BEAR

[johnnyaustin44]

We let a bear go overnight on Wednesday and got him in the morning and he was good to go

[huntnnw]

I have eaten 1 bear that was left overnight..needless to say we all got sick.. I know of 3 others that were left overnight in mid to late sept that were not good within the first hour of light.

[DBZona]

  If you truly feel that the drive and 4 mile bike ride in is part of the equation on why you are not returning to exhaust your search efforts, do sportsman in general a favor and burn your license and sell your gun.   

Really?  The guy already feels bad about what happened and had the balls to accept the fact that he made a mistake and come on to this board for advice and support as to what he should do.  How do you know he did not exhaust his search efforts?  You do not know how thick the brush was, how hard it was to travel through.  We all agree, including himself, that he should not have taken the shot...hindsight is always 20/20.  Plus that is not the entire equation.

So for all the hunters on this forum that have screwed up on a hunt and felt they gave it there all, but were told by someone else that there efforts were not good enough, then we should all hang it up and sell our guns, because we apparently do not belong in the woods. 

HE SCREWED UP ON THE SHOT, LET HIM LEARN FROM IT AND MOVE ON.  I thought this forum was about Encouragement and helping fellow hunters out, but so many on here are so quick to cast stones. 

Wouldn't be suprised if he did what you said and hung it up, because some of you are criticizing him.  If it were me, I would be thinking, man, I suck at this. 

How awesome is it to encourage an honest, wants to do what is right, hunter to leave the sport?  Does it make you feel better?  Cause if that is how some of you get your kicks, then maybe you should not be on this forum.  If he was an unethical, didn't have a care in the world hunter then ya, he should not be hunting, but this is not that situation. 

So everyone on there high horse, get the hell off. 

For those that do not know how to give good advice for those who honestly screwed up, this is how you do it: 
Offer your  , then back it up with words of encouragement.  Dont give your  with a holier than thou attitude, and encourage him to hang it up. 

He feels bad enough, lets not drive someone who wants to learn away by being A$$e$.

[demontang]

You know we all have taken shot we shouldnt have at one point. He has learned a valuble lesson here and that is to not rush a shot, lots of things happen in the heat of the moment and experiance is how we learn. I know the feeling of shooting an animal and loosing it, granted it was a coyote but I hate to know I wounded an animal. He looked for it and seems to know he messed up. If it where me I would notch my tag and wait tell next year, live and learn.

[h20hunter]

I've followed along and I think the responses so far have been supportive. The general concensus seems to be to get out a look at least a bit more mainly so he won't regret not giving it the full effort. Most will lose an animal at one point or another and I think that has been made clear. Final chime in for me. Hope you find it and if not, feel that you did all you can, keep your head up, and keep on hunting.

[Goldeneye]

I hope the fact that he has not logged in today means he took the day off from work and is up trying to recover the bear.  Hard lesson, hopefully it will stick.  Never take a shot you are not confident will be a clean kill.  Snap shots, hair shots, back end shots, etc. all have the potential for a bad outcome. 

[mulehunter]

After shot Bear sometime ran and climb up and sit tight.     Have to look up all tree or  blood drips both same time. Very Rare.


Mulehunter.

[jackelope]

One less predator good job!  Let it be and go shoot another one they won't all Houdini on you.

Holy crap...I seriously think I've seen it all written on here now. Are you an "officer" of WFW?

Cut your tag, call it a notched tag and be done with bear hunting this year.

I think that some of the comments on here have beem worse than the lost bear itself.

[jackelope]

One less predator good job!  Let it be and go shoot another one they won't all Houdini on you.

and I will repeat

and you should remove yourself from WFW