tracking

[the509hunter]

well i shot a bear and i know i hit it but i cant track it thru the thick brush and trees cause i cant find blood i really want to find him cause it is my first bear and i dont want it to go to waist

[ydeardorff]

Are you sure hes down? Where'd you shoot him location wise? Just so other hunters can keep an eye out for ya, and themselves.

[RadSav]

Tracking bear can be tough.  Their hair absorbs blood, the soft fat plugs up holes and there is a greasiness to their blood that keeps it from sticking to vegetation like deer and elk blood.  Being thick brush is often times a good thing as it means branches and leaves rubbing hard against the wound.  Don't look for drops on the ground as much as thin transfers of blood painted on branches.  Even look for grease or oil transfer on the branches.  Mortally wounded bear usually run in a straight line down hill so the direction you saw him running will likely be the direction you will find him where as deer and elk often bounce around depending on the contour of terrain.  Bear also tend to run straight over anything small in their path.  Look for overturned leaves, broken branches, flattened ferns and overturned rocks.  If you see something that looks like it was disturbed by a running animal stop and dig around.  Turn over leaves, branches and rocks.  If pine needles are on the ground dig under them to see if there is blood underneath.  I've seen pints of bear blood under pine needles that showed no sign of having been touched by blood.

If you give it 110% of your effort and you still do not find the bear at least you will not go home with the feeling you could have done more.  Crap happens and we all loose an animal sooner or later.  It's a horrible feeling and the only comfort you will find is that you gave it all you had to give.

Wish you were closer so I could lend you a hand in the search.  Guess I will have to be wishing you all the best instead.  Good luck!

[the509hunter]

thanks radsav i am glad u responded because i did find some sort or greasy residue next to where i shot him

[Cap.Silver]

I hope you got more people in your search party than just yourself ;call in all your buddies to help you if they can and good luck with it.

[the509hunter]

yea i have about six others so i hope we find him cause was good size

[bearpaw]

I posted this in your other thread too....

Here's a little advice to try and help: Go back up as soon as you can and go to where the bear was at when you shot, look for blood or tracks, look for blades of grass or leaves on brush turned from an animal passing. Watch for the tiniest drips of dried blood on grass, leaves, etc. If you can't find a blood trail and the brush is super thick like it sounds, form a line with your friends 5 yards apart and walk through keeping track that none of you miss anything. The guy on the outside edge should mark his path with trail ribbon if possible. When you get to the other side of the brush patch move down the appropriate distance, line up, and make another pass, with each person 5 yards apart, the guy on the end should again mark his trail so you have a guideline for the next pass. Keep doing this until you cover all the brush. If you do this in an organized fashion, you will have covered all the area adequately and will be able to know the bear is not laying there dead somewhere.
GOOD LUCK

In the future I would not recommend shooting bear at long distances, unless you have a lot of gun and a lot of long range shooting experience, it will be hard to kill a bear at long range. In my experience most bear wounded at long range are never recovered.