Minor failure, a little sore about it. But an awesome weekend!

[SamKilo]

A friend and I made it out to the woods last weekend. It was our fourth time out looking for bear. Had seen one the second time out but it was much too far and we lost it trying to get closer. Well, over the weekend, first turn in the service road, we see a paw print, about 4.5 inch wide. It was obviously a couple days old, but as we approached the edge and looked down, my buddy says,"Well, there he is." And sure enough, 160 yards out, a decent size bear happily feeding. I set up for the shot as he is feeding further out into a large opening. He got quartered away and because I thought I had more time, I was waiting for him to turn a bit, though I was on the verge of pulling the trigger. Then he suddenly got his nose in the air and took off running.  From what I understand, quartered away isn't the best but is good enough to get the job done. Probably should have just taken the shot, especially at such a small distance.

Glad its still awesome just getting out there and being in the woods. In addition to the bear that bested me, we saw 2 doe, 2 buck, and we came across a yearling bear just 20 yards away.

[longashes]

Sounds like a good day in the wood!

[FC]

Sounds like a good day in the wood!

Sounds like a pretty good day to me too.

[gaddy]

& just think, now you have a reason to do it again.

[saylean]

Never a failure when you find an animal you are looking for.

Beats sittin at home dont it?!

[Mike O]

You made the right call.  I've never regretted a shot I haven't taken but you can't call back a bad shot.

[Hilltop123]

Please explain? Why do you believe the trip was a failure?
1. You found a animal that you wanted to harvest. 2. Out in the woods with a good friend. 3. Although you where winded, from the description in the story. You did not take a hurried, risky shot on a bear! That bear has winded people before, he's already over it! Now if you had taken the shot and missed, or worse.........nothing like lead grazing your back side, to put you on lifetime highten security.

[SamKilo]

Very true all! I didn't mean the day was a failure in any way! It was a blast and I can't wait to get back out there, even if I knew before hand that I wouldn't harvest one. Just sort of kicked myself for a bit on the missed opportunity, but you are 100% right. There is always next time, and if there was something keeping me from pulling the trigger at the time, there was probably a good reason for it.

[Sideswipe]

Done better than me this year.  Made one of those hard but right choices eh?

[rebal69972]

sounds like a good day to me. if there was something in your guy saying don't shoot then you done the right thing. we've all had those shot and for some odd reason didn't take them.

my dads always said a bad day fishin is better then a good day at work

[grizzlyadams]

sounds like a good day to me. if there was something in your guy saying don't shoot then you done the right thing. we've all had those shot and for some odd reason didn't take them.

my dads always said a bad day fishin is better then a good day at work

 

[Rufous]

Personnaly I think the quartering away shot on bear is the best but only if you are using a potent cartridge and stout bullet. I like to have the bullet pass through the vitals and then break the off side front leg. Tends to drop the bear and they die quickly. Without knowing the exact angle of the shot or your cartridge or bullet I can't say whether or not I would have taken the shot but in general with my 300 Win Mag or 7mm Rem Mag and Barnes TSX bullets I like the quartering away shot. Hope you get another chance this fall.