Free: Contests & Raffles.
Not to be a jerk, but some comments don't make sense saying "you should carry a headlamp" and stuff.It's not the first day, I have not just one, but 2 plus a flashlight and don't think there's anybody here that can say "I can confidently make a 130-140 yard free hand shot from 300 Win Mag at a vital spot". At the moment, that's your best decision and and we do the best we can. it's easy to say what you could've done better, but we all know that you wouldn't have done any different. But back to the subject. I'm wondering why till the last moment I left, I could still hear him moving if he was going to die. He was still moving in the bushes for more than 30 mins. The time frame would be more than 30 mins between him getting shot and me leaving, when I left he was still moving. The meat is probably already spoiled if he died, but I will definitely check again, If I find him dead, i'll notch my tag just to feel better. We win or we learn.
Go back and look for the bear.‘Nuf said.
Not to be a jerk, but some comments don't make sense saying "you should carry a headlamp" and stuff.It's not the first day, I have not just one, but 2 plus a flashlight and don't think there's anybody here that can say "I can confidently make a 130-140 yard free hand shot from 300 Win Mag at a vital spot". At the moment, that's your best decision and and we do the best we can. it's easy to say what you could've done better, but...
1) If it's still standing, you're still shooting. I don't care if it's a bear, an elk, or a duck. Don't ever think "yeah that one shot is probably fine" if it's still on it's legs.
It's hard to say where you hit him, you might have just nicked him if you didn't find any blood at all. Just because it jumped and rolled doesn't necessarily mean it was fatally wounded. Your bullet might have hit the leg or butt and it had a hard time moving and covering some ground. If you went to search for him, which I hope you did, I'd love to hear the results. If you end up not finding your bear, it's most likely still eating berries, worst case scenario the nature is the ultimate predator, yotes, birds, etc will get it and it won't be wasted. It's just a good lesson and experience for ya that most hunters have gone through. I can't really give any solid advice or criticize you since you were the one in that situation but I hope you'd learn something from this that will make you better. Just my
Bear jumps in the air, starts rolling for a few seconds, gets up having a hard time running, falls and rolls for a second or two, then then disappears in blackberry bushes, in a nasty nasty place.
The reason I didn't make a second shot is because I initially thought he was pretty much done before he got up and disappeared.
I waited a little, then went towards the bushes. I heard constant "breaking and smashing" noises from the same exact spot about 30 yards below me. after about 15 minutes the noises stopped. I went down there thinking he was just dying, but when I got there, I still heard him moving about 10-15 yards away from me