Gonna help track a wounded bear in the morning. Wish me luck.

[Okanagan]

My young hunting friend took two of his friends after black bear today, a couple of hours drive east into the drier pine and fir forested mountains.    They saw two and a shaky young hunter shot the second one.

 He doesn't know where he hit it but thinks he was aiming mid way up and toward the front as it stood broadside.  Lots of blood (maybe a pint) where it was hit, plus some bone shards.   They trailed it for four hours, covering an estimated 1000+ yards.  Much of the trail was bloody paw prints.  In places a whole bush would be covered with blood, but there were stretches with virtually no blood showing.  Finally the blood trail ended in a mossy area where the bear circled in a living room sized space.  They looked intensely for awhile and found no more blood nor the bear and it was within an hour of dark.  Caleb wanted to keep looking but no one else was willing to walk out in the dark and the shooter had to be home tonight so they drove home and Caleb phoned me.  All this info came from my questions to him.   I forgot to ask rifle caliber and shot distance but it sounded to me less than 50 yards.  

It sounded like the front of the bear's chest is covered with blood which paintbrushes a bush once in awhile, centered rather than  on one side or the other, plus is running down his front legs onto both his front pads.  That much blood for that long plus the way the trail ended makes me guess that the bear is dead within 100 yards of the end of the blood trail.

Caleb and I will look for it in the morning.  Should be a fun outing whatever happens, and if it is hit hard, I hope we recover it.

[FinsnFur]

Yeah that sounds like it'll be fun little excursion.
Cant wait to see the results.
...and good luck.

[Tikaani]

Hey Ok, good luck with the that in the morning, better a black then a grizz if that is any consolation.  Be careful

John

[Yotehntr]

   Be careful! can't wait to hear, see some pics.

[KySongDog]

With that much blood, he has got to be bled out by now.   Caliber and bullet type would be good info.  Good luck and "be on your toes".   

[HaMeR]

I'm sure you'll find it. Be Careful & have fun!! 

[Hawks Feather]

The only advice that I can think of is if the trail leads to a cave, send someone else in first.  Good luck.

Jerry

[shaddragger]

  Can't wait to see how this one turns out. Heads up, Okanagan!

[Okanagan]

The bear got away.  If only we’d had Semp along with some bacon pinned to his behind, that bear would have probably come to us.

Three of us spent 4 ½ hours on the bear’s trail before a sleety rain started and wiped it out.  The bear had not bled nearly as much as the young guys thought.  Only one pad tracked any blood.   It may recover, hit low through a “corner” of the upper front leg/low shoulder.

300WSM shooting 180 grain Federal premium (Ballistic Tips?)   The shooter stalked the bear on an old road and shot it offhand at 50 yards, aiming at the front end of shoulder on a bear quartering away.  The bear dropped and the hunter started an end zone celebration while the bear got up and left.   That is basically the story right there, with everything else merely downstream consequences.

We worked 45 minutes today to sort out a trail from where they lost it last evening.  The bear had doubled back near its own trail, stood awhile, and quit bleeding.  I think it was listening to them, though it couldn’t see its back trail from  there.  We lost it again 100 yards farther.  One guy combed the mountainside all day and the other man joined him for an hour while I worked on the trail.  We trailed the bear another 400 yards today and could have made that portion of the trail with two table spoons of blood or less.   It quit bleeding but not from being bled out.

Curiously, except for the short double back Z, the wounded bear made a beeline the entire trail, contouring a forested mountainside across finger ridges and ravines.   He had somewhere in mind that he was going.  Also, he hated to go downhill, and angled slightly uphill and any deviations almost always went uphill.  I think his injured leg hurt more going downhill.

I am tired and scratched all over, and did not take a single photo, hoping for pics of a bear and didn’t bother taking pics in the woods.  Good day with good companions.  Thanks for the good wishes.  Send them to the bear tonight. 

[Tikaani]

Good to see you made it out ok OK, heh heh.  If he did not bleed out, he is holed up and will more than likely heal up over the course of the summer.  An effort was made to find him, sometimes all the looking and tracking is to no avail if he can keep moving and hide.

John

[HuntnCarve]

Atleast you attempted to recover the bear.  In the outdoors paper here in PA there was an article where they found a 675 Lb black bear, that had been shot by a poacher and left to lay.  Seems they shot him with a small caliber weapon.  Bullet nicked a lung and a small artery.  Warden said the bear would have probably been close to 900 Lbs this Fall, and record book material.  They are investigating and following whatever leads they have.   Some S.O.B. and his senseless act, denied a real sportsman a trophy of a lifetime.

[FinsnFur]

Thanks for the good wishes.  Send them to the bear tonight. 

I'm guessing the youngster learned a few things

[HaMeR]

Well you guys sure put the time into that Bear.  Man that can be a lot of work. I hope the Bear makes it thru the next couple days.

[KySongDog]

You made a best effort to retrieve the bear.  That's all you can do.  That 300WSM should have knocked his socks off.  A bad hit obviously.

That young hunter hopefully learned a valuable lesson.  They ain't "dead" dead until you poke them in the eye with your gun barrel and they don't blink.