Pursuing Dangerous Bears - Timing

[7mm-08]

After watching the Cameron Hanes video last night, which was linked in the "Once We Were Wolves" thread, I began contemplating the precarious task of following up wounded dangerous (grizzly) bears by professional guides and (sometimes) their clients and DIY Alaska and Canadian hunters after a shot. I've watched with great interest videos of highly experienced hunting guides like Billy Molls and others in these situations and what fascinates me most is not so much the decision to pursue the wounded bear (an ethical obligation), but the timing of that pursuit. Regretfully, it is difficult to determine from a video if the hunter waited 20 minutes or sixteen hours. Virtually all hunters want to responsibly end an animal's life quicky after the decision has been made to kill it. Especially after the animal has been hit with a bullet or an arrow. As we all know, hunting is not a linear equation and not every animal we want to drop in its tracks follows the script. I fully realize that sometimes outside factors (heavy rain that can wash away tracking blood, distance from shelter, scheduled extraction flights, etc.) will weigh on the side of an immediate/timely pursuit. My question is: why does the hunter need to pursue a wounded dangerous bear into the infamous "alder patch" soon (within the first few hours) after its wounding? Our GPS technology can guide us back to the location where a track was left with great certainty - one hour or 24 hours later. Why don't we let blood loss be our ally vs. risking a potentially life-threatening charge at close range? What are the factors that influence that timing to pursue and what makes one conclude that "now" is the time to take up that track?

 

[bigbassin]

I might be totally wrong as I’ve never considered grizzly hunting, but I think the life or death rush has to be part of the appeal for some people. Seen videos of archery shots at 7-10 yards, I’d think you’d have to be aware it could get rough quick if your shot isn’t perfect or the bear doesn’t go the other way if wounded.

 

[Pony Soldier]

My experience is: 1) immediate is tough because the adrenaline has set in and they don't feel annything. 2) after 20min to an hour, shock has set in and you have a bit of an edge -- if you are careful. 3) wait too long and they have learned to live with it. By then they are some place between gimpy and pissed.

As with everything- pick your shot carefully and live with your choice. Good or bad.

 

[MattB]

A few hours isn’t soon IMO. I imagine the reason guides will track an animal that may not be dead 30-60 minutes after the shot is, if crippled, leaving it longer may give it the opportunity to move. That is the same reason you do not generally track game immediately after it is shot but rather give it ~30 minutes. If it moves from its initial bed, it complicates finding the animal as it may stop bleeding (and bears tend to not leave great blood trails due to the length of their fur). Not to mention it may leave a wounded and potentially dangerous crippled bear out there for other people to unwittingly run into.

 

[ROKnROAL]

You can’t hunt like Cam Hanes unless you accept his ‘sad beige hunting for sad beige hunters’ method. This will allow you follow a wounded Tyrannosaur into the alders with a busted atlatl and come out on top.

 

[Blockcaver]

I've arrowed a brown, grizzly and polar bear. In the case of the grizzly, it was a 13 yard broadside shot after he had fed within 8 yards facing us in the alders. His right leg was in constant motion digging when I shot, so I purposely held back a bit to avoid a shoulder/leg shot. Arrow hit, he roared and spun a circle heading down my shooting lane on the slide, passing by me in a couple or three jumps at two yards a couple seconds after the shot. His head looked like a bushel basket coming at me. Thankfully he never saw us. We immediately had to spook the sow he'd been with off the slide as she was looking around wondering what the heck just happened. Guide/Outfitter had a Ruger M77 .338 Winchester Magnum and had been in on around 100 grizzly kills, but had never experienced anything like this and was as wild eyed as I was. We both agreed that it was getting late with very poor light under the thick spruce were the grizzly had run and the shot was a slightly back of perfect (on purpose). We came back early the next morning at good light and spent a fair bit of time working out the trail as the pine needles are horrible to blood trail on, compounded by light rain the previous evening. Bear had gone about 50 yards straight down, then turned a 90* and followed the contour until he crashed another 60 yards further, traveling a bout 125 yards. Fortunately the devils club (think souped up raspberry bushes on steroids) had combed a bit of blood out of the fur and we found him. Frankly, it took two days for the adrenaline to leave my system after that hunt.

And I previously discussed blood trailing the brown bear with Roy Roth in the "Once we were Wolves" thread that is now locked....short version was that the bear was arrowed at 25 yards broadside at 12:40 AM low in the heart. We followed up at 7:00 AM due to very poor light, even in the "land of the mid-night sun" Alaska on June 7 during the night. That bear went 220 yards and was also dead at the end of the blood trail. Roy carried a Mossberg 12 gauge pump with slugs. Bear went thru some very thick alders before dying in a fairly open spot. Hairy followup in the thick with only my bow, but knew I was in good hands with Roy leading the way.

The polar bear was bayed by the sled/bear dogs after a good chase. I stalked around the bear and waited at 30 yards slightly back of broadside from him until the dogs cleared and gave me a shot. Arrow hit perfectly, burying to the fletch with the broadhead lodged in the far shoulder. He too let out a big roar, jumped ahead one step, and was down in around 6 seconds. Immediately the Inuit guide went to the bear and yanked my arrow out of him, worried the broadhead might hurt his dogs (was not poking out but he did not know that for sure). Inuit said that was the fastest they'd ever seen a bear die. He had an ancient, very rusty Lee Enfield, .303 British with 180 grain Winchester Silvertips for backup.

I've also arrowed around 15 black bears and typically trail them with the bow if I think the hit is good. If not, I'll go get a shotgun (very rarely take a rifle) as it seems they invariably go into thick stuff. The shotgun is typically left at the truck in camp whether I am out with the quad, RZR or hiking straight from camp. Only needed the gun once on a still very much alive bear at close range.

 

[keystone112]

Although I have hunted Alaska, I am not a bear expert so take this with a grain of salt. I’m thinking that one reason to pursue sooner rather than later is the remote possibility that a wounded bear might go after another person who happens to wander by. If I’m the person who shot the bear then I’m feeling like I should go and finish the job.

 

[7mm-08]

I've arrowed a brown, grizzly and polar bear. In the case of the grizzly, it was a 13 yard broadside shot after he had fed within 8 yards facing us in the alders. His right leg was in constant motion digging when I shot, so I purposely held back a bit to avoid a shoulder/leg shot. Arrow hit, he roared and spun a circle heading down my shooting lane on the slide, passing by me in a couple or three jumps at two yards a couple seconds after the shot. His head looked like a bushel basket coming at me. Thankfully he never saw us. We immediately had to spook the sow he'd been with off the slide as she was looking around wondering what the heck just happened. Guide/Outfitter had a Ruger M77 .338 Winchester Magnum and had been in on around 100 grizzly kills, but had never experienced anything like this and was as wild eyed as I was. We both agreed that it was getting late with very poor light under the thick spruce were the grizzly had run and the shot was a slightly back of perfect (on purpose). We came back early the next morning at good light and spent a fair bit of time working out the trail as the pine needles are horrible to blood trail on, compounded by light rain the previous evening. Bear had gone about 50 yards straight down, then turned a 90* and followed the contour until he crashed another 60 yards further, traveling a bout 125 yards. Fortunately the devils club (think souped up raspberry bushes on steroids) had combed a bit of blood out of the fur and we found him. Frankly, it took two days for the adrenaline to leave my system after that hunt.

And I previously discussed blood trailing the brown bear with Roy Roth in the "Once we were Wolves" thread that is now locked....short version was that the bear was arrowed at 25 yards broadside at 12:40 AM low in the heart. We followed up at 7:00 AM due to very poor light, even in the "land of the mid-night sun" Alaska on June 7 during the night. That bear went 220 yards and was also dead at the end of the blood trail. Roy carried a Mossberg 12 gauge pump with slugs. Bear went thru some very thick alders before dying in a fairly open spot. Hairy followup in the thick with only my bow, but knew I was in good hands with Roy leading the way.

The polar bear was bayed by the sled/bear dogs after a good chase. I stalked around the bear and waited at 30 yards slightly back of broadside from him until the dogs cleared and gave me a shot. Arrow hit perfectly, burying to the fletch with the broadhead lodged in the far shoulder. He too let out a big roar, jumped ahead one set, and was down in around 6 seconds. Immediately the Inuit guide went to the bear and yanked my arrow out of him, worried the broadhead might hurt his dogs (was not poking out but he did not know that for sure). Inuit said that was the fastest they'd ever seen a bear die. He had an ancient, very rusty Lee Enfield, .303 British with 180 grain Winchester Silvertips for backup.

I've also arrowed around 15 black bears and typically trail them with the bow if I think the hit is good. If not, I'll go get a shotgun (very rarely take a rifle) as it seems they invariably go into thick stuff. The shotgun is typically left at the truck in camp whether I am out with the quad, RZR or hiking straight from camp. Only needed the gun once on a still very much alive bear at close range.

Thank you for taking the time to write this response. It is exactly what I was hoping for when I initiated the thread.

 

[Smallie]

I arrowed a grizzly last spring slightly twisted quartering to but the shot looked great and imbedded in the back shoulder. Bear roared and rolled then slowly trotted off head down. Blood was visible on the coat at the entrance. The arrow broke off after it rolled and we couldn’t locate a blood trail immediately so we backed out. Only gave it an hour though and went back in since we were both pretty confident in the shot.

After we went back in we could not find any blood. So things got a little hairy as we split up and started grid searching trying to find any blood trail. It really never occurred to me that a wounded bear was potentially waiting in a thicket or ravine. I was pretty convinced that was a dead bear. After a couple hours crawling around and trying to find blood around the shot location we backed out and went back to camp since we hadn’t slept yet that night so gave it another 8 hours or so.

We ended up grid searching every direction for about 9-10 hours without any sign past the shot location. Their coat is so thick I think it absorbs a lot of blood. And no exit wound didn’t help at all. Looking back I think us going in after an hour was because we both thought we would find a dead bear within 100 yards. Only guess is that the arrow hit a rib and deflected forward of the vitals. In hindsight I should have aimed a tad back to ensure I would get a complete pass through but it all happens so quick

 

[Blockcaver]

I arrowed a grizzly last spring slightly twisted quartering to but the shot looked great and imbedded in the back shoulder. Bear roared and rolled then slowly trotted off head down. Blood was visible on the coat at the entrance. The arrow broke off after it rolled and we couldn’t locate a blood trail immediately so we backed out. Only gave it an hour though and went back in since we were both pretty confident in the shot.

After we went back in we could not find any blood. So things got a little hairy as we split up and started grid searching trying to find any blood trail. It really never occurred to me that a wounded bear was potentially waiting in a thicket or ravine. I was pretty convinced that was a dead bear. After a couple hours crawling around and trying to find blood around the shot location we backed out and went back to camp since we hadn’t slept yet that night so gave it another 8 hours or so.

We ended up grid searching every direction for about 9-10 hours without any sign past the shot location. Their coat is so thick I think it absorbs a lot of blood. And no exit wound didn’t help at all. Looking back I think us going in after an hour was because we both thought we would find a dead bear within 100 yards. Only guess is that the arrow hit a rib and deflected forward of the vitals. In hindsight I should have aimed a tad back to ensure I would get a complete pass through but it all happens so quick

Shipanik, Heart breaker to have one get away. I feel for you.

A bear's vitals wedge out real fast going forward in the chest. Sounds like you figured out what likely happened. And yes, they do not always bleed that great due to the hair, and unless running really hard, are tough to track vs hoofs on ungulates.

As per following a grizzly that you are not 100% positive is down and dead with just your bow...especially in tighter cover....well I'm not up for that. I'll chance it on black bears though.

 

[WBrim]

I’ve never expected to hunt brown bear, but some of these stories make it sound pretty amazing. Thanks for sharing such incredible experiences.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

"Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes, well, he eats you."

-The Stranger

 

[Smallie]

Shipanik, Heart breaker to have one get away. I feel for you.

A bear's vitals wedge out real fast going forward in the chest. Sounds like you figured out what likely happened. And yes, they do not always bleed that great due to the hair, and unless running really hard, are tough to track vs hoofs on ungulates.

As per following a grizzly that you are not 100% positive is down and dead with just your bow...especially in tighter cover....well I'm not up for that. I'll chance it on black bears though.

It was a heartbreaker but still an amazing experience I’ll never forget. We both had sidearms but no long gun for backup. Looking back and hearing everyone tell me I was crazy, I should have been a lot more conscious of a surprise encounter. But in the moment I was so focused on blood trailing and finding any sign, I did get lucky that nothing bad happened other than not recovering the bear.

 

[AKBC]

I have heard there is an advantage to pursuing them immediately because a wounded bear will probably be confused and making noise. I have only killed a few though so not pretending to be an expert.

I did back out once when I was tracking a bear in low light conditions, and a different bear stood up at 10 yards and I could barely see it.