What happened?

[go_deep]

Last bear I shot was the perfect shot, 30 yards on the ground level with him, quartering away. Took him back of the right lung, front of the left lung, top of the heart, and exited in front of the left shoulder at the base of the neck. Blood everywhere, but he still some freaking how managed to make it about 200 yards before crashing and dying.
Bears are just different, good shots, heck great shots almost seem like misses or bad shots.

 

[gonhunting247]

Bears chest cavities get very narrow up front. Shaped a lot like a cone. the front leg and the long hair on the bottom of the chest creates an area that looks like part of the lethal zone but is really just hair and front leg. I always go to the top of the back and shoulder and drop in actually erring towards the middle (as some have stated) and higher. I have followed up helping tracks bears (some found and some not), but most had some indication of being hit low in the front leg. Either because we found them and finished them or from sign indication (rounded bone fragments, heavy use of one leg etc.).
All that said my guess (and that's all it is of course) is he was hit in the front leg, knocking it out from under him. Bears hit like this on a hillside will roll downhill until they regain their wits and balance, then take off like they were never hit. I'm sure you already know this, but bears are one animal that if there is any indication whatsoever that they aren't down for the count; shoot again. They are tough to track due to soft feet and minimal blood at times.
Sorry you didn't find him and good luck on your next bear hunt!

 

[Wrench]

One of my pards and I were on an elk hunt. I'd killed 3 that year and him zero so I told him I wouldn't shoot till he hit one (he'd missed already that week). I watched him shoot. I saw the hair fly and I watched his elk drop.

Mine flopped to us.

He shot hair and the elk ran after acting like it was hit hard. I swore it was a spine shot based on how fast it dropped.

 

[mt terry d]

While skinning a bull elk I bow killed I found a bullet lodged in the withers. All healed up just fine. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’d dropped at the shot and took off leaving the shooter scratching his head.

 

[inquisitiveram]

Every lost bear I've seen has been from a high shot . They have a lot of fat and hair above their back . It would be easy to shock him / knock out with a shot on the high side of the spine and have him jump up afterwards. It could very possibly not be a fatal shot .
My advise would be closer ... like 300 yards and shoot lower .
POA is a big thing , during the pursuit and shot your adrenaline is pumping and muscle memory takes over . A lot of deer hunters aim high ... I've always aimed low. The heart rests almost at the bottom of the chest cavity .

Good to know. I should probably have aimed a little lower given he was at an uphill angle. Thank you.

 

[inquisitiveram]

While skinning a bull elk I bow killed I found a bullet lodged in the withers. All healed up just fine. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’d dropped at the shot and took off leaving the shooter scratching his head.

I heard Rinella talk about that on a muzzleloader elk hunt video. Elk will drop at a muzzleloader shot but then get up and run off. Not sure if that's just anecdotal or there's something about muzzleloaders. Maybe the bigger diameter bullet generates a bigger shockwave. With the 150 gr. 7mm I shot at the bear I was thinking it had to be spine to make him drop like that, but I guess you never know.

 

[mt terry d]

Looked like an ordinary copper jacket rifle bullet to me but maybe modern muzzle loaders shoot the same bullets. IDK. I don’t think we have a designated muzzleloader season here but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t. Certainly could happen with any cartridge I’d imagine. Bummer to lose any animal regardless. I lost a bow shot bull that I thought I’d hit perfectly. Rain and sleet started within minutes of my shot. Spent a couple days grid searching with a friend with no success. No guarantees in hunting.

 

[Yoteassasin]

I’ve seen bucks wake up in the back of a Sxs before on neck shots that have really only stunned them.
A heart /lung shot kills . A shock to the spine will knock them down but not always kill you would need to break the spine or Exsanguinate them in some other manner also. Consider it a lesson learned and go kill one

 

[Cyril]

I shot a deer in 1999 at about 150 yards in PA timber. The deer dropped like a bag of rocks and went stiff legged. I jacked a shell and watched him in the scope for a few seconds. Assumed DRT. Put gun on safe bent over to pickup my backpack. When I stood up and looked the deer was getting up and took off running. I assumed he was hit hard and didn't take any running shots. It would have been tough to get one at all.

At point of impact there was a large pool of bright red blood. After 50 yards it was an easily visible blotch every 5 to 10 feet. After 100 I was down to tiny drops every 5 to 10 feet and needed my younger brother to stand on last blood as I crawled forward. After 200 yards of total track over about 45 minutes, I left my brother on last blood and walked ahead about 100 yards to look down in a steep cut to the creek in his direction of travel. When I looked over, he was trying to stand up and his back legs wouldn't work. I finished him off.

After skinning you could see the bullet hit the top of a vertebrae shattering the top half exposing the spinal cord. The shock from the impact knocked down hard. When he gathered himself he bolted. My assumption is he stumbled/fell down the steep hill finally damaging spinal cord.

I was very lucky to find that buck. I have no idea where you actually hit that bear, you will never know unless you find him. While it is possible that it wasn't fatal, I'd say it is not likely. All you can do is put the time in searching and learn from your mistakes.

 

[Ron.C]

Read all the posts. Impossible to say what happened, I can only suspect was bad shot placement.

OP, not judging you "many of us have been there" few will admit it.

Best thing you can do is learn from it. So how do you learn from not recovering an animal that you don't know for sure what happened? Only you can anser that for yourself. Might mean passing on a similar shot next time, more range practice, additional study of bear anatomy, passing on uphill, quatering shots........................All your call.

I've been in on allot of bear kills. A wounded bears can climb into the nastiest of spots. A buddy shot one that we looked for for several hours. Turns out is all but crawled inside of a rotted stump about 30 yards from where he was hit and died there. Also helped on one bear that was shot in the chest head on with a 7mm mag at about 50 yards. That bear ended up in a tree (alive) when we found it.

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

My dad had the exact same thing happen but it resulted in a dead bear. Shot was probably 350 yards, 300 win mag, at the shot the bear dropped and rolled down the face about 50 yards, then got up and took off fast and hit the timber line. He did not look hurt once he got up from the roll. The next day I found him about 200 yards from where he got up and started running. He didn't run uphill though, he stayed at his same elevation and ran towards water. The shot was perfect, double lung. Bears do weird stuff. My guess is high or forward, really have to watch angles on bears.

 

[inquisitiveram]

Read all the posts. Impossible to say what happened, I can only suspect was bad shot placement.

OP, not judging you "many of us have been there" few will admit it.

Best thing you can do is learn from it. So how do you learn from not recovering an animal that you don't know for sure what happened? Only you can anser that for yourself. Might mean passing on a similar shot next time, more range practice, additional study of bear anatomy, passing on uphill, quatering shots........................All your call.

I've been in on allot of bear kills. A wounded bears can climb into the nastiest of spots. A buddy shot one that we looked for for several hours. Turns out is all but crawled inside of a rotted stump about 30 yards from where he was hit and died there. Also helped on one bear that was shot in the chest head on with a 7mm mag at about 50 yards. That bear ended up in a tree (alive) when we found it.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Definitely will think long and hard before taking another one like that. Hard to believe about the bear shot on head-on. Among other things, this experience has taught me that bears are tough critters, that's for sure. The more I think about it maybe I need to go out and search some more and just go farther.

 

[mike.adams.467]

What? Can you expand on this? Or are you just being silly?

It would be interesting to know how many animals are wounded or "missed" (without a follow-up checking for evidence of a hit) by guys who are in the long-range shooting group. Yes, 375 yards is not extraordinary, but its far enough for wind drift, movement of the animal or shooter, or other variables cause an animal to walk away with a wound. Get close, make the shot count, and show off your well earned trophy.

 

[mike.adams.467]

Yeah, who knows. That could produce the same kind of scenario. I’ve just know of a couple black bears that have absorbed shoulder shots, appeared pretty much dead, then rallied and been tracked down (very much alive) in nasty places and then killed. They are tough when you hit them wrong and die quickly when you hit them right.

I don’t mean to offend you or anyone else, but I think getting close before pulling the trigger is very helpful on bears. Even the big ones are not that big (in terms of target area). And there’s a lot of fur and fat that can make it hard to pick the right spot. And the shoulder can sometimes stop a bullet, so if you miss forward it can mean worse than some wasted meat. Plus, most people spend a lot less time looking at bears than say elk or deer, and so are less familiar with their target. I have no doubt took the best shot you had under the circumstances, but among my friends, the experience is that bears shot under 100 yards tend to die right there. Bears shot at over 300 yards…not so much.

well stated.

 

[gonhunting247]

Just for reference to how narrow the front of a bears chest cavity is and how the largest portion is back a little and a bit off centered towards the top. I took a pic of my spring bears rib cage boned out. This is a medium sized boar, but the depth of the chest is not that big especially as you get to the front leg and forward. Also the ribs protrude almost straight out from the back bone before going down. It makes the chest wide, but not necessarily deep, especially from the front leg forward.
Just thought I'd post the pics since they kind of fit the discussion and happened to have them available.
Not sure if it helps, but it definitely shows some differences from most other animals we hunt. For what little it's worth

 

[inquisitiveram]

Just for reference to how narrow the front of a bears chest cavity is and how the largest portion is back a little and a bit off centered towards the top. I took a pic of my spring bears rib cage boned out. This is a medium sized boar, but the depth of the chest is not that big especially as you get to the front leg and forward. Also the ribs protrude almost straight out from the back bone before going down. It makes the chest wide, but not necessarily deep, especially from the front leg forward.
Just thought I'd post the pics since they kind of fit the discussion and happened to have them available.
Not sure if it helps, but it definitely shows some differences from most other animals we hunt. For what little it's worth

Wow that is…very different than a deer. Goes well with the anatomy diagram posted earlier. Thanks for sharing and congrats!

 

[Marshfly]

It would be interesting to know how many animals are wounded or "missed" (without a follow-up checking for evidence of a hit) by guys who are in the long-range shooting group. Yes, 375 yards is not extraordinary, but its far enough for wind drift, movement of the animal or shooter, or other variables cause an animal to walk away with a wound. Get close, make the shot count, and show off your well earned trophy.

A lot. Watch any decent number of bear hunt videos on Youtube and you will see miss after miss on shots over 500 yards. It's painful to watch and honestly ruins otherwise well done videos for me.

 

[inquisitiveram]

Just for reference to how narrow the front of a bears chest cavity is and how the largest portion is back a little and a bit off centered towards the top. I took a pic of my spring bears rib cage boned out. This is a medium sized boar, but the depth of the chest is not that big especially as you get to the front leg and forward. Also the ribs protrude almost straight out from the back bone before going down. It makes the chest wide, but not necessarily deep, especially from the front leg forward.
Just thought I'd post the pics since they kind of fit the discussion and happened to have them available.
Not sure if it helps, but it definitely shows some differences from most other animals we hunt. For what little it's worth

So based on this do you tend to aim higher and farther back than "middle of middle" on bears?

 

[cuerro viejo]

High shot, probably right under or above spin, Lives to see another day

 

[inquisitiveram]

High shot, probably right under or above spin, Lives to see another day

That's what I was thinking. Hope you're right! If so, maybe I'll catch up with him late season/next year... Thanks for weighing in.