First archery black bear and lessons learned!

oldgrowth

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
286
Location
california
Hi everyone!
I thought I would share my first archery bear experience and some of the things that I learned from it. It was the last weekend for bow hunting here and I really haven’t had the motivation this year to get out there due to the fires (terribly smoky) and hot weather. Anyways, I headed out this weekend with the intention to make an honest effort since it was the last opportunity I would have this season before rifle opens.

I went to a location that I found last season that I thought would be a good spot for bear. It was a meadow surrounded by brush, tucked into a bowl. I hiked in about an hour before first light and set up in a good location where I had the wind in my face and could glass the meadow. About an hour after sunrise, a doe went through at 40 yards and passed on without detecting me so I was confident I had a good setup. A half hour later another doe came in and I ranged her at 35 yards. While watching her I spotted movement to my right side. It was a bear hauling the mail through the meadow! I sat there wandering if he had spotted me ranging the doe and was spooked off by movement or if he has caught wind of me. I checked the wind to be sure and it was still blowing in my face, so I figured he had spotted me somehow.

I stayed put and decided to wait it out confident that he didn’t smell me and that he must have seen movement to be spooked away. About an hour later, he came into the meadow and was coming straight at me. I ranged him at 70 yards, then at 60. Suddenly, he turned and bolted out of the meadow. At this point I knew something was not right. I hadn’t made any big movements and he was too far away to have been spooked by me just moving my rangefinder to my eye, so I walked over to the spot where he was before he bolted. When I got there I checked the wind and found that it was coming from my previous location straight into the meadow! The only thing that makes sense to me is that I set up where there was an eddy and the air was swirling there, before blowing out into the meadow.

So…. I set up on the opposite side of the meadow behind an old stump near a wallow that I figured he was using, and waited. About an hour or so later he came into the meadow on my left side about 30 yards away and turned and started walking straight at me towards the wallow. At this point I began to feel the effects of the massive adrenaline dump that ensued from being in such close proximity to a rather large animal capable of causing real harm to me if he so intended. I figured he was close enough and I didn’t want him to get any closer, so I drew the bow while sitting behind the stump and let fly only to see a splash directly under him as he ran off.

I realized I had shot clean under him and I was really bummed, thinking that I had just blown my last chance at him. As I sat there frustrated at my lack of marksmanship, and wandering what I did wrong, he came back! He scanned the area cautiously trying to figure out what just happened, looking directly at me several times. After he calmed down and went back to what he was doing, I slowly nocked another arrow, then got to my knees and pulled my rangefinder to range him. When I did, he heard me and stared directly at me, so I froze while he looked at me then scanned back and forth trying to figure out what he heard.
As soon as I had an opportunity, I raised the rangefinder to my eye and pressed the button…. Nothing! I pressed it again….Nothing! A half dozen tries later….22 yards. I checked my sight, drew the bow and let fly again this time with a whack! He rolled over backwards while biting at what had just stung him. I could hear SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! Then off he went up the hill. I gave it a few minutes before starting off to track him down, trying to recover from the HUGE adrenaline rush I had just experienced.

Tracking him down…
This was a much harder task than I thought it would be. The blood trail started out good in the open ground. But, when he went into the brush things got ridiculous. Turns out blood only gets deposited on the underside of the leaves in most places due to the brush being bent as he passed through. This coupled with his erratic trajectory made for an excruciatingly long period of time passing before I located him. I wasted 30-45 minutes at one point during my search where he returned to his den at the base of a hollowed out tree. I knew he had at least tried to go in because there was blood all around the entrance. There was about a 20 foot clear space between the wall o brush and the den entrance. Not much room to get a shot off if necessary, and really no good place to retreat to if need be. At this point I had a battle going on in my head. Approach the den to see if an angry wounded bear was inside and risk certain death (joking…. but not really). Or, leave knowing I had just unnecessarily killed a bear. The latter just isn’t an option for me considering I took the shot. So…. I went back to where I had my pack (100 yards back at the shooting location) and retrieved my headlamp. Let me tell ya, it was no easy task working up the nerve to stick your head into a bear’s den to see if he was home or not. Thank God he wasn’t! After much crawling around and looking I finally picked up the blood trail again before finally finding him. He fell 365 feet from the place I shot him, but ran in a loop roughly 100 yards away through some of the worst brush I could imagine.

I ended up shooting through both lungs and got the back side of both shoulders. Not a great shot, but did the trick. Overall, the experience was one I won’t forget. And I learned a few things too.
1. Don’t always trust the wind reading at your location. Sometimes an eddy can form, giving a false reading.
2. Bears have poor eyesight (or at least this one did). He looked right at me several times from 22 yards away and didn’t see me.
3. An adrenaline rush can make holding a rangefinder steady enough to get a reading, nearly impossible!
4. No matter how good of a shot you think you are, things can and do go wrong sometimes. I need to figure out a way to practice with an adrenaline rush like I had.
5. Tracking a blood trail can be a lot more difficult than one would expect, even with an entrance and exit wound.
6. Shooting a buck with a bow is completely different than shooting a bear with a bow. I honestly wasn’t prepared for the adrenaline rush I experienced.
7. Packing out a bear is a lot more work physically but tracking them in heavy brush with only a bow for defense is much more mentally taxing. Hearing about the experience can’t prepare you for the real deal.
 

Soj51hopeful

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Aug 16, 2017
Messages
250
Location
Montana
Good job! I took a bear this year and last year with my bow here in the sierras. I was just stumbling around the woods and happened across their paths. I have learned they don't see well or seem to pay attention to noises like a deer will. I agree the adrenaline of taking a bear with a bow is different than deer hunting.
 
OP
oldgrowth

oldgrowth

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
286
Location
california
I estimated him at around 250 lbs. I didn't get a chance to take a pic because I was concerned with getting the meat to the cooler as quick as possible. I did take a pic of the head when I got to the cooler though. I'll try to post it when I get a chance.
 
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oldgrowth

oldgrowth

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
286
Location
california
I estimated him at around 250 lbs. I didn't get a chance to take a pic because I was concerned with getting the meat to the cooler as quick as possible. I did take a pic of the head when I got to the cooler though. I'll try to post it when I get a chance.
 

flytrue

FNG
Joined
Sep 7, 2016
Messages
85
Location
Willits CA
Thanks for a great story!
I shot and lost a bear last year in fading light. My first. I was a little nervous following up the blood trail as well. I followed till dark, and it rained that night, so I sadly didn't find him. I hope to change that this year.
You got the adrenaline rush right,, so different from a deer!
 

1woolie89

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Oct 23, 2016
Messages
174
Location
Fontana, CA
Hi everyone!
I thought I would share my first archery bear experience and some of the things that I learned from it. It was the last weekend for bow hunting here and I really haven’t had the motivation this year to get out there due to the fires (terribly smoky) and hot weather. Anyways, I headed out this weekend with the intention to make an honest effort since it was the last opportunity I would have this season before rifle opens.

I went to a location that I found last season that I thought would be a good spot for bear. It was a meadow surrounded by brush, tucked into a bowl. I hiked in about an hour before first light and set up in a good location where I had the wind in my face and could glass the meadow. About an hour after sunrise, a doe went through at 40 yards and passed on without detecting me so I was confident I had a good setup. A half hour later another doe came in and I ranged her at 35 yards. While watching her I spotted movement to my right side. It was a bear hauling the mail through the meadow! I sat there wandering if he had spotted me ranging the doe and was spooked off by movement or if he has caught wind of me. I checked the wind to be sure and it was still blowing in my face, so I figured he had spotted me somehow.

I stayed put and decided to wait it out confident that he didn’t smell me and that he must have seen movement to be spooked away. About an hour later, he came into the meadow and was coming straight at me. I ranged him at 70 yards, then at 60. Suddenly, he turned and bolted out of the meadow. At this point I knew something was not right. I hadn’t made any big movements and he was too far away to have been spooked by me just moving my rangefinder to my eye, so I walked over to the spot where he was before he bolted. When I got there I checked the wind and found that it was coming from my previous location straight into the meadow! The only thing that makes sense to me is that I set up where there was an eddy and the air was swirling there, before blowing out into the meadow.

So…. I set up on the opposite side of the meadow behind an old stump near a wallow that I figured he was using, and waited. About an hour or so later he came into the meadow on my left side about 30 yards away and turned and started walking straight at me towards the wallow. At this point I began to feel the effects of the massive adrenaline dump that ensued from being in such close proximity to a rather large animal capable of causing real harm to me if he so intended. I figured he was close enough and I didn’t want him to get any closer, so I drew the bow while sitting behind the stump and let fly only to see a splash directly under him as he ran off.

I realized I had shot clean under him and I was really bummed, thinking that I had just blown my last chance at him. As I sat there frustrated at my lack of marksmanship, and wandering what I did wrong, he came back! He scanned the area cautiously trying to figure out what just happened, looking directly at me several times. After he calmed down and went back to what he was doing, I slowly nocked another arrow, then got to my knees and pulled my rangefinder to range him. When I did, he heard me and stared directly at me, so I froze while he looked at me then scanned back and forth trying to figure out what he heard.
As soon as I had an opportunity, I raised the rangefinder to my eye and pressed the button…. Nothing! I pressed it again….Nothing! A half dozen tries later….22 yards. I checked my sight, drew the bow and let fly again this time with a whack! He rolled over backwards while biting at what had just stung him. I could hear SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! Then off he went up the hill. I gave it a few minutes before starting off to track him down, trying to recover from the HUGE adrenaline rush I had just experienced.

Tracking him down…
This was a much harder task than I thought it would be. The blood trail started out good in the open ground. But, when he went into the brush things got ridiculous. Turns out blood only gets deposited on the underside of the leaves in most places due to the brush being bent as he passed through. This coupled with his erratic trajectory made for an excruciatingly long period of time passing before I located him. I wasted 30-45 minutes at one point during my search where he returned to his den at the base of a hollowed out tree. I knew he had at least tried to go in because there was blood all around the entrance. There was about a 20 foot clear space between the wall o brush and the den entrance. Not much room to get a shot off if necessary, and really no good place to retreat to if need be. At this point I had a battle going on in my head. Approach the den to see if an angry wounded bear was inside and risk certain death (joking…. but not really). Or, leave knowing I had just unnecessarily killed a bear. The latter just isn’t an option for me considering I took the shot. So…. I went back to where I had my pack (100 yards back at the shooting location) and retrieved my headlamp. Let me tell ya, it was no easy task working up the nerve to stick your head into a bear’s den to see if he was home or not. Thank God he wasn’t! After much crawling around and looking I finally picked up the blood trail again before finally finding him. He fell 365 feet from the place I shot him, but ran in a loop roughly 100 yards away through some of the worst brush I could imagine.

I ended up shooting through both lungs and got the back side of both shoulders. Not a great shot, but did the trick. Overall, the experience was one I won’t forget. And I learned a few things too.
1. Don’t always trust the wind reading at your location. Sometimes an eddy can form, giving a false reading.
2. Bears have poor eyesight (or at least this one did). He looked right at me several times from 22 yards away and didn’t see me.
3. An adrenaline rush can make holding a rangefinder steady enough to get a reading, nearly impossible!
4. No matter how good of a shot you think you are, things can and do go wrong sometimes. I need to figure out a way to practice with an adrenaline rush like I had.
5. Tracking a blood trail can be a lot more difficult than one would expect, even with an entrance and exit wound.
6. Shooting a buck with a bow is completely different than shooting a bear with a bow. I honestly wasn’t prepared for the adrenaline rush I experienced.
7. Packing out a bear is a lot more work physically but tracking them in heavy brush with only a bow for defense is much more mentally taxing. Hearing about the experience can’t prepare you for the real deal.


Amazingly great read brother!! I'm also down in CA, Southern CA 45 mins from Angeles Oaks. Last week on Wednesday I was on a hill glassing a open meadow for the buck I blew a stalk on the week previous when I seen my first bear with my binos. It was an hour before sunset and I was giving up on the buck when I decided to just glass the other drains and hills around me when he popped outa know where. To my right was a set of hills covered with Sage and some spots of Acorn trees with openings here and there, and as I looked out I seen this massive black figured hauling booty up the side of the hill.

I didn't put it together that it was a bear right away because I never seen them out in the wild (besides lake Tahoe, that doesn't count) so it was my first real experience seeing one in my local mountains. I watched him run around eating and sitting on his fat bear butt, he was massive. On the range finder he was 479 yards away, and I could see how big he was from that distance. Looking at the terrain he was on and roaming, its real side hilly and thick with cover and small open areas. I have no idea how I would get in there without going in totally blind. I found his tracks at the base of the hill heading to the Spring of water. I'm thinking of buying the Tag and sitting that spring. You're story is inspiring me to get moving!
 
OP
oldgrowth

oldgrowth

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Messages
286
Location
california
That's awesome! I remember seeing my first bear while glassing. It is really fun just watching them sometimes. Chances are pretty good that he will be at that spring on a regular basis. I would get a tag. Bear meat is pretty tasty, and the meat you get is a lot more than what you get from a blacktail deer.
 
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